Fest Preview Guide 2010

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Arj Barker Tim Crouch John Bishop Bo Burnham Mike Wozniak Badac Theatre broken records

The ultimate e festival guid

Clarke Peters the star of the wire as you’ve never seen him before...

Comedy, theatre, music and more: your complete guide to the edinburgh festivals

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festcontents Contacts

WELCOME TO THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

Fest is your free guide to the Edinburgh festivals

Comedy

Fest will be publishing its festival guides throughout August. Pick them up from venues across Edinburgh.

The Old Etonian who can't "do the posh thing"

16 Ivo Graham

22 John Bishop

It's been a good year for the Scouse comic

Publisher Sam Friedman

Editorial

Editor Evan Beswick Deputy Editor Ed Ballard Comedy Editor Lyle Brennan Theatre Editor Arianna Reiche Books & Music Nick Eardley Kids Editor Tom Hackett

Production

Creative Director Matthew MacLeod Photo Editor Julia Sanches Subeditor Lyle Brennan Cover & Feature Image Sally Jubb Production Deputy Dan Nicholson-Heap

26 On the road

However glamorous you think it is; it ain't

28 Jennifer Coolidge

The actress most famous for playing ”Stiffler's Mom” flies in from Hollywood

Theatre 38 A man apart

Badac theatre's Steve Lambert is not to be messed with

40 Horizon Arts

The company returns after last year's success, Heroin(e) for Breakfast

42 Over the River

The International Festival Fringe Prize winners are back, and just as dark

46 Out of the Box

Is puppetry an untapped seam for quality theatre?

Kids

contact fest

60 Kids highlights

hello@festmag.co.uk 0871 951 9551

62 Meet our kid critics

Published by

Books

Fest Media Limited Registered in Scotland number SC344852 Registered address 30-38 Dalmeny Street, Edinburgh EH6 8RG Every effort has been made to check the accuracy of the information in this magazine, but the publisher cannot accept liability for information which is inaccurate. Show times, prices and venues may be subject to change.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the explicit permission of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the printer or the publisher. © Fest Media Limited 2010

Innovative and entertaining: our pick of the programme Ten years old and armed with star ratings

63 Unbound

Too good to be true? Late night drinks and music at the Book Festival.

64 Christos Tsiolkas

The Commonwealth Prize winner on his latest novel, The Slap

Music 72 The Tiger Lillies

So strange, the TV commissioners won't have them

EIF 76 Years of Bliss

Ten years after work began, Peter Carey's novel Bliss is a brand new opera

Fest supports Amnesty international at the festival Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all.

www.amnesty.org 4 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

www.festmag.co.uk

festcontents Clarke Peters Page 8

"What gets me more than anything else is 'oh man, I spent three days watching The Wire beginning and end'. Three days! Why would you do that to yourself?"

Arj Barker Page 14

Tim Crouch Page 56

“Obviously, they don’t think I’m that stupid, arrogant or misogynist.

But there are elements.”

“We’re happy not to make a connection between ourselves and the things that we look at”

Broken RecordS Page 68

Fatima Bhutto Page 66

“Some people were expecting Funeral part 2 or something like that from us, and we never wanted to do that.”

Kidzone Page 62 “We come up every year and there’s loads of great kids shows on, but there’s never anywhere to hang out with your kids before or afterwards”

www.festmag.co.uk

“To understand why my family met such violent ends I had to take a critical look at them. ”

Caledonia Page 74 “I want to let the echoes of modernity ring out without the play turning into a vehicle to thump today’s banks. Not that they don’t need thumping”

...

PLUS

more content online at

www.festmag.co.uk

get a grip...

A-Z of the festivals page 6 who will be taking your money...

venue guide page 51 find your way around

festival map page 50 hungry or thirsty...

Eating and drinking page 84 edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 5

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letters

edinburgh from

A

Artists

Last year, nearly 19,000 performers from 60 countries descended upon Edinburgh, making the Fringe the largest arts festival in the word.

I

Now in its 63rd year, the Fringe is a veritable cultural behemoth. Add the International Festival, the Books Festival and the Edge Festival and it's hard to know where to start.

Here's a quick round-up...

Irn Bru

True fact: Scotland and Peru are the only countries where the local fizz outsells Pepsi and Coke. So you can battle a hangover and support a proud national tradition at the same time.

Anita Baron

B

Bristo Square

J

The heart of the Fringe, home to Gilded Balloon, Pleasance Dome, and a huge, upside-down purple cow with absolutely massive inflatable udders.

C

You are bound to hear a few of these, even if you came for the experimental theatre and actually hate laughing. On the bright side, lots of them are really funny. The comic deemed to have made the year’s funniest gag is awarded a prize.

Charlotte Square

A beautiful setting for the most genteel of Edinburgh's festivals. Turn to the Books section on page 62 if you're feeling civilised.

The two squares: Bristo (above) & Charlotte (left)

D

Deforestation

E

Embarrassment

The tragic result of the thousands of flyers designed, printed and finally distributed by hopeful performers thirty seconds before being binned.

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FRE E www.festmag.co.uk

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Fest

Demonstrably the best free festival magazine. Out every Tuesday and Friday in August for free. Did we mention it was free?

6 Sfest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 H TC DU

G

Grapevine

If you're lucky you might be in the right place at the right time when a sellout show announces another performance. Keep your ears open.

2009 “funniest joke” winner Dan Antopolski with "Hedgehogs. Why can't they just share the hedge?"

K

After a few drinks you might be tempted to offer a disappointing comic some helpful criticism. Don't: they make jokes for a living.

FR EE

Jokes

ts here!

Get yer ticke

H

Kids

Worrying about how to entertain your offspring? Don't panic! fest's new Kids section (page 58) has all you need to keep them occupied.

the halfprice hut

Head to Princes Street for cheapo tickets to shows that aren't selling well. You might stumble upon an overlooked gem.

Kids are notoriously difficult to please...

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festsayshello

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Late 'n' Live

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McEwan Hall

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With seating for 1,000, Edinburgh University's graduation hall is the largest of the Fringe's 259 official venues.

This year it plays host to John Bishop and Clarke Peters.

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New theatre

The Edinburgh premiere of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in 1966 is a celebrated example of a fine Fringe heritage: it's simply the best place to see new drama.

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edinburghblog

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Royal Mile

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Spiegel Garden

An ocean of conjurors, jugglers, moving statues, whole platoons of flyerers - and they all want your attention.

George Square's much-loved drinking garden returns after a year under another name. Perfect for a post-show pint in the small hours.

Other magazines

There are rumours that fest is not the only magazine covering the Edinburgh festivals.

Take them with a pinch of salt.

P

Punctuality

As a rule of thumb, there's no admission for latecomers, no refunds on tickets, and no mercy from venue stewards. Don't be late.

Q

Queen street

A bit of a dull thoroughfare, but The Stand Comedy Club, Edinburgh's best year-round comedy venue, is around here. The Stand II and III are across the road. “Remember: stop, look, listen, live.” www.festmag.co.uk

Important for getting into stuff. Book online at the Fringe office on the Royal Mile or at the venues.

Chris Scott

The closest to absolute comedic anarchy Edinburgh has to offer. Verbal abuse, nudity and wrestling are all possible.

Tickets

.co.uk

U

Underbelly

V

Vast

W

Weather

The labyrinthine, dripping cellars of the public library, somehow transformed into a venue every August. A defining feature of the Fringe.

The fringe programme contains over 2,452 acts! If only there was some sort of brilliant free magazine with helpful star ratings to help you find the good ones...

Regardless of how nice it looks now, don't ever make the rookie mistake of leaving your umbrella at home.

X

X-rated

You might notice that usual norms of decorum or clothes-wearing are suspended from time to time. Try to take it in your stride.

Y

Yawn

Z

Zombie

Whether it’s an dramatic monologue or a sequence of bungled punchlines, don’t take it too hard if a show leaves you drowsing at the back.

If your Edinburgh trip is long or debauched you might look a wee bit undead by the end. Time to get back to the real world – ‘till next year.

edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 7

festinterview

Man on the Wire

It’s been 20 years since Clarke Peters last performed in his musical Five Guys Named Moe. The Wire star tells Edd McCracken why he and his show have some unfinished business

C

larke Peters has a voice like jazz. It ebbs and flows: now smooth, now rat-a-tat. He talks with the timing of a bebop musician.

The riffs start coming when the actor, director, writer and singer is explaining why he is reviving his musical Five Guys Names Moe here in Edinburgh.

He begins with well-rehearsed patter— “there are a lot of people who have not seen this, it has been 20 years after all, so this will be a new experience for them”—before pausing, seemingly unhappy with the predictable arrangement of his words. He slows down. Then grins.

“And because it’s the Edinburgh festival, man!” And he’s off.

“There is nothing like this in the world,” he says. “There’s nothing like this. This isn’t Broadway. This isn’t the West End. This is about art. It’s about people who are curious.

It’s about diversity. You see the drums, acrobats, the comedians, artists. This is what it is about. It’s not about the money. Edinburgh celebrates the spirit of our craft. There’s nowhere like it, nothing like this at all in the Western world. So for Five Guys to be here, it’s another string to Five Guys’ bow.”

In his gold-buttoned blazer, pressed white shirt and elegant grey trilby, Peters is as reassuringly cool in person as you would expect of the man famous for playing some of TV’s most beatific characters.

Last year he starred as Nelson Mandela in the Channel 4 film Endgame, but he is most famous for his role as detective Lester Freamon in The Wire. As Freamon he was the quiet, moral centre of a fetid, corrupt Baltimore slowly sliding into the sea.

He will reappear on our screens shortly in Treme, the new series from the team behind The Wire, and in the Glasgow-shot film Legacy with Wire co-star Idris Elba.

Now 58-year-old, he’s never been more in demand. And he’s busy learning the upright bass.

Which begs the question, does he really have time to revive Five Guys after 20 years?

“There’s a lot happening in my life right now,” he responds. “So maybe it’s not a bad time to bring out all the guns.”

Five Guys is the story of Nomax, a man who’s got the blues. His girlfriend has left him and he’s broke. His only company is his radio, from which emerge the titular Moes: Big Moe, Four-Eyed Moe, Eat Moe, Now Moe, and Little Moe. They comfort him with songs by Louis Jordan (“a cat who wanted everyone to have a good time,” says Peters).

It ran for five years in London and New York, picking up awards along the way. But Peters was cruelly denied the full glow of its success.

The musical—based on a book Peters wrote a few years earlier—opened in the West End in 1990 under the wing of musical theatre impresario Cameron Mackintosh.

Come opening night, Peters took his place on stage as Four-Eyed Moe. It was the culmination of a journey which began when he moved to Europe from his native New York in the early ‘70s to pursue a career onstage.

He was a backing singer for David Essex, Joan Armatrading and Shirley Bassey before dedicating himself to acting in ‘76.

Come that first night in 1990, Peters could have been forgiven for jumping a little higher than usual during the show’s more energetic numbers.

“I was to pirouette and go into a split,” he says. “And I felt something as I came down. I didn’t land accurately. This is all it takes – a millimetre shift in the coccyx, and that threw everything out up my spine. But I kept dancing.”

He kept performing for the next four weeks with slight discomfort. Then on a trip to the swimming pool he was scalded by the water in the shower, and he twisted awkwardly.

“And that was that,” he laughs, 

8 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

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festinterview

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edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 9

festinterview

 contorting his body. “I stayed like that.

I screamed at the top of my lungs and my daughter, who was only about 12 at the time, came running into the men’s locker room, yelling ‘that’s my dad’. I’m standing holding onto the shower with my trunks halfway down my ass, screaming. I didn’t go back into the show after that.

“It was hard to watch Five Guys become a success and not be up there. It was terrible actually. I thought how ironic it was to take it this far and not be able to participate. But it was a blessing that I got a chance to see it.”

But now Peters feels he will at last get his dues in Edinburgh. He will play the less energetic role of Nomax. Because of a gruelling Fringe programme that demands at least 25 performances in as many days, Peters is lining up some famous understudies to help him out.

“Maybe I’ll get [Wire co-star] Dominic West up here,” he says, half-seriously. “I know he would love to. He’s always said he wants to do a musical. During the second year of The Wire he was raving about Five Guys. That’s decided – I’m going to give him a call.”

The Wire is arguably the reason why Peters’s name now appears above the titles for Five Guys. The show’s note-perfect dialogue, hugely ambitious story arcs, and refusal to supply easy resolutions to knotted, murky problems—and some effusive column inches— have helped The Wire become the yardstick by which TV drama is judged.

But Peters is not getting carried away by the hype. “What gets me more than anything else is”—here he affects a fanboy drawl—“‘Oh man, I spent three days watching it beginning

and end’. Three days! Why would you do that to yourself?

“I do think it lives up to the hype. I do think it is the most intelligent thing that has been out there for a long time. But don’t let it go to your head, folks. Don’t sit back and have a lost weekend watching The Wire. There are better things to do and you can always come back to it.”

Peters offers such serene fatherly advice throughout the interview. “Never stop learning,” he tells me at one point. It’s almost a mantra. “Never. Stop. Learning.” The words could be those of any of his characters.

He is a member of the Brahma Kumaris, a modern religious movement which advocates asceticism, and avoids roles which conflict with his spiritual principles. “More and more as I get older,” he says, “I want to remind myself of what I feel is correct.”

He cites the 1986 film Mona Lisa as a watershed in the kind of roles he would choose.

He played a knife-wielding pimp. “I didn’t want my kids to see that,” he says. “The Cosby Show wasn’t about at that time, so the black male was always portrayed like this. I told someone I didn’t want to play this kind of guy. And I didn’t shoot a film over here for 10 years.

“I wanted to align myself with something more positive. Maybe that comes from my spiritual practice – I’m almost sure of that. I look at the characters I end up playing and there is always a humanity, a life lesson, so I feel like I’m being paid twice.”

The newest addition to Peters’s gallery of saints is Albert Lambreaux in Treme, the new series from The Wire creator David Simon.

10 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Lambreaux is one of New Orleans’ Indian chiefs, trying to rebuild his life and his neighbourhood’s culture after Hurricane Katrina washed it all away.

In contrast to The Wire’s grim outlook (in a nutshell, society’s great institutions—politics, police, schools, press—are slowly devouring each other), Peters says Treme is about restoring New Orleans’ place in the world, and honouring the unique cultural heritage of a city which can seem foreign even to Americans.

“If people get it, they get it,” he says. “If they don’t get it, at least they’ll have a point of reference to how important New Orleans is – to American culture first of all, but ultimately to the world.”

Just as for The Wire he mastered Freamon’s hobby of making dolls house furniture, Peters has taken up the upright bass in preparation for his new role. He started lessons in Baltimore last October before heading to New Orleans. “I’m getting there slowly,” he says.

This all took place before he knew he would be reviving Five Guys. He laughs when recalling the first song his tutor taught him.

“It was ‘Early In The Morning’, the first song in Five Guys Named Moe,” he says, marvelling at the serendipity. As always, his voice is ringing with jazz. f Edd McCracken is the arts correspondent for the Sunday Herald Above Wire star Clarke Peters is performing in Five Guys Named Moe, 20 years after its initial success

Five Guys named Moe @ McEwan Hall 4-29 Aug (not 27), 5:15pm, £15-17.50

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Comedy

Highlights We’ve trawled the program so you don’t have to. Here’s our roll-call of the best comedy at the Fringe

s t e b e f Sa

Best Newcomer

Jonny Sweet

Pleasance Courtyard, 4-30 Aug (not 16), 7:30pm, £10.50-£12

With a vote of confidence from the judges and a voice that could turn the lamest knob gag into gold, “2009’S Best Newcomer” Sweet is a sure-fire hit.

comedy !

The Festival miss 't you can

Witty weegie

Kevin Bridges

Assembly @ George Street, 5-30 Aug (not 8, 16), 8:55pm, £14-£16

A dour, plodding style and an accessible shtick proved a winning formula last year, when the boy most certainly done good.

Hairy slacker

Carl Donnelly

Underbelly , 5-29 Aug (not 16), 8:55pm, £6.50-£11.50

An amiable, happy-go-lucky manchild with bad hair and better material. It may not be clever, but it will be big.

pub sociologist

king of comedy

Stewart Lee

The Stand, 4-30 Aug (not 16, 18), times vary, £9-£10

Oh, go on then. Now officially part of the furniture, Lee offers a peek at the gags his TV audiences won’t be able to memorise for months.

Back to thEIR roots

Russell Kane

The Penny Dreadfuls

Pleasance. Courtyard, 4-30 Aug (not 11, 18), 9:10pm, £10.50-£12.50

Pleasance Courtyard, 4-30 Aug (not 17), 6:00pm, £12-£14

Firm Fringe favourites return, but this time with a straight-sketch show rather than a play. Apparently they’re loving the return to their roots.

Kane, the Fringe’s dandiest, most physically energetic amateur sociologist, is a clever little sod and he knows it.

Irish Legend

Tommy Tiernan

Gilded Balloon, 20-30 Aug (not 26), 8:00pm, £14-£15

Expect breathless, incendiary and spectacularly obscene stuff from this deranged Irish heavyweight - a hero in his homeland, and for good reason.

Sketch offenders

Pappy’s

Pleasance Courtyard, 4-30 Aug (not 16), 7:20pm, £12-14

They’re one member and a “Fun Club” suffix lighter this time, but this frenetic sketch group will be neither scanty nor sensible

12 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

professional worrier

Jon Richardson

Pleasance Courtyard, 4-30 Aug (not 16), 7:40, £11-£12

Fully embracing the obsessive whiner image that has served him well so far, Richardson’s a master of the observational gripe.

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festcomedy

e c n a h c a e k a T , A bit risky

... th a punt r wo but

serial offender

Mark Nelson

Underbelly, 5-29 Aug (not 16), 6:30pm, £6.50-£10.50

A brilliant turn of phrase and biting topical wit made Nelson a favourite at this year’s Glasgow comedy festival.

Dutch surrealist

Hans Teeuwen

Pleasance Courtyard, 4-29 Aug (not 11, 18, 25), 10:30pm, £14-£15

The piano-playing Dutchman has truly come into his own, achieving astonishing feats of imagination, nonsense and devilry. Leave your

Comedy rapper

Doc Brown

Pleasance. Courtyard, 4-29 Aug (not 16), £9-9.50, 7pm

Standup and rap: two art forms dismissed with ‘It’s just talking, innit?’ Here, Doc Brown marries the two to great effect.

Local legend

Phil Kay

next big thing?

Seann Walsh

various shows

Storyteller and Fringe mascot Kay oscillates wildly between genius and tripe. Catch him on a good night and you’re laughing (well, you’d hope).

Pleasance Courtyard, 4-30 Aug (not 11, 18), 8:30pm, £11-£12

With a handful of awards already to his name, Walsh HAS “future star” written all over him. Grouchiness hasn’t marred his good looks… yet.

blonde ambition

Sara Pascoe

Pleasance Courtyard, 4-30 Aug (not 16), £9.50-£12

Strangely vacant on the outside, caustic and intelligent on the inside, London starlet Pascoe might just be on the brink of something special.

silent but deadly

The Boy with Tape on his Face

Gilded Balloon, 5-29 Aug (not 16), 10:30pm, £9-£10

Hate words? Can’t understand English? Why are you reading fest? Sam Wills presents this risky but ingenious display of speechless comedy.

hit or miss

Itch: A Scratch Event

Pleasance Courtyard, 4-30 Aug (not 17), 2:00pm, £6.50

Top comics perform brand new, occasionally unrehearsed scripts. Witness the birth of something wonderful – or the strained expulsion of a stinker.

boosh-y tailed

Rich Fulcher

Udderbelly’s Pasture, 21-30 Aug, 11:30pm, £13-£16

His TV familarity will draw the crowds, but only time will tell whether his alter ego, Eleanor the Tour Whore, will keep them laughing.

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edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 13

festcomedy

Arjy Bargy “Oh my God, it’s Dave from Flight of the Conchords!” Jay Richardson touches base with Arj Barker to talk primetime success, mammoth arena tours and an on-off affair with soft drugs 14 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

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festcomedy

A

huge bag of organic apples sits on the table where I’m meeting Arj Barker. The Californian comic has taken a Sikh oath of dietary discipline, but is looking rough after a heavy night of drinking at the Kilkenny Comedy Festival. “Feels good,” he deadpans. “Apples, nuts... whisky. I just went out, saw some friends, big night.” He proffers a cashew then, after casually popping one in his mouth, starts choking.

It’s reminiscent of Dave, the deluded blowhard he plays in Flight of the Conchords, forever dispensing relationship advice to Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, yet still sharing an apartment with his dad.

Except Barker, when he recovers, is completely serious about the oath—“It’s based on my heritage and my family’s honour. I don’t make them lightly”—and is considerably more self-aware and worldlythan his “cool, but sort of an asshole” stage persona.

Or indeed Dave, who confuses New Zealand with Never Never Land.

“I honestly think Dave is based on Bret and Jemaine’s early perceptions of me,” Barker acknowledges.

“Obviously, they don’t think I’m that stupid, arrogant or misogynist. But there are elements. All the characters in the show are bigger, more cartoonish versions of themselves. Which is smart, you know? Instead of having people trying to act, why not let them play themselves?”

Supporting his friends on their recent international tour was “amazing” but an experience that took him out of his comfort zone, especially when the Conchords played the 17,000-seater Hollywood Bowl.

“That stage is so large, it was a 100-metres walk from when they introduced me to the microphone! It’s unbelievably hard for a crowd to keep cheering that long!

“Like most people, I sing in my car.

But to be onstage with those guys, who I really respect—not just comedically, but as musicians—I felt a little bit out of my league. I almost hyperventilated during my rap.”

Returning to the Fringe for the first time in a decade, Barker’s sitcom appearances have boosted the 35-year-old’s profile to such an extent that he considered calling his hour “Oh my God! It’s Dave From Flight of the Conchords! “Great title, a little desperate though,” he smiles. Having won the Perrier Best Newcomer Award in 1997, he recalls his first year in Edinburgh as “tumultuous, intense”.

“You’re just so afraid of failing, but the show went really well. At the same time though, I was obsessionally in love with this girl, who came up and told me it was a oneway feeling. That really hurt.

“But then another girl came up to the festival. And she was keen, so that sort of helped. It was like summer camp – crying

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one day, walking on clouds the next.

“Ultimately though, I got a bit tired of Edinburgh and didn’t feel as if my heart was in the shows. So I walked away on a less memorable note than I would have liked. But I feel refreshed now after my 10-year break.”

Currently dividing his career across four continents, but focusing most consistently on Australia, where his fanbase is considerably larger than in his homeland, Barker misses his cat but loves “meeting so many different places and people”.

“I don’t know why things have really picked up for me in Australia, but they have, and I try to spend as much time as I can over there. But now I’m really taking a long hard look at the UK and Europe again, seeing what’s possible here.”

His standup has changed considerably since he began performing at 19.

“I was more of a monotone talking head when I started,” he explains. “Which was fine, I was getting laughs, but over the years my style has become more animated, a lot more textured. I don’t consider myself extremely physical, but I use my vocal range – sometimes I like to yell, sometimes I go really quiet; there’s a lot of mic technique.

“In my earlier years, I smoked a lot of pot and did a lot of pot jokes. But then, throughout the process of the Marijuana-logues, a parody of the Vagina Monologues I wrote with some friends, I went off it. I miss it, but I couldn’t relax and enjoy a joint anymore – it made me anxious. So despite myself, I’ve quit smoking and it’s something I’m less inclined to talk about. I’m not a stoner any more but it must have left its mark.”

