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Looking Back at the Edinburgh Fringe 2000Dateline: 27th August, 2000 Now that the 2000 Edinburgh Fringe has ended (most shows have their last performance on 28th, although quite a few finish on 27th), let's take a look back and see what has been most noteworthy about this year's festival. But first, my own Best of list:
Please note that this list is based entirely on the shows I saw and the venues I visited. Obviously others, who saw different shows and visited different venues, may well disagree! The VenuesAs far as theatre is concerned, the Big Three are the Assembly, the Pleasance and the Traverse. The Gilded Balloon, always one of the top four, focused even more on comedy this year than in the past and offered a much smaller theatre diet than the others. As always, the Traverse offered a mixture of its own company's productions and plays from others. I always see the Traverse as a kind of half-way house between the Fringe and the International Festival, with plays which are very much in the mainstream of British theatre but at its leading edge. The Assembly certainly, and the Pleasance to a lesser extent, are becoming "safer", with programmes which have a direct appeal to their audiences, which they know well, and contain work mainly from established companies. When you consider that the average Fringe audience is said to be six, most other venues must look with envy on the packed houses these two get. Coming up strongly is the Hill Street Theatre, run by Universal Arts, which this year also programmed a new venue, the Gateway Theatre. Hill Street proudly labels itself a "stand-up comedy-free zone" and is showing more concern for the quality of the companies which play there than many another venue. Although not going for the "names" as the Assembly and Pleasance do, it has nonetheless begun to establish a "house style" of production. Also on the way up, having moved to a new venue with four auditoria, is C. Quite a mixed programme here: some very good small companies (such as Portable Productions), alongside student theatre of a somewhat variable quality. Scottish International has now moved to Dynamic Earth from the Famous Grouse House and is now producing an interesting programme in its small basement and its outdoor amphitheatre. One to look out for in future festivals, I think. CostsCosts are rising all the time. Many venues have put up their rents considerably, causing concern among many that the smaller companies may be driven away. But it is not only the cost of venues which is worrying: accommodation costs are also rising steeply, and although student companies may be willing to sleep twelve to a room - as one actor claims to have done - non-student companies are less willing to rough it to such an extent. I know personally of one company which will probably not return next year, simply because of the cost of accommodation. At the Fringe Society AGM, director Paul Gudgin mentioned this as a source of real concern and pledged to try to find ways of providing accommodation for performers which is both of an acceptable level and at a reasonable price. We can only hope that he will succeed! Articles Indices:
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