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Fringe '99 PreviewDateline: 14th June, 1999 The Edinburgh Fringe has announced its 1999 programme, and the world's largest arts festival just gets better! Let's talk statistics:
Not a lot of people know that! - Just those who've read the Fringe press release. It's not only Shakespeare plays that get more than one production. There are:
Oh yes, and there are 295 new productions. Of course, the groups themselves write their entries in the Programme, so you won't be surprised to know that 55 shows will be "hilarious" and 37 will be "unique"! There are, of course, shows whose very titles suggest they might be just a tad derivative. I've already noticed one called Working and Bonking, a title not a million miles away from Mark Ravenhill's hit of 1997. And, incidentally, there's the world premiere of the new Ravenhill play, Some Explicit Polaroids, performed by Out of Joint at the Traverse. The Fringe is truly an international festival, as the figures for the origins of the participating groups show:
This year, again, Theatre is the largest group, with Music (310 shows) second, Comedy and Review (264) third, Dance and Physical Theatre fourth with 73. Fifth is Visual Arts with 50 shows and in sixth place is Children's Shows (44). In last place comes Talks and Events - 35 of them. Of course, we have to remember that, at the same time, there are other festivals running in the city: the International Festival, the Book Festival, the Jazz Festival and the Film Festival. Edinburgh is a very busy place in August! The Big Three As always there are full programmes for the big three venues (Assembly Rooms, Gilded Balloon and Pleasance), although the Gilded Balloon has reduced its number of venues after expansion last year. They are no longer running the Gilded Balloon at the Paladium, something which, I have to admit (very selfishly) pleases me, because it was one hell of a walk from the area where most venues are! Traditionally these have been regarded as the "big three", but more and more we should, I think, be talking about the "big five" because C Venues has to be vying with them for the number of productions and the Traverse, with its range of companies and number of premieres, as well as the uniformly high quality of the work it shows, fully deserves a top billing. In many ways the Traverse is a kind of bridge between the Fringe and the International Festival. It's a "proper" theatre that is in use throughout the year and the companies which come for the Fringe are already established rather than trying to establish themselves. This year the Traverse is presenting 12 plays: four world premieres, four Scottish premieres, two UK premieres and one European premiere. There's a lot of Irish work there this year. Paines Plough are back, as are Theatre Archipelago, the reincarnation of Communicado. There are thirteen theatrical productions at the Gilded Balloon and its satellites (Gilded Balloon II and GB at La Belle Angele), including Stephen Fry's The Liar, whilst there are sixteen at the Observer Assembly. Pip Utton's brillant Adolf moves to the Assembly for its third Fringe outing, Linda Marlowe brings Berkoff's Women, a celebration of 25 years collaboration with Berkoff, and Marsha Hunt appears in The Junkyard Gang. The Pleasance caps them all, however, with no less than 37 theatrical pieces, including Steven Berkoff's new production of his classic East, Leslie Phillips in Peter Tinniswood's On the Whole It's Been Jolly Good, 7:84 in Caledonia Dreaming, Birmingham Stage Company in Mamet's Speed the Plough, the English Shakespeare Company International with Malachi Bogdanov's production of Titus Andronicus, and Edward Petherbridge in Mr Dickens/Mr Shakespeare. I suspect I shall be spending quite a few hours at Venue 33 this year! Watch out for more Fringe preview features in the coming weeks. In the next couple of weeks I hope to have our Fringe Links Library back online - I only have to look through 83 sites to check that they are actually covering the Fringe! Articles Indices: |
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