Kate Copstick
There’s a first time for everything. talks to some performers who are experiencing the thrill of the new
We employ professional critics with many years of experience, who see many more shows during the festivals than any other professional critics. Want reviews that you can trust? This is where you will find them. The Scotsman’s famous Fringe First awards recognise outstanding new writing premiered on the Fringe, and are the longest-running and most prestigious theatre prizes at the festival. Our final set of winners will be announced on Friday 25 August. The biggest awards ceremony at the Fringe will be at the Pleasance on 25 August - full line-up and ticket details are announced on pages 12-13 of today’s magazine. Visit www.scotsman.com/ edinburghfestivals for our archive of festival features and reviews from the Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday.
Afringe should be about trying the new, about giving it a go, about edginess – the clue is in the definition of the word. But with an entity as vast as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, we cannot all be on the edge and the visceral thrill (and/or terror) as you pop your Fringe cherry is an experience consigned to memory almost as it happens.
But the experience of being a Fringe Virgin is never to be forgotten. Among the fresh meat being gobbled up by Edinburgh this year is Denim, a fabulous quintet of amazing voices and pointed comedy led by Iraqi Moslem drag queen Glamrou.
“It’s been truly wonderful coming to the Fringe and performing our show to new audiences every single night,” she says. “Part of the Denim philosophy is to not preach to the converted, and to make drag accessible to those who might not feel that it is their thing. Almost every night we have had packed houses, and the audiences are comprised of those who love drag, those who love comedy, those who love theatre, cabaret, or even straight white men who have been dragged to the show by their wives. Watching them collectively engage with the show and feel part of it is a joy.
“Of course, it’s hard here too – two-and-aworld, half hours of make-up every day, lonely days where we look like drag embryos with no facial hair and foundation on faces still, and it’s intense putting yourself out there emotionally every night , but it’s worth it, and I can genuinely say that doing the show every night gets me out of bed, and is the happiest part of the day.”
Most people settle into their groove, coming up year after year to “their” audience doing “their” thing. Especially those who are involved in the big success stories here. The lure of the Sold Out sign keeps many from straying too far from the herd. But some, the brave, go looking for another Fringe cherry to pop. Out in the big bad Fringeworld outside their comfort zones.
Jan Ravens is no newbie to the Fringe, or to Fringe success, but this time, for the first time, she is flying solo.
“There’s quite a sense of camaraderie in doing a solo show at Edinburgh. So many people are doing it,” she says.
“In my venue at the Gilded Balloon Dining Room, the acts before and after me are solo; Ben Hart the amazing magician before, and Mark Forward the hysterical comedian afterwards. So we have a kind of ‘big up’ as we hand over the baton.
“The great thing about doing a solo hour is that you can take the audience into your