When he moved to New York to shoot the sitcom, it left him with a lot of free time.

So when he wasn’t playing clubs at night, he had to find new hobbies.

“I played a lot of World of Warcraft during season one,” he recalls. “By season two, I’d taken up golf instead. It got me outside more.”

After the Fringe, he’ll be returning to Australia for “an undetermined amount of time” to pursue his own television project, “a single camera, non-laugh track sitcom in the vein of Conchords or Curb Your Enthusiasm.

“Hopefully, it’s going to be universally enjoyable, because I want to make it there and show it to networks all over the world.

I don’t want to go into too many details, but one way or another, I’m going to make a TV show in the next year or so.

“That’s a Sikh oath. Even if it’s the worst piece of shit you ever saw!” f

Arj Barker - Let Me Do The Talking Assembly @ George Street 5-29 Aug (not 16), 9.20pm, £11-£14

FEST BEST

Foreign imports

Charlyne Yi Dances on the Moon

Assembly @ George Street 5-30 Aug (not 17,24), 7pm, £11-£12

At 24 years old, Yi is something of a trailblazer. Her debut film Paper Heart impressed judges at Sundance and her memorable appearance in Knocked Up has ensured critical attention.

Not content with straight standup, this new wave American comic works magic with music, games and audience participation.

With sweet songs about love, Yi promises to give you some sugar without being saccharine. In the unlikely event her feelgood comedy leaves a bad aftertaste, free breathmints can be found at the door!

Henning Wehn My Struggle Just the Tonic @ The Caves 5-29 Aug (not 17), 9.10pm, £7.50-£8.50

Ignore the stopwatch and the extremely well-maintained website: Wehn’s humour in My Struggle (yes, that’s Mein Kampf in English) will not conform to national stereotypes.

The self-styled German comedy ambassador has a distinctly British take on standup, having honed his skills in the UK to improve his English. Be sure to heckle him in German to make him feel at home.

You may recognise him from Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle but it’s uncertain whether he will make the Fatherland proud – even if he does model Tyrolean headgear and a cardigan with great aplomb.

Giacinto Palmieri ...Is Trying to be Italian C @ Soco 5-30 Aug, 5.25pm, £9.50-£10.50

Like many standup comics, this Hackney Empire 2010 finalist likes to ask questions, and, like the best standups, he avoids answering them.

Refusing to simply accept that ‘“Italians do it better” or that being born and bred in Italy compromises his British citizenship, Palmieri seeks to challenge ideas about national identity. This entails an excursion into cultural and linguistic differences. If phrasal verbs don’t fill you with mirth, have no fear; Palmieri has plenty of material to work with in the form of the inimitable Silvio Berlusconi and, of

edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 15

festcomedy

What’s Eton Ivo Graham?

The So You Think You're Funny winner just can't escape his past. But as the 20-year-old tells Fern Brady, an Eton schooling needn’t be a handicap for a comic

I

vo Graham is describing his school’s open day. He recalls the huge picnic, the boys assembled in uniform, the procession of boats – here I interrupt. There was a procession of boats? He sniggers. “Yeah. Every posh stereotype of the school comes to the forefront.” Because prior to becoming the youngest competitor in—and eventual winner of— last year’s So You Think You’re Funny (SYTYF), the 20-year-old Oxford student attended Eton, the undeniably exclusive institution where “posh” was born.

Given its reputation for churning out prime ministers, it’s difficult not to wonder how someone like this ended up in the highly unpredictable-and badly paid-career of standup comedy. Aren’t his parents disappointed? He claims his mum is “proud in a roundabout way – ‘baffled’ is more appropri-

ate. She never thought of it as a world that really existed.” Indeed, Graham’s mother features in one of his routines, which sees him bashfully explaining “your mum” jokes to her.

Graham is keen to point out that before the secret “came out”, no one knew for the entire month of last year’s festival that he was—whisper it—an old Etonian. In fact, it was only ever made public by accident, during a brief interview with The Times.

“All they wanted was to have the winner of SYTYF as a poster boy for the success the competition brings. The interview for that was really quick – then the journalist switched off the tape and said, ‘Where’d you go to school, by the way?’ and I said (here Graham speaks through gritted teeth) ‘I went to Eton.’” It was at this point, Graham recounts,

16 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Above Old Etonian Ivo Graham wants to be judged as a “good comedian” rather than a posh one

that the journo switched the tape back on triumphantly, telling him “I think we might get a bonus story out of this.”

It says a lot that Graham feels he must “admit” to his schooling. He talks nervously of “just being honest about it”, as though confessing to a crime. “I’m not trying to escape it at all but I don’t really want to be ‘the Eton comedian’; I want to be known as ‘the good comedian’.”

And herein lies one of his most endearing qualities – his impressive capacity for selfdeprecation. He hates watching videos of his performances, says adding himself to Wikipedia would be “just about one of the most arrogant things you could do”, and when his phone cuts out mid-interview and I wonder if he’s hung up, I receive a text assuring me that “I’d love to be the kind of diva who hangs up on interviewers, but I don’t think I’m nearly successful enough”.

When asked about his future in comedy he talks anxiously of pursuing it only “if I could get good”, despite the fact that his astonishing win at SYTYF bagged him an agent and regular bookings on the circuit, as well as cementing his place in the competition’s hall of fame alongside such luminaries as Phil Kay, Rhona Cameron and Dylan Moran.

But back to Eton. Given the media interest in it, why not buy into the niche and write material about a secluded world into which most people have little or no insight? Though he talks admiringly of fellow SYTYF winner Miles Jupp “because he can do the posh thing”, he frets about being unable to pull it off in his own act.

Nonetheless, he laughs as he remembers that, on his recent visit to his old school, a university friend spent the entire day gawping at the pageantry, aghast that Graham had neglected to make any jokes about it. A forthcoming trip to a comedy festival in Hollywood will see the tentative airing of new material on this very topic, the success of which will be the deciding factor in whether it’s used in class-obsessed Britain.

“For Americans, the stereotype of the young British guy has completely different connotations to in England. In the US if you say you went to Eton they go ‘wow, that’s so English!’ and you can talk about Eton and Oxford without alienating people. They’d just be vaguely charmed.”

Besides, Graham reckons he has bona fide evidence that his poshness adds or subtracts nothing to his act. He confesses to making a graph that compared personal ratings of his own performance to the number of Northerners in the audience. “Sadly, there was no correlation.” f Alfie Brown and Ivo Graham The GRV

5-29 Aug (not 16,23), 9.50pm, £5

www.festmag.co.uk

festcomedy

Comedy’s Greatest Hits Armed with video cameras and laptops, Internet DIY comedians are changing the shape of British comedy.

Sam Friedman meets the Internet stars hoping to transfer web success onto the stage at this year’s Fringe

S

ix months ago Matt Lacey was like most struggling actors. Fresh out of Oxford, he had spent a year fruitlessly trailing auditions. Then, in a bid to boost his profile, Lacey and his comedy troupe The Unexpected Items put a sketch on YouTube entitled Gap Yah. A clever, if not particularly subtle, satire of the privileged students Lacey met at Oxford, the sketch follows excruciating rah Orlando as he recounts gap year stories to his friend Tarquin. After much “spiritual-culturalpolitical enlightenment” each of Orlando’s adventures promptly culminate with him “chundering everywhere” after a “night on the lash”.

For a couple of weeks Gap Yah sat inconspicuously on YouTube, generating only a few hundred views. But then one day Lacey noticed something peculiar happening.

“I remember it was a Monday morning and I saw the clip had reached 1,000 views and I thought ‘wow, that’s not bad’. By the end of the day, it was on 40,000,” he says.

Gap Yah quickly became a YouTube sensation. Within two weeks 500,000 people had seen the video and today its viewing figures stand at a staggering 1.9 million. The video has also spawned its own T-shirts, a YouTube techno remix and this August will culminate in Lacey and The Unexpected Items bringing an hour of sketch comedy to the Fringe.

But why has Gap Yah been so spectacularly popular? “I think it just parodies a stereotype that almost everyone recognises – and has probably been annoyed by,” Lacey says. “In particular it’s a satire on the great number of people who seem to be leaving these shores to vomit all over the developing world.”

To those who follow internet comedy, the success of Gap Yah is nothing extraordinary. Over the last few years the internet has created a new breed of British comedian. From the musical parody of Midnight Beast to the prolific comedy filmmakers Cassette Boy, Cyriak and Worm Hotel, DIY web comedy has slowly begun to change the shape of the British comedy field.

The model of the “internet comedy star” arguably follows the example set by American comic Bo Burnham, who also makes his Fringe debut this year. In fact, the trajectory

of Burnham’s success was not dissimilar to Lacey’s. Burnham was just 16 when school friends convinced him to post his eerie and subversive song ‘My Whole Family (Thinks I’m Gay)’ on YouTube in 2006. After lying dormant for weeks, the video was picked up by an American college website and overnight received a million hits.

“It was a little scary,” Burnham admits.

“A bit surreal, a bit extraterrestrial.”

Burnham’s videos have a distinctive aesthetic, featuring him alone in his bedroom, accompanying himself on the electric piano and rarely changing expression or camera angle. The effect is deliberate, creating a strange, intimate and slightly disturbing atmosphere central to the comedy.

“I think with my videos there’s an element of voyeurism, it feels like you’re looking into this person’s life,” Burnham says.

“Online people don’t want to see things that are professional quality, they don’t want to see beautiful people, so keeping it raw was a smart idea.”

Burnham’s array of comedy videos now have a staggering 60 million views, but the nature of the internet means these figures still only represent a “niche college audi-

18 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Top Bo Burnham’s whole family thinks he’s gay.

Five million YouTubers are amused by this Above Popcorn Comedy sifts the funniest online content Right Midnight Beast: nearly seven million views Top right Gap Yah: an unexpected hit from the Unexpected Items

www.festmag.co.uk

festcomedy

FEST BEST

Up-and-coming

Maff Brown Pleasance Courtyard, 4-30 Aug (not 16), 9.30pm, £8-£12

ence,” he says. Examining the demographics of those watching Gap Yah, it seems Lacey has a similarly select audience.

“It’s being watched in places like Botswana and Mongolia, and I very much doubt the native Mongols are laughing at someone ‘chundering everywhere’. It must be people on their gap year,” he says.

One of the main strengths of internet comedy, according to Lacey, is that it is much more democratic than most TV comedy, cutting out the endless layers of production that dictate what we eventually see on our screens.

“I think there’s something quite pure about it. I mean you put a video of yourself talking into a camera and 1.9 million people watch it. I mean TV and radio ratings are such horseshit, they’re usually compiled from some ‘special’ audience, whereas YouTube is actually a much more accurate gauge of what people like,” he says.

But not all those involved in internet comedy agree. According to comedy producer John Petrie, just because a comedy video boasts millions of views, this does not necessarily make it good. “A lot of the clips that get millions of hits online tend to be cats falling off walls and other You’ve Been Framed-type stuff,” he says.

The golden rule for online comedy: it’s got to hook you in quick. According to Burnham’s mantra, it has to provide a hit within the first 30 seconds otherwise people get bored. But the difficulty is that this often rules out slower, more subtle material. At its worse online comedy becomes what Burnham describes as “comedy for people with attention-deficiency disorder.”

The problem, according to Petrie, is that although there is lots of brilliant comedy being made online, most people don’t ever see it because it’s buried beneath so many “dogs on roller-skates and dads being hit in the face with footballs”.

In an attempt to find the comic gems hidden in this pile of inanity, Petrie and comedian Holly Walsh set up Popcorn Comedy at last year’s Fringe, a comedy night

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which now runs across the country.

The idea behind the project is simple but surprisingly effective. Petrie and Walsh act as a kind of quality control team, scouring the web for the sharpest comedy and then showcasing the best via a full size cinema screen.

“We’re kind of doing the hard job for you, using our time to save you sifting through endless clips,” he says.

Petrie argues the main advantage of Popcorn Comedy is that it allows people to enjoy the artistry of internet comedy in a live environment rather than fleetingly on the go.

“You only get a true sense of whether something’s funny when it’s in front of an audience. With internet comedy you tend to watch it on your laptop, or on your lunch break. But if you look at some of the funniest clips we show at Popcorn Comedy they’ve got really low view counts. That’s because they take a bit of effort to watch.

You need to concentrate.”

As for Gap Yah, Lacey agrees that success in the comedy industry still depends largely on live performance. Despite a few meetings with TV producers, he says he’s still “wondering how to turn points into prizes” in terms of his career. “It’s like having all the trappings of fame without the money or the TV show,” he says.

For now Lacey says he’s hoping the Fringe will provide the platform to build on Gap Yah’s success. “It’s difficult at Edinburgh because there’s so many sketch shows saying ‘come and see us, we’re the best ones.’

But hopefully this year when audiences ask 'why you?' we'll be able to say 'well, because you've already seen us.’" f Bo Burnham: Words, Words, Words Pleasance Dome

4-29 Aug (not 16), 9:35pm, £9.50-£10.50

The Unexpected Items @ Gilded Balloon 4-30 Aug (not 17, 24), 4:30pm, £9-£10

Best of Popcorn Comedy Pleasance Dome

5-28 Aug (Thur-Sat), 11.30pm, £8.50-£9.50

Brown started his comedy career as warm-up for ITV’s Loose Women, and if he can handle the hordes of frenzied, maniacal housewives then surely the Edinburgh Festival will be a doddle.

The ex-footballer is no stranger to the Fringe, but this year’s Looking After Lesal will mark his Fringe solo debut. Expect a multimedia extravaganza as he tackles the poignant issues of death and family in a style that’s more mischievous than melancholic.

A seemingly endless list of illustrious awards is backed up by a whole host of Edinburgh veterans citing Brown as being destined for bigger and better things.

Eric Lampaert & Joel Dommett Underbelly. Cowgate, 5-29 Aug (not 17), 7.50pm, £6.50-£10

A steady murmur of hype has been building up around these two young and gawky upstarts.

Lampaert (‘lamp-air’), with his joker’s grin and rubbery physicality, is the type to storm the stage and startle his audience into appreciation, exuding a sort of trendy oddball appeal that should serve him well with younger crowds. Dommett, on the other hand, comes to Edinburgh with a handful of awards, and a finalist spot in the English Comedian of the Year awards. With over 300 gigs under his belt in his first year, the youngster already has the benefit of experience.

Joe Lycett & Andrew Ryan The White Horse, 6-30 Aug (not 17, 24), 5.15pm

The odds are that by the end of this year’s Fringe, Lycett and Ryan will be well on their way to becoming circuit favourites. Lycett arrives as the reigning Chortle Student Comedian of the Year, and glowing reviews since his 2009 win reflect a young man unfazed by the burden of expectation.

Affable Irishman Ryan, meanwhile, is inevitably being touted alongside the Irish comedic greats, though early comparisons to Ardal O’Hanlon tell only part of the story. The pair’s joint show at The White Horse comes at the very reasonable price of zero pounds, so if you fancy some fresh talent, you can’t go far wrong here. [Harry Tattersall Smith]

edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 19

THE STAND COMEDY

20 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

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festcomedy

Scouse rules After a year that has seen his career catapult, John Bishop returns to Edinburgh having bagged a primetime TV slot. But he tries to keep in all in perspective, he tells Nick Eardley

22 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

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festcomedy

“I

f I hadn’t had a good one at Edinburgh last year,” John Bishop ponders on a train between his Manchester home and filming in London, “then you would suggest that most of what’s happened during the last ten months wouldn’t have happened.”

No stranger to success on the comedy circuit, Bishop’s 2009 Comedy Award nominated show, Elvis Has Left the Building, was one of last year’s marked successes, selling out at the Pleasance and cementing his place as one of the Fringe’s most popular performers. But the months that have followed have seen the Liverpudian climb to new heights on the comedy ladder.

Now at the end of a tour that left virtually no corner of the country untouched—he grumbles that he has had no time off since last August—Bishop is returning to the Fringe as one of the biggest acts on the comedy circuit. He’ll be playing to an audience six times bigger than in 2009, boasting a new array of fans won over by his affable demeanour and tales of middle-aged family life.

We’re talking on the phone as he makes his way to film Have I Got News for You, just a long weekend after filming the pilot for his own BBC stand-up show, John Bishop’s Britain – which has since been commissioned as a six-part primetime series.

Bishop has become a favourite of TV scouts; if you don’t know his name, there’s a good chance you’ll recognise the face or the broad Liverpudlian accent. From Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and Mock the Week to Live at the Apollo and Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, with a role in E4 teen-drama Skins thrown in, Bishop has evolved into something of a regular on the small screen.

And there’s no doubt in his mind that this TV exposure has served him well.

“I came out of Edinburgh with the nomination last year and it just helps raise your profile. It means that those people in television who wouldn’t have put you on get a bit more confidence to put you on.

“When people see you on TV, they go to your website and see that you’re on tour. I mean it was a massive tour so there was a chance I was in someone’s town or somewhere close, and they make the effort to come and see you and pass the message on to other people. It just sorta grew like that.”

It’s hard to escape the inexorable rise Bishop describes, however calm he is about newfound fame, and it will play a central part in his show at this year’s Fringe. Over the past three years, his material has focussed on what he calls “exaggerations” of normal tales: growing up in Liverpool, middle-aged life and his teenage sons. This time, it will be his rise to the top that will dominate, with the usual philosophical

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overtones.

“Someone said to me at the turn of the year that when this happens you’re often in the middle of it; you don’t realise everything that’s going on around you. Fashions come and go and this year has been good for me, but it will go and it’ll be someone else’s time.

It was a lovely phrase: ‘it’s your turn in the sunshine, so just enjoy it.’

“So this show’s going to look back at that evolution a little bit and, without being too self-congratulatory, look at the fact that I’m coming back to Edinburgh and doing a big thousand-seater venue when for years I’ve been struggling to get 35 people to come and see me.”

That 1000-seat venue is Bristo Square’s McEwan Hall, adorned with Italian renaissance styled murals and usually reserved for pageantry at Edinburgh University. The venue will play host to some of the biggest names to have graced Edinburgh in the past decade, as the Fringe expands to accommodate those performers who have ‘moved beyond’ gigs in redecorated bars and overheated rooms – part of what Bishop refers to as the “evolution” of the Festival.

His conversational tone is a foundation of his popularity, those proverbial observations worked to perfection. But this sense of connection with the audience will be difficult to maintain with such a lack of intimacy. However, having become accustomed to such large venues—the last tour climaxed at a 10,000-strong Echo Arena in his home city—he assures me that his approach doesn’t change. “I still try to make it feel like I’m having a chat with a mate in the pub,” he says, and this serene attitude is not just a characteristic of an on-stage persona.

Indeed, Bishop is remarkably grounded during our conversation; there is no sense he considers himself any different to what he was five years ago, playing to 30 people.

Adamant that he will keep his feet on the ground during what must be approaching the pinnacle of his career, his three sons stay with him during the festival – a way of maintaining the balance between work and family. This year he hopes to bring them into “the whole Edinburgh family”, not least because it lets them see the former pharmaceutical salesman doing something he enjoys.

“The benefit, I hope, is that they see their dad doing what he wants to do rather than what he has to do. Hopefully that leads them on to doing a similar thing in their lives.” f

John Bishop: Sunshine Udderbelly's Pasture

FEST BEST

Harmless Fun

Jason Manford

I’m Turning Into My Dad, , Venue150 @ EICC, 7-11 August, 8pm, £17.50

For five nights only, Manchester’s favourite son will be taking time out of his national tour to win a few more hearts at the Fringe. Reeling in larger crowds than ever thanks to his three years as a team captain on 8 out of 10 Cats, Manford is one of a breed of instantly accessible, utterly dependable performers whose material rarely fails to hit the mark. With his feet firmly on the ground, he’ll be taking on that most universal of topics: growing older. If you age, you can relate to this.

Pete Firman Jokes and Tricks, Pleasance Dome, 4-30 Aug (not 16), 7:10pm, £12-£14

Edinburgh, the former witchburning capital of Europe, is an odd choice of venue for Firman.

So convincing is his magic that, by rights, he should’ve been denounced as the spawn of Satan and set alight years ago. Luckily, he’s perfectly capable of charming his way out of any trial, thanks to a hatful of clownish pranks and knowingly cheap gags. It’s the perfect release of tension after some mind-boggling, occasionally stomach-churning tricks that come with some thrilling twists in the tail. His title, Jokes and Tricks, does little justice to an hour of that; although it does what it says on the tin, his show still promises something special.

Jason Byrne 2010, Assembly @ Assembly Hall, 5-30 August (not 16, 23), 9pm, £17-£19.50

If you turn up to a Jason Byrne show, you will smile, you will laugh, you will be happy – and you will have very little choice in the matter. The Dubliner will make it his mission to ensure each and every member of his audience goes away grinning after his good-natured and stunningly energetic set. Don’t expect Byrne, a consummate entertainer, to break any great boundaries or challenge your beliefs. What he will do is take the trifles of everyday life, adorn them with some unexpected set pieces and turn them into something riotous. A true professional.

[Lyle Brennan]

4-30 Aug (not 16), 9.05pm, £17-£18

edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 23

festcomedy

Line 'em up Jay Richardson finds out whether the masters of one-liners really are the kings of comedy

S

etup. Punchline. What more do you want? One-liners are the essence of comedy, eliciting a big emotional response from as little emotional engagement as possible.

One liner comics don’t pretend to care where you come from or what you do for a living. No alternative viewpoints will be considered, they won’t “share” anything about themselves and they’ll only stray from the abstract if there’s a topical reason for doing so. If you don’t laugh, it’s going to be extremely awkward for everyone, because the joke is paramount, the joke is everything, the joke is more or less all they’ve got.

Tim Vine didn’t perform at the 2006 Fringe but managed to widely amuse with a giant billboard on the Cowgate proclaiming “Tim Vine will not be appearing at this festival”. Tony Cowards, likewise, will not be physically present in Edinburgh this year but posting 140-character jokes via Twitter from his home in England. The performance aspect of one-liners can be decidedly minimal, but such an approach carries a big risk.

“One-liners are death or glory,” maintains Gary Delaney, a stand-up circuit veteran but Fringe debutant who specialises in darker material. “If an audience isn’t responding, frankly, you’re fucked. There’s not much you can do, there’s no plan B. You could put on a top hat and do a song and dance number, but what’s the point? You can tweak it a bit, there are certain bits you can drop in or out and you can alter the pace. But you can’t fundamentally change the nature of what you do, which is jokes.”

With his sporadic songs, silly props and love of puns, Vine’s persona is recognisably daft, yet it’s every bit as calculated as a more deadpan performer like Delaney.

“You need to have a certain amount of front,” he explains. “The last thing I should do is appear apologetic when I’m telling my stuff, so I probably go to the other end of the scale and look like I’m enjoying it more than anyone possibly could be. Even if I’m dying horribly, I tend to crank it up and give ‘em even more of what they don’t want!”

For legendary US comic Emo Phillips, “one-liners are perfect for the way my mind works. I think extremely short-term. I have a sprinter brain.”

It’s a process that never stops. He elaborates: “From the time I wake up in the afternoon, to when I finally fall asleep in the morning, I am always thinking of jokes. Or at least set-ups. My gosh... I am a monster. Stop me before I elicit mirth again!”

Few audiences can endure a whole hour of one-liners without some additional setpieces, such as Vine’s celebrated ‘Pen Behind The Ear’ trick, to break up the relentless gag barrage. Still, an accomplished one-liner merchant offers more laughs-per-minute than any other form of comedy. And the response they provoke is both immediate and lacking in affectation.

