Festivals · Music · Theatre

Edinburgh Festival Day Ten.

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Edinburgh Festival 2017 - The Man on the Moor, written and performed by Max Dickins

Only three shows today, Friday 11 August…

The Man on the Moor, written and performed by Max Dickins is a fascinating back projection of drama onto reality. In 2015, a body was found on Saddleworth Moor and the police appealed for information from anyone who knew him, publishing CCTV pictures in the press. The body turned out to be that of one David Lytton, but Dickins’ character in this one man show is convinced for a time that the pictured man is his father, who had left his family and gone missing twenty years earlier.
This device enables Dickins to explore the sense of unrequited loss those who are left behind by the missing (or “unmissed”) feel, as well as the subsequent struggles they have with their own identity.

 

The Man on the Moor, written and performed by Max Dickins.

 

The Man on the Moor runs until 27 August at Underbelly and is highly recommended.

Beethoven in Stalingrad took its text from letters written home by German soldiers in Stalingrad at Christmas 1942. The letters were confiscated by the Third Reich as they were almost all negative about the war, so never reached their intended recipients. Jesper Arin recited selections from the letters while gradually dressing in more and more pieces of soldier’s clothing which lay about the set as if abandoned; throughout, Ian Peaston put his electric violin through pedal and laptop effects to gradually build a rendition of a Beethoven Piano Sonata at the climax of the show, as one of the letters’ author reported he had heard. Interesting and bold theatre.

Several hours and drinks later we saw Trumpus Interruptus; The Impeachment of Donald Trump, presented by Mea Culpa Theater Co. In last year’s Fringe, there were many references to Donald Trump as being your worst nightmare; now that the nightmare is incarnate, it must be very difficult to satirise. These guys did a pretty good job on their penultimate show of the run, especially the actor playing the multiple parts to his partner’s Trump.

Festivals · Music · Theatre

Edinburgh Festival Day Nine.

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Edinburgh Fringe - 70 years of defying the norm

Five shows on Thursday 10 August, only one of which I’ll politely skim over (“it’s not me, it’s definitely you.”)
Impromptu Shakespeare by the company of that name was about half way through an eleven show run and was a polished performance on the premise of the actors improvising a performance based on suggestions from the audience of Shakespearian events, objects or tropes.

Robert Burns: Rough Cut was an interesting one man show depicting Burns’ frustration at the Edinburgh publishing clique with which he struggled for recognition and indeed payment for his work. I liked the frequent references to places near the venue (the Scottish Storytelling Centre in the High Street) where Burns had caroused or tried to do business, it must have been especially pleasing for visitors to the city. I’m afraid I didn’t get the actor’s name.

Baba Brinkman’s Rap Guide to Consciousness was a load of fun. A Canadian rapper rapping about the nature of consciousness in the same space as I attended my first philosophy lectures in the late 1970s. This is just one of many “Rap Guide[s] to…” that Brinkman has done.

After the Virgin Money Fringe party, we went to the fourth and our last Fourth Monkey production of this year (sadly, we could not go to any performance of The Burial of the Rats, their fifth show of this Fringe.) Fourth Monkey had kindly replied to my comments about their lateness in going up on the first two shows of this season, blaming problems in communicating with the venue. It was good of them to pay attention to the gripes of a fan, as I remain after seeing Medusa on this evening. They go from strength to strength.

Festivals · Music · Theatre

Edinburgh Festival Day Eight.

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Edinburgh Fringe 2017 Bright Colours Only

We attended six shows on Wednesday 9 August, only one of which I’ll gloss over (“it’s not you, it’s me…”)

Delightfully, predictably, charmingly, C theatre‘s Shakespeare for Breakfast was as hilarious as ever. In its 26th year of performance, each year always seems to have been the best ever. Enough said.

Pauline Goldsmith‘s Bright Colours Only was a pleasant surprise. I knew nothing about this play/performance, which she originated and first staged in 2001.
It’s billed as an Irish Wake Show and as we enter the room (complete with coffin and set as an Irish parlour,) we are offered tea (in cups and saucers,) sandwiches, whisky, biscuits and swiss roll and are shown to our seats to join in the wake. Over the hour, Goldsmith explores with humour, poignancy and depth our reactions to death and mourning – and ultimately, chillingly, our own certain demise. A great piece of staging and indeed street theatre, as the audience is enjoined to follow the coffin out into the hearse awaiting in George Street at the climax of the show.

