The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Benefits of the FRINGE
To anyone unfamiliar with the Edinburgh Festival, it is a place where big-name comedians can be found in abundance, or it is somewhere international stars turn up to try out their pet theatre project.
For those who want to look behind the most expensive adverts and the names, there is a wealth of unusual, exciting and inspiring work and not all of it needs to have a big name attached.
We look at some of the more obscure theatrical treats to be found.
Hands-down the oddest show to be playing this year, at least so far, is Arthur (July 31 to August 25, Your Home), a new piece by the Fringe First-winning Daniel Bye about “the inescapability of being you”.
And he will come around and perform the show – which also stars his six-month-old baby Arthur – for up to 10 people at your house, as long as you have the correct EH postcode.
If you know anyone who lives in an eligible part of Edinburgh we recommend it, because Bye has a strong track record of brilliant and thought-provoking work.
Sticking with unusual places to see shows, we also recommend
last year’s hit A War of Two Halves (August 7 to 26, Tynecastle Stadium), which takes the form of a walking tour around Heart of Midlothian FC’s ground in Gorgie, stopping off to watch scenes being performed as the audience moves from one location to the next.
It is about McCrae’s Battalion, the ill-fated First World War regiment comprising players from Hearts and many other Scottish Central Belt football clubs and is highly-recommended for anyone with an interest in the human stories behind football and war.
The long-established Traverse Theatre this year includes How Not to Drown (July 30 to August 25, Traverse), a new play by Scottish playwright Nicola McCartney and Dritan Kastrati, which tells of the latter’s story as a child refugee fleeing to the UK from the Kosovan War.
Trying It On (July 28 to August 25), is the acting debut of playwright David Edgar, as he looks back to his 20-year-old self in the year of global turmoil that was 1968 and asks how our beliefs change with age.
The other venue which shows the Fringe’s best and most exciting work is Summerhall.
Highlights this year include Nightclubbing (July 31 to August 11), Rachael Young’s Afrofuturist tribute to Grace Jones and what it is to be a black woman in the present day and Before the Revolution (August 13 to 25) by Egypt’s Temple Independent Theatre Company, which tells the story of the lead-up to the country’s revolution.
If there is one play which promises to sum up what’s really going on in politics in 2019, it is the acclaimed Barrel Organ company’s Conspiracy (August 1 to 25, Underbelly), a lighthearted but also very serious piece about conspiracy theories, fake news and an epidemic of mistrust.
In a lighter vein, Do Our Best (August 1 to 25, Underbelly) stars Remy Beasley as Sophie, a selfobsessed young woman whose mother has recently died – so, in an attempt to better herself and fight off her own grief, she decides to try and earn her Girl Guides Entertainers badge at the fourth time of asking.
He will come around and perform the show for up to 10 people at your house