As a result perhaps, the men who perform one-liners (and they are invariably men, rare exceptions like Shelagh Martin notwithstanding) tend to be among the most passionate, perfectionist and snobbish of all comics about comedy.

Delaney repeatedly chides himself for being too “militant” as he disparages those Fringe shows that prioritise educating an audience over making them laugh; Vine audibly shudders contemplating “a confessional style? Imagine that, Vine spills

his guts ...” And Philips speaks for them all when he contemplates “a theatrical one-man show. I’ve often thought of doing one. But then the laziness passes.”

Yet this precise, analytical breed are amongst the least inclined to describe

24 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

their performances as art.

Cautiously, Delaney ventures that “Oneliners aren’t art because there are a number of processes that you can apply – you think about things and twist them about in different ways. You’re looking at words like an engineering problem.”

Despite appearing in countless volumes of wit and joke books, Phillips is “grateful great gags don’t command respect... otherwise I’d be competing with joke writers whose parents had sent them to prestigious universities to get advanced degrees in it.”

It ought to be remarked that, while the hoariest one-liners remain the detritus of awful Christmas crackers, the genre is otherwise in rude health. The proliferation of the internet has made the dissemination of great jokes easier, regrettably leading to widespread instances of plagiarism. It’s a nuisance and financial impairment that’s been experienced by Phillips, Delaney and Vine to varying degrees, though the latter perhaps deserves the greatest sympathy for being inadvertently ripped off by a dead man. When scores of his gags were mistakenly attributed to the late, great Tommy Cooper in a mass-circulated email, Vine had to defend himself against claims he was a thief simply for performing his own material.

At the same time, a series of lucrative joke competitions, such as the one conducted by the Dave Channel at last year’s Fringe, won by Dan Antopolski’s “Hedgehogs – why can’t they just share the hedge?”, have sprung up. Comics like Delaney have significantly boosted their profile through showcasing their wit on Twitter, while demand for jobbing one-liner merchants to write for television, radio and other standups continues.

Meanwhile, Delaney can exploit Edinburgh’s comedy-savvy audiences to unveil his grimmest, most potentially offensive gags; Vine, his most gloriously groanworthy, while for Phillips the Fringe affords the opportunity to “extend to my stalkers, the courtesy of being in the exact same place for almost an entire month.” f

Tim Vine @ Pleasance Courtyard

4-30 Aug (not 11, 18), 8:43pm, £16-£17

Gary Delaney @ Pleasance Courtyard 4-29 Aug (not 16), 8:30pm, £8.50-£9.50

Emo Philips @ Pleasance Courtyard 5-29 Aug (not 9 16), 8:00pm, £14-£16

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Benny Hill

The Annuals: 1984 and 1985

Known throughout the world for his mix of highspeed farce, risqué jokes and gorgeous ladies, it is these shows that turned Benny Hill into a global household name. The show was nominated for multiple BAFTAs and Emmys, and these annuals are now available for the first time on any format.

The Gaffer

The Complete Second Series

This hugely popular sitcom stars Bill Maynard as Fred Moffat, still under siege from the taxman, his creditors, his bank manager, and just about everyone else! Co-starring Russell Hunter (Callan) and Pat Ashton (The Benny Hill Show), the entire second series is available here for the first time on any format.

The Fosters

The Complete First Series

The Fosters was the first sitcom written for and starring black actors, and showcased the early work of legendary comic Lenny Henry and Norman Beaton (Desmond’s). Following an immigrant family from Guyana who live on a South London housing estate, this release includes the complete first series and the 1977 New Year’s Day special, and is available for the first time on any format.

Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club

The Complete Second Series

The legendary Bernard Manning comperes and fellow stand-up veteran Colin Crompton is ‘Mr Chairman’ at the Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club – the friendliest working men’s club in the North. Available for the first time on DVD, this release presents the full second series, which features Roy Orbison, P.J. Proby, Marty Wilde, Russ Conway and Matt Monro.

Weekend at Bernie’s Blu-ray

Legendary Bratpacker Andrew McCarthy (Pretty in Pink, St Elmo’s Fire) and Jonathan Silverman (Made) star as Larry and Richard, whose boss Bernie invites them to his luxury house on Long Island to silence their discovery of his shady dealings. When Bernie is murdered, they must convince everyone he’s still alive for long enough to save their own skins! This uproarious surprise hit from director Ted Kotcheff (Rambo: First Blood) is available now for the first time in High Definition.

www.networkdvd.co.uk Packaging design © 2010 Network

COMEDY FROM NETWORK

festcomedy

On the

Idil sukan

road For all their TV appearances, sell out shows and international tours, the life of a comedian on the road is, as Lyle Brennan discovers, often a lonely and unglamorous affair

T

he life of a heavyweight Fringe comedian, from the auditorium at least, looks enviable indeed: nightly adulation from crowds of hundreds; hobnobbing with the greatest wits in the country; frolicking and drinking your way around the world’s biggest arts festival. But for the rest of the year, the days of even the most successful touring comic are defined by anonymous hotels, service stations, lukewarm pasties and lonely drives between unpredictable gigs.

As someone who has spent five years as a tour manager for one of the UK’s biggest comedy promoters, Kat Nugent understands the strains of this nomadic lifestyle. She tells stories of “tantrums over microphones”, of “a certain comic magician” who would “refuse to go on stage because he thought someone had touched his props,” of having to call security on one of her own clients who saw red after weeks on the road, and leapt into the audience to throttle a heckler. “Sometimes the comedians themselves are the most difficult thing to deal with on a tour,” she says.

But Nugent can sympathise: “It can be almost impossible to relax at any point, as you’re always moving and often around people you don’t know that well. The travelling, the nerves and adrenaline of being on stage everyday and missing home can be really draining.”

Little wonder, then, that even professional entertainers have trouble maintaining a sense of humour. “It’s sort of like being in freezing cold,” says seasoned standup Reginald D Hunter, savouring a pre-show smoke by the fire exit of Dunfermline’s Alhambra Theatre. “You just have to keep the heat on.”

Hunter has little sympathy for peers who

can’t handle the challenge of staying upbeat.

“I’m a grown man. Grown men accept the mission and they know roughly what the mission’s gonna be like. I know I’m gonna be in a lot of hoogie-boogie towns. I know that when I come off stage, everything’s gonna be closed. I know a lot of times the women that’s gonna be flirting with me, they gonna be standing next to they husbands – and flirting with me partly because they standing next to they husbands. I get it, I get it.

“So you just take a shitload of DVDs with you, some weed, and—you know—try not to mind. You knew what the motherfucker was,” he shrugs. “It’d be different if it was a completely different motherfucker, but you knew what the motherfucker was when you signed up.”

26 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Top Josie Long Above Reginald D. Hunter: “You knew what the motherfucker was. It’d be different if it was a completely different motherfucker, but you knew what the motherfucker was when you signed up.”

Still, “the motherfucker” can be an almighty shock to the systems of less stoic comics.

She may be an old hand by now, but Josie Long remembers when touring was a real trial: “By the end of the first year I was really tired out. And really freaked out.”

Her early career was littered with quiet towns and quieter crowds: “I did one gig in this village in Wales and there was only one pub, so everyone was there afterwards and I had to be like, ‘Yup! That was me. Do you remember? Do you remember that you hated it? Ah, we had a good laugh, didn’t we?’”

But even if the shows go well, the hours and miles between them can prove just as demanding.

Nobody knows this better than Richard Herring, whose most manic run of shows saw him visit “Hull followed by Paris followed by Milan followed by Kendal on consecutive days”.

It’s virtually the only way forward in an industry that hinges on circuit appearances and, as Nugent says, the money can be good.

Where successful musicians might take private jets or at least a tour bus for granted, the live comedy business sees its stars making do with a Fiat, a snot-smeared en-suite and a steady supply of lay-by junk food.

On the motorways of Middle England, making your own entertainment is key to staying sane. While on tour with Laura Solon, Nugent built up an expert knowledge of which service stations sold the best ice cream, while Long talks about Toddington Services on the M1 as if it were a favourite holiday destination.

Even when describing the dreariest of journeys, Long is irrepressibly chirpy: “I try

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festcomedy and do a lot of days out,” she explains, enthusing about a recent trip to the birthplace of Edward Elgar, “and I take a lot of card games. Getting excited about having your tea – that can take up about two hours… Oh! And you go bowling!” She makes overcoming boredom sound almost fun.

Solitude is different. “Being away from friends, family, partners and kids is the big one,” says Nugent, and it seems neither Hunter, nor Herring nor Long would disagree.

“I find life lonely,” says Hunter, perhaps only half-joking. “I could be lonely in a room full of people.”

Such is life when, for much of the year, your circle of friends is limited to how many people will fit into a hatchback. It’s become a depressingly familiar state of affairs for Herring: “I have done the last four or five tours on my own, without support or a tour manager or a driver. I have got used to my own company, but sometimes in the bar of a horrible hotel with no one else around, you begin to understand why some comedians end up killing themselves.

“When I was single there were times when I hoped for company of any kind, but it rarely materialised, and one of the last times I socialised with my audience I ended up in a fight.” A supportive girlfriend means the 43-year-old’s more desperate days may be in the past, but from now on, he says, he’ll be

Untitled-3 1

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taking a tour manager along for the ride.

The last word on touring has to go to Reginald D Hunter as he finishes yet another pre-gig smoke.

“I’d love to pick a small place, sort of like Dunfermline, and just live there for a month, just to see what the living’s like. But, you know, them niggas in London be calling all the time, they need you to get back and do shit.”

So, when August rolls around, it can be a huge relief to screech to a halt in Edinburgh for a few weeks of stability and friendship.

“Mmm, nesting,” Hunter muses, looking forward to a more sedate home life – “Once I’m done with my gigs in the evening, it’s pastries and films.” But even without the constant to-and-fro of the road, the pressure is far from off.

“No guarantees, baby,” Hunter concludes.

“But you’ve just got to learn to roll with the stuff. Just got to roll with it.” f

Richard Herring @ Assembly George St 5-30 Aug, 9:45pm, £9.50-£11

Josie Long Just the Tonic @ The Caves

5-29 Aug (not 17, 22, 23), 7:40pm, £8-£9

Reginald D. Hunter @ Pleasance Courtyard

#comedianstweets @sarapascoe (Sara Pascoe) I don't see the point of any political parties. They are all boring, there is never enough booze and the guests are uniformly unattractive. @russell_kane (Russell Kane) Locked in an Orwellian nightmare of Wii bowling.

@mrdavehill (Dave Hill) My dad and I are going to get pizza later. I told him I am getting my own large pizza and he said no I'm not and now I am screaming so much. @jimmycarr (Jimmy Carr) What I've learned from post match analysis: We've got to get rid of pitches & start playing on paper cause on paper England should win. @bechillcomedian (Bec Hill) Before smartphones were invented, I could only tweet on the toilet if I precariously balanced a laptop on my knees. Thank YOU technology! @hatejoggers (Norman Lovett) I love Lady Gaga and now I also love Marina & The Diamonds. I'm 63 you know. @boburnham (Bo Burnham) Ugh I hate airports.

The men's bathroom here doesn't have any urninals! Just a bunch of women screaming. Lame.

4-29 Aug, 8:00pm, £14-£16

05/07/2010 20:35

edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 27

festcomedy

A Star Turn

Jennifer Coolidge has survived Hollywood, so how hard can it be to survive the Fringe? Lyle Brennan chats to the original “MILF”

H

ollywood, to those of us who don’t know it well, is built out of images of idealised glamour: gleaming, 45-foot letters; red carpets; handprints in concrete paving. For many of the aspiring stars currently populating Edinburgh, it no doubt makes for a tantalising picture. But when Jennifer Coolidge, speaking from her retreat in New Orleans, mentions that she will return to her Los Angeles home later that day, she doesn’t sound thrilled.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that, for the 48-year-old character actress, the novelty of Tinseltown has worn thin after more than 20 years. Since moving there from her native Massachusetts, she has racked up appearances in some of the most popular comedies to hit screens both big and small, granting her the kind of ubiquity that almost makes you forget she exists outside of those four corners. Her filmography reads like a greatest hits of recent US entertainment: guest spots on Friends, Sex and the City, Frasier and Seinfeld; brilliantly unselfconscious performances in Christopher Guest’s semi-improvised mockumentaries; supporting roles in Legally Blonde and Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant; and—yes—those indelible scenes as Stifler’s Mom, American Pie’s prototypical “MILF”.

Hollywood has served her well, it seems, but while she stops short of slating it altogether, she frequently calls life there “weird”.

It’s not so much LA’s notorious insincerity, desperation or debauchery, as chronicled in countless rockstar biographies, that has soured her affair with the city – it’s the continuing rise of cheap reality TV. “Hollywood’s gotten different. When I got there it was very much all about movies and television shows. But now there’s this new thing, and I guess I have to get on the bandwagon but…” She tails off for a moment.

“You could have a whole show about people that don’t buckle their pants. I could come up with that show and probably sell it.”

Her distaste will strike a chord with anyone who’s despaired at the prospect of another summer of Big Brother tedium, but for Coolidge, escaping the trend wasn’t as simple as switching channels. Her solution was a change of scene and a self-reinvention she compares to those of the chameleonic Madonna. And what better sanctuary for the disillusioned actress than the freer, more selfreliant world of live comedy?

Although she’s been performing her

28 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

one-woman show for barely a year, Coolidge will take a bold step into standup’s spiritual home when she brings Yours for the Night to Edinburgh this August. A month before her first Fringe date, the nerves are kicking in.

“When people say ‘is your show any good?’ all I can say is ‘I don’t know.’ I’m hoping it’s entertaining, I guess. Who knows? I could be terrible.”

Explaining the substance of her debut hour—mainly a collection of aptly “weird” anecdotes designed to shatter misconceptions of supposedly glamorous showbiz life—her speech is peppered with “maybe’s “and “hopefully’s”, but despite pre-festival jitters, she’s not flying completely blind. A background in improvised comedy predates Coolidge’s screen successes, and her time with celebrated stage troupe The Groundlings—which counts Will Ferrell and Lisa Kudrow among its alumni— means she’s able to take comfort in her belief that “stand-up isn’t all that different.”

Early shows have been well received by the American press—though Coolidge, who refrains from reading her reviews, wouldn’t know—but even if her festival run proves disastrous, she insists the experience of touring life will be ample reward. “You get to hang out with normal people – it’s just amazing how refreshing that is, that you’re not hanging out with people in show business. My life is so concentrated on that, and that’s all I really meet, living in LA. But you go on the road and you meet everybody. It’s pretty cool – and the dating life is way better.”

Edinburgh, particularly, will be a playground for an excited Coolidge, who has never set foot in Scotland. “Maybe it’s presumptuous, but I expect to have a full-on relationship with somebody there,” she reveals, and for a moment it’s impossible not to associate her with that cougar character, the role she carries around with her like some horny, inebriated albatross. But romance is far from the only thing on what turns out to be a wildly varied agenda: apart from celebrating her birthday in the capital, Coolidge throws up such random suggestions as hiking with the Scouts, judging beauty contests and “eating dinner with anyone who would invite me into their home.”

“I have a short attention span and I’m up for some cheap thrills,” she laughs. Edinburgh, be prepared. f

Jennifer Coolidge Assembly @ George Street

5-29 Aug (not 16,24), 8.15pm, £11-£12

www.festmag.co.uk

festcomedy

Bromantic Comedy A joint appearance at last year's Fringe sparked a firm friendship between Mike Wozniak & Henry Paker. This year, the pair have written a play together and, as Catherine Sylvain finds out, a new double act seems well-and-truly formed

T

here is surely no one in a lonelier position than a standup comedian failing to amuse an audience. So it’s fortunate that the double act is more conducive to comedy than any other artform. At least one other person in the room finds you funny – and better still if they’re your best friend.

This year’s festival finds Time Out Awardwinning Mike Wozniak and accomplished cartoonist and standup Henry Paker teaming up for the first time in their chaotic comic quest The Golden Lizard, but are they the comedy Clegg and Cameron or Brown and Blair?

As it turns out, neither. “It’s like I’m Tom Cruise,” Wozniak announces, “and Henry is my long -lost autistic brother.” Paker has different ideas. “I think that actually we are both the autistic one. Imagine Rain Man without Tom Cruise—just two Dustin Hoffmans bumbling about on a stage.”

I speak to the two separately but neither strays far from the other in conversation.

“We met through standup,” Wozniak explains in his typical rambling manner. “I definitely knew about Henry long before he knew about me, so I had the edge on him in that respect.” He pauses sinisterly. “The first time

30 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Paker & Wozniak “Imagine Rain Man without Tom Cruise, just two Dustin Hoffmans bumbling about on a stage”

I laid eyes on him at a gig he had no idea I was there. But I was there, in the shadows, and I liked the cut of his jib.”

Paker of the well-cut jib had also wanted to work with Wozniak for a while: “We were in the same show last year in Edinburgh, Superclump. That got a four-star review – thanks, thanks.” Eventually, Paker found he spent more time with Wozniak than with his wife.

The Golden Lizard is what emerged from their time together – an adventure story about a librarian from Reading on the trail of eminent rogue scientist Floyd Vernon and his eponymous tome. Paker says it was inspired by the oddly asexual man-child that is Tintin, but he adds, “It might be Tintin with sex – though it is an all-male cast, we do play women.”

The show mixes adventure with some of former doctor Wozniak’s trademark amateur science. “Mike’s got a background in science,” says Paker, “and I’ve got your average Radio 4 listener’s knowledge. It’s respectable. I actually just bought a book about science. Not the Bill Bryson one – that’s for non-experts. It’s another one.”

Homework notwithstanding, don’t expect any factual accuracy from the show.

As Paker insists, “It is certainly not ‘infotainment’. If anything it’s entertain-info: The entertainment eclipses the info.”

The Golden Lizard is somewhat erratic, as Wozniak explains: “There’s bits of costume.

It varies, we both play everyone—sometimes we forget who is playing who when, where and how. It flips and turns and surprises itself a bit, and that’s the bit I most enjoy – details change. We’ve created a little world and we want to pull the audience into it. It’s quite fun and weird, and has left audiences a bit confused.”

Amused, certainly; The Golden Lizard has already won Best New Show at the Leicester Comedy Festival and is tipped for a radio adaptation. It seems the pair lucked out in teaming up, as Paker admits: “Finding a good partnership is great. It’s quite a lonely business by yourself.”

“With solo stand-up, you always have a day at the Fringe where it goes wrong,” continues Wozniak. “But if you’ve created something with someone and you love it, and the person you really rate loves it, then it’s a joy regardless.”

Perhaps this is the year of the double act, if politics are anything to go by. Is Wozniak and Paker’s Golden Lizard really an adventure story, or is it that definitive sub-genre of the last few years – the bromantic comedy? f

Mike Wozniak and Henry Paker: The Golden Lizard @ Pleasance Courtyard 4-30 Aug (not 16), 4.45pm, £7-£9.50

www.festmag.co.uk

HHHHH

Time Out (Critics’ Choice), The Scotsman, Independent On Sunday, Whatsonstage.com, British Theatre Guide

As heard on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 1 with Scott Mills

‘Astonishing. Has everything you could want from a blockbuster musical. It just happens to be made up on the spot.’ Metro

‘Incredible, hilarious, unbelievable, stunning. Don’t miss seeing Showstopper! You really mustn’t.’

Kate Copstick, The Scotsman

WINNER, SPIRIT OF THE FRINGE AWARD 2009 NOMINEE, BEST PRODUCTION AND JUDGES AWARD, MTM 2009

6-29 August (not 18) 10.50pm Matinees 10, 17, 24 August 3pm

Teviot (Venue 14)

Box Office

0131 622 6552 / 226 0000

Tickets £6 - £12

www.showstoppermusical.com

Festival Highlights.com

festcomedy

Ode to joy As the worlds of standup and poetry converge, new and innovative forms have begun to emerge. Tom Hackett talks to the performers leading the way

O

n the face of it, the worlds of standup comedy and poetry have little in common. Stereotypically, standup clubs are boozy, lairy places where performers gurn and jape to elicit laughs from their pissed-up audience; poetry is a rarefied world of sensitive souls, earnestly pouring their hearts out to beard-stroking intellectuals. But as anyone who’s witnessed poetry slam evenings or delved into the more thoughtful side of standup will know, they’re not as different as all that. There exists a hazy borderland between two spheres that a few adventurous souls are exploring, to ever-greater rewards.

One such performer is John Cooper Clarke, a legendary ‘punk poet’ of two decades’ standing, who graces Edinburgh with his presence for a full week in August. Clarke first found his audience at punk concerts in the late 1970s, and tells me: “I’ve always been able to play rock’n’roll venues, comedy venues and literary venues.” Indeed, his poems are so funny, caustic, foul-mouthed and beguiling that his warm-up sets for bands like The Sex Pistols and Joy Division became almost as keenly anticipated by the crowd as the bands themselves.

Clarke has now found respect among the literary establishment and even had some of his poems added to the GCSE syllabus earlier this decade. But he’s hardly let such highbrow endorsements go to his head; instead, the rambling comic banter that glues his poems together has lengthened, and he’s now as likely to be found gigging at comedy clubs as anywhere else.

Clarke rarely gives interviews and is reluctant to analyse his technique (he fears that “you’ll get what you want, but lose what you had”). But he recognises that the balance of his act has shifted, and concedes that “maybe there’s a bit more of the in-betweeny stuff about now.” With the influence of alternative comedy having opened up the standup circuit to a more diverse range of acts, people like Clarke can now take the comedy clubs by storm.

This same adventurousness in the comedy circuit has also been a boon to Tim Key,

the poet best known for his short, stumbling readings on Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe, who brought comic poetry blinking into the light last year when he took away the Edinburgh Comedy Award. Key tried his hand at straight standup early in his career, but says succinctly, “I was shit.”

“I felt that frustration where you feel you possibly could contribute something,” he tells me, “but when you’re doing it you just feel constrained and lost, and aware that you’re contributing absolutely nothing.”

It was then that Key started writing whimsical, gently humorous poems, which he initially performed in front of a few friends. Key found he liked the freedom the poems gave him to mix different types of humour into his performance. “Some of my poems are constructed in such a way that they’re clearly written by a comedian who has some handle on how to make people laugh,” he ponders, “but some feel more like they’re blowing in the wind, like a little piece of nonsense. And I like both those things.”

Perhaps due to a poetic style that The Guardian has labelled “wilfully artless”, Key has sometimes been misunderstood by the wider poetry scene. “The slight risk you run is that you look like you’re satirising the whole genre,” he says, “that you’re coming in to say ‘poetry’s absolute bullshit.’” Key insists that this isn’t the case, and points out that “if I was interested in satirising poetry, that would assume that I’d watched quite a lot of it and thought ‘this is ripe for parody’, and then gone away and constructed an act around it. In actual fact it was much more naive than that.”

32 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Top Legendary punk poet John Cooper Clarke is even on the GCSE syllabus Above 2009 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Tim Key Right Poet and musician Tim Clare thinks that Phil Nichol’s character Bobby Spade (far right) is a real poet trying to get out

“Some poets can be a bit floaty, and have a tendency to think that it's just about self-expression.

At its worst, that's the ultimate masturbation” www.festmag.co.uk

festcomedy No such defence is possible for comedian Phil Nichol, who premiered his ‘Bobby Spade’ character at the Fringe last year. Spade is clearly a parody of a very bad ‘beat’ poet, complete with pretentious pronouncements, self-indulgent, autobiographical ramblings and an unhealthy dose of misogyny. But like most satirists, Nichol says that the impetus to take the piss comes from a sincere love of the form itself.

