Event - Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2007

This year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival was my first. With a view to putting on a play there in 2008, myself and my writing partner Jack Gibson ventured up the Scottish capital to see what it was all about and check out the 'vibe'.

We took in 6 performances during our one-and-a-half day visit and what follows are brief reviews of what we saw.

Teenage Kicks
This is a play about the late Radio 1 DJ, John Peel and his journey into the hearts and minds of his listeners. In the Universal Arts venue, which holds around 200, the play worked well and was well written and performed by the cast of three. One of the cast, lovingly referred to as Susan (played by a young man) played such diverse roles as an aspiring punk rocker to a shelf unit at Virgin records. The performances were good, the writing tight yet fluent and the whole experience, even for those who were not familiar with Peel's story (i.e. Jack) was a positive one.

Robin Ince Knew This Would Happen
Robin Ince is a stand-up comedian of several years experience and could be respectfully described as a Fringe 'veteran'. His stand up routine, in the Wildman Room at the Assembly @ George St lasted an hour or so. While I liked his material and was won over by his 'everyman' attitude, the set did linger five minutes too long. At the end, his material, based on science and such stuff, began to wander into the realms of obscure references and indecipherable quotes. I'm sure these must have seemed funny when Robin was coming up with them, but to an audience slightly less passionate about the subject, they just represented a weak ending to an otherwise very enjoyable hour of stand-up.

A Dependable Marriage
Somewhere on the top floor of the venue (C Soco, Chambers St) this play was performed to an audience of around 50 people, the vast majority of which turned out to be friends of the cast (something we discovered later that day - but more of that below). The play is about a couple who face the spectre of infidelity and handle it's consequences in a less than orthodox manner. While well written in places with some genuine laughs, the play ultimately left me wondering why I should care about what happened to any of the characters. The female parts were well acted but the male performers were wooden at best. One particular character who enters the life of the wronged wife as her 'revenge fling' was played by a guy who was clearly getting by on looks alone. The one highlight was the guy playing the all-too unaware husband of the main character's mistress, if only because he resembled Adrian Edmondson and his performance was the most comical, intentionally or otherwise.

What's Your Poison
This play, performed at the Roman Eagle Lodge, tried to explore the 'twin themes of addiction and dependence'. While most of the performances were passable, the character of Lisa, the most dependent and seemingly 'lost' of all the characters was seriously over-played. As a result, the audience's ability to lose themselves in the story was hindered. Although the story was worthwhile, the script seemed to wander and lose it's way, which meant the play ended with an air of issues being unresolved and of the audience really not caring.

Barbed and Spined
If Teenage Kicks was the highlight of our short visit, this play represented the lowlight. The cast was made up of those who had sat in the audience of A Dependable Marriage. The cast of that show were reciprocating here, filling out the majority of the 20-odd seats in what is surely the most claustrophobic venue at the Fringe, Venue 260 @ Jury's Inn. The 'venue' is basically a tiny, converted conference room on the 7th floor of a hotel and indicative of the fact that, at this time of year, any available space in the city is farmed out as performance space. The play, supposedly a 'vicious and provocative new drama' about fragile relationships, was, at best, a waste of time. I felt as if I had walked into a group of friends putting on a hastily written and poorly rehearsed play for their mates. Pointless profanity was thrown in at thirty second intervals and the performances were absolutely awful, proving that shouting your lines doesn't cover up poor writing and inadequacies in the talent department. For some reason I applauded at the end, probably just grateful that it was all over.

The Coach
The final play we took in, back at the miniscule Jury's Inn venue, was blessed relief after those who had sullied the 'stage' before them. Focusing on a football coach's shattered dreams and his obsession with living them through the boys team he coaches, the play fizzes along and provides some good moments. The performances are all solid, the main character being played well, with just the right amount of dark comedy and impending menace. Given the severely limited performance space, the play came across well and provided our trip with the upturn in quality it sorely needed.

The Edinburgh Fringe is a great place for catching the most eclectic collection of performances, either at official venues or by just wondering through the streets. An experience that should really be given more than one-and-a-half-days to appreciate properly.