Edinburgh Festival (International & Fringe) 2019

Quick, amend your 10am plans. Just seen ‘Shakespeare for Breakfast’. Not laughed so much in a long time, cheeks hurting from solid smiles for an hour. Great for all ages and all levels of Shakespeare knowledge. Try squeeze a visit in, you won’t regret the £8.50!

In all the focus on theatre I forgot to mention seeing some excellent visual art in Edinburgh. Best was the Edinburgh College of Art exhibition. I didn't see all of it but really enjoyed what I did get to see.

The David Batchelor exhibition at the Ingleby is worth a visit as is the Victoria Crowe at the City Gallery. The latter is ticket-only at £6. I didn't go to the Bridget Riley show at the National, I'd have liked to. A much pricier one though, at £16 I think.

Sadly one of my favourite galleries there, the Fruitmarket is closed for a major refurbishment reopening next year. But hopefully it'll be better than ever and will be significantly expanded.

So I sit here today, having landed back home from Edinburgh last night feeling kind of underwhelmed and empty.

Maybe my expectations were too high from last year but generally I found the quality of work pale in significance to 2018's offerings, paired with a different tone across the city I'm not really quite sure of what to make of my time up there this time round. There could be a few reasons for this.

The current state of politics in Britain has begun to reflect massively in peoples attitudes, consciously and subconsciously. Divisions even stronger than before. Sitting in an audience where everyone feels together, the atmosphere can change instantly when an act then mentions People, Parties or Politics as the room divides, irreparably, for the rest of the show. 
The complex stress and angst across society was also reflected in content. This year a lot of what people had to offer was basically a platform to moan, with or without a story.
Last year, I found a lot of what I saw was heartwarming and mostly culminated with a message of strength or positivity whilst this time round, a lot of what I saw left me cold or indifferent.

Whilst I don't have a strong record to compare to, I also feel like the Festival Fringe has hit saturation point. On Saturday (17th) I got up and checked on the app what was on for that day - over 2700 results! That's a lot of people competing for an audience. Granted, those results include cancelled listings, but still. 
People flying generally seemed less engaging and very few actually made any effort to try sell a show, there was an enthusiasm completely missing. 

Worst of all, to really distort the atmosphere was the ban on buskers using amplification around George & Bistro Sq, and massive signs around to promote this.
I don't know if anyone has previously seen an acoustic guitarist who has been busking there for a few years, MOHO. He plays the guitar on his lap, plucking and picking to create music. Yesterday he had his equipment dismantled and confiscated by police. 

Anyway, here's what I saw and a brief thought..

Frankenstein - How to Make a Monster *****
Technical perfection from these performers, made even more appreciable by the beatboxing tutorial in the show's introduction.

Crocodile Fever *****
If Tarantino & Hunter S Thompson wrote a play and then crossed it with Father Ted, this would be the product. Absolutely bonkers conclusion, but great fun.

Limbo: City of Dreams *
A dystopian Hair. Disappointing for Royal Conservatoire of Scotland/American Music Theatre Project. A boring drama-school production of a very forgettable musical riddled with technical issues.

Limbo: The Twelve **
Slightly better, but still not great. A musical on the 12 angry men concept, where a jury all connected to a heroine addict in purgatory decide whether she should get another chance. Every song felt like it had been found in the bin from Dear Evan Hansen's writing process and was sung with the forced Canadian twang of Ben Platt which made it quite a chore to sit through. Do we really need a musical about a heroine addict where the central character is unlikeable? 

Tokyo Rose ***
A good concept rattled through at supersonic pace. Obviously written around the 'Landslide' earworm. Needs an extra 15mins to really flesh out the characters though, especially as there's much doubling up. Sound in the bunker-type venue was awful though with vocals coming from a couple of broken speakers at the back of the venue and the music needs much more money spending on it, reproducing it to make it sound less like a bedroom demo. Most of the audience appeared fidgety and bored but then shot up for applause at the end, strange.