“Any time you satirise something, you have to secretly love it,” he says. “I grew up writing poetry—like most teenagers, I took myself very seriously—and I was a fan of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Jack Kerouac.”

Bobby Spade’s ‘magnum opus’ Welcome to Crazytown is a tribute of sorts, and Nichol has done an impressive amount of work creating a backstory for the character, studying the lives of other beat poets so that the details would ring true to anyone with a detailed knowledge of ‘60s counterculture.

Nichol has already built a reputation on the circuit for what he calls “broad, clownish, daft comedy,” and like Key he appreciates the chance poetry gives him to be more “lyrical” and less exclusively laugh-focused. “I wanted to write something where I didn’t end up with my trousers round my ankles,” he says.

At the same time, he admits that “the good thing about doing a character is that it gives me licence to be a bit shit.”

Performance poet Tim Clare has a theory about people who do these kind of parody acts. “I’m a little bit suspicious that Phil secretly wants to be a real poet,” he says.

“And I don’t know whether the fact that it’s a character gives him a bit of a safety net, because maybe that’s the worst thing in the world to be accused of,” he laughs. “But yeah, I think there is definitely a band of people who are clawing at the door of the closet but unsure if they really want to come out.”

Clare’s background is as a performance poet and musician, but his first ever Fringe outing is predominantly a standup show that happens to contain a few poems and a song. This isn’t as big a leap as some people might assume, he says.

Clare clearly has a great knowledge and appreciation of standup, and maintains that “all good standups are poets to a certain extent. If you look at somebody like Mitch Hedburg or Emo Phillips, the art of crafting those one-liners and garden path sentences are all sort of poetic techniques.”

Clare is refreshingly open about the pretentiousness of some of the performance poetry scene. “Some poets can be a bit floaty, and have a tendency to think that it’s just

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about self-expression,” he says. “At its worst, that’s the ultimate masturbation.” One of the things that attracts him to comic poetry is the instant feedback from the audience, which lets the poet know exactly how well they’re going down. “On the artist-entertainer continuum,” he says, “I’m definitely more of an entertainer. I think that if people haven’t laughed, then I’ve probably done a really shit job.”

As well as this unbridled desire to entertain, it’s a consummate love of wordsmithery that ultimately links all four of these seemingly disparate acts together. Tim Clare perhaps sums it up best: “I think in both poetry and comedy you’re trying to say the most interesting possible thing in the fewest possible words. And in the end, perhaps that’s where really good standups and really good poets can see eye-to-eye.” f John Cooper Clarke @ Udderbelly's Pasture 13-19 Aug, 11.30pm, £13.50-£15

Phil Nichol: Welcome to Crazytown The Stand Comedy Club 4-30 Aug (not 16), 6:50pm, £9-£10

Tim Clare's Death Drive @ Zoo Roxy 6-29 Aug (not 16), 7pm, £6-£6.50

Tim Key: The Slutcracker @ Pleasance Dome 16-21 Aug, 12.15am, £12-£13

edinburgh edinburgh festival festival preview preview guide guide 2010 2010fest fest3333

festcomedy

Criminal Humour Imprisoned by the Burmese junta, comedian Zarganar is serving a 35- year sentence for criticising the government. This August, Amnesty International is fighting for his release

“P

lucking a beard” was an overt insult to authority for Shakespeare’s audiences.

Perhaps then, the imprisoned Burmese comedian and filmmaker Zarganar—whose name means “tweezers”—is aptly named.

Although he claims his name was an homage to his days as a dentist, the stinging precision of his humour, tugging on the hairs of the Burmese junta, loads the name with double-entendre.

It’s puns like this that made Zarganar a national comedy sensation – and an enemy of the state. Arrested in 1990 for impersonating a general, he was imprisoned for four years and, upon his release, banned from public performances. Gradually, the restrictions became an all-out censorship.

In June 2008, the 49-year-old was arrested forleading a movement to collect money and supplies for the survivors of Cyclone Nargis, and criticising the government’s handing of the relief effort. He is currently serving a 35-year sentence.

It is bizarre to think that comedy can pose such a threat to authority. The truth is, as Amnesty International’s Burma campaigner Verity Coyle says, “comedians and other artists are often right in the front line in the battle for freedom of expression”. They are also among the first to suffer when the government dispenses with such freedoms.

I got a chance to speak to the Burmese contemporary artist Htein Lin, one of Zarganar’s closest friends. He too is no stranger to unjust prison sentences, having lived in a bare concrete cell for nearly seven years. The details are grim: infrequent access to drinking water; 15-minute family visits once every three months; a communal plastic bucket instead of a toilet. Lin is one of the lucky few who got out.

But Lin, now living in exile, doesn’t want pity. What he really wants to talk about is comedy and art – and his friend’s insatiable love of football. He can barely speak through his laughter as he tells me about how Zarganar, on a whim, footed the bill for his entire

34 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Above Amnesty International is campaigning for the release of Burmese comedian Zarganar, serving a 35-year sentence for criticising the Junta

cast and filming crew to catch a football match. “He’s crazy! So crazy!” Lin exclaims, laughing uncontrollably.

The pair first met when Zarganar was a judge at a comedy contest at Lin’s college – incidentally, Lin won. From there, they worked together on several films and comedy routines. During his time in prison, Lin managed to bribe a guard to smuggle some stories out to Zarganar, but Zarganar refused to use them until Lin was released. Together, they proceeded to turn these scrawled prison notes into a successful film. That film was subsequently banned.

While Lin was in prison, Zarganar would make the 445-mile journey from the capital to visit his friend. Upon his release, a homeless Lin, whose family had dissipated—, was taken in by Zarganar. “He loves to help people,” Lin says sadly, wishing there was something more he could do now.

Lin does what he can; he participated in a project by photographer James Mackay, which was repeated at a protest outside the Burmese Embassy in London on 14 June 2010. This date marked the 65th birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 years under house arrest and is a beacon for democracy and human rights in Burma. The project, Even Though I’m Free I Am Not, photographs former Burmese political prisoners in exile. They are holding up their palms in the Buddhist Abhaya Mudhra—a gesture of fearlessness and reassurance—with the name of an imprisoned comrade. “I love the idea! It’s very new,” Lin exclaims. Embracing the political force of art, he participated with the name ‘Zarganar’ printed on his hand.

This project is also being promoted

by Amnesty International in support of Zarganar and the Generation ’88 group of jailed student activists in Burma. Amnesty will be photographing Edinburgh festivalgoers and presenting the pictures at the next ASEAN summit in an attempt to embarrass the Burmese authorities and discourage their trade partners from supporting a regime that imposes such grave curtailments of freedom.

Zarganar is the focus of Amnesty’s festival campaign. In addition to their prodigious Stand Up For Freedom comedy event, Amnesty will be hosting a Comics vs. Critics football match—a fitting tribute to Zarganar’s love of the game.

As Verity Coyle pithily puts it, “freedom of expression is at the absolute core of what artists do.” Amnesty’s longstanding support for the Edinburgh festivals is a celebration of these freedoms, and a reminder that not all are so fortunate. f

Stand up for freedom Venue 150 @ EICC 19 Aug, 10:00pm, £14

www.festmag.co.uk

Theatre

Highlights The theatre program is extraordinarily varied, in both type and quality. Here are some specially selected starters

s t e b e f Sa theatre estival F he T 't miss! you can

A spanish Fiesta

The Sun Also Rises

Royal Lyceum Theatre, 14-17 Aug, Times Vary, £10-£27

New York theatre group Elevator Repair Service's innovative, experimental set and sound design are sure to make Hemingway's literary behemoth Fringe gold.

post-pinochet drama

Diciembre

Royal Lyceum, 2-4 Aug, 8pm (2.30pm 4th Aug), £10-£27

The year is 2014. Chile, Peru and Bolivia are at war. Need we say more? This sci-fi-black comedy-political-drama doesn't sound capable of disappointing.

throwaway sex

Hot Mess

historical drama

Hawke + Hunter, 6-30 Aug (not 28), 6pm, £7.50-£9

Assembly @ George Street, 5-30 Aug (not 16,24), 11.50am, £11-£13

Step into trendy nightclub Hawk & Hunter not for drinks and a disco snog, but for Ella Hickson's examination of urban sexual identity.

I, Elizabeth

This monologue, adapted from the writings of the Virgin Queen, looks like the pick of six plays involving Fringe supremo Guy Masterson.

Traverse rom-com

My Romantic History

Traverse Theatre, 5-29 Aug (not Mon), Times vary, £12-£17

My Romantic History is sure to please anyone with a penchant for dry humour, a hefty helping of baggage, and an intimate knowledge of office culture.

River people

The Terrible Tales of the Midnight Chorus

Bedlam Theatre, 8-20 Aug, 4.15pm, £7-£8

The creators of 2009's Lilly Through the Dark present a picaresque, macabre ensemble tale (with loads of puppets).

36 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

award-winning women

Others

Pleasance Courtyard, 4-29 Aug (not 16), 3.20pm, £7.50-£9

Multiple award-winning female theatrical collective The Paper Birds premiere a hard-hitting political production centered around the concept of 'women as Other'.

Serial, Killer

Bane

The GRV, 5-29 Aug (not 23-24), 5.40pm, £5

One of the best-recieved shows of 2009 returns: film-noir, comedy and music combine in a funny, thrilling, and rather graphic revenge story.

return to cabaret

Alan Cumming

Assembly Hall, 13-15 Aug, 11.59pm, £18-£20

Cabaret and story telling fuse fabulously in the return of this national treasure and Fringe veteran.

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festtheatre

e c n a h c a e k a T rth a , but wo isky r A bit

punt...

Exploring aging

a Musical revival

Belgian innovators

Teenage Riot

Traverse Theatre, 17-29 Aug, Times Vary, £6-£19

Belgian theatre group Ontroerend Goed have an uncanny knack for producing plays that grab the headlines. Can they outdo 2009’s jaw-dropping Internal?

Five Guys Named Moe

An Evening With Dementia

The Wire's Clarke Peters stars in this singing, dancing spectacular. Possibly only for perennial showtune lovers (or, of couse, die-hard HBO fans).

Playwright Trevor Smith promises to illuminate audiences to life detached from reality, via the theatrical exploration of a dementia sufferer.

The Spaces on The Mile @ The Radisson, 6-28 Aug, 4.05pm, £6.50-£8.50

Udderbelly’s Pasture, 4-29 Aug (not 12,27), £14-£15

unpredictable music-making

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical

Gilded Balloon Teviot, 6-29 (not 18), Times Vary, £10-£12

Touted by critics as some of the most mind-bogglingly impressive improv you'll ever see, we predict multiple visits to this perpetually debuting musical.

greek revival

The Trojan Women C, 4-14 Aug, 5.45pm, £6.50-£8.50

Part of C Venues' eclectic lineup, The Trojan Women reinvents Euripides' classic text with modern freshness and wit.

bildungsdrama

His Name is Tim

Zoo Roxy, 6-30 Aug (not 16,23), 4pm, £6-8

bizzare experience

(No) Living Room

The Zoo, 6-30 Aug (not 18,25), 7.25pm, £5-£7.50

Visually astounding, surrealist physical theatre piece (No) Living Room promises to be a rather psychadelic journey into virtual reality.

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A tale of youth and adulthood, His Name is Tim could be the 2010 Fringe's definitive coming-of-age drama.

dubious magic

Time Warper

Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 23-29 Aug, 3.45pm, Free

We're more than a little fascinated to see how selfdescribed "corporate magician" Oliver Meech brings time-travel illusions to the big stage.

edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 37

aman apart festtheatre

One of the most divisive men in theatre, Badac Theatre's visionary founder Steve Lambert tells Honour Bayes how he developed his visceral dramatic style

I

n 2008 Steve Lambert punched a journalist. The journalist in question, Chris Wilkinson, had refused to participate in The Factory, Badac Theatre’s controversial Holocaust piece that sought to give its audience an immersive and near-real—too real, some suggested—experience of the Nazi gas chambers. Two days later Lambert assaulted Wilkinson on the street.

Lambert’s publicist has told me that it isn’t appropriate to ask him about this, and while it’s true that the incident occurred two years ago, there is still an obvious undercurrent of confrontation in Lambert’s attitude to theatre. While others deem it appropriate to work with young people at The Pleasance through mediums like rap. Lambert is “much more into the idea of getting them into a room and getting them to punch the fuck out of their energy and just see where it goes”. I’m not surethe interview is going to go well.

As Wilkinson himself has said, this is not the first time that an artist has attacked a journalist for a critical response to their work, but with statements such as “Without violence we have nothing” on Badac’s website, Lambert’s case seems more serious. But this doesn’t seem to sit true with the mild-mannered man sat in front of me in 2010, although the signs are there that this obsession with aggression hasn’t disappeared: “a lot of theatre

is about a repression of violence. You can’t repress something that isn’t there. I just choose not to repress it – I choose to explore it.’

What is never in doubt when we speak is that he demands complete commitment from both his company and his audience; when you come to him you have to do so with utter heart and soul. It is a holistic approach that was fostered in Poland. After a few frustrating years as a jobbing actor and three interesting ones as a bookie, Lambert hopped on a bus at Victoria and ended up in Warsaw. It changed his outlook on theatre permanently. “You all of a sudden realise that theatre is actually a craft. Here it is viewed as a vehicle to go onto other things like TV but in Poland the training is that you’re learning a craft that is like a life long thing, that you’re always going to be learning a craft.”

Lambert returned and was quickly bored with the “kitchen sink drama” around him. Wanting to create work inspired by Jerzy Grotowski, the innovative Polish director, he set up Badac. He was never going to compromise. “If you’re setting up a company, I wasn’t going to do it on anyone else’s terms.” Physically and psychologically demanding, Badac’s intense style comes from a suitably “extreme” source: Antonin Artaud’s The Theatre And Its Double, the bible for half the radical playwrights of recent decades.

38 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Above Steve Lambert’s physical style has proved controversial among audiences and critics Right The entrance to Badac’s 2008 immersive Auschwitz experience

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FEST BEST

Site-Specific

Shows

Running On Air

Pleasance Courtyard 4-29 Aug (not Sat), Times Vary, £9.50-£10

Affable comedian Laura Mugridge takes a lucky few on an intimate vintage campervan ride that will remove you from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Touching on marriage, camping and an experience with a kestrel, Running On Air will remind us all that sometimes it’s good to take the scenic route. Charmingly quirky Mugridge has echoes of Lucy Porter’s bubbly, self-effacing charm and this is sure to be a unique and endearingly funny road trip. Literally playing in a campervan in the Pleasance Courtyard, and with only two showings per day, seats will be very limited. [Honour Bayes]

At Home With Mrs Moneypenny Assembly @ AGA Showroom, 5-29 Aug (not Mon), Times Vary, £12

“The very first chapter is called ‘Theatre and The Plague’ and all of our work is about me trying to understand that chapter.”

It’s all beginning to sound a bit militant but he surprises me: “I know it’s not everyone’s thing. I’ve got nothing against comedy or musicals – it all goes into the tapestry of theatre.” So Lambert doesn’t think everyone should think the way he does then? “No but it is about saying to them we’ve created something. Either join it or don’t join it.”

He seems to be aware that he’s seen as an artist whose ego is out of control, and he is at pains to show that nothing could be further from the truth. “I think that with some of the subject matter that we tackle if you approach it as a vehicle to sell yourself it’s not going to work. It will be very superficial” It is this belief that drew Palestinian poet Ghazi Hussein to a company known more for its physicality than its lyricism.

Hussein was repeatedly imprisoned and tortured from the age of 14 for being, as I am told, “guilty of carrying thoughts.” In 2009 he approached Lambert after seeing The Devoured, Badac’s equally harrowing although slightly more conventional one-man show at last year’s Fringe. “He liked the fact that our work really tries, whether it fails

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or succeeds. Nevertheless it goes in with an energy and a commitment and an honesty that we’re trying to do it, we’re trying to our nth degree to bring this out and show his words.”

The Cry uses poems Hussein wrote in prison, but is still very much a Badac show.

“The way we’re approaching it is the energy and drive behind it more than it being as a poem. A couple of them are delivered as screams, a couple of them are delivered as pleading. The emotion that actually created it is more important than the text itself.

People talk about light and dark, the way you’ve got to have quiet moments and loud moments. But to me you can move that barrier up and you can have completely intense theatre and it will have different levels. It’s just that those levels are really high.”

Whether all this will work remains to be seen. But Lambert’s audacious company certainly stands out in the comparatively safe Edinburgh program. Wilfully confrontational, his work assaults theatregoers’ sensibilities in a way few companies would attempt. Let’s just hope no journalists are injured this time round. f The Cry @ Pleasance Dome

4-30 Aug (not 17, 24), 7:30pm, £8.50–10

If being driven around is the norm for you or if you’ve ever read Mrs Moneypenny in the Financial Times, you’ll want to head down to the AGA showrooms in Frederick Street. With a glass of bubbly you can watch this corporate dame in the kitchen demonstrating how to combine being a city high-flyer and mother of three, with a wit and panache that would give The Telegraph’s cartoonAlex a run for its money. Not failing to make the most of the location, there’s also snacks made in an Aga. [Honour Bayes]

The Invisible Dot Outdoors 3-Sided Football Tournament, Meadows (Tickets by Pleasance), 15 Aug By the Sea, A Secret Location (Tickets by Assembly) , 20 Aug

The innovative and wonderfully mysterious team behind last year’s hit, Party, return this year with not just a programme of standup and poetry, but three happenings at locations across the city. They are being remarkably coy thus far about the reason why they have purchased five old British Telecom payphone kiosks, or the rules of the inaugural three-sided football tournament. A third event, By the Sea, looks set to be just as unusual, promising comedians and shanties at an undisclosed seaside location. Loosely led by enigmatic creative Simon Pearce, performers associated with the Dot include Mark Watson, Tim Key, Anna & Katy, and Jonny Sweet – not a bad bunch to hang

edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 39

festtheatre

Talkin’ ‘bout a Horizon Arts’ creative director Philip Stokes tells Ben Judge about his return to Edinburgh and his own brand of punk-rock artistry

P

hilip Stokes doesn’t pull his punches.

As the creative director of the highly acclaimed Horizon Arts theatre company, he is the man behind some of the most provocative new theatre productions to have made their debut in Edinburgh over the past few years. But more than this, he is also a man determined to challenge what he sees as a staid theatrical establishment.

The results have been pretty spectacular. Last year’s Heroin(e) for Breakfast, which followed the short and brutal lives of three young heroin addicts, was one of the 2009 Fringe’s stand-out shows. After starting off in Edinburgh, it has since toured the country and made a critically lauded appearance at the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival, ruffling a few feathers on the way. This year, Horizon Arts return with a brand new production, Über Hate Gang, which follows a band of

young revolutionaries “raging against the machine”.

The idea of youth challenging the established way of doing things is one that seems to strike a chord with Stokes. “I love theatre, but 90 per cent of what I see is wank,” he says. “The one thing I hate most is that a lot of people think of theatre as an educational thing. When you’re at school you are dragged to the theatre; it’s sort of forced upon you. And so a lot of people’s first experience of theatre is through Shakespeare because it’s on the syllabus or through groups that go into schools saying ‘we can teach you something about how to be better people.’

“If you go up to a kid of 16 now and say ‘do you want to go to the cinema or the theatre?’ they’d say cinema every time. I’m aiming to attract people who enjoy film. I

40 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Above Horizon Arts continue their search for “theatre for a new generation” with Über Hate Gang

mean, I enjoy film but I don’t really like the majority of theatre. I think film manages to mix mass appeal and entertainment value with building characters better.”

Stokes is fascinated by the idea of bringing the dynamism and excitement more traditionally associated with blockbuster movies to the stage, both as a point of principle and as a means of engaging young people. Horizon Arts has adopted “theatre for a new generation” as its slogan and this is a theme that emerges time and again during our conversation.

“What I quite like is taking real, gritty subjects and giving them a really sort of dramatic spin. If someone was to talk about Heroin(e) for Breakfast and say it’s about three junkies, you’d think ‘oh God, it’s a morality tale’ but when we personified heroin as Marilyn Monroe, that took it into the realm of theatricality. Elvis Hates Me [Horizon Arts’ 2008 Edinburgh show] was about mental illness, but we did it through the lens of disabled Elvis impersonators, which obviously had the potential for a lot of comedy. So it’s dealing with issues that everybody can relate to, but in a way that is engaging and funny. “‘Theatre for a new generation’ is more than just theatre for young people. It’s about wanting to make people laugh, getting a reaction out of people whether good or bad, just so long as people aren’t indifferent. If you want to get a message across, you’re only going to be able to do that if it’s entertaining otherwise the audience switch off. So, I mean, the bottom line is however intellectual you feel you’re being, you want people to come out thinking about it, or talking about it. I’d rather someone walk out of our show and think ‘that was fucking crap’ than just pop out thinking ‘okay, what’s next?’”

It’s an ethos perhaps suggested by Stokes’s past as a wannabe rockstar: “My background is being in a band, and I like the rock ‘n’ roll mentality. Theatre is very much you’ll sit in the dark and its very serious.

I mean, obviously you can’t crowd surf in theatre, but that sort of idea of breaking down the fourth wall and getting a reaction from the audience is a part of that punk mentality.” Über Hate Gang is the latest realisation of this punk-inspired vision of theatre. As Stokes explains, “it’s essentially about four people forming a gang to cause a revolution and that revolution is against a mediocre and average society,” – a fitting metaphor for Stokes’s own revolution against mediocre, average theatre. f Über Hate Gang @ Underbelly 5-29 Aug, (not 16), 12:00pm, £9-£10

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festtheatre

Over the river,

through the woods Mixing macabre puppetry and live action, River People’s artistic directors Ed Wren and Claire Harvey are the king and queen of Fringe whimsy. Arianna Reiche where they get their inspiration from and how they got started

C

laire Harvey met Ed Wren while he was playing her incestuous father in a student play at Winchester University in 2005. While performing a sex scene during their first rehearsal, Ed told Claire he had a script he wanted her to read. It was complex, and complemented her interests. Before long, River People was born.

Four years later River People took home the 2009 Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Prize, Time Out’s Critic’s Choice Prize, and Total Theatre Award for Best Emerging Company. Somehow, these two people seem to embody the entire ethos of the Fringe – with only a handful of productions under their belts, they have earned the kind of recognition that Fringe veterans strive for. With a penchant for whimsy and macabre puppetry, River People developed The Ordinaries, a “dark comedy about child abuse”, which became their Fringe debut. We had no money so we had to make our flyers by hand each night before flyering the next morning”, explains Wren.

Most recently, 2009’s Lilly Through The Dark secured their place in the Festival spotlight. Lilly is a dark fairytale about a young girl scouring the underworld for her lost father. “Lilly started with the need for me to explore the feelings of loss I had after my dad passed away in 2004,” says Harvey. “He was a massive influence on my life, and it seemed like a fitting tribute. The Ordinaries was about Ed’s family so it seemed natural to move on to my experiences.”

Harvey and Wren, who have been dating for several years—“we spent that first year finding out how we should work.

It does take a little practise”—are people who like to keep busy. This year they bring two new shows to the Fringe: The Terrible Tales of the Midnight Chorus combines story, live music, and their trademark Tim

Burton-esque puppetry. It’s a “best-of” production where the team’s fantastical universe is fleshed out, and where characters introduced in Lilly return with their own interwoven stories.

Also being performed is Little Matter, which Wren describes as an evolving work in progress, its subject matter in keeping with Wren and Harvey’s ever-present themes of pilgrimage and self-exploration.

