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Dateline:
23rd May, 2002
Edfringe Snippets 4
News Items about the Forthcoming Edinburgh Fringe
Festival
The Blue Orphan
Two time Scotsman Fringe First Award winners Catalyst Theatre (Edmonton,
Canada), return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year with the
World Premiere of their musical epic, The Blue Orphan, by Jonathan
Christenson and Joey Tremblay. The Blue Orphan, the most daring
and ambitious show from Catalyst Theatre to date, will be performed
at The Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street, from 13 to 24 August before
transferring to the Tron Theatre, Glasgow from 27 to 31 August.
Miranda Hart at the Pleasance
Miranda Hart performs her first solo character comedy show at this year's
Fringe. Throbs! is a sketch show within a sketch show.
Miranda Hart-Throbs is in understudy rehearsals for a show - she is
a wannabe, desperate for fame, but will she make it? A mix of
character comedy monologues; stand-up; a take on theatre and comedy
shows being put together; relationships between actors, directors and
technicians; and celebrity status. Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Noble
and Silver 2001) plays the Director; Daniel Clegg (Sitcom Trials
2001) and Anne-Marie Draycott (Sketch Club - Gilded Balloon 2002)
play the technicians.
The Oddity at the Gilded Balloon
The Oddity is the new comedy-play from the writers and performers
of last year's critically acclaimed sell-out show How to Lose Friends
and Irritate People. Combining fast-paced physical and verbal comedy
The Oddity is PlayGround Theatre's inimitable take on Homer's
epic poem.
Dr. Melvyn Waugh is an overworked General Practitioner whose life is
becoming impossible. When Walter Piece, an unsuccessful joke-writer
suffering heavily from depression, comes to his surgery he kidnaps him
and their journey begins.
Big Boys Don't Cry
Or do they? In the year that Britain is undertaking the first ever,
comprehensive survey into domestic violence against men, negativequity
lays down a prescient vision of the news that is about to hit. Children
are now more likely than ever to see Mummy hit Daddy. Domestic violence
perpetrated by women is rising fast.
50's suburbia is the setting for a simple tale that follows devotion
down the slope to devastation as a man is crushed by the hands of an
abusive wife.
Performed by negativequity at the Komedia Roman Eagle Lodge.
Franko's Theatrical Adventures & Stone Crabs at C o2
Stone Crabs, a theatre piece devised by the Brazilian actors
Franko Figueiredo and Tereza Araujo, tells a simple but powerful and
emotional story of a young couple in a spiral of hatred, violence and
love.
Originally performed in their home in South East London last October
and again during Lewisham's International Women's Festival in March,
the show has received much local acclaim. Franko & Tereza now bring
their domestic story of violence, vitriol and victory to a larger audience.
Brunel Drama and Impromptu Productions
Red Sky is a new piece of physical drama set in Ancient Greece;
Red Sky tells the tale of a city ravaged by a plague, the political
web behind the plague and the disaster to come in its wake. A fast-paced
and abstract piece of story telling, Red Sky creates powerful
visual imagery through contemporary verse and martial art choreography.
On the Edge
Take a large chunk of Agatha Christie, a healthy pinch of Scooby Doo,
and carefully deconstruct with a dose of Derrida. When served up by
a truly unique stage presence you end up with ON THE EDGE, a hilarious
yet thought-provoking pastiche of the country house murder mystery,
by David Leddy. This energetic and enigmatic performer presents an outlandish
facade of stereotypes that gives way to a biting satire on the genre's
politics, combining intellectual stimulation with high camp comedy.
On the Edge was seen briefly for six performances only at The
Arches in Glasgow earlier this year. The show has been reworked for
the Fringe and given a surreal and striking new design by Lucinda Meredith.
Presented by Martin Sutherland at the Pleasance Dome.
Shut Eye
Legendary American director Joseph Chaikin of The Open Theatre joins
forces with the award-winning Philadelphia-based physical company Pig
Iron in this comic musical fantasy on the mysteries of sleep. Chaikin,
renowned for his seminal work in physical theatre in the 60s and 70s,
returns to his roots in experimental playmaking with this unique collaboration
with one of the best contemporary American companies working in this
field.
In Shut Eye, many characters overlap in a relay race of stories:
a Newlywed couple falls asleep at the dinner table; an Insomniac finds
herself trapped in a Gilbert and Sullivan musical; a woman visits her
brother in the coma ward only to find him absorbed in a business meeting;
the Sand Man roams about offering accordion music and sleep remedies.
Throughout, the question is continually raised: Who is asleep and who
is awake? Shut Eye is a continuation of Chaikin's longstanding
fascination with the night and sleep, loneliness and absence - an ongoing
meditation on the impossibility of connection that is at turns hilarious
and haunting. Poetic and absurd, whimsical and profound. Shut Eye
counterpoints daring physical feats and ecstatic song with intimate
reflections, yielding a unique evening of theatre.
Shut Eye is at the Traverse from 1st - 24th August.
Safety at the Traverse
SAFETY is the new touching and intelligent play from double Fringe First
winners Unlimited Theatre, about how the process of war reporting can
bankrupt idealism. The fast-rising Unlimited have progressed to the
Traverse for this, their third Festival running, with this urgent and
timely production that asks some awkward questions about our own involvement
in distant violent conflict. Safety is the second in a planned
trilogy of plays on this theme, of which the award-winning Static
was the first.
Safety revolves around Michael, a celebrated war photographer
who produced one of the iconic images of war in the late 20th century.
In one of his breaks from assignment, he has returned home to his alienated
family and been confronted with his disintegrating moral judgement by
an accident involving his daughter, which leads to a stark exposure
of his ethics.
We're Not in Brixton Anymore
A fast-paced hour of comedy in which three thirty-somethings find themselves
transformed into their teenage selves and are forced to work out what
has brought them together. Set somewhere that may be heaven or hell
but is definitely not Brixton!
Performed at thee Komedia Roman Eagle Lodge by Jolt!
The Daredevil Opera Company
Rocket Johnny & Roxanne Rolls Untimely, Tragic and Fiery Death
Stunt Show is an hour of high danger and low comedy. With state
of the art pyrotechnic and sound effects, Rocket Johnny rides a Rocket
Pogo to the moon, escapes the Hound of Hades and foils death at every
turn, all backed up by the incendiary Danger Be Damned Orchestra. But
the most difficult stunt of all is keeping Roxanne Rolls, his accident-prone
assistant, from going up in smoke!
The Smirnoff Underbelly: 1st to 10th August.
For facts and figures of the 2001 Edinburgh Fringe,
go to our Fringe
2001 Factsheet.
Fringe
Snippets 1
Fringe Snippets 2
Fringe Snippets 3
Fringe Snippets 4
Fringe Snippets 5
Fringe Snippets 6
Fringe Snippets 7
Fringe Snippets 8
The Fringe at the Netherbow
The Fringe at the Traverse
C Venues at the 2002 Fringe
Dance Base at the 2002 Fringe
Facts about the 2002 Fringe
The Smirnoff Underbelly at the
2002 Fringe
Index
A-F
Index G-K
Index L-Q
Index R-Z
News
Archive A-L
News Archive M-Z
Production News Archive
Please note that all three Archive
indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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