Culture: Edinburgh festival
Aug. 17th, 2003 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livI spent yesterday in Edinburgh with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pseudomonas, which was a lot of fun.
We managed to see two shows: a set by John Hegley, a standup / performance poet whompseudomonas knew from Radio 4; and a two-man comic play, Flamingo Flamingo Flamingo.
John Hegley was very good, delightfully and unselfconsciously silly, and his set had plenty of movement and visual stuff as well as just his jokes. His poetry was nothing special (and he overused tricks like bathetic twists to the point where they became predictable), but his delivery was gorgeous. He was at the Assembly Rooms, but in a small studio, and his interaction with the audience was really marvellous. The funniest moment of the whole show was when the inevitable mobile went off, and Hegley pounced on the culprit: ooh, who is it, is it him?, pointing out another member of the audience, who turned out to be a woman with short spikey hair. The way Hegley got comic value from his own embarrassment at this mistake was pure magic.
Flamingo flamingo flamingo was a very "Fringe" piece: in a tiny (BT-sized) theatre, the Kommedia Roman Eagle Lodge, very student-y humor, good fun but utterly unmemorable. Plested and Brown appear to be a tiny company with two actors and director; Plested in particular is talented and the whole was well written and at least fairly original. They did a lot with two actors and a small, low-tech set; there was a lot of variety and they made a single theme consistently interesting.
My main complaint was that those two shows came to slightly under £ 20 (and they were among the cheapest options). That makes it prohibitive to do the Festival thing properly; we wouldn't have been able to afford to really cram the day with shows and maybe take in a couple of exhibitions as well, or alternatively spend several days at the festival. Those kinds of prices mean that there's a strong temptation to play it safe, go for the big names; I'd rather spend £ 12 for a show I knew would be good than £ 8 on a complete unknown, and of course that means that prices creep up. And really, it's not worth braving the massed hordes that descend on Edinburgh at festival time just to see a couple of big name, mainstream shows that I could see at any time.
That said, the quality of street theatre when we happened to be wandering up the Royal Mile was particularly good. There was a really good balloon artist (his entire patter consisted of saying, hi, I'm John from Canada and I make cartoon characters out of balloons), yet he drew quite a crowd just because he was making such complex and interesting pieces. And there was a saw fiddler, nothing special musically but absolutely gorgeous mime to go with it. His delightful piece turned out to be an advert for a group called QuestFest; if we'd had more time in Edinburgh and more money, I would have been very tempted to go and see one of their shows.
All in all, a very fun day out.
pseudomonas, which was a lot of fun. We managed to see two shows: a set by John Hegley, a standup / performance poet whom
pseudomonas knew from Radio 4; and a two-man comic play, Flamingo Flamingo Flamingo.John Hegley was very good, delightfully and unselfconsciously silly, and his set had plenty of movement and visual stuff as well as just his jokes. His poetry was nothing special (and he overused tricks like bathetic twists to the point where they became predictable), but his delivery was gorgeous. He was at the Assembly Rooms, but in a small studio, and his interaction with the audience was really marvellous. The funniest moment of the whole show was when the inevitable mobile went off, and Hegley pounced on the culprit: ooh, who is it, is it him?, pointing out another member of the audience, who turned out to be a woman with short spikey hair. The way Hegley got comic value from his own embarrassment at this mistake was pure magic.
Flamingo flamingo flamingo was a very "Fringe" piece: in a tiny (BT-sized) theatre, the Kommedia Roman Eagle Lodge, very student-y humor, good fun but utterly unmemorable. Plested and Brown appear to be a tiny company with two actors and director; Plested in particular is talented and the whole was well written and at least fairly original. They did a lot with two actors and a small, low-tech set; there was a lot of variety and they made a single theme consistently interesting.
My main complaint was that those two shows came to slightly under £ 20 (and they were among the cheapest options). That makes it prohibitive to do the Festival thing properly; we wouldn't have been able to afford to really cram the day with shows and maybe take in a couple of exhibitions as well, or alternatively spend several days at the festival. Those kinds of prices mean that there's a strong temptation to play it safe, go for the big names; I'd rather spend £ 12 for a show I knew would be good than £ 8 on a complete unknown, and of course that means that prices creep up. And really, it's not worth braving the massed hordes that descend on Edinburgh at festival time just to see a couple of big name, mainstream shows that I could see at any time.
That said, the quality of street theatre when we happened to be wandering up the Royal Mile was particularly good. There was a really good balloon artist (his entire patter consisted of saying, hi, I'm John from Canada and I make cartoon characters out of balloons), yet he drew quite a crowd just because he was making such complex and interesting pieces. And there was a saw fiddler, nothing special musically but absolutely gorgeous mime to go with it. His delightful piece turned out to be an advert for a group called QuestFest; if we'd had more time in Edinburgh and more money, I would have been very tempted to go and see one of their shows.
All in all, a very fun day out.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-17 09:26 pm (UTC)Last year, I really enjoyed a very high energy performance by Phil Nichol (http://www.chortle.co.uk/edfest2002/edshows.html?http&&&www.chortle.co.uk/edfest2002/philnichol.html), and there were some splendid dance performances to be found, but as you say, not much in the way of truly memorable comedy.
Years ago, a Fringe award-winning performance of "Three Men in a Boat" came to Croydon; now that was "Fringe theatre" at its best, inventive, dynamic, and highly memorable. "Fringe" at its dullest can seem to mean rather uninspired, infantile comedy, often performed badly. And yet they *still* charge £8/£9 for it- it's been outrageous for years and now its even more so!
Still, you picked a lovely summer for it! Bet the Mile was heaving!
(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-18 09:28 am (UTC)The truth is I don't know a lot about comedy; if I'm picking at random I'm more likely to get it right when it comes to theatre. Two years ago I managed to see, completely by accident, Liz Lochead's fantastic Medea, one of the most amazing plays I've ever seen.
But relying on
(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-18 11:45 am (UTC)[luvvy mode - ON]
Yes, it's an experience everyone should have at least once in a lifetime, darling, and it's fantastic to get out of the provinces and in among real theatre people, don't you know....
[luvvy mode - OFF]
Actually, it's not at all difficult to get a slot at the Fringe. It's just expensive. It's also a lot of work compared to most theatre experiences - there seems to be much more than usual to do (and much less venue support available). I produced, choreographed for and performed in our show (http://www.cam.ac.uk/societies/dance/); most other Fringe producers thought I was certifiable to do so. I probably was, but you know, I never do things by halves....
Nevertheless, it was a great experience, and I would recommend anyone who is of a performance bent to do it at least once. I appear to belong to a circle of people who have done it every year for aeons. I don't know how that happened, but it did!