Ghost Light Players come from Massachusetts and bring their take on Hamlet to The Fringe in an unshowy and inventive production. Their sets and production values are simple but effective.

Our second American High School Theatre Festival production at Central Hall was Romeo and Juliet ; a little more ambitious than the Tempest we saw there on Monday and the problem with the echoing of the hall did not seem so pronounced; but then I knew tonight where the best seats to counter this were and went there straight away.

Tonight’s nightcap was Droll from the Owle Schreame players and was the second good surprise of the day. The show consists of a series of bawdy sketches from the sixteenth and seventeenth century theatre. Theatre was outlawed in England in 1642 and supposedly died, but as was pointed out in this show, three things happened; the superstar actors went abroad and continued acting; actors who could turn their hands to other professions did so; but he middle ground of the talent who could not do any other work just carried on acting in this sort of thing. The show is acted in character (and yes, I started out thinking they had been in the pub all day) by five superb actors and they say it changes every night.

Festivals · Gigs · Music · Theatre

Edinburgh Festival Day Seven.

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70 years of defying the norm - Edinburgh Fringe 2017

Three shows on Tuesday 8 August and a lovely walk through The Meadows on the way to the first. Edinburgh’s Central Park…

The Meadows - Edinburgh Festivals

Judging from the number of families with kids in the queue, I thought at first a big mistake had been made in attending ThisEgg‘s Me and My Bee. We weren’t the only adults in the queue without the wee ones and several others agreed they were confused; the show had not been listed as a children’s show in the Fringe programme.
Luckily I was wrong; although a family show, this was a thoroughly charming hour highlighting the demise of bees in the ecosystem and the consequences of bee extinction, with enough references to motivational speaking and corporate lingo to keep jaded adults happy. We even got a goody bag of sunflower seeds to take away and plant to help the beleaguered bees.

Me & My Bee

I’ve planted them in the back green.

Me & My Bee - Climate Change is Massive. Bees Aren't.

Here’s ThisEgg‘s teaser video for the show, which is on until the end of The Fringe.

From there we made a bee-line to watch Ingrid Garner’s Eleanor’s Story: An American Girl in Hitler’s Germany, a monologue based on the performer’s grandmother’s experience of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was beautifully acted and presented in a part of Gilded Balloon (in Teviot Row) called Sportsmans (sic) where I had not been before; sadly, the room was poorly soundproofed, so the noise from the show in the neighbouring room, which sounded like a particularly raucous episode of The Young Ones was very loudly audible throughout about the first two thirds of Garner’s sensitive and mostly quiet show. My heart bled for her; if it was so hard to hear her and concentrate in the audience, it must have been incredibly difficult to perform – judging from the sustained and heartfelt applause at the end of the show, I doubt I was the only one feeling for her. You can’t blame the other company, but I wonder who at The Gilded Balloon thought this would work. Maybe they are just greedy and rent out rooms without researching soundproofing or suitability for the work being performed. I felt ashamed for the city and nominate The Gilded Balloon as today’s AFG.
Garner’s show continues until the end of The Fringe and is excellent – I hope someone takes responsibility to sort out the venue (or she gets a refund of the rental fee for Sportsmans.)

Edinburgh Fringe againt Nazi's

Here is more information about Eleanor’s Story and its background.

Having been stood up for the pint I was meant to have with an Edinburgh music legend, we went to The Playhouse to watch PJ Harvey’s second show as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.

PJ Harvey - Edinburgh International Festival

I had been a bit dubious about this, not having enjoyed her last album as much as the previous Let England Shake,but it turned out to be marvellous, leaning heavily on LES for the bulk of the material. The sound was stunning. I kept thinking throughout the show “but PJ Harvey isn’t this good…” Wrong again.

Festivals · Theatre

Edinburgh Festival Day Six.

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Translunar Paradise Edinburgh Fringe 2017