Beat ****
A great solo show about a boy obsessed with drums. Stunning performance, as he played drums standing whilst kicking his riser around in a circle, in strobe lighting. Nice twist at the end,with the overall message being 'It's ok to be a bit mental'.

Buzz *
A self indulgent, pretentious account of a boy who tenuously compares his life journey to that of Buzz Aldrin. A performance that too occasionally faltered, soundtracked by a musician rolling around making noises of sorts. Can I have that 90minutes back please?

Notflix **
Missed this last year, so gave it a chance. I'm sure it has great potential but the choice of movie this time didn't work 'Monsoon' - the summary of which sounded great on paper but the person suggesting it couldn't actually describe the plot and none of the rest of the audience or cast had seen it. This resulted in the cast fumble around for an hour trying to find a narrative and then bolt on a 30 second conclusion. Most of the songs were a variation on the same theme and some of the performance bordered on racist, good for 10 minutes but a chore to sit through for an hour.

Four Woke Baes ***
Apparently true and an entirely reasonable look at relationships. Some ghastly characters that I recognised and could therefore relate to (I know this was a sticking point with other reviews unable to connect to the piece). Well performed and an interesting narrative.

Vampire Hospital Waiting Room **
Good b-movie fun but I tired easily of the forced corpsing (pun intended).

Shakespeare for Breakfast ****
Farcical frivolity, peppered with musical references throughout. 5 actors with stunning performance chemistry tear apart Romeo & Juliet. A riot of pantomime-style fun.

Dickens for Dinner ***
Produced by the same team as above, re-enacting Oliver Twist. Musical references and gags throughout. Much fun to be had.

Eddie Izzard - Expectations of Great Expectations ***
A very nervous solo performance in a hot and stuffy lecture theatre, of the Dickens story re-written by his brother Mark. Many booked to see his standup and got a book reading. Quite a few sleeping audience members, which seemed to affect his performance unfortunately but I really enjoyed it. His passion for the project is evident.

Eddie Izzard - Wunderbar *****
Classic Eddie Izzard chronicling the story of the universe in 90 mins with a few references to older material (characters we know and love). The show culminated with a profound explanation on his theory of the universe, which I think is actually pretty legitimate and likely. 

Milton Jones - Milton Impossible ****
Typical abstract Milton with his pun-based story of espionage. Hilarious references to European politics which seemed to rile a few in the house.

Stewart Lee - Wok in Progress ***
Trying out material for his upcoming tour & residency in London. We got the Act 2 in this hour which to me felt more like act 1 material, most of it chuckle-worthy but never really taking off. Mostly a personal winge rather than his stronger observational statements. Worth it to see him confiscate a woman's phone, stick it between his arse cheeks and perform the rest of the show with it in his pants.

Connie Wookie - Denied ***
Wonderful story telling although slightly scary in parts as she recounts her experience of being on a plane as the fails mid-flight. Paradies of pop and musical songs marrying the journey.

Stuart Francis - Into the Punset *****
Quick-fire hilarity from Stewart Francis. Winning line of the Fringe for me was his one-liner "I have two anus', I think it's great but I am biased".

Sukh Ojla: For Sukh's Sake ****
Took a risk on something completely unknown that paid off here being one of the only white people in an audience of Punjabis. A very honest story of her personal battles, culminating in everyone in the audience shaking hands and Sukh hugging every audience member on the way out. A great show to end with.

In retrospect, having written all that there was a lot I did enjoy and a great deal of positives, but something didn't feel right this week.

@remark I've had similar feelings. I've just felt like something was missing this year. All the shows that I've seen were great but I feel like there was generally not as much of an atmosphere as there was last year, largely in the streets.

Saw O'Neill's Hughie the other day. Barnstorming performance from comic Phil Nichol but the play seemed... slight? I've since found out Pacino directed and starred in it once so maybe there's something in it I missed.

Austentatious too is always an utter delight, all the performers are so quick and to spin improv into a narrative complete with callbacks always astonishes me.