They explain how they took inspiration from such diverse sources as ancient mythology, quantum physics, and the poetry of William Blake. “The idea started as a desire to explore my own state of mind after having left university without having a clear path set out for myself, and that feeling of shock when you realise you have to grow up to be a ‘proper person’ and work for a living,” Wren tells me. “The show is about a man coming to terms with his place in the universe.”

River People have already made a name for themselves with this kind of Philip Pullman-meets-post-uni-existentialism. If there was any doubt that the ripples they started would still be spreading this year the pair’s seemingly endless reserves of energy quickly do away with them. While festival success isn’t exactly a kiss of death, it’s certainly not uncommon for young up-and-comers to lose steam.

But for Harvey and Wren, no corners seem to be cut, even in the use of the group’s staple stage-fellows. “We make all of our puppets ourselves,” says Wren. “so everything has the trace of our hands on it and we’re able to foster and develop our own aesthetic.”

Whether their newly acquired hype is a factor in drawing River People’s crowds is neither here nor there. At their core Harvey and Wren strike chords with their audiences through an acute understanding of narration and the human experience: “We believe in telling stories that come

42 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

from an honest place,” Wren explains. “It felt really good to have that assurance that we are doing good work and we should keep on going. The Fringe is like a booster injection we get each year, where we’re away from the toil of running our own company and we get down to the reason we make theatre: to perform it to people.” f

Above River People build on the success of Lilly through the Dark with The Terrible Tales...

The Terrible Tales of the Midnight Chorus Bedlam Theatre 8-20 Aug, 4.15pm, £7-£8

Little Matter @ The Hub

22-23 Aug, 5pm, 6.30pm, £6.50

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festtheatre

FEST BEST

Award-winners

En Route Traverse Theatre 4-29 Aug (not 9, 16, 23), times vary, £12-£19

Australian alternative theatre ensemble Bettybooke—now rebranded as One Step At A Time Like This—have had a good couple of years. The troupe’s latest show, En Route, won a series of accolades at 2009’s Melbourne Fringe before going on to score the Best Theatre Production prize at this year’s Adelaide Fringe. Live art in an urban setting, En Route uses the city streets as a blank canvas for a production that’s never the same twice. Transplanting the action from Australia’s modern cities to the ancient cobbles of Edinburgh for this year’s Fringe is likely to shed a whole new light on the production.

Speechless Traverse Theatre 4-29 Aug (not 9, 16, 23), times vary, £12-£17

A joint venture between Cardiff theatre group Sherman Cymru and writer-director Polly Teale’s Shared Experience company, Speechless is a child of successful marriage.

Sherman Cymru won awards from The Scotsman, The Herald and Amnesty International for 2008’s Deep Cut, while Teale took home the Best Director gong at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards back in 2003.

Speechless is the the true story of June and Jennifer Gibbons, identical twins who communicate only with one another. Exploring the deep emotional bond between two sisters living in isolation from the rest of the world, Speechless seems set to continue the two theatres’ legacy of powerful, introspective drama.

Aug 07 - 13 @13:20 Aug 14 - 22 @18:30 no performance Aug 16

at sundown at sundown The story of the end of our lives told in our youth. A collectively imagined autobiography about the unraveling of memory. A joyous physical theater collage about clinging to the past and letting it go.

www.atsundown.net CaLARTS festival theater

www.allmalebacchae.com

The Bacchae Aug 07 - 13 @15:30 Aug 14 - 22 @20:30 (no 16th)

Decky Does A Bronco Traverse@ Scotland Yard 5-21 Aug (not 9, 16), 7:30pm, £12-£19

Edinburgh natives The Grid Iron Theatre Company took the 2000 Fringe by storm with the original run of Decky Does A Bronco, winning, among others, a Fringe First award for their efforts. Now returning for a tenth anniversary tour the production, an outdoor staging by eight trained acrobats, seeks to rekindle the praise of ten years ago. Lauded at the time for its incisive exploration of the relationships between five Scots teenagers and their reactions to tragedy, the resurrection of Decky Does A Bronco will hopefully show a superb production maturing with age. [Marcus Kernohan]

www.silkenveils.net

By Amy Tofte Directed by Pacho Velez Floozy Aug 07 - 13 @12:00 Aug 14 - 22 @17:00 (no 16th)

£8 Gen | £5 Con tix: 07074 20 13 13 www.venue13.com

Silken Veils Aug 07 - 13 @14:20 Aug 14 - 22 @19:30 (no 16th) On Lochend Close Off the Royal Mile

Run through the MicePace Sonic Maze while you wait!

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edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 43

festtheatre

Return of the

Samurai Visual master Tomohiro Sasaki tells Nick Lewis how video games and manga inspired their radical reworking of Shakespeare

T

he list of characters could be straight from the pages of any manga comic or Capcom video game, and the story might be inspired in part by traditional Japanese kabuki theatre, but the story of Death of a Samurai might nevertheless seem strangely familiar – especially if you know your Shakespeare.

It’s testament to their unique and enduring appeal that Japanese theatre company A-LIGHT are returning to Edinburgh with their unique reimagining of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for a third year – and now with the increased expectation that comes with a larger venue. The play’s eclectic and mercurial nature brings inherent difficulties, of course. Bringing a staid set of 16th century royals to the stage is one thing; rendering a tale of evil swordsmen, werewolves and reckless ninjas in the confines of a Fringe production is an altogether different endeavour. Add in a troupe of actors with

only a smattering of English between them and the scale of the challenge becomes truly daunting. To an extent I can sympathise, being faced with the relatively straightforward task of conducting an interview. Thankfully, I have a translator.

Death of a Samurai is both beautifully realised and meticulously choreographed by writer, director and video game creator Tomohiro Sasaki. Effortlessly combining elements of Japanese and western European culture, he forges an idiosyncratic reworking of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with nods to manga, anime and, surprisingly, Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini’s La Strada.

Sasaki’s background in computer games has given his production a rare energy not easily attainable in the worlds of film or theatre. “In creating games, programmers control every movement of the characters by calculation. In my play, on one hand, actors need to control their actions like a

44 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Above Back once more with their Japanese reimagining of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

programmer; on the other hand, they also need to move according to their emotion. I think this is one of the characteristic points of this show – that the digital world is combined with the analogue world of theatre.”

Every scene seems to reflect this ethos with every slap, slice and tumble accompanied by a sound effect or cymbal crash, while tucked away within the breathless hyperactivity are some stunning kabuki tableaus devised from a modest collection of props.

The schizophrenia at the core of his production is perhaps best embodied by extrovert ninja Jack—a colourful mash-up of characters from mangas Dragonball Z and Naruto—and dark samurai Kirihito, played by Kazuhisai Minai. Where Jack bounds cheerfully from one comic mishap to another, Kirihito broods in loneliness. The conflict in Minai’s performance can be traced to the dual, and extraordinarily different influences of Hamlet and 17th century swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. His broken English is itself used as a weapon: its sheer simplicity conveys the emotion of Shakespearean verse. Indeed, it is a vindication of Sasaki’s ambition to “create and present a play which can move audiences all over the world beyond differences of language” that last year’s Edinburgh audience was captivated by entire scenes of dialogue conducted exclusively in Japanese. It is a reaction which he thinks perhaps would not be reciprocated, for example, by an audience in Tokyo or Fukuoka: “In Japan, not all people are familiar with theatre. In Edinburgh, the whole city welcomes us and people accept us doing rehearsals on the street.”

Minai echoes similar sentiments, adding that he feeds on not only the festive atmosphere, but variously on “buildings, walls, and music – everything is beautiful. I feel as if I’m in a movie.” Improvisation is at the heart of everything A-LIGHT do. Beginning with a workshop audition with selected Shakespearean texts, the actors are encouraged to develop and grow into their roles not only in rehearsal, but during their festival run.

“An actor’s job is to give life to his character which was just written in a script at first.

Learning one’s role doesn’t have an end, for an actor should continually develop himself by reflecting on his role and his life.”

By adopting such a disciplined attitude to their craft the cast of Death of a Samurai have woven a fascinating mystical tapestry.

An hour of this breathless and utterly endearing escapism should be enough to move even the most hardened Fringe-goer.

Sit near the front and immerse yourself in this joyously colourful spectacle. f Death of a Samurai @ Augustine’s

7-30 Aug (not 16 or 23), 7.45pm/8.45pm, £7-£13

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new YoRk, new YoRk luck be a ladY diamonds aRe a giRl’s best FRiend

don’t miss

blend g n i t a and hilar “An eexst of BroadwaNiNyg News or b of the ood.”— BeijiNg M Hollyw

reel toreal real the movies musical

Pleasance couRtYaRd

August 4th–30th 30th · 6pm (No performances August 10, 17, 24) Tickets £9 – £15 0131 556 6550 / 0131 226 0000 www.reeltoreal.co.uk

☎

the FRinge’s

biggest sho

w!

new ew YoRk, Yo new YoRk Puttin’ on the Ritz diamonds aRe a giRl’s best FRiend

some enchanted evening singin’ in the Rain

some enchanted evening singin’ in the Rain

festtheatre

Out Could puppetry be theatre's great new frontier? Legendary puppetmaster David Strassman speaks to Honour Bayes about the ventriloquism renaissance

46 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

of the

box

“N

o one wakes up in the morning and thinks ‘gee I’ll be a ventriloquist when I grow up. Fuck no!” This is probably true, but it’s surprising to hear from David Strassman, arguably the world’s most famous ventriloquist. But then Strassman isn’t any normal puppeteer.

Like his dummy Chuck Wood, who longs to be a real boy, Strassman longs to be seen as a real theatre practitioner: “To the world I’m a ventriloquist. But I’ve taken this art form and moved it out of music hall and into proscenium arch theatres.”

From his humble beginnings as a street busker, Strassman now regularly sells out stadium theatres on international tours with his unique line in theatrical ventriloquism. His latest DVD went triple platinum in Australia and he was the first ventriloquist in 25 years to have a solo show in the West End. Celebrated as the guy who made ventriloquism “hip”, Strassman has been an Edinburgh festival regular for over ten years, delighting people with his brand of filthy, high-speed comedy and gang of colourful puppets. Contemptuous of colleagues who are simply there to impress with their technical skill, Strassman spends hours honing and creating unique characters for his dummies, with back stories and personalities that are as complex as any human’s.

“The puppets have the same hopes, dreams, fears and neuroses that you would have in a play. My background was in theatre so in all my work you find the same elements you would find in a stage play.”

His 2010 festival show, Duality, has been placed firmly in the theatre section of the Fringe brochure. A psychological study that looks at the relationship between ventriloquist and dummy, it appears to be moving away from his straightforward trademark comedy and into a decidedly more serious vein. “Duality is pretty intense. I always knew I wanted to do a grand drama. No one’s ever done it in the history of ventriloquism.”

Set in a psychiatrist’s waiting room, the show examines a mentally ill ventriloquist and his puppet debating one another’s existence. “The conversations go from philosophy to religion, from war to duality from the inner voice to psychoanalysis.” As we see the ventriloquist considering suicide, the puppet realises that to survive he must convince the man not to go through with it.

It all sounds rather fantastical, but Strassman is keen to underline that this is a drama based in reality. “The puppet wants to live, but there are no supernatural hints; it’s just a sick guy who has developed a puppetpersonality”.

I wonder if he has developed such a personality. He smirks. “My puppets don’t exist unless I’m rehearsing or in a show. Offstage they are professional equipment.” And

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festtheatre D Hartwig

“I always knew I wanted to do a grand drama. No one’s ever done it in the history of ventriloquism” they are fancy equipment at that; in the late ‘80s, Strassman’s puppets began to move for themselves – sort of. A self-professed model airplane geek, it was still Strassman pulling the strings, but by putting the radio controlled robotics of the planes into his puppets he succeeded in giving them the appearance of complete autonomy. Regardless, Strassman doesn’t impress us merely with cheap conjuring tricks: “I hope people won’t go ‘oh it’s so clever’, but see the story and plot. The theatrical movement is only there to augment their realities – it’s the icing on the cake.”

This utopian vision for ventriloquist theatre is perhaps not so far away as it may appear. Everywhere one looks, puppetry is being brought into the theatrical limelight.

But it hasn’t always been an easy transition. As Lyn Gardner rather wryly wrote in 2005, there is nothing in British theatre more likely to fill critics and audiences with despair than a show involving puppetry.

But in the light of hits such as War Horse and Avenue Q, could it be that this artform is finally being looked upon more kindly?

Experimental theatre practitioner Mick Gordon has utilised puppetry in his psychologically probing “On Theatre” series, asking, “Are we just the puppets of our emotions?

This question led us to the puppeteers Blind Summit and the central metaphor of puppetry which dominates the performance.” Bringing puppetry even closer to the mainstream are Cornish over-achievers Kneehigh Theatre Company, who play with the artform in order to realise their special brand of theatrical folklore in shows such as Rapunzel and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Puppets, it seems, are now not only tolerated but actively admired as instruments with which to tell stories within ‘straight’ theatre.

Anton Adasinsky from the avant-garde Russian clowning troupe Derevo believes that puppetry has inspired all of their work.

“From the very beginning Derevo were trying to reach the same freedom in motion as a puppet has. It was not an imitation of a marionette; instead, it was indeed the

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Left The famous face of ventriloquism, David Strassman swaps rapid-fire gags for serious drama Above Russian clown troup Derevo use movements inspired by puppetry in Harlekin Right Jammy Voo use clowing and puppetry throughout their play A Corner of the Ocean

perfect skill in handling of the bodies, balance, co-ordination and mainly, the complete submission of the purpose of the performance.” For anyone who’s seen Derevo’s magical blend of movement and physical flair, the comparison seems strangely fitting. There is a childlike vulnerability to their work which is mirrored in the openness of puppetry. “People who work with puppets are hardly ever cynical. It’s great soul therapy. It’s life in a fairytale.”

This sentiment is echoed by Eliza Wills from Jacque Lecoq-trained company Jammy Voo. “A clown is very open. There’s this innocence of a clown, and it helps people to talk about things very openly, and puppetry can as well.” With a number of the company’s members having 

edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 47

festtheatre  trained in puppetry (especially Yngvild Aspeli, who trained at the prestigious École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette) Jammy Voo use puppets in a myriad of ways, mixing clowning, a cappella singing and live music. Each story brings a different use for the puppets. “If we’re looking to express something that maybe the actor can’t, the work that we do with the puppets talks more about our feelings and impulses. The puppet is expressing abstract feelings – things that are going on inside.”

While this has many echoes of Derevo’s expressive ethos Jammy Voo also work in line with Strassman’s model, sometimes having puppets with their own characters that they play directly opposite. Indeed, as inanimate objects, the imaginative possibilities and capabilities of puppets are endless. “It transports you back to being a child. People are fascinated by this person who’s you but smaller and somehow it opens up an imagination in them which is very appealing,” Wills explains. Adasinsky agrees: they are both us and not us. “Not to

forget that puppets don’t have their own thoughts, that’s why they are always more interesting and mysterious.”

With performers such as Strassman pushing the relationship of creator and creation, and the influence puppetry now wields in all types of theatre, it is easy to see why this form is moving away from the toy boxes of its past and into the heady footlights of the future. It appears that, on this occasion, the great Oscar Wilde couldn’t have been more wrong when he said: “There are many advantages in puppets. They never argue. They have no crude views about art. They have no private lives.” I think I know a number of puppeteers who would beg to differ. f Strassman: Duality @ Pleasance Courtyard 4-30 Aug, 7pm, £12–13

A Corner of the Ocean @ Underbelly

6-29 Aug (not 16), times vary, £8.50–9.50

Harlekin @ Pleasance Courtyard

4-30 August (not 9, 16, 23), 1:00pm, £12

movers&shakers Jane Berthoud As Head of BBC Radio Comedy, Berthoud and her team of producers see hundreds of Fringe comedians ever year. Wielding the power to make or break careers, she is arguably the most powerful comedy scout in the country.

Jonathan Mills Shrugged off as a “minnow” when he arrived in 2006, EIF Director Mills has slowly built up a reputation as a bold, eloquent and savvy operator. Entrusted with a cool £10 million in spending money, the Australian is arguably the only individual at the Festivals with serious programming power.

Anthony Alderson Founded in 1985 in a deserted university car park, The Pleasance has grown to become the premier “supervenue” at the Fringe. Along with founder Christopher Richardson, Alderson’s programming deserves most of the credit, consistently striking the balance between new talent and established stars.

Lynn Gardner One of the most authoritative theatre critics in the UK, Guardian journalist Gardner is one of the few

48 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

The Edinburgh Festivals generate £200 million for the British Economy. But in this massive sprawling playground for the arts, where does the real power lie?

outside the Scottish press who gives the Fringe the respect it deserves. Commanding huge respect among the theatre community, a good review from Gardner has been known to launch careers.

Andrew Eaton

Far removed from the army of headline-grabbing critics on the frontline, Eaton is arguably the journalist who wields the most influence at the Fringe.

As arts editor for The Scotsman and The Scotland on Sunday, Eaton sets the agenda at the most influential of Festival media sources.

Dominic Hill The Traverse Theatre is the spiritual home of Fringe theatre. Under Hill’s strong artistic leadership it has only further cemented its reputation as Scotland’s premier new writing theatre, gaining particular recognition for its daring and innovative Fringe programming.

Steve Bennett Ask any comic which comedy critic they respect and almost certainly Chortle creator Steve Bennett will be at the top of the list. Feted for his encyclopaedic knowledge of alternative comedy and his thoughtful, constructive reviews, Bennett’s judgments carry considerable currency at the Festival.

Mel Brown A one-woman whirlwind of publicity power, Brown is the brains behind PR firm Impressive. Representing comedy heavyweights Rhod Gilbert, Jimmy Carr and Sarah Millican among others, Brown is feared and respected by journalists in equal measure.

Nica Burns The Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards may have lost some of its kudos in recent years but it remains the most prestigious prize in British comedy. At the helm is arts entrepreneur Burns, whose empire also includes many of London’s most prestigious West End theatres.

Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood Precocious entrepreneurs Bartlam and Wood have revolutionised the Fringe in the last 10 years. Starting their empire in the mouldy, derelict vaults of the Central Library, their Underbelly brand has gone on to colonise large swathes of Festival-land and along the way has established itself as the hippest and most unashamedly commercial of Edinburgh’s major venues.

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edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 49

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28 Traverse Theatre Lothian Road, 0131 228 1404

19 Pleasance Dome Bristo Square, 0131 556 6550

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30 Just the tonic @ The Caves Niddry St South, 0131 208 2351

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festvenueguide Underbelly

The Queen’s Hall

Based in the cavernous former vaults of the Edinburgh Central Library, Underbelly is the youngest of the so-called big four venues.

Recognised as the most self-consciously hip major venue, Underbelly is home to two bars and the late-night comedy showcase, Spank.

The year-round home of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, this full-size concert hall holds host to an eclectic mix of events for the Edinburgh International Festival, Fringe and the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival throughout August.

56 Cowgate, 08445 458 252

85-89 Clerk Street, 0131 668 3456

Udderbelly

Usher Hall

Easily the most physically distinctive venue in Edinburgh, Udderbelly is literally a giant, upside-down, purple cow. With a capacity of 400, Udderbelly is the also the Underbelly family's largest performance space and regularly plays host to the biggest names in comedy.

One of Britain’s leading concert venues, the Usher Hall’s spectacular acoustics, its size and it’s world-famous organ made it a sorely-missed absentee from last year’s programme. But while the £25 million refurbishment won’t be fully complete, the doors will be thrown open in August for the likes of Sir Willard White and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Bristo Square, 08445 458 252

Pleasance Courtyard

60 Pleasance, 0131 556 6550

As the largest single site in Edinburgh for stand-up comedy, the Pleasance Courtyard is something of a hub for comedy enthusiasts. It's the place to discover the next big thing, to see the biggest names and to enjoy an afternoon's celeb-spotting in the sunshine.

Pleasance Dome

1 Bristo Square, 0131 556 6550

Situated on Bristo Square, the Pleasance Dome spends much of the year masquerading as Edinburgh University's student union. However, during August it plays host to the Pleasance's more avant garde theatre offerings. Moreover, it houses Edinburgh's famous Mosque Kitchen, the place to go for curry at all hours.

Zoo Venues

140 The Pleasance & 117 Nicolson Street 0131 662 6892

Zoo’s two venues—housing five separate performance spaces—are particularly famed for their hosting of new writing. Modern dance and cabaret are also big here.

Lothian Road, 0131 228 1155

Assembly @ George Street 54 George Street, 0131 623 3030

The former hub of the Fringe before its shift to Bristo Square, George Street is the Assembly rooms’ flagship venue. In addition to two bars, the stylish Georgian complex continues to attract a mix of big names and hot newcomers – though which of these categories John Smeaton fits into is anyone’s guess.

C Venues

c @ Chambers Street / C too @ Johnston Terrace / C s0c0 @ Chambers Street / C Central @ north Bridge, 0845 260 1234

It’s probably fair to say that C Venues live up to their marketing buzz words, “vibrant, vivacious, variety.” With five locations in the centre of the city, there’s a wealth of spaces to fit a huge variety of new work, from the award-worthy to the mediocre.

Traverse Theatre

Cambridge Street, 0131 228 1404

Sweet Venues 61 Grassmarket 0870 241 0136

Sweet return to the Fringe in 2010 at their Grassmarket location. Home to much small theatre and newcomer comedy, Sweet shows can be variable but some pleasant surprises are always found lurking in the programme.

The Stand Comedy Club 5 York Place, 0131 558 7272

Edinburgh’s only year-round independent comedy club, The Stand has become the venue of choice for a group of high profile comedy renegades, such as Stewart Lee and Daniel Kitson, who have shunned the glitzy commercialism of the big four’s Comedy Festival in favour of the Stand’s more intimate and authentic charm.

Greyfriars Kirk

86 Candlemaker Row, 08452 26 27 21

While hosting an active Presbyterian community, the idyllic Greyfriars Kirk has a less-than-secret dual role throughout the year as one of Edinburgh’s regular classical music venues. August continues in this vein with an extensive EIF programme.

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The Traverse is the spiritual home of Fringe theatre. Opened in 1963 on the premises of a former brothel, the venue has long cultivated a reputation as Scotland's premier new writing theatre and represents one of the only 'safe bets' for audiences looking for quality at the Fringe.

Bedlam Theatre

11b Bristo Place, 0131 225 9893

Housed in an impressive neo-Gothic church, Bedlam is the oldest student-run theatre in the country. Although its Fringe programme largely consists of student productions—which can vary wildly in quality—you're likely at least to stumble across a few unpolished gems.

Gilded Balloon

13 Bristo Square, 0131 622 6552

Home of Late 'n' Live—the original and most raucous late-night comedy showcase—the Gilded Balloon, though perhaps the most diminutive of the big-four venues, still offers a staggering 70 shows a day in eight performance spaces.

edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 51

festtheatre

Here comes the Sun

In her powerful play No Child... Nilaja Sun shines a light on New York's creaking public education system. She tells Arianna Reiche about the very personal inspiration behind this overtly political work of art

“G

allop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phoebus’ lodging – such a wagoner as Phaeton would whip you to the west!” Nilaja Sun is reciting Juliet in a thick New York accent, recounting the moment she realised she had to put her experiences teaching in New York City’s public schools into writing.

They were studying Shakespeare in one of her inner-city school placements, and her students were reading Romeo and Juliet aloud.

“This teenage girl with the cutest, thickest accent was just getting so into it!” Sun exclaims.

