Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Another post I should have put up a while back. I went to the Edinburgh Fringe!! It was Awesome!! So many shows in only a few days. It was definitely an experience I plan to repeat.

Oedipus by Steven Berkoff
An experimental piece of serious theatre to start off.
Great to see a piece actually put on by Berkoff, even if I'm not a massive fan of his style.

The Little Prince
Friend's amateur production of a French modern fairy tale. Very clever use of the round.

Josh Widdicombe
Brilliant stand up comedian in a very small venue. Hilarious.

All of Greek Mythology in 99 Minutes or Less
Lived up to its name, but was a weak, amateur American high school production. Interesting idea that did not really live up to expectations, although I guess was enjoyable overall.

The Trial by Steven Berkoff
Kafka's The Trial, written by Berkoff, in his style. High quality amateur production.
I now need to read more Kafka

Rose
Fantastic piece of theatre - true emotion tackling relevant topics
It was performed by an actual father and daughter, an idea that could have been a positive or negative: turned out to have a slight symbolic impact and did not hurt the performance.

Chris Martin
Another excellent stand up comedian in a small venue

Shakespeare for Breakfast
Hilarious adaptation of Macbeth, set in a school, with croissants
"Is this a croissant I see before me?"

Phillipa and Will Are Now in a Relationship
Engaging piece made up entirely of Facebook posts, spoken aloud.
Succeeded in being very funny and emotional at the same time.

The Cagebirds
Experimental, they all played birds in a cage with their own individual mannerisms and obsessions

Out of the Blue
A capella music group from Oxford that do covers in an often amusing way
Very enjoyable - although they have one song that they used as their closing piece that is miles better than any others.

Othello?
Attempted to make Othello a dark comedy but was not particularly successful, although generally well performed.
Problem with babies crying in front row and it was the full length of Othello - we only went to the first half.
Still useful as I am now studying Othello.

Silence in Court
Very interesting idea of making the audience the jury at a court case so that we had to make up our minds whether defendant was guilty of rape.
Unsure whether they had a set guilty or not guilty, or whether they always made the jury get it wrong. I hope it was the first.

Acting and Creating a Character
Workshop exploring Stanislavsky's ideas of thinking the thoughts of a character whilst on stage

Phill Jupitus Quartet - 'Made Up'
Hilarious improvisational comedy - a great comedian doing high level comedy, on the spot, with 3 others.

Cambridge Footlights in 'Pretty Little Panic'
Sketch comedy. Absolutely hilarious - I'll be watching for these people in the future.
Very slick performance.

Ed Bryne
Comedy in a large stadium. On another level. Genius.

One Thousand Paper Cranes
Emotional two-women play about a child after the Hiroshima attack
They did have many paper cranes - I hope there were exactly 1000.

Julian Sands in a Celebration of Harold Pinter
Insight into Harold Pinter and his poetry - Sands is an excellent public speaker, giving me an insight into a writer I know very little about.
"This is a beat... This is a pause... ... ... and this ........................................ is a silence"