In retrospect, it was insanely optimistic to think I could update the blog at the same time as going to so many shows over the week commencing 7 August, so here goes with the backlog…
The first show on Monday 7 August was the excellent Kafka and Son by Theaturtle and Richard Jordan Productions. A monologue co-written and performed by Alon Nashman, it examines the correspondence of Franz Kafka to his father, positing the idea that much of what informed Kafka’s work came from the dysfunctional relationship he had with his father. Not a subject which is debated much in Stratford’s Bar, but it made for a captivating hour in a really interesting venue I had not been to before, Bunker One at The Pleasance. The performer was going to make himself available in the Bunker Bar afterward for discussion of the play and the “increasingly Kafka-esque world.” The show continues until 27 August and is highly recommended even, or especially if, you know as little about Kafka as I do. If you Google the title, there is a complete performance on a platform called Vimeo, but I don’t think it would be as good as being present at a performance.
For many years (although not all 26) one of the highlights of our Fringe has been C theatre‘s Shakespeare for Breakfast – this year they are also presenting Dickens for Dinner, a similarly formatted show where the five mega-talented members of the company riff around aspects of Dickens (mostly A Christmas Carol today) to huge comic effect. Always reliably hilarious. C theatre are presenting a total of six shows throughout the Fringe, at least three of them with the same five-strong cast.
Bristol’s Theatre Ad Infinitum first performed Translunar Paradise at the Fringe in 2011 and it’s back this year. I would say it is inspired a lot by the great sequence in the Pixar movie Up! that everyone knows, where the old man reflects on his life with his recently deceased wife; a real tear-jerker, as is Translunar Paradise judging by the sniffles I could hear around the theatre. A very cleverly devised and expertly acted show.

American High School Theatre Festival are always worth a look. As you would imagine, this is a banner for a number of American High Schools to present work. They have used various venues throughout Edinburgh, this year it is Central Hall at Tollcross and the show tonight is The Tempest. As per usual, there is no lack of skill in the acting and costumes, but they go at some pace and tonight were defeated by the natural echo of the huge hall – I eventually found a third seat where the reverberations were minimised and I could follow the rapidly delivered lines. But a good effort.

Gigs · Music · Theatre

Edinburgh Festival Days Three, Four and Five.

