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The 2004 Edinburgh Fringe - Peter's StoryDateline: 23rd August, 2004It gets harder every year! Anno Domini is definitely beginning to impinge! I was chatting to Pip Utton and said wearily that this Fringe reviewing business is a young person's game and I might give it a miss next year. He laughed in my face! I suppose I will be back, but next time I won't try to fit in seven shows in a day. I did that just once but averaged five. This year wasn't made any easier by the dreadful weather conditions: when you weren't getting soaked by rain, you were getting soaked by sweat (or, at least, people of my build were!). Then you'd dry out in a show, only to get soaked again going on to the next venue or for something to eat. After which, of course, you dry out in the next show, and then get wet again! No wonder I caught a cold, which - fortunately - only struck on the train home. By the time I got home, just half an hour ebfore midnight, I was shattered and suffering from a sore throat and running nose. The wors "Never again" were right at the forefront of my mind then! Major impressions? Ridiculous prices for drinks in most venue bars. I was charged £1.40 for a bottle of fizzy water. The barman was embarrassed to to tell me the price: "Don't blame me," he said. "I only work here. But it's over the top." Rain. Too many plays could do with the services of a good dramaturg - and not just in the small venues. You could see the potential, but a lot of work was needed. In most cases the problem was over-writing. It's a common fault with new writers: I remember being devastated when someone told me one of my first plays was over-written, but he was right and it has benefited greatly from being re-written - and cut by over quarter of an hour! Rain. There seemed to be more new musicals of a higher quality than in recent years. But perhaps I was just lucky in what I chose to see... Need say it? Rain. A sudden outbreak of Chinese buffets. R.... Finally meeting two of our reviewers, Jackie and Rachel, and a number of people with whom I've corresponded by email for years but never got to met in the flesh till now. And meeting Newsletter subscribers. You know.... As Philip says, it wasn't a classic Fringe. There is still a lot of awful stuff out there, but some brilliant work, too, but it's becoming more difficult to sort out what to go to see because of the sheer number of shows on offer. After years of covering the Fringe, I thought I had developed an instinct for avoiding the rubbish, but my antennae let me down a couple of times, so how much more difficult must it be for someone who is new to it. No wonder so many stick to a certain limited number of venues - Traverse, Assembly and Pleasance - and rarely venture beyond them. Anyway, for what they're worth, here are my Fringe Awards for 2004L
And finally, the Fringe Turkey - Forbidden at the Holyrood Tavern, which has to be one of the worst productions I have ever seen, anywhere. Oh, I forgot! The award for the person or group of people I most hate at the Fringe this year goes to the weathermen for giving us so much bloody rain! Articles Indices:
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