My fomo was pretty pronounced this year, and I think I overdid it with the number of shows I saw! I think next year I'll.drink a little less and won't see quite as many shows.

I concur with the verdict on this year's festival.

I wonder if it can be attributed to a number of factors. Firstly, the number of shows must surely be reaching saturation point. With 4,334 shows currently listed on the Edinburgh Fringe website, albeit with some duplication of the same show in different venues and a number of cancellations, that's still probably 4,200 different events as part of the Fringe which just seems way too much from a planning perspective, never mind from the point of view of performers trying to attract a decent sized audience. There seems to be an obsession with every Fringe being the biggest ever.

There's been a lot of coverage of the Fair Fringe campaign this year and while C Venues seem to have borne the brunt of that and played the role of prime scapegoat (losing their flagship venue on Chambers Street in the process), I'm not sure their working practices are that different to a number of other companies. The narrative of staff being hired on minimal or zero pay to work very long hours, sometimes without a day off for the entire festival, seems far more widespread (and almost taken as par for the course with the Fringe) than it should be. Obviously there's a balancing act to be done to prevent venues becoming unsustainable but that shouldn't be at the expense of the welfare or working/living conditions of staff.

There's also then the cost of taking a show to Edinburgh with venue hire fees, Fringe registration and marketing costs, while from an audience perspective the cost of tickets seems to be going up each year. £15 is fast becoming par for the course for anything at Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Underbelly or Pleasance, while some of the circus shows are closer to £20. That's a lot of money for a one hour slot, especially if you find you're in a venue with un-raked seating and sauna-like conditions, and soon adds up if you want to watch several shows a day.

For both audiences and performers, the accommodation costs just seem to get ever more extortionate. I was able to reduce mine this year by switching hotels but that was through a combination of sheer good luck and booking eleven months in advance. With stories in the press of Air B&Bs being listed for as much as £20,000 for the duration of the Fringe, I do feel that the festival is increasingly becoming a luxury few can afford because of the cost of staying in or near Edinburgh in August. I was interested to read an article about this by sketch comedy duo Lazy Susan the other day. Freya and Celeste aren't at the festival this year but had a sell-out show Forgive Me, Mother at Assembly in 2018. It was my highlight of last year's festival - every performance sold out, extra late-night performances were added to meet demand, yet the duo still returned from the Fringe thousands of pounds out of pocket. Okay, it's been a platform for them, they've transferred the show to Soho Theatre, then Leicester Square Theatre, and now have a BBC pilot which aired last night on the back of their success at the Fringe, yet in the interview last week they admitted they were still paying off the cost of performing in Edinburgh last summer. And that's for a show which could hardly have done any better!

None of these issues are particularly new of course and despite the long moan I've still enjoyed my stay in Edinburgh. It just feels like the festival is in danger of becoming the very thing it was founded as an alternative to back in 1947 and I think a combination of misgivings about certain things have made me feel a bit detached from it all this time around. I'd been wondering if it was just me, or the lousy weather in the first week, that affected my perspective on things so it's really interesting to read others have felt something missing this year too. Of course, occasionally you see an absolute gem, like Swipe Right Theatre's Scream Phone or The Durham Revue's Unnatural Disaster, that sprinkle a bit of Fringe magic and remind you why you fell in love with the festival in the first place. The circus productions have been particularly strong this year and the atmosphere on the Royal Mile, even not at its best, is still totally unique and hard to beat. There's also been a tangible sense of performers supporting each other on social media with the stresses of the festival, such as coping with bad reviews and struggling to attract an audience etc, rather than seeing it as a competition. There's definitely plenty of positives to take away from my Fringe experience. I maybe just pine for the days when the number of shows felt a bit more manageable, the whole thing seemed less brazenly commercial, and I was slightly more oblivious to the less appealing facets of it all.

Some interesting comments there stevej678. Somehow, the whole Fair Fringe saga passed me by. I can't help feeling C have been somewhat scapegoated and share your view that the other promoters probably don't do much different.