“I thought, how would people view this girl otherwise? I knew I had to create an homage to the kids I’d taught. They’re so cute and so loving, but people don’t see that.” This story is just a fragment of her tapestry of experience that led to the drama No Child..., which makes its Edinburgh debut this August.

Non-Americans may be forgiven for

missing the titular reference in No Child... As divisive as any piece of Bush-era legislation, 2001’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act was an attempt to raise standards in public schools through standardised testing. The bill was messy, and it sparked dissent among educators, parents and students alike. A particular criticism has been the bill’s effect on inner-city schools, where some poor kids have been left a dismal production-line of exam preparation.

“At the time, and even now, NCLB was the elephant in the room for teachers. Really I wanted to title the show in such a way that it would be clear that it was about education.” But Sun, a native New Yorker born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, insists that the messages in her original piece are universal. It’s a play about education, but as the title suggests, it’s also about every child’s progress into adulthood. “It’s a very sexy title.

52 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Above Acclaimed playwright Nilaja Sun sets her sights on the American school system

Though there is that slight reference to NCLB, generally it’s more heart, it’s a political piece but it’s more emotionally political.”

After receiving a grant from Epic Theatre Ensemble in 2005, Sun found her experiences in New York City’s public schools coming together to form something cohesive.

“Throughout the course of the previous ten to fifteen years, I had found that there are stories that just kind of pour out of you. And this was one of them. The play is a call to opening hearts to notice how teens are growing into adulthood.”

No Child... takes its audience through a six-week long “workshop” where we are introduced to the characters that occupy Sun’s pseudo-fictional classroom. We witness her trials through the eyes of an educator, and—as Sun intended when she first realised she had to write the play—we grow to empathise with a type of young person which society tends to vilify. But as with her unlikely Juliet, Sun’s completely candid, often charming experiences with these kids makes for a re-examining of our fears: “I wanted to shine a light on what it is to work in inner city schools, with at-risk students. As a teaching artist, each year you work in maybe five-to-seven different schools, so by 2005 I had worked in maybe thirty or thirty-five,” she explains. “I’d worked with so many different teachers, had met and taught so many different students, and experienced so many fabulous, crazy, triumphant, tragic moments that I decided I had to create a piece in which you saw the great humour of the kids, and the great humour of their situations, but you also got to see the depths of what these kids are thinking.”

Sun has that enviable aura of a life-long performance artist. And, on this sweltering day in Greenwich Village, her presence is a calming force amid the buzzing Barrow Street Theatre, Sun’s host company who are coming off their success of the Thornton Wilder classic Our Town. A newspaper clip is circulating downstairs with pictures of celebrities in their audience that went unnoticed. And in a blissfully air-conditioned office-loft, Sun chats about her experience working with kids in Tanzania, the global nature of her call to art and education coming full-circle.

“This really is a kind of love letter to the different schools I’ve worked in,” Sun explains, “and especially to the teachers who stuck it through year after year after year.” f No Child... @ Assembly George Street 5-30 Aug (not 23), 2.20pm, £10-£12

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edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 53

festtheatre

Feminism’s

new direction Ishbel McFarlane gets her claws into feminism at the Fringe and finds that the political is still personal for some playwrights

54 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

T

he Edinburgh Fringe attracts metaphors. It is too large and various for formal definition, so it becomes a Leviathan of culture, a Godzilla of theatre, a month-long playground for London. It has a fuzzy underbelly of kids’ shows, a shaggy coat of university societies, the strong legs of the well-resourced Traverse. And, ready to swipe when you least expect it, there are the teeth and claws of the cutting edge.

While these sharp bits might only fill a few pages of the Fringe guide, they punch, or rather scratch, above their weight. Last year’s spikiest claw was Nic Green’s performance Trilogy, which addressed the joys and complexities of being a young woman in today’s society. It included a dance-routine performed by 100 local women. They were naked and they bounced. A lot. The show was a huge success. It was also unashamedly feminist.

The fact that these final two statements sit oddly together reveals an unfortunate fact of the current British theatre scene: even among those who consider themselves theatre-enthusiasts, the phrase “feminist theatre” often conjures up a mixture of postmodernist playwright Caryl Churchill and that episode of Friends where Chandler and Ross were forced to watch an enormously long one-woman show which began:”‘My First Period”.

In fact, feminism as a movement as well as a theatrical genre has had a tricky time of late – for the last few decades, in fact.

Contemporary feminists look back fondly to the simpler days of the ‘60s and ‘70s, when the formula went along the lines of “baking = repression”; “burning bras = liberation”. Now we have Nigella bending alluringly over a pineapple-turnover, while pert-nippled bralessness is an aim for the silicon-enhanced.

The conundrum of contemporary feminism is summed up the figure of its current poster-girl, Lady Gaga. Here is a pop-star more despot than princess, who once shot fireworks from her bra in a live concert and told an interviewer, rather limply, that she was “a bit of a feminist”. She is confident, powerful and at the top of her field: feminism says “Yes!”. She did a topless shoot for a men’s magazine: feminism shuffles its feet, remains silent.

Nic Green was one writer who used a show at last year’s Fringe to tackle the ageold question of whether a woman who displays her body is liberated or exploited. This year the issue is strutting about on stage in numerous productions, many of which are burlesque acts. One such show is Lashings of Ginger Beer Time, which promises ‘’queer feminist cabaret’, offering “titillation for the brain”. Performed by the Radical Feminist Burlesque Collective, this show stands alone in the Fringe guide in its use of the ‘F’ word.

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festtheatre

Of course, typing “feminist” into the Fringe search engine is never going to uncover every show dealing with issues of female sexuality and sexist exploitation. If feminism is hard to define these days, it is also often hard to spot. For a start, feminist shows are as likely to promote themselves with a sexy female silhouette on a shocking pink background as any other performance trying to shift tickets. One group of shows which concern an issue close to the feminist heart are those which deal with female abuse.

There is a gaggle of verbatim shows that hope to expose the realities of sex-slavery.

Two of these are backed by big names. The first is Emma Thompson. Emma Thompson Presents: Fair Trade is inspired by the true stories of two women who escaped the sex slave trade. Another big name—at least in the small world of Scottish theatre—is Cora Bissett, the star of 2009’s Midsummer. This year she directs Roadkill, a multimedia piece mounted by the Traverse and performed in a tenement flat, which tells the true story of a Nigerian girl trafficked to work in Glasgow’s sex industry.

Away from the horror of these situations, however, this year’s Fringe will be broaching feminist issues that settle in more recognisable areas of our lives. The rallying cry of the second wave of feminists in the 1960s and 1970s was “the personal is political”, an idea which later lost favour thanks to the caricatured image of the “raging feminist”. But the awareness that our personal lives are ruled by external, political forces, is a seam running through many pieces which will be performed this August.

“For me, there is very little difference between a porno magazine and a bridal magazine; both promote unrealistic ideals of gender performativity,” says Nicola Cross, director of Your Dream Wedding, a site-specific performance which will take place in an

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Edinburgh shop transformed into “Michael’s luxury bridal salon”. Punters—male, female, married, single, straight, gay—will be encouraged to talk all things wedding; to touch, feel and taste their ideal Big Day. As a feminist theatre maker, Cross felt that the multi-million pound wedding industry was in need of dissection: “Everybody loves weddings. They get away with some dubious feminist principals because they allow you to spend a whole day getting pissed with old friends. At their best, they are a joyous celebration of love, commitment and respect. At their worst, they are patriarchy masquerading as ‘tradition’.”

The site-specific nature of both Your Dream Wedding and Roadkill, and the partyparty character of the numerous Cabaret shows like Your Little Princess Is My Little Whore, highlights an interesting question about whether feminism avoids the proscenium arch or whether the proscenium arch repels feminism. Ella Hickson, already something of a Fringe stalwart at 25 with three shows and a couple of awards to her name, feels that being slightly off-kilter is necessary for plays which aim to address feminist issues in a society where, whatever Lady Gaga might mumble, feminism is still a dirty word.

Her latest play, Hot Mess, is also sitespecific, performed in the trendy nightclub Hawke and Hunter. But this is not a cabaret or a burlesque: Hot Mess is a straight play about four people bent by the gender expectations that surround them. “It tries to normalise the extremes of feminine behaviour and shows that the things we consider normal in female behaviour are quite extreme,” she explains. “I wouldn’t say the show wears its feminism on its sleeve. Unlike my previous plays, Hot Mess has an almost magic-realist feel, because if you tackle these issues head on people just stop listening.

Top Award-winning young playwright Ella Hickson returns to the festival with a new play, Hot Mess Left & above Your Dream Wedding invites audiences to interact in a bridal boutique

“I am interested in the fact that women are very willing to bad-mouth feminism with the aim of getting men into bed. Female promiscuity was once seen as a great success, but it’s more complicated now. The show is in large part concerned with love and forgettability, two facts of human life that promiscuity throws into sharp relief.”

Maybe by doing shows in the places where we live our lives—a tenement flat, a shop, a nightclub—rather than in the darkness of the theatres where we go to escape them, these young theatre makers are quietly telling us that the political is still personal. The beast that is the Fringe will be sharpening its feminist claws this August. f Your Dream Wedding @ Assembly George St 4-30 Aug (not Tues), 1pm/3pm, £15

Hot Mess @ Hawk & Hunter 6-30 Aug (not 28), 6pm, £7.50-£9

edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 55

festtheatre

FEST BEST

Traverse shows

While You Lie

Traverse Theatre 4-29 Aug (not 9, 16, 23), times vary, £11-£17

Adding to the tapestry of this year’s introspective performances, While You Lie promises to be a harrowing journey into the human tendency to explore those secrets which may be best left untouched. Taking a view of honesty as threatening and dangerous, Sam Holcroft’s piece has been branded “fearsome” and “brave”. Not for the faint of heart, and perhaps best followed by some comfortingly mediocre standup, Traverse veteran Zinnie Harris directs this much-lauded examination of human nature and lies.

My Romantic History Traverse Theatre 6-29 Aug (not 9, 16, 23), times vary, £11-£17

A rom-com at the Traverse? DC Jackson examines how our hearts’ past affects our future when it comes to all things relationships and sex. Tom and Amy could be any couple: they met after university at an office night out, got serious quickly and now find themselves unsure of how to reconcile their love with memories of their childhood sweethearts. A refreshing addition to The Traverse’s otherwise rather weighty lineup, My Romantic History may very well be the company’s sell-out hit this time around.

Flesh and Blood & Fish and Fowl Traverse @ St Stephen Street, 3-28 Aug (not 9, 23), 7:00pm, £12-£19

New York’s Barrow Street Theatre is well represented this year with No Child... playing at Assembly. Across town at The Traverse, Charlotte Ford and Geoff Sobelle’s Flesh & Blood & Fish and Fowl combines post-apocalyptic storytelling with taxidermy and puppetry. An isolated group of humans survives on as a twisted micro-civilisation in the world’s last office building. Darkly comedic, the show will chime with Edinburgh’s penchant for all things weird and intelligent.

[Arianna Reiche]

56 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

One man’s rules

Experimental playwright Tim Crouch tells Ben Judge of his disdain for violence in theatre and why he holds the audience responsible

I

n the bustling, crowded and hugely competitive world of Fringe theatre, standing out from the crowd is a daunting, nearimpossible task.

No more starkly is this illustrated than if you take a walk down the Royal Mile during August. This is a world in which one positively expects to be accosted by dozens of thespians imploring you, screaming at you, to come and see their show. This is a world in which cheap conceits and gimmickry are all-too-often mistaken for creativity and experimentation.

This is a world in which I once genuinely heard: “You should like totally come and see our show; it’s, like, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, only on, like, a bouncy castle!”

However, it is a remarkable trait of the Edinburgh Festival that genuine theatrical excellence is able to, and often does, rise to the surface. This has been the story of the thoughtful and unassuming playwright, Tim Crouch, a man who, since his debut play My Arm opened at the Traverse in 2003, has become renowned for his experimental, boundary-pushing work.

This year, Crouch brings his fourth “grownup” production, The Author, to Edinburgh. It is a play that deals with issues surrounding violence and exploitation in the arts and the role of audience—in a way, the complicity of the audience—in that exploitation.

“The Author is the story of a play,” says Crouch, “what I would term an abusive play – abusive in every sense of the word. I, in The Author, play a playwright called Tim Crouch

who has written that play and is responsible for rehearsing two actors into the play and in the process abuses them as well.

“What starts as a conversation about another play becomes broader and broader: [it’s] about how we show the world, how we mediate the world and how we use the world, how we exploit the world to create art. It’s a highly critical play in many respects, about how disconnected we have become as consumers of media from our responsibilities to the world. So we look at things, we’re happy to watch things on computer screens, on television screens, and we’re happy not to make a connection between ourselves and the things that we look at. And I feel very strongly that we should be more responsible.”

Crouch is explicit in noting that he has a real problem with the portrayal of violence in the arts. He argues that images we choose to look at, the art we choose to consume, is a reflection of our values as a society. And by consuming violent images, we are somehow endorsing the violence that is portrayed.

“I’m not coming over all Mary Whitehouse!” he says, laughing, “But one of the central questions in The Author is about the endemic representational acts of violence and abuse in our media. I have a problem with realistic theatrical representations of violence, not because I don’t think they should exist, but because I think they should be used intelligently. I think they should be used challengingly, that they should not be used lazily. When you think about some of the great works of film that have used

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festtheatre

“I, in The Author, play a playwright called Tim Crouch who has written that play and is responsible for rehearsing two actors into the play, and in the process abuses them as well.”

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violence, and often the violence is just outside the camera. Those are things that bring us in as opposed to just titillate our basest instincts.

“The Author is a play about live art, because it’s a play about a play, but also it connects to issues surrounding the internet, it connects to issues around the connection between what we choose to look at and what we do when we choose to look at something, what we buy into when we choose to look at something, what we endorse when we choose to look at something. And currently I think there is such a casual laziness about recognising our responsibilities as spectators.”

If grand, philosophical questions are a hallmark of Crouch’s work, so too is an innovative use of space. The Author is no different.

Indeed, so enthusiastic is he about the staging of his production that it’s the first thing he wants to talk about.

“It’s unusual. There’s no performance space whatsoever. When the audience enters the Trav 2 they are confronted by two banks of seating facing each other with a one metre gap. They sit in those two banks and they are witness to each other, watching each other.

They see each other seeing. And within the audience there are a number of performers who are as anonymous as the audience members. There is no action in the play, no physical action. A story is told but the most active thing that happens in the play is that the audience

Left & above Tim Crouch challenges audiences with unorthodox staging in The Author

come in and the audience go out. That’s the pinnacle of the action.”

“So that’s unusual. There is no stage. And it’s been interesting talking to theatres that we’re touring to. They’ve found it quite difficult to get their heads around. They go: ‘Well, where are the actors?’ And we go: ‘Well, they’re sitting in the audience.’ So I’m sitting with audience members on either side of me and the other actors have audience members on either side of them too. It’s kind of playful but it is also employed as a device to provoke the audience to consider their own position. We’re not putting up great big signposts for them in this play. ‘Look, the play has begun. Look, I’m a character. Look, the lights are going down and now its dark.’ It’s not like that. It reevaluates the rules, the traditional rules, of being in a theatre space.” f The Author @ Traverse Theatre

6-29 Aug (not 9, 16, 23), times vary, £11-£17

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festtheatre Get set, go

Ernest and the Pale Moon @ Pleasance Courtyard, Aug 25-26, 11.15pm, £8-£10 Vaudevillains, Pleasance Dome, Aug 16, 20.45pm, £15 The Terrible Infants, Pleasance Courtyard, Aug 23-30, 2pm, £10-£12.50

Theatre company Les Enfants Terrible were a hit at last year’s Fringe with their gothic creepfest Ernest and the Pale Moon, the tale of a loner who spends his time spying from his window on the girl across the road.

Critics praised the show’s design – especially the inventive use of a crooked wooden frame which became a door, a window, even the floor. The overall effect was almost vertiginous. Zoe Squire designed the set for Ernest, which returns as one of the Enfants’ three 2010 shows. She told Ed Ballard how this idea came about.

1. Original sketch for Ernest

3. The finished article

"The reason we ended up going for that asymmetric shape was to play with perspective."

2. Model for Gwendoline's Room

"I wanted it to be this little world, to draw the audience's eye to a certain point."

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"You're almost spying on Ernest, you become the voyeur."

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festkids

Doin’ it for

the kids

Fast becoming a keystone of the Fringe programme, children's shows offer as much variety as their grownup counterparts. Tom Hackett meets some of the innovators looking to entertain your kids

T

here are almost 100 kids shows to choose from at the Fringe this year, from small amateur productions to ambitious, boundary-pushing shows from top-flight companies. But taking kids to the theatre can be a risky business. At worst, it’s a nightmare of shuffly bottoms, tugs on sleeves and “can we get an ice cream now?”

At best, shows at the Fringe can enthrall, inspire and entertain kids and their parents in equal measure.

Launching our new Kids section, here Fest talks to the creators of three of the most promising family shows about how they work their magic. We’ll have plenty more recommendations and reviews throughout August, but you can’t go far wrong with these.

More fun than a Wii Perhaps the best option for pure belly laughs comes courtesy of Australian duo The List Operators, whose brilliantly silly and funny sketch show for adults was one of the unexpected highlights of last year’s Fringe.

This year they’ve adapted their shtick for the kiddy market and the results have impressed the critics back home: theirs was the first children’s show ever to be nominated for the prestigious Barry Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

“That was a big deal for us, we totally didn’t expect it,” says Richard Higgins—’Rich’— over a videocall to Fest a couple of months after their victory. Co-star Matthew Kelly— ’Matt’—and no, not that one—agrees, stressing “we were up against a bunch of all sorts of other acts from all over the world, entertaining adults, and our show was chosen as one of the best.” But an even more important endorsement came from a child at a festival for under-8’s in Brisbane. “One kid got so excited, they pooed their pants,” laughs Matt.

It’s easy to see where the excitement comes from. The List Operators’ conceit is that they have to write various lists on stage, on subjects ranging from “rude words” to “things that don’t go on a sandwich.” As with their adult show, Rich plays the straight man, determined to keep the show educational, whilst Matt is the naive, anarchic presence who constantly derails the proceedings. It’s a premise with immense appeal to kids and Rich says that at the Brisbane show, “Matt just became this superhero to them.

Whenever he left the stage they were like, ‘Where is he going?! Come back, Matt! You’re the best! Rich, you’re boring!’”

For all its silliness, the show comes from a sincere conviction – that children deserve to have fun in the theatre. “A lot of what we get here in Australia in kids’ shows is moralistic and saccharine,” Matt says. Interrupting, Rich agrees: “It tries to be educational.

There’s this idea with children’s entertainment that you always have to educate children, whereas we think it’s a little unfair that you can’t just entertain them.”

The pair say that the techniques behind their kids’ and adults’ shows is more-or-less the same. “I think we kind of ask the same questions,” says Matt, “In what we do for adults we kind of play along the line of good taste and what you can get away with doing, and with our kids’ shows we do that as well.

Because both kids and adults find it really funny to play with that line.”

Consequently, things can get a little rude, but never out of control. “We know what we’re doing,” says Matt. But Rich says that they feel obliged to address “what children really want to talk about.” “Like butts,” says Matt. “And poo,” Rich concurs.

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“There's this idea with children's entertainment that you always have to educate children, whereas we think it's a little unfair that you can't just entertain them!”

Giant ambitions

Above The List Operators don’t see much difference between entertaining children and adults Right Indefinite Articles want to challenge children as well as entertain them Far right The Merchants’ Hall programme features increasingly popular interactive theatre from Spotlites

On the more serious theatre side, it’s worth checking out the work of experimental company Indefinite Articles. Praised by The Guardian for “celebrating the possibilities of theatre”, the company was created partly on the basis that children want theatre to challenge them as well as to entertain. “Children’s theatre has always been a lot freer, in a sense,” says founding member Steve Tiplady. “It’s always been a lot more physical and can be more prepared to take risks. Children are a lot more accepting of breaking conventions, whereas adults can be very staid in their outlook.”

Taking advantage of children’s natural spirit of adventure, the company’s unusual technique is to startwith a specific material, and to build a show from there. Indefinite Articles’ first ever piece was a version of Carlo

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festkids Collodi’s classic tale Pinocchio, in which the child is built and animated on stage from a block of wood and some chairs. “And then all of the other characters are objects within the carpenter’s workshop,” says Tiplady, “so the environment dictates the story.”

In the company’s latest venture The Chalk Giants, the story emerges from the environment even more dramatically. “We live on a chalk escarpment,” explains co-founder Sally Brown, “so we devised the show with that material, using it for drawing to tell the legendary Jack and the Giant stories, telling them on a really epic scale.” Some of the show’s visual cues are taken from the famous giant chalk figures in England, from the Cern Abbas Giant to the Uffingham Horse.

This playful approach allows the company to toy with people’s preconceptions of the familiar stories, from perennial favourite Jack and the Beanstalk to the less well-known legend of Jack the Giant-Killer. “We see the giants in a much more sympathetic light,” says Brown, “seeing them as sort of protectors of the landscape, and almost like graffiti artists, carving these huge chalk drawings from the hills.”

The show is given its “backbone” by the poet John Agard, who has written a narrative and a series of poems that will “weave a thread through the whole story,” says Brown. “It’s very rich, beautiful, poetic language and it’s also very funny, very animalistic,” she continues.

“There’s a lot of debate about whether the chalk giants were jokes, cartoons, satirical comments on the leaders of their day. The Cern Abbas giant is definitely a fertility thing, with his willy. Agard’s addressed that in his text, and I think we will too – so we’re going to be quite light in places!”

Taking the Spotlite As if the above shows weren’t engaging and inventive enough, another company operating at the Fringe actually lets children help make the show themselves. Spotlites Theatre specialises in what it calls “interactive children’s theatre,” and founder Rachel King explains that they “let the kids call the shots, right from the word go.”

Fast becoming a Fringe institution, Spotlites’ productions at the Merchants’ Hall are built around popular child-friendly stories: anything from Treasure Island to Doctor Who, often mixed up in unexpected ways – last year’s outing was called Sleeping Beauty and the Timelords. But their key feature is that children are invited to come up on stage throughout the show, interacting with the actors and helping to determine the path of the story. In previous years, children have been challenged to master the art of shooting foam bow and arrows, designed and built a ‘timelock’, and battled a knight with an enormous jousting pole.

“We try to work with the whole concept that children do believe it’s real,” explains King, “and for them it does change from being a bit of paper, to a bird or a treasure map, or whatever.” By indulging their natural suspension of disbelief, she believes the shows can be very empowering for kids. “Children tend to have a lot of things prescribed for them— they’re told when to go to bed and when to eat and when to go to the loo—and I think when it comes to theatre what we really love is for them to call the shots.”

In the latest production, Robinson Crusoe the Lost Jedi Knight, the worlds of classic and contemporary fiction collide to form a narrative that sees the iconic castaway transformed into a star-faring warrior, lost on an ice planet with a droid named FR1D. Audience members get to learn how to wield lightsabers and have to crack codes to help the hero progress.

The interactive approach isn’t always predictable, of course, and “the great thing about kids is that they come up with something better than you thought of,” laughs King. “They’ll come up with genius ideas and you’ve got to be prepared immediately to come straight back with something. And if they decide they’re going to storm the stage, it will happen! We just have to go with it.” f

The List Operators for Kids Pleasance Courtyard 4-29 (not 17), 2.30pm, £8-£9

The Chalk Giants @ Zoo Roxy 6-24 Aug, 11.40am, £6.50

Magic Porridge Pot @ The Merchants’ Hall 4-7, 23-30 (not 24) Aug, 4:15pm, £4.50-£5.50

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kid

Where Can I Meet our critics ^ Put My Kids?