Stuart Ferguson1 Comment

Edinburgh Fringe 2017

I got a bit behind over the last few days. We went to fourteen shows, only one of which I won’t mention, so quite a good strike rate. There does seem to be far fewer duds on the Fringe than say, fifteen or twenty years ago.
Friday kicked off with Chris Davis’ One-Man Apocalypse Now at Sweet Grassmarket, an hour long one man solo reduction of Coppola’s masterpiece, a film I think I have seen more often than any other. It was good; Davis seems to be a Fringe professional, doing some hard flyering and indeed another free show after midnight at The Counting House.
An hour or so later, we were at The Space in Niddry Street to watch our favourite company, Fourth Monkey, who have given so much pleasure over so many years now with their singular style and adventurous productions. This year they are visiting Edinburgh with a triptych of plays under the banner Women of Greece, based on Greek myths, opening tonight with Persephone. The company did not disappoint, all the familiar tropes were in place in the venue that they use so well. Every year seems like the best year. It was a shame they started about twenty minutes late, but I put that down to it being a first night.
Then we went a bit off-piste (for me anyway) and went to Underbelly’s Circus Hub in The Meadows to watch Elixir, performed by Head First Acrobats. If you enjoy watching handsome young men performing unfeasible acrobatic stunts, this is for you. I’m neutral.
Today’s Annoying Festival Git is shared among those who think their whispering is inaudible. By definition, it is not.
Saturday started gently with Bob Kingdom’s The Truman Capote Talk Show. This genre has become very popular; an actor appears in the character of a dead writer, actor or musician and addresses us from beyond the grave, including all the subject’s “greatest hits” and pithily assessing the successes and failures of their life. I’ve seen similar on Oliver Reed, Tony Hancock and Nina Simone in previous years. Kingdom’s show is fine and will get better as it eases into the run – it made me think and has given me a couple of additions to my reading list.
Big Brother Hamlet: A Surveillance Adaptation by International Collegiate Theatre Festival is a mouthful and a title that didn’t augur well. What it was turned out to be a perfectly fine Hamlet interpretation with some great ideas and acting that really didn’t need the “Big Brother” conceit of having about a dozen supernumerary actors on stage in cowls mechanically observing the action surveillance cameras. Maybe the show was devised so that all the members of the company could come to Edinburgh, hence these other parts? (In the UK now, we think of the Endemol show when we see the words Big Brother; the reference here was more to Orwell’s original Big Brother, however obliquely. It’s interesting how the phrase Groundhog Day now means something quite different to its original connotation subsequent to the film of that name.)
Pike St. at Roundabout in Summerhall was next and would be the first outstanding thing I’ve seen this year. The venue was deeply impressive, a bespoke theatre-in-the round with excellent sound and lighting options. This allowed the amazing Nilaja Sun to perform her piece most effectively, where she used her body and a variety of voices to portray several characters going about their lives in the Lower East Side of New York City (I think it’s called acting…) This would have been the second show in Edinburgh and it’s already entirely in place.
In the evening, we were back to The Space to see Fourth Monkey‘s Persephone, the second of the Women of Greece series. They went up twenty minutes late with no explanation or apology, really annoying because twenty minutes is not an inconsequential amount of time during the Fringe. People will have other shows to go to. The fact that Persephone was brilliant doesn’t sweeten the pill; rather, the fact they were late for the second night leaves a bitter taste. Once is maybe understandable, twice is arrogant. They know they are great, no-one is going to leave. I was discussing this very loudly in the queue because the guy in front of us had been in the queue for the Hamlet I was at in the afternoon and had been telling people he knew someone from Fourth Monkey who was in Edinburgh. It must have been the girl in the red dress, because that who he was filming covertly (annoyingly) one seat away from me. Saturday’s AFG.
We had limited time to get to the day’s last show, Frankie Boyle at the EICC. My heart lifted as I saw numerous signs around the venue saying if you left, there was no readmission, including toilet breaks (spelled out for the vodsels -put eight pints in, something will come out during Frankie’s marathon one hour set.)
The threat was balls. Fifteen minutes in, the exodus of weak bladders started and they all got back in. At least the couple in the first seats I went to had cut to the chase and already spilled their drinks on the floor, so I reconsidered and sat in row W next to quite a friendly bloke who texted and took videos throughout Frankie’s marathon ONE hour set. He at least didn’t need a piss.
Oh yeah, Frankie Boyle. He was quite funny, but not as funny as taking £17.50 a ticket for ten nights in a 2,000 seater. Sheep. More power to Frankie’s elbow.
Sunday then. At the back of twelve we were at Underbelly to watch the excellent Harry by Poor Michelle. Performed by the writer Caitlin McEwan and Sophie McQuillan, this is a play about two late teenage girls who grow up together devoted to the fandom of Harry Styles, then grow apart as one of them grows up and another crashes and burns because she can’t let go of her devotion to Harry. It was a great experience because it was a play about one of my favourite subjects – not Harry Styles, but being a pop fan; but slightly compromised by one of the actors not having as good projection as the other.
Peer Gynt by Gruffdog Theatre at Zoo was absolutely fine for fans of physical theatre. Lovely venue.
Blank Tiles at Assembly in George Square was better. A monologue by one Dylan Cole about the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease on a Scrabble winning, Star Trek loving, Rubik cube solving geek, it is at once funny and touching.
Later that evening, we went to Dance Base to watch Lady Macbeth, an investigation of the motivation and psyche of that imaginary character rendered in the medium of interpretative dance. It was very good, but sometimes I think “Stuart, you need a word with yourself…”
The evening finished with another visit to The Space to watch Fourth Monkey‘s take on Titus Andronicus. Predictably great. On time tonight, but running overtime. No problem, got the night bus home, which is a Fringe show in itself.

Music · Theatre

Edinburgh Festivals – Day Two

Stuart FergusonLeave a comment

Edinburgh Fringe 2017

Easy day really, mainly because I forgot to take a camera.
Only one show today, which was called Trump’d, performed by a company called Two Thirds Comedy. The Fringe programme calls it a new “comedy musical from the Cambridge Footlights.” Bennett, Cook, Moore et al it’s not, but it is performed with brio. The action is set in a future world where American people are pretending to be Muslim or Mexican precisely to be expelled from President Trump’s United States. There are a couple of zingers in the script, but they are not delivered well enough to make the throat laugh while the brain is admiring. That may come as the players ease themselves into the show. I’m sure it will get very much better.
There was one excellent scene tonight, a song and dance between the guy dressed like the Milk Tray man and the blond plaited girl, which was charming as much for its clumsiness as its grace. Sorry I don’t know the actors’ names, Fringe productions aren’t great at identifying people, but if they ever read this they’ll know what I mean.
Annoying Festival Gits – Part Two…when we arrived at the performance space at C Venue in Chambers Street tonight, we saw this outside the theatre.

C Venue Chambers Street Edinburgh Festival

Which seems reasonable. So we went up the stairs and outside, a little suspicious that ten minutes before showtime, there was only one other person docilely waiting outside.
Five minutes before showtime, we went downstairs and found that people were being admitted. We told the ticket lady we had been outside as instructed and wondered if anyone would have come to get us. Could have been speaking Swahili, she looked through us, personality free zone. Today’s AFG!

Tomorrow should be more interesting.