It's really difficult to pin down what I thought was the problem - if there was one - with this year's visit, the longest I've had for some time (8 full days). In fact, because I went very early and had 2 completely free days before previews, I enjoyed a bit more space than before and was relieved it wasn't as physically rammed as last year. Again, I can't help returning to my initial thought that I simply hadn't chosen as well as I usually do. Though I still had a pretty decent strike rate of good shows and a small number of duffers.

Every year I tell myself I must reduce the number of shows I see. I have managed that a few times but fell back into old habits this year and crammed too much in. I also for the first time booked the majority of shows in two tranches during the advance online booking period, starting in March. Previously I'd always just waited until the full programme was published and combed through it to make my selection. My staggered approach this year somehow disrupted things and I know I missed out on stuff I'd have enjoyed that way. Obviously you always do but in this case there was stuff I know I could have made space for if I'd done the booking as before.

Another change for me was not being able to get my usual Old Town apartment. I've grown so used to it, it kind of threw things out of whack not being there! I was in a Rose Street apartment which admittedly was a very good price but I didn't like being based in the New Town. Fortunately I was able to book my usual place for 2020... last year. It's the first time I've ever booked anything 2 years in advance!

Interesting to read comments about this year’s Fringe. I felt some of the same early this year and wondered if I just needed to take a year off but then I saw some really good stuff and that reinvigorated me.

I’ve certainly seen much more criticism of the Fringe from artists and performers this year. It’s clear that five-star reviews are no longer enough to get audiences in - One amazing show that I saw that had several five-star reviews was only half-sold on the day I saw it, and after the last performance the writer/performer said that was the busiest it had been. There are fairly well-known Fringe names that are bemoaning the cost of participating in the Fringe and how the Fringe Society milks performers by “encouraging” promotions such as 2-for-1 tickets for Fringe members and the half price ticket booth.

So there did feel like a bit of a change in the weather this year. I’d hate to see the Fringe become just a comedy festival, and I’d hate if it became the type of festival that only rich people can afford to participate in. I do think that some of the bigger venues need to think about pricing and audience comfort though - as stevej678 said above, shelling out £10 to sit with an aching back and no view at the back of a steaming, stinking room starts to feel like a rare form of torture. (I’m talking to you, Udderbelly Cowgate)

Anyway, I did see some good stuff.

Best all round production was Admiring La Stupenda, a deeply personal piece about one man’s love of opera, Dame Joan Sutherland and his mother. Daniel Somerville studies the movement of opera singers and uses this in his performance which combines dance, movement, opera and memory - which makes it sounds heavy but it was a delicate, almost fragile piece. I think it could do with some more work but there was something very beautiful here.

A Partnership was a much more straightforward drama, a “real time” argument between two men on the eve of one’s 30th birthday. Touching on issues of internalised homophobia, monogamy and what it means to be in a relationship, this was a lot smarter and deeper than many similar shows. Led to several hours of discussion afterwards, which is always a good sign.

Ripped was a very raw one-hander, dealing with issues of masculinity, control and male rape. Occasionally the writer’s background in educational theatre leaked through, but the performance (by the creator Alex Gwyther) was remarkably fluid, switching between time periods effortlessly and bringing an incredible power to the show.

In terms of musical parody, Freaky and Mannish were great and Christina Bianco disappointing. In standup, Sam Morrison was my discovery this year - what had seemed a shallow and superficial theme for his show (chosen to fill a gap) proved unexpectedly thoughtful, moving and sophisticated (although he’d hate that as a description).

So all in all a good Fringe, but one which I agree occasionally feels like it’s read to tip over and collapse into a mess of its own making.

I don't think prices for shows are THAT bad tbh. Compared to London, its all around 5/10 pounds cheaper for most part

I made a point of going during the previews and saved just under £60.

Quite possibly, yes - I can make light of it myself so I don't see why I wouldn't like a decent joke, but that one is awful!