And other quandaries There's loads on offer for children at the Fringe – but there's also plenty for parents, too. And that needn't always mean bringing the kids along

W

hilst the number of highquality kids shows at the Fringe is large and growing, a common gripe amongst families is that the venues themselves are not the most child-friendly of places. It’s a problem that persists, but some venues are beginning to make more of an effort. Leading the way pretty stridently is the Pleasance, which this year opens the Festival’s very first bespoke crèche.

“It was pretty much born out of my own frustration,” says Candida Alderson, wife of Pleasance director Anthony Alderson and the brains behind the project. “Our twin boys were pretty much born in the Pleasance Courtyard.

We come up every year and there’s loads of great kids shows on, but there’s never anywhere to hang out with your kids before or afterwards.” An ad-hoc remedy was hastily arranged last year with the Teepee on the Green, which Alderson says parents were almost “pathetically grateful” for despite its fairly modest facilities.

This year the Pleasance Kidzone is a much more robust affair.

Nestled in the heart of the Pleasance Courtyard, It features the CIAO! Children’s Ark, a big wooden boat built from reclaimed materials and powered by various sources of green energy, including children’s own pedal power. “It’s aimed at teaching children about the environment,” says Alderson, raising questions like “what you would take on board with you, and what you would leave behind.

“We’ve also programmed it with loads of great kids shows,” including the likes of surreal poet John Hegley and bonkers funnyman Phil Kay. In addition, the Kidzone Dropzone is a crèche run by a professional company, that allows parents to dump their kids (aged 3-8) and take some time out to enjoy other shows. And they’ve even teamed up with an evening babysitting service, Super Mums, so that you can book a babysitter direct from the venue.

Whilst no venue is really competing with Pleasance Kidzone this year, there are other places to go. Assembly are opening their new Princes St Gardens venue around the Ross bandstand, with activities, free shows, music and food stalls for families throughout each day of the Festival. At their venue on George St, the upper balcony bar serves food to families all day and has a children’s menu.

Underbelly’s Pasture is an outdoor space in Bristo Square that’s family-friendly during the day and features giant Jenga and Connect 4, as well as some food stalls serving child-sized portions. Gilded Balloon Teviot has an indoor cafe where kids are welcome ‘til 10pm and the garden area is a fairly good space to chill out before or after the show, perhaps with a burger or ice cream from one of the stalls. Finally, C Venues have a lot of kids’ workshops during the day, including a green-fingered workshop in the main venue’s garden on Chambers Street. [Tom Hackett]

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This year, in our new kids section, we’re asking the experts what they think. Here’s our crack team of junior judges ready to wax lyrical on this year’s Festival.

Ciara Simms Hi, my name is Ciara Simms and I am 11 years old. My hobbies are reading and swimming and my favourite food is chocolate. I like to watch comedy shows because they are funny and they make me laugh. I also like to watch dance shows because afterwards you can go home and try out some of the dance moves.

Ewan Robertson My name is Ewan. I am 11 years old and I’m really happy to be involved in Fest and can’t wait to go to the shows! I really like football and broke my arm two weeks ago. I also swim for a club, when my arm isn’t broken. I have recently had to compete for my green belt in judo and it was tough.

I like a laugh, but also like an action side to it but would prefer just a loud musicy show. The best show I’ve been to see was the panto last Christmas (Robinson Crusoe). It was good because there was lots of funny jokes which really made me laugh out loud! I enjoy the panto every year, but the year before I was ill just before the end of the show. Yuk.

Fin Rutherford My name is Fin Rutherford and I am 10 years old. My favourite hobby is dancing. I love it! I think a good show has to have singing, dancing and also has to have a bit of humour. I love going to see shows especially musicals! I like to hear people sing but I don’t like singing myself. I have been in four dance shows and am going to be in one next year so that will be five! My favourite show/musical is probably School of Rock but I like loads more!

Eilidh Saville I enjoy tap, ballet, modern dancing, netball and gymnastics.

My favourite author is Jacqueline Wilson, and I am reading the Harry Potter books at the moment. I love to go to the theatre, especially musicals and any shows with singing and dancing.

The last shows I attended were Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and We Will Rock You.

Samantha Ovenstone Hello, my name is Samantha Ovenstone and I am 11 years old.

I am about to go into Primary seven at Juniper Green Primary School. In my spare time, I play the Cello, I dance and I also go to gymnastics lessons. I particularly like going to see dance, singing and comedy shows and I am looking forward to reviewing some for Fest!

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Book Festival

Highlights Tickets for the Book Festival sell out notoriously fast.

So here's a list of our top events that you might still be able to get tickets for – if you’re quick

Brian Keenan

RBS Main Theatre, 26 Aug, 6:30pm, £10

Having grown up in Belfast during the troubles in the 1950s, Keenan discusses his childhood and Northern Ireland’s divided society in his memoirs.

Ian Blair

RBS Main Theatre, 16 Aug, 6:30pm, £10

Tom Bingham

RBS Main Theatre, 23 Aug, 4:30pm, £10

Britain’s most senior law lord until 2008, Bingham considers the rule of law in the face of international terrorism.

Amartya Sen

The former head of the Metropolitan Police has experienced his fair share of controversy – notably the shooting of John Charles de Menezes.

Vidal Sassoon

RBS Main Theatre, 27 Aug, 6:30pm, £10

Best known as a hairdressing guru, Sassoon’s memoirs delve into his lesser known impoverished upbringing and service in the Israeli army.

Christopher Brookmyre

RBS Main Theatre, 29 Aug, 6:30pm, £10

The Nobel prizewinning economist and Harvard professor of Philosophy and Economics shares his thoughts on the directions of global justice.

Hanif Kureshi

RBS Main Theatre, 24 Aug, 11:30Am, £10

An acclaimed novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, Kureshi was recently named as one of The Times’s 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

RBS Main Theatre, 17 Aug, 8:00pm, £10

The Festival favourite returns to talk about his 13th novel- Pandemonium.

Always sharp and engaging.

David Shukman

RBS Main Theatre, 27 Aug, 8:00pm, £10

The BBC’s environment and science correspondent talks about the challenges and triumphs of reporting from some of the world’s most secluded and threatened areas.

Polly Toynbee and David Walker RBS Main Theatre, 29 Aug, 3:00pm, £10

With Labour out of government, the veteran political commentators return with their evaluation of the Blair and Brown years.

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festbooks

Books: Unbound The Book Festival might have finally worked out how to keep audiences at Charlotte square past teatime The Book Festival is famous for its ambience – the relaxing atmosphere of Charlotte Square Gardens, the chance to mix with some of the world’s most famous authors and its bookshop. Yet it often misses out on much of the vibrant atmosphere associated with the wider world of the Edinburgh festivals, with the vast majority of its flagship events selling out weeks before August has even begun.

Comparatively early finishing times—events tend to finish no later than 10pm—mean that those looking for the fuller festival experience are forced to look towards Bristo Square, the Pleasance and the Grassmarket.

Unbound is part of an effort to tackle this, allowing more people to participate in the Book Festival’s unique atmosphere.

Running throughout the festival, authors will explore new ways of presenting their work and engaging with audiences in Charlotte Square’s bar area, the High Park Spiegeltent. In an effort to offer more people the chance to attend events, tickets are free and will only be released on the morning of each event.

Homegrown talents are among the high profile events appearing this year – perhaps an indication of the desire of Scottish authors and festival favourites to expand the festival’s appeal to a wider audience. Christopher Brookmyre—one of Scotland’s favourite satirists and author of the series that brought us investigative journalist Jack Parlabane—will be appearing with musician Billy Franks to perform the songs that influenced his novels.

Likewise, A L Kennedy, best known for her literary skills but also a regular at The Stand and a performer at previous Fringes, will be bringing her comedy to the programme. Alan Bissett and Ian Macpherson also introduce their aptly titled DiScOmBoBuLaTe—a favourite on the Glasgow scene—adding a fusion of literature and comedy to the programme.

Roland Gulliver, the Book Festival’s programme manager, says that the new project is designed to bring a new dimension to the festival, describing it as “a collection of nights bringing together authors, poets and musicians to play, perform and read to you, to inspire and amuse you, maybe to make you feel a little uncomfortable.”

As well as those high-profile names gracing Unbound, there will be a chance to hear some of Scotland’s emerging talents.

The not-so-imaginatively named Dragon’s Pen will see a panel of judges from the country’s literary circles judge the work of an array of new authors from creative writing schools. Year of Open Doors will similarly give new writers the chance to read the chapters they contributed to a book of the same name.

“Live events like these are appearing everywhere from New York to London, from Glasgow to Edinburgh,” says Gulliver. “It is where new talent is being discovered and well-known faces get to play a little after hours.”

Whether or not Unbound will bring new late-night revelers to the Book Festival is yet to be seen, butgiving more people the opportunity to take part is one step towards enabling Charlotte Square to rank alongside the Pleasance and Assembly as places to visit this August. [Nick Eardley]

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Christos Tsiolkas His incisive questioning of Australian society in his latest novel The Slap won him the Commonwealth Writers Prize. He talks to Nick Eardley about multiculturalism, class and getting into the minds of his characters

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T

he most important stories can begin with the tiniest events. Take the central act in the latest novel by Christos Tsiolkas, the decision of one adult to smack someone else’s misbehaving child. The slap echoes differently for different people: what is for some an unacceptably violent act is a reasonable form of discipline for others.

But Tsiolkas has grander ideas. Never one to shy away from tackling the big issues, his novel—The Slap—takes this seemingly trivial event as the starting point for an analysis of the often-uneasy social interactions among the diverse individuals and groups of suburban Australia.

The book delves into the minds of the eight witnesses to the fateful blow, who between them comprise a cross-section of modern Australian society. Tsiolkas explores each individual’s reaction in a

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festbooks different chapter, all written in the first person singular. The remarkable way in which each character observes the world and people around them shows how the societal tensions—of culture, race, gender and class—play out from their unique perspectives.

A Greek-Australian himself, Tsiolkas has a clear ardour for analysing the tribulations of his home country.

“It is a book about morality; it questions what I think Western liberal-democratic societies have abandoned or been scared to ask.”

The Slap has garnered rave reviews for the author’s capacity to explore the multiple identities of its characters, as well as winning him the Commonwealth Writers Prize—the prestigious award for fiction across the 32 Commonwealth Nations—an experience he describes as “incredibly satisfying and humbling.”

The novel has been described, almost routinely, as controversial – perhaps because of its tender starting point and the immediacy of the book’s central dilemma; perhaps alluding to the way it has dissected the often-ignored prejudicial undertones of modern society. Its author believes that such portrayals say something about the audience.

“If it has been controversial it goes with what I have said that it reveals a selfishness at the core of contemporary Australian life that makes us uncomfortable.

Australia prides itself as being ‘egalitarian’, as having escaped the inertia and pervasiveness of the European class system. But in the last two decades Australians have grown richer and richer and more selfish as they have done so. Less egalitarian, more xenophobic. It is this tension between what we believe about ourselves and who we are that may make the novel ‘controversial’.”

The legacies of colonialism are a common feature in discussions of Australian culture, not least in literature. Tsiolkas’ counterparts, he believes, try to make sense of their countries past with literature set in a historical context – the relationships between the ethnic groups that migrated to the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

But Tsiolkas’ Greek heritage has given him a different outlook on these issues.

The Greek-Australian community began to become a significant element of Australian society in the 1950’s, when immigration was encouraged as a means to fuel Australia’s economic expansion.

“You can’t separate the politics of multiculturalism from the politics of class, from the rest of the politics of what is going on in society. In Australia, multiculturalism

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worked because after World War Two the country went through a great period of industrialisation and it needed migrant labour to make it succeed. Australian society is least tolerant, most xenophobic when there is economic uncertainty: during the recessions of the early eighties and early nineties for example. It is not a particularly Australian phenomenon. It is a global tension, I think.”

Tsiolkas’ accomplishment in The Slap is to shed light on this tension through the experiences of eight individuals – four men and four women of different classes; Greeks, an Indian and a French Jew among them. How hard is it to relate to such diverse characters?

“For a long time I was scared to write in the voices of women, in the voices of other cultures. But I have experience in writing now. I have learnt something about the craft. If I cannot imaginatively express different consciousness, different experiences, different points of view, then I should give up writing now. That is what I do as a writer of fiction.”

A writer of fiction, but not just a novelist. Tsiolkas has written a handful of plays and film scripts, the most recent of which was 2000’s Saturn’s Return, a sensitive exploration of the fragility of the relationships formed by Australia’s modern youth.

More recently he has stuck increasingly to literary fiction, but his output remains impressive – nine novels and scripts produced in the last decade. The work keeps coming, and he was recently surprised to find that he needed a change – if not a break, at least a retreat.

Tsiolkas was a resident at the Cove Park artists’ colony in Argyll for two months earlier this year and believes that this experience might have put him on the path to his next project. It has certainly introduced some much-needed quietness into his hectic life.

“Scotland has seduced me, the drama of the landscape and the historic link of its people with Australia. Being here has granted me another sort of peace, has allowed me to filter out some of the white noise that has hampered me starting a new book – the white noise that is an inevitable part of a literary life.

“It is good to learn I can escape it. I have started on the next novel, and just the other day pulled out a first draft of a play that I have not looked at in years.

“I have begun to work again.” f

Christos Tsiolkas Highland Park Spiegeltent 14 Aug, 10:15am, £10

FEST BEST

Fiction

Jeanette Winterson RBS Main Theatre, 16 Aug, 11:30am, £10

Adopted by Pentecostal workingclass parents, Winterson claims she was “not encouraged to be clever.”

Contrary to all expectations, she left home at 16 after falling in love with another girl, scraped a living while completing her A-Levels, and eventually read English at Oxford.

Since then, Winterson has had a prolific writing career, garnered numerous awards, and been awarded an OBE for her services to literature. Her first novel Oranges are Not the Only Fruit— written when she was only 23—has been widely and consistently acclaimed, dramatised for the BBC and now features on many university syllabuses. Her appearance at the book festival marks 25 years since the publication of Oranges...

Will Self RBS Main Theatre, 29 Aug, 9:30pm, £10

Once sacked from The Observer for allegedly snorting heroin in the toilet of the Prime Minister’s election jet, cult idol Will Self is anything but a bore. An author, journalist and frequent television talking-head whose work centres on postmodern satire and urban alienation, Self has successfully balanced popular acclaim and counter-cultural intellectualism for well over a decade.

He will be reading from and discussing his new book, Walking to Hollywood in an event ititled The dreams and fantasies of an obsessive-compulsive flâneur. Make of that what you will.

Joyce Carol Oates RBS Main Theatre, 29 Aug, 11:30pm, £10

Since publishing her first book in 1963, Joyce Carol Oates has gone on to publish over fifty novels, as well as several collections of short stories, poetry and non-fiction.

You could be forgiven for thinking writing was her full-time profession, but Oates is a teacher as much as a writer, and has been lecturing in creative writing at Princeton University since 1978.

Oates’ work displays a nostalgia for her rural working class childhood, constructs a uniquely Gothic-tinged brand of social critique, and deals with just about every human emotion ever experienced.

The woman behind some of the most graphic, visceral and violent novels, is also someone who claims to have “always lived a very conventional life of moderation”; hard to believe. [Iman

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festbooks

Fatima Bhutto

28-year old Fatima Bhutto, progeny of the Pakistan’s famous political dynasty, is an author and journalist in her own right. Her latest book, Songs of Blood and Sword, documents the saga of the ill-fated Bhutto family

What were your motivations and intentions behind writing Songs of Blood and Sword?

To break the silence that surrounds the culture of political violence in Pakistan and to preserve the memory and the history of that violence in an amnesiac nation.

Why the title?

It’s from a poem by the Iranian poet Khusro Golsorkhi that I love. Golsorkhi, who was a great critic of the monarchy’s corruption, feudalism and violence, was executed by the Shah’s regime and I came across the poem again while I was writing and it resonated.

What did you go through in writing the book?

It was a six-year-long journey. I travelled all over Pakistan, across Europe and America, cold-called strangers, sat in foreign libraries and trawled through archival material. That process of research was very important to me. It was a comfort too, because it gave me some space from what I was writing about in some instances. Emotionally, it was gruelling but intensely liberating.

What would you say to people who accuse you of being unashamedly partisan in Songs of Blood and Sword?

I can’t divorce myself from my family. I am writing about people I knew, lived with and loved. That said, I was critical of my grandfather, Zulfikar, where I felt he deserved it—as in the case of the state’s interference in Balochistan, among other issues for example—and the same for my father and aunt. I’m nobody’s keeper. To understand why my family met such violent ends I had to take a critical look at them. Where I felt they thrived, I spoke clearly in their defense.

But nothing is ever black and white.

How do you feel you fit in to the Bhutto dynasty?

I was born a Bhutto. It’s a last name. That’s how I see it. Others clearly disagree.

In what ways would you consider yourself political?

In every way, but one – I have no interest in participating in government.

I had a little giggle over your tweet: “It’s Afghanistan. And Pakistan.

They’re not the same, Richard.” I take it you’re critical of US involvement in Pakistan?

Afpak is such a moronic term, so wildly simplistic and so indicative of how American foreign policy works. I’m not a fan of Richard Holbrooke and his meddling in my country, no.

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FEST BEST

International Politics

Richard McGregor

Scottish Power Studio Theatre, 16 Aug, 2:00pm, £10

Richard McGregor states that a major theme of his latest book is “secrecy”. Having spent two decades reporting in Asia, the Financial Times’ China bureau chief has teased out the mysterious workings of the Chinese

Communist Party.

The Party documents the workings of the Chinese government and “how deeply its tentacles extend into all manners of institutions”. McGregor shows how, despite being seen as formidably authoritarian and viewed with suspicion all over the world, the Chinese system can be both rigid and flexible, restrictive and liberal, laissez faire and—should anyone cross the “red line into organised politics”—a very brutal beast indeed.

Tariq Ramadan People seem fixated on the Bhutto family, and really seem to speak of little else. Do you get sick of speaking about the family?

I think all discussion is constructive so long as we’re talking on political grounds, not personal ones. That said, I talk about a lot of things—women’s rights in Pakistan, election laws, the freedom of the press, the war on terror—but I understand that people are curious about the family.

You seem very interested in British politics — you’ve been tweeting about Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre, you write regularly for the New Statesman, and wrote a very funny letter to David Miliband.

What are your thoughts on UK-Pakistan relations?

I think the British government has played a negative subsidiary role in Pakistan’s politics, with David Miliband supplementing Secretary Clinton or Holbrooke’s strongarming. However, because of our colonial history British interference in Pakistani politics has a more sinister feeling. And the longer 10 Downing Street supports corrupt and criminal leadership in Pakistan, from the dictator General Musharaff to Zardari, that political resentment will remain.

However, I love that the anti-war movement in Britain means something and that there is a true multitude of voices and opinions being heard in the realm of British politics.

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How do you feel about the intermingling of politics and religion?

I think they should be separate.

You’ve moved around a lot – where is home for you?

Pakistan, always. But I have family from my mother’s side in Lebanon, so I feel very at home there too, and Syria was where I grew up so I have always felt a belonging there too.

What do you miss about Pakistan when you’re away?

Oh, everything. I miss the sound of the motorcycles with their loud exhausts, the smell of the sea, fresh coconut water, the people... I could go on. I’m perpetually homesick.

What do you enjoy reading?

I just finished reading Herta Muller’s The Land of Green Plums, which I found very moving and terrifying, and it has left me in a panicked search for more of her work in English. Before that I was reading The Memory of Love, Aminatta Forna’s latest. She’s a huge inspiration, I’m a huge fan. Janine di Giovanni’s The Quick and the Dead on the fall of Sarajevo was another recent read. I’d been looking for it for some time and finally found a copy in a small bookstore in London. As for papers, I always look out for Henry Porter and Simon Jenkins.

And I love A A Gill. [Iman Qureshi] f

Fatima Bhutto & Fay Weldon Charlotte Square Gardens 16 Aug, 7pm, £8.00

RBS Main Theatre, 28 Aug, 3:00pm, £10

Described variously as a fascist, an anti-Semite and a defender of the most brutal tenets of Shariah law, Tariq Ramadan is here, presenting his book What I Believe, to defend himself against these allegations.

For others, however, Ramadan is a reconciler and a progressive, seeking ways to balance faith and enagagement in modern, secular democracy. The Swiss academic is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University.

A controversial figure, Ramadan inevitably touches on the most sensitive nerves of our post-9/11 world.

After the Wars Highland Park Spiegeltent, 17 Aug, 7:00pm, £10

In a debate chaired by Allan Little, special correspondent for the BBC, two of the biggest names in international journalism will discuss the future of the ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Foreign correspondent James Fergusson is the author of A Million Bullets: The Real Story of the British Army in Afghanistan, and Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid’s latest book is entitled Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. The pair are among those most likely to foresee any possible means to recovery and lasting peace in the troubled regions.[Iman Qureshi]

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festmusic

Breaking new ground A year after hotly-tipped debut album Until the Earth Begins to Part hit the shelves, local sevenpiece Broken Records are back. Frontman Jamie Sutherland tells Nick Eardley about their new album, growing up and the pressures of being called ”the Scottish Arcade Fire”

B

roken Records have had a tumultuous journey over the past three years. Lauded as Scotland’s answer to Arcade Fire by critics who seemed to be fixated by little more than their sevenstrong lineup and wide array of instrumentation, the Edinburgh indie-folksters were tipped for big things on the back of internet demos, which have seen so many catapulted to super-stardom in the last few years.

Long before the band had begun recording their debut album, they were seen as the next Scottish act that would penetrate the music world, aided by their haunting sound and incredible musical

diversity – what frontman Jamie Sutherland acknowledges was “press without having actually released anything.”

But it was the release of this debut—Until the Earth Begins to Part—that indicated that such associations were fanciful. Refusing to pander to the indie popularities of the day, the band were adamant that they would not be forced into a corner in which they were not comfortable. They wanted to make their own music – a sound that defied comparison.

Twelve months later, recording for their second—as yet unnamed—album is finished.

They are now free from the shackles of the hype that acted as a mixed blessing to

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Above Edinburgh band Broken Records give their first interview following the release of their new album

a band looking to set themselves apart in a saturated musical scene. Equipped with a more mature sound, they are ready to unleash a plethora of new material on an ever-appreciative home crowd in the newly refurbished Liquid Room.

A brief walk from where the final touches are being applied to the venue which was left badly damaged after a fire in December 2008, Sutherland ponders the lessons of the past year. Having reflected on the impact of the pre-debut album hype that gave the band recognition two years ago, he admits that it was impossible to live up to the expectations, or imaginations, of a curious audience:

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“We couldn’t. Some people were expecting Funeral [Arcade Fire’s debut album] part twp or something like that from us, and we never wanted to do that. We made the record we wanted to make.

“I think the last album was almost trying too hard to be noticed. I guess it was like a spoilt younger child and this one’s more of a middle child album; it’s a lot quieter, a bit more nuanced, with a lot more guitar.”

The abundance of instrumental input in their debut—accordion, violin and cello all featuring—gives the band the live intensity that attracts so many. The resulting orchestral feel is one that defined Until the Earth Beings to Part. The follow-up, however, will

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see them return to their roots.

“It’s not trying to blow your head off with every single tune,” Sutherland says.

