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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 1998 Diary (1)Saturday 8th August What a day! From where I live it takes two hours to get to Edinburgh, so I set out just after midday with the intention of getting there for around 2.00. Fat chance! I arrived at the east end of Princes Street at 2.30, and then arrived at the west end at 3.05! It took fifteen minutes to drive past Debenhams! Anyway, to cut a long (and frustrating! and annoying!) story short, eventually I arrived at my digs (five minutes drive from Princes Street) at 4.00. I got in, unloaded the car, had a brief chat with the receptionist/warden, and set off to the Press Office. It had rained a little on the journey up but by now it was red hot and by the time I reached the Press Office I was lathered. Anyway, no problems registering, and this year things have improved enormously. Certain venues (the Assembly Rooms, the Gilded Balloon, the Pleasance and the Traverse) are insisting on supplying their own press tickets, but the Press Office can supply the rest. Last year I had to get all my tickets from each venue, because I was an internet journalist, not a real (i.e. print) one. Oh yes, and this year I'm entitled to a tcket for the opening reception. Yes, the Internet is becoming more respectable! A quick meal - Italian: Saltinbocca alla Romana and a couple of glasses of red wine - and back to the digs to unpack, drink copious amounts of tea, and fill out my ticket request form. I had originally decided to see a show tonight but I'm so shattered that I'm sitting writing this at 8.30 and even considering going to bed! I won't, though. I'll finish my ticket request form and find somewhere for a pint of McEwans 80 Shilling ale! See you tomorrow! Sunday 9th August Today is the official start of the Fringe, although a number of companies have been here for what is now officially known as Week 0, previewing their shows. If this goes on in future, they may have to start running the event for four weeks instead of three! Anyway, I did my rounds of the venues that insist on providing their own press tickets. A big improvement on last year - not a single company objecting to Internet coverage. Last year I was refused tickets to two shows, both from the Royal Court. By the way, they never did respond to my complaint about that! And then it was on to Princes Street for the opening Festival Parade. The sun was blazing down and Princes Street was crowded (when is it not?), and the crowds were enthusiastic. I spoke to one lady who told me that the people of Edinburgh see the parade as their part of the Festival. "Most people have just been or are just going on holiday," she said, "and so they can't afford to see the shows, so this is our day." And why not? After the parade finished, it was time to go to the opening reception in the Spiegeltent on top of the Waverley Centre. I found myself a very popular man. As soon as you are recognised as one of the press, crowds of company press officers, directors and actors descend with invitations to their shows and piles and piles of press releases, flyers and other bumff. I came away with a pile of paper nearly three inches thick! Then it was back to the digs to unload the paper - my room is already beginning to look more like the office of a very untidy person than a bedroom! - and then a meal and off to Southside for my first show this Festival: Lifts, a new musical. And so, as Samuel Pepys would say, to bed! Monday 10th August Another hot day. Are we in for a repeat of last year, when August was really a smashing month? We deserve it, given the weather we've had so for this "summer". The guy in the press office was telling me that he arrived last Tuesday and someone told him it was the first day without rain since 6th April! Anyway, off to the Pleasance for the English Shakespeare Company's Richard III. I was sitting in the courtyard soaking up the sun and supping fresh orange juice, when Malachi Bogdanov, who's directing Richard, popped over. Audiences hadn't been bad, he said, but he felt people were waiting for reviews. Still, today was just the third performance so he was quite confident of a good run. After Richard it was a short stroll round to the Southside Courtyard for Toilet. I hadn't really intended to see this show, but the publicity (all about it being banned by a local council because of its title!) made me decide to go. The journalist in me likes a bit of scandal! And then it was back to the Pleasance for Tamagotchi Heaven. If there's one thing I learned from my Fringe experiences last year, it is to plan my days more carefully in terms of venue. Last year I did stupid things like going to see a show on the far side of Princes Street, then leaving myself half an hour to run (well, almost!) along to, say, Southside. My legs ached continually last year and I was determined I wouldn't suffer that way this Festival! Given the hilliness of Edinburgh, that is something of a forlorn hope! Time then for a meal, and my first visit this year to my favourite Edinburgh restaurant, the Ayutthaya on Nicholson Street, just opposite the Festival Theatre. I love Thai food and the Ayutthaya does it so well. And it was just as good as I remembered it! The final show of the day was No Sex in Paradise by Shakers and Movers at the Church Hill Theatre on Morningside Road. A comparatively early finish, leaving me time to get my reviews of the day written before crashing out! Next - - Fringe Coverage Index |
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