Writers Magazine 2009

At the Edinburgh Book Festival 2009

The 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe draws to a close but here are some timely thoughts on planning your visit next year whether as a performer or a precious member of an audience.

Talk of a ‘fringed’ tail, wagging the ‘festival’ dog has been discussed over the years. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has grown up to become the largest performance festival in the world, whichever way you choose to define ‘largest’.

Alongside the Fringe there are other festivals running in Edinburgh. THE Edinburgh Festival, of course, but there is a film and television festival plus the Book Festival. And the city is full of public and private galleries and museums that all put on an excellent show. The National Museum had enough going on to provide a stand-alone festival. But the Fringe is now arguably the focus of Edinburgh’s summer festivities. It starts a week earlier than the arts fest, although the main festival keeps going a bit longer.

History

Time was when the worthy, diverse collection of what most would recognize as mainstream, mature artistic events, brought together for the few weeks of the Edinburgh Festival gave way to a set of theatre and musical productions, plus a sprinkling of comedy, which were performed in church halls, back rooms of pubs or any vacant premises.

The fringe performers were wannabe professionals. Many of the early venues would not come near to passing modern fire regulations or indeed even basic safety standards. Producers had to worry about details such as how to back out their hall (catering width silver cooking foil was the stuff) and few bothered to print tickets.

Things have evolved. The first ‘official’ Fringe was in 1959 and a decade later an organisation, and charity, existed to promote the Fringe. So 2009 might have been the 50^th anniversary, but nobody is counting. That is not the style of the Fringe.

There is no doubting that the Fringe has grown up. It used to be a magnet for every university drama group where two generations of amateurs learnt enough in their few weeks competing for audiences to appreciate the advantages of a proper job. Edinburgh is a gruelling audition for those who see showbiz as their day job. Happily every year still brings a fresh crop of performers.

Now many production companies and promoters also assemble the acts and take care of all the details related to ticketing and the venue. So the performer can concentrate on their art, and, of course, trying to attract an audience.

Planning

A new visitor to the Fringe will soon be overwhelmed by the choice and should quickly recognise the near impossibility of making an informed guess about what to go to, with about 20 events starting every 10 minutes for most of the wakeful day.

There are two ways to resolve this dilemma of over-abundance:

The first is to get hold of the 288 page catalogue, a first class production in itself, and go through to judge what you are interested in. Then book tickets and hope for the best. There are always a few hot tickets that somehow sell out while you are studying the catalogue. If you sensibly decide to wait for the early reviews before making your selection, then prepare to be disappointed, as that is just what many other sensible people plan to do. So you need to be able to see the early reviews and get your mouse clicking quickly.

Consequently there is a lot of competition among performers for an early review and these tend to focus on the larger venues with the better PR backing. There is much more to the Fringe than the big venues.

The second approach is to wander The Royal Mile where micro-performances, some actors in costume, and a brash bunch of family, friends or hired helpers will give you a doubtless prejudiced view about some wonderful event that is not to be missed. This rather random approach will expose you to the full charm of the Fringe, which is its energy and innovation - even if some events will be of uncertain quality.

I have adopted both approaches. This year I gave my days a theme: Theatre one day, another devoted to children's writing, then music and a day for galleries or museums and most days were rounded off with some comedy. These performers don’t emerge until after the sun sets.

A visit to the small but super-efficient box office early each day for some tickets needs to be planned in case choice one is booked. There seem to be more returns for the popular shows for the early birds, but there will always be a queue so allow time for the ticket office. Once you have the fixed points you can indulge your whim, or use chance encounters, to fill the gaps.

This approach to choosing events means you can pack in much more and take pauses whenever the mood takes you. My ‘random’ habit has grown out of many happy accidents in earlier days where I have descended rather than ascended the stairs, or turned left rather than right, only to see a performance which was quite different from the one for which I had paid. Some of the most memorable events have been encountered this way. I suspect that the efficient ushering and ticketing makes such serendipity a thing of the past (‘Fire regulations require us to know how many people are in the theatre’).

There is always a third way to ferret out the finest work on the Fringe which is to read the daily reviews that are now being produced in magazines such as ‘Three Weeks’, which use volunteer reviewers. You need to decode the wording to discover how much they are hiding within the carefully constructed words of the review.

One big problem is the ‘star inflation’. Everything seems to have earned four stars from some reviewer. As the festival reaches its climax, the acts have clipped excerpts from favourable reviews onto their flyers. Just bear in mind that the reviews rely on advertising to allow their words to be published. Caveat reader.

Sharpening your critical faculty

The Fringe has to be the best place to develop one’s critical faculties because you will encounter rough edges where the excellent cohabits with the abysmal. If I was going to see a production outside the Fringe I would not be too pleased to discover that the thing was only good in parts. But in Edinburgh somehow it’s acceptable, almost welcome.

Similarly many of the scripts were good but would have benefited from a little bit of critical appraisal and the editing that a professional production would provide. But at the Fringe you really don't care too much about the faults; it is the potential that one can see and that is what you remember.

I watched one two-man show this year where one person was a natural actor and the other an embarrassment (I even asked him to repeat the punch line when I lost the plot). But the rotten actor was also the writer and the writing was very, very good, in parts.

So the Fringe is a good opportunity to hone one's critical talents. I write a five line review after an event and at the small venues you often get the chance to share your view, not just with other members of the audience, but with the cast or their partner. So take care if your critical style tends towards the extremes – expect a hand-bagging if the person you're talking to is the mother of the performer whose work you have just so ruthlessly abused.

Money matters

Everything is within walking distance once you reach Edinburgh’s centre but you will need a good set of shoes and be able to tackle the slopes and stairs that form the labyrinth around Castle Rock.

To indulge your habit you need a bag full of money. Performances cost around £10 (for about 90 minutes) and coffee and beer are in plentiful supply but at a slight premium. So a bottle of water from a supermarket and a hearty breakfast before you set out will liberate more money and time for shows. The ‘FivePoundFringe’ saves a bit of money and there are some great free events at some venues.

Free Fringe

Edinburgh can quickly run away with all your hard-earned money, so these free offerings are extremely welcome and provide a way to fill the time between the booked events. The quality of the free events varies enormously, as indeed do the paid-for events. They might be awful but there are some gems.

The best free events were marked by the size of the queue since there are no tickets for them. There is an appeal at the end of the show to throw a fiver into the bucket held charity-style at all the exits in order to raise money. It will be interesting to see if this model flourishes since it embodies much of the essence of the Fringe that I remember from 30 years ago. Experiment, variable quality and performance pay is what the Fringe really should be about.

To perform or not to perform?

Edinburgh’s real charm is the enormous energy exuded by all the performers who are competing hard for their micro-audience and the friendliness of the audiences. If you ignore the big names who can fill the venues offering 300+ seats, the overwhelming majority of venues have seating for 20 or 50 and the performers will be very happy if they can half fill the place each day. The performers seem genuinely happy to see you. It’s a great trip.

Speaking as an addict, the summer festivities in Edinburgh, and especially its Fringe, marks the beginning of the cultural year.

 © Chas Jones 2009

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