“I was really pleased with how the last record came out but we kind of felt that the rock band element, it wasn’t lost, but it wasn’t as well represented on the first album as we would have liked.”

Sutherland seems relaxed. This is the first interview he has given about the new album, and he acknowledges that it was hard to think of a way to describe what fans should expect. It is clear, however, that the personal journey and challenges of the past year will take centre stage.

“I think it sounds very unsexy to spell it out, but it sums up a certain stage in your life. It was a realisation of what happens after – if this weren’t to happen anymore what would you do? Where can I get a job?

There are the pressures of trying to keep a long-term girlfriend, a house, friends, family and it boils down to what’s happening around you. The record just deals with what I was going through at the time in a kind of self-indulgent way, but that’s what music is all about.”

Self-indulgence may not seem the most endearing trait, but Sutherland is not self-obsessed. Rather, there is a remarkable honesty and introspection – no doubt the by-product of six months in a recording studio and a desire to get back to playing to audiences.

“Music is, as with any other art, compulsion more than anything else,” he believes.

“I can’t do this because I go crazy. The last six months have been horrible because you have to sit on your hands and you can’t play music to people, which is all I’ve done since I was 11 years old. That’s why you do it and you hope that people like it.”

This compulsion will be eased at the Edge Festival, where the band will play their first headline gig in the UK this year, before heading out on tour with the new album’s release imminent. It is hard to think of a more welcoming return for the band to unveil the new album – last year’s gig at the grand Queen’s Hall saw one of their largest headlining shows to date, and expectation will be high.

“I guess because it’s home you’ll always have the familiar and friendly faces in the crowd and it’s almost like you have to put on a better show than anywhere else. It’s your home crowd and they’re the most generous so when you get the two working together—the band trying really hard and the crowd really willing it to be a good show—you get great shows.” f Broken Records @ The Liquid Room 28 August, 7pm, £10

FEST BEST

Homegrown Talents

Amy Macdonald

Corn Exchange 18 August, 7:30pm, £22.50

Three years ago, Bishopbriggs born singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald made her T on the Fringe debut as an unknown artist. She returns this year with two hit albums in the bag and a legion of fans north of the border. Her latest offering, A Curious Thing, was met with mixed reviews, but the rapturous reception with which Macdonald’s debut was met has assured her a place in the category of female Scots artists who never struggle to attract a crowd. The self-taught 22-year-old unleashes a mature rock-pop sound, tackling subjects as diverse and controversial as the cult of celebrity, the late Michael Jackson, and the murder of James Bulger. [Amy Taylor]

Jon Fratelli The Electric Circus 22 August, 7pm, £10

Fresh from a stint forming Codeine Velvet Club (did anyone notice?), Jon Fratelli (of The Fratellis, strangely enough) is embarking on a solo jaunt. We’re not really sure how this will turn out, but if his rowdy pub rock band are anything to go by, there’ll be some shouty choruses and some riffs with a few acoustic numbers thrown in for good measure. Then again, it could be a set full of Nick Drake-esque folk with a cameo on the harp from Joanna Newsom... Probably not, though.

[Andrew Chadwick]

We Were Promised Jetpacks The Liquid Room 21 August, 7pm, £10

This Edinburgh-based quartet are, like their labelmates Frightened Rabbit, the very definition of the Scottish indie success story. In fact, they probably have Frabbit to thank for much of their recent success; after supporting them on their first album tour, it was through them that WWPJ came to the attention of Fat Cat Records. That’s not to deny the band their dues, however – debut album These Four Walls generated a steady buzz for its uncompromising indie rock composition.

Adam Thompson’s frantically emotive vocals and a hectic gigging schedule have earned them a reputation as an unhinged live act.

[Marcus Kernohan]

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festmusic

FEST BEST

Homegrown Talents

Colin McIntyre

Electric Circus, 14 Aug, £7pm, £12.50

Pick of the Edge With over 50 gigs throughout August, the Edge festival packs a lot of music into a month. Here’s our run-down of the best of the bunch

It’s not everyone who can pull off a name change.

However, Colin McIntyre seems to have managed it rather nicely. After three melancholic and melodious albums released as Mull Historical Society, Hebridean pop-smith McIntyre stepped into the limelight as himself for widely acclaimed The Water and Island.

With gorgeously wistful, epic numbers mingling with punchier, drum-driven frivolity, his gigs tend to be varied affairs that reflect his compatibility with acts like REM and The Strokes, with whom he’s toured. Other highlights to look forward to include stage chitchat aplenty and cool trainers. [Rosie Nolan]

General Fiasco Electric Circus , 31 Aug, 7pm, £7.00

Making their first appearance at the Edge Festival this year, the Irish alternative indie rock trio have garnered a cult following over the last three years, culminating in the release their first album, Buildings, in March this year. From performing their first gig together at the 2007 Glastonbury festival, to supporting bands such as The Enemy, The Pigeon Detectives and The Wombats over the last three years, General Fiasco are hot property on the rock circuit, recently being nominated for the Kerrang! Award for Best British Newcomer. [Rosie Nolan]

Hallogallo

HALLOGALLO 2010

HMV Picture House , 17 Aug, 7pm, £18.50

MICHAEL ROTHER + FRIENDS PRESENT THE MUSIC OF

Guitarist Michael Rother, a member of pioneering electronica outfit Kraftwerk and co-founder of monumental spin-off band NEU!, returns to the gigging circuit—more than three decades after Kraftwerk’s debut. Rather than facing the marginal electro audience of yesteryear, Rother’s revolutionary contribution to alt-music genres inspired a fleet of modern favourites, from Joy Division to Sonic Youth to the Mars Volta. Expect a rapturous response, lots of surprise guests and astonishingly fresh sounds from an evening of NEU! music that has actually been around for years. [Rosie Nolan]

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Dizzee Rascal Corn Exchange, 26 August, 7:30pm, £22

Dizzee Rascal returns to Edinburgh to play the biggest venue at this year’s Edge. The last two years have been kind to the British hiphop sensation – duets with James Corden excepting. High-profile collaborations with the likes of Calvin Harris on ‘Dance Wiv Me’, and prolific remixer Armand Van Helden on ‘Bonkers’ show that this once angry rapper has come a long way from his humble beginnings in Bow, East London. Seven years after his Mercury Prize-winning debut Boy in Da Corner, Dizzee has earned a reputation for transcending musical boundaries, genre evolution and experimentation. [Amy Taylor]

Beirut HMV Picture House, 22 August, 7:30pm, £17

Starting life as the solo project of frontman Zach Condon, Balkan indie-folk band Beirut have been lauded since the release of their debut Gulag Orkestar in 2006. Bridging the considerable gap between softly-spoken

Anglophone indie music and Eastern European folk, they succeed in creating a kind of indie-world music fusion with a strikingly melodramatic flair.

For a young guy hailing from New Mexico—Condon was only 20 when Gulag Orkestar was released—the range of influences and depth of songwriting skill on display are impressive. The same could be said of second effort The Flying Club Cup, with the caveat that each song on the latter has a much more individual character. Their Edge appearance is one of only three UK dates announced this year – an opportunity well worth taking. [Neil Bennet]

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festmusic festival circuit, comprising covers as varied as Dr Dre and Seal, on the back of a charttopping album. Incredibly, he promises his third album will consist of reggae, while he has also alluded to a desire to make a dubstep album in the future.

Hits such as 'Stay Too Long' and 'She Said'—which masterfully showcase a soulful voice mixed with an aggressive rapping style—have made Plan B a household name, but don’t let a penetration of the charts fool you. Drew’s music is far from mainstream, instead establishing him as one of the country’s most excitingly diverse artists. [Nick Eardley]

The Coral HMV Picture House, 26 August, 7:30pm, £17.50

Top: Plan B Above: The Coral Left: Professor Green Far left: Dizee Rascal

Phoenix HMV Picture House, 28 August, 7:30pm, £19.50

Grammy winners Phoenix stroll into Edinburgh on the back of festival appearances in Europe and America, ready to unleash their brand of catchy French indie on the capital. Enjoying a wave of interest on the back of their fourth studio album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, the quartet have a jigsaw of material that has earned them a sizable fanbase since their debut, United, was released in 2000.

An appearance bound to be high on the list of any well-versed indie aficionado, Phoenix are set to triumph once again when they take to the stage at the HMV Picture House. [Lauren Quinn]

Plan B HMV Picture House, 20 August, 7:30pm, £17

Rapper, singer, actor, director and beatboxer all feature on the CV of Plan B, aka London-born Ben Drew. His sets have become the rage of this year’s summer

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The Coral have always been an interesting and original band, and their melding of pyschedelic folk, traditional country and indie pop shows bags of invention. But somehow, this ragged group of Scousers have never quite managed to capture the consistency needed to elevate them to greatness. Many of their records contain snatches of brilliance interspersed with obscure, ramshackle tracks that ruin the flow.

That said, a set full of the best of their back catalogue is an exciting prospect, with hits such as ‘Dreaming of You’ and ‘In The Morning’ familiar to even the most casual music fan. There’s always a chance that the imminent Butterfly House, their fifth studio effort, will show the cohesion and quality control they’ve lacked in the past. [Andrew Chadwick]

Professor Green The Liquid Room, 20 August, 7pm, £10

Stephen Paul Manderson is 26 years old, and has experienced a few twists and turns in the process of becoming the next big thing in UK hip hop, scoring a collaboration and a tour with Lily Allen, and endorsements from The Streets’ Mike Skinner. Having grown up in Hackney doing illegal stuff and narrowly avoiding prison, Manderson entered a freestyle rap battle night on a whim, and came out victorious.

From there he caught the attention of Skinner, and started to make a name on the underground scene with ‘Stereotypical Man’. His debut album not long released, including the Lily Allen featuring single— ‘Just Be Good To Me’—Professor Green looks set for chart success without sacrificing the wit that made him an interesting prospect to begin with. [Andrew Chadwick]

Tickets from £17 Box office on site daily from Tues 3rd Aug 9.30am to 9.30pm

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festmusic

“We worry people” Admired by the great and good of comedy and always a hit with audiences, you might think the Tiger Lillies would be perfect for television. Chris McCall asks why their often-shocking material tends to be overlooked

I

n the past six months, British television has broadcast a shark being dissected, a man attempting to eat a seven pound sausage and Michael Winner being willingly invited into people’s homes.

Such are the depths it is prepared to sink to, you would be forgiven for thinking that the boundaries marking what is and is not acceptable viewing were abolished in TV land a long time ago.

But you would be wrong. We, the feeble viewing public, apparently must still be protected from the filth perpetuated by bands such as The Tiger Lillies.

The cabaret-punk trio are celebrated across the world, play several sold-out tours a year and have numerous celebrity fans. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, asked them

personally to play at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival he curated in May. But TV bosses would seemingly rather eat their own heads than consider giving this frightful lot any screen time.

“They will not let us appear on television,” says Martyn Jacques, founder, leader and frontman of The Tiger Lillies.

“Anytime we appear on radio, they insist on taking us aside and giving us a talking-to.

We worry people. It’s all about barriers and limits, and we obviously cross these barriers just a little too much.”

This is a shame, as television is the one medium that could fully capture the spectacle of this most beguiling of bands. They formed in 1989 in Soho, that spiritual home of English debauchery. The band’s name was borrowed

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Tiger Lillies: “My mother forgets the name of the band most of the time, which is a good thing as people can’t freak out in her company when she tells them”

from a local prostitute, who was fond of wearing striped fur.

Gradually they built a reputation based on their live performances, which are equally shocking and entertaining. They will return to the Fringe this year for a month-long residence at the Pleasance Courtyard, promising a show which will revisit their extensive back catalogue.

The Tiger Lillies proudly proclaim themselves as “The World’s Foremost Death Oompah band.” The Daily Telegraph called them “one of the weirdest and most disconcerting bands of all time, right up there with Captain Beefheart in his Trout Mask Replica days”.

Just how weird are we talking? Well, Jacques usually sings in an extraordinary high and penetrating falsetto whilst accompanying himself on accordion, piano or ukulele – while dressed as a sort of psychotic-looking clown.

But it’s the songs, or more accurately their subject matter, that make this band truly extraordinary. Subjects tackled in the typical Tiger Lillies show include incest, buggery, dildos, heroin addiction and infanticide. It goes without saying that it’s all done in the best possible taste.

I ask Jacques, what on earth does your mother make of all this?

“Oooh, that’s a good question,” he purrs.

“She’s never heard any of the songs, or been to any of the shows, but she’s proud that I’m making a living and doing well for myself. She forgets the name of the band most of the time, which is a good thing as people can’t freak out in her company when she tells them.”

Why do The Tiger Lillies have numerous famous fans, yet lack fame themselves?

“I don’t know what Matt Groening would say. I think Matt, in the work he does, deals with a lot of life issues. But the one bit he doesn’t deal with is the bit we deal with.”

Jacques is keen to expand upon this theme.

“One critic reviewed our shows and wrote that ‘The Tiger Lillies deal with the wrong kind of perversion’. I suppose that’s right. We deal with things that smell a bit. On TV there is so much sex and swearing, but they would still never dream of having us on. We worry them too much.”

This lack of mainstream exposure doesn’t rankle Jacques as such, it more perplexes him.

He suddenly asks me what I think the reason for it is.

I mumble a reply about television working on precedents, and predict that The Tiger Lillies will appear on TV within 10 years.

Jacques sounds less than convinced. “Well, if you’re right, I promise I’ll send you a fiver.”

For now at least, the revolution will not be televised.

The Tiger Lillies - Live In Concert Pleasance Courtyard

4-21 Aug (not 11), 9.45pm, £12.50-£14

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FEST BEST

Beyond the Edge

The Edge festival isn’t the only place you’ll find music-making this August. Here’s a round up of the best music at the Fringe

Alan Cumming Assembly @ Assembly Hall 13-15 August, 11:59pm, £20

If your plan for a Fringe show is to stand alone on a stage for 90 minutes talking about yourself, you’d better bring some ammunition. Fortunately, Scottish actor, writer and director Alan Cumming is armed to the teeth: with a long and storied career behind him, Cumming is perfectly poised to pull off an ambitious one-man show like I Bought A Blue Car Today. Taking the form of particularly personal cabaret, Cumming’s new show is pitched as a lofty blend of music, comedy and spokenword introspection, so expect an eclectic mix of anecdotes and ruminations from the actor’s varied life thus far (from rural Perthshire to Hollywood via the West End—all in 40 years and change—isn’t bad going). But, if that sounds like a somewhat self-indulgent sort of hour-and-a-half, never fear: Cumming’s tales are liberally interspersed with musical interludes, as he turns his multi-talented hand to material by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Cyndi Lauper.

[Marcus Kernohan]

Bert Jansch The Queen’s Hall 26-27 August, 8pm, £18

Despite a lengthy and fruitful career (2010 marks his 50th year as a professional musician), Glaswegian folk guitarist Bert Jansch still isn’t quite a household name. That’s not to imply, however, that the 66-year-old Pentangle founder is some kind of music industry ingénue – far from it. Jansch’s influence stretches many miles beyond his own discography, with a litany of high-profile musos from Jimmy Page to Mike Oldfield all crediting him as an inspiration. Jansch’s intricate playing style and lightly-accented vocals mark him out as an enduring force in traditional folk in Britain. He’s also, thankfully, an Edinburgh Festival veteran of many years, so his two dates at The Queen’s Hall are sure to be a triumphant homecoming after several months touring the USA with Neil Young. [Marcus Kernohan]

Camille O’Sullivan Assembly @ George Street 5-30 August (not 10, 17, 24), 10:25pm, £16.50£18.50

Lying somewhere in between burlesque, cabaret, and rock & roll, Camille O’Sullivan’s show is vibrancy unbound; she is vivacious, sensual, and straight-out bonkers. Of FrenchIrish descent, she is both sedate and rambunctious, seductive and lewd. With a fire-breathing voice, and a performance to match, she blazes through covers ranging from Nick Cave to David Bowie, Tom Waits to Radiohead, occasionally stopping to breathe, down a glass of wine and engage in some blasé flirtation with the crowd. Half-drunk, half-dressed and half-goddess, Camille O’Sullivan is utterly mesmerising. [Iman Qureshi]

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festinternational

I

Scotland

the Broke Misplaced enthusiasm and wild speculation in 18th-century Scotland left the nation on its knees. For satirist Alistair Beaton the modern parallels were too good to miss, and the story too important not to be told, he tells Ed Ballard

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t might seem strange for a satirist who set out to write about the credit crunch to end up setting his play at the turn of the 18th century, and to place the heart of the action in the jungles of Panama. And at first, when Alistair Beaton was asked to write something for the International Festival, such distant events were far from his mind. He thought he would write “a contemporary political satire of some kind”. That, after all, was how he made his name. In the ‘80s he wrote sketches for Spitting Image, while two of his plays from the last decade—Feelgood and Follow my Leader—were a vital contribution to the artistic response to the Blair years. In them he sent up the world of spin, and turned the political tragedy of Iraq into pitch-black comedy – years before anyone had heard of Malcolm Tucker.

But as he looked for a way to turn the financial crisis into art, he had “a vague memory from schooldays in Glasgow of something called the Darien adventure”.

He pursued this inkling with days spent in Scotland’s libraries and archives, and a growing feeling that this story of financial folly and imperial hubris was the story he had to tell.

Darien was the name of Scotland’s one and only overseas colony, on the isthmus of Panama. The expedition was a tragic failure. Not only did the majority of the settlers die trying to build an empire to rival England’s, but so much of Scotland’s capital had been invested in the scheme—the money of ordinary people, raised in town halls across the country—that the resulting crash helped bring about the union of Scotland with England. Like a bank on the brink of liquidation, Scotland had to be bailed out.

In the end the English came to the rescue, but the terms of the deal included being ruled by Westminster – the 1707 Act of Union. Beaton reckons that the psychological effects of this shock continue to shape Scotland’s relationship with its southern neighbour. “Scotland’s last chance of being a big independent nation was blown with Darien. And I think the Scots’ resentful attitude towards England can be traced back to this earlier loss of confidence, this huge national shame and humiliation.”

At the heart of the play is William Paterson, the venture capitalist who raised the money for the scheme. He was a man of fantastic charisma, the Richard Branson of his day. He told his countrymen he could make Scotland a great power, and they turned out their pockets for him. “People were staggering down the high street,” says Beaton with relish, “pissed out of their heads, singing ‘good old Paterson’.” Such catastrophic optimism, he continues, is “the key echo with today. This mass euphoria,

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FEST BEST

EIF Theatre

Vieux Carré

Lyceum Theatre 21-24 Aug, 7:30pm, £10-£27

One of New York’s most legendary and inventive theatre companies, The Wooster Group, brings a wild reimagining of the Tennessee Williams classic to the Edinburgh International Festival. Taking cues from Andy Warhol, as well as contemporary artist and filmmaker Ryan Trecartin, the group seeks to find new ways of staging one of the most popular playwrights of recent times. There is perhaps no more influential living director in New York experimental theatre than Elizabeth LeCompte – missing her on Scottish soil would be a theatrical crime punishable by death.

The Man Who Fed Butterflies King’s Theatre 29 Aug, 2 & 4 Sept (times vary), £12-£27

the belief that there’s a one-way ticket to getting rich”. The illusion claimed the lives of almost 2,000 settlers, who died of starvation or disease—Paterson’s own wife among them.

This grand collapse is more than a parallel of today’s financial crisis: it was its ancestor. Darien was an early example of a massive wager made with the money of luckless investors, and in that sense “it marked the beginning of modern capitalism”. The Royal Bank of Scotland—“that much-loved institution”—was set up after the Darien disaster, as the vehicle to pay off disgruntled investors. Its collapse in 2008 brought the story full circle.

The connections with today were so clear that Beaton’s biggest worry seems to be that they might get in the way of the story. Take one scene in Edinburgh, “where you see the people responsible for this disaster being amply rewarded for their accomplishments. My challenge is how to write it without the audience thinking I made it up! I want to let the echoes of modernity ring out without the play turning into a vehicle to thump today’s banks—not that they don’t need thumping.”

“This is a narrative that demands telling”, Beaton tells me, and it is this faithfulness to history which makes Caledonia more than just a credit crunch play, even if that was what he set out to

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write. Yes, it has a lot to say about the misplaced optimism behind every doomed financial fad, from the South Sea Bubble to the Enron scandal. But thanks to Beaton’s eye for period detail, Caledonia promises to shine most as an evocation of the time. He tells me enthusiastically of the contemporary songs he reworked for the stage – the bawdy sea-shanties the sailors sung on their way to South America, the drinking songs written in honour of Paterson at the delirious height of his popularity. And in contrast there are the scenes of the appalling disaster in Panama, “where the play dips down into darkness.”

Writing a historical play was a new venture for Beaton, and maybe he won’t write another. He writes best about the follies of the very powerful, and judging by the sadness and disgust with which he talks about current politics (“what we’re seeing is the slow dismantlement of the welfare state”) it’s clear that he doesn’t feel short of material. And then there’s the feeling that Caledonia might be a one-off, the perfect story for Scotland in 2010. So it’s good thing that the right person to tell it was in school the day his class was taught about the Darien venture. f Caledonia @ King’s Theatre

21-26 Aug (not 23), times vary, £12-£27

Chilean company Teatro Cinema brings to the EIF this exploration of mythology, ritual and identity at the end of one man’s life. Film and live performance combine to showcase the group’s already legendary mixing of media – indeed, EIF director Jonathan Mills has set a challenge for audiences to guess the number of live performers.

Performed in Spanish with English subtitles, The Man Who Fed Butterflies will be stunning for the techie theatre-goer, and for anyone prepared for a psychologically affecting experience. The same company also Sin Sangre, an adaptation of a novella by Italian Alessandro Baricco, also using their unique film and live action fusion.

The Gospel at Colonus Edinburgh Playhouse 21-23 Aug, times vary, £8-£30

Oedipus! Evangelism! Rock n’ roll! Narrated by a Pentecostal preacher—the role that launched Morgan Freeman’s career—and with vocal backing by Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, Lee Breuer and Bob Telson showcase their Pulitzer Prize-nominated adaptation of the Oedipus myth at the Edinburgh Playhouse. Also stars the Blind Boys of Alabama who, in a celebrated piece of casting, collectively play the sightless Oedipus. Conforming to this summer’s trend of fused, disparate genres, The Gospel at Colonus, now 25 years old, promises song, inspiration and Oedipal ickiness in one mesmerising sitting. [Arianna Reiche]

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festinternational

Years of Bliss Ten years in the making, Peter Carey's novel, Bliss has finally made its way onto the operatic stage. As librettist Amanda Holden tells Evan Beswick, the challenges of the text were only matched by its wealth of ideas

“T

he thing about librettists with huge egos… Well, I’m sure I’ve got a vast ego myself! But I hope it doesn’t encroach upon my work, because I feel my job has been to create some sort of conduit between Peter Carey and Brett Dean… Oh, I think I’ve just poured some poison on my finger!”

I’m alarmed for Amanda Holden – the librettist for composer Brett Dean’s translation of Carey’s novel, Bliss. By contrast, she’s remarkably unperturbed: “I’ve just been poisoning some garden weeds outside my front door. Don’t worry, I’ll live. It’s my left hand and I can write without that!”

And credit where it’s due: she finishes her point despite the toxic intrusion, nonchalantly concluding that “the composer is the boss,” and that “the librettist is a hack”.

But then, it’s perhaps just as well that Amanda Holden isn’t particularly flappable.

Carey’s 80s novel (“a bit of a cult” on univer-

sity campuses in the eighties) is a challenging work in itself, and I’m given brownie points for just having read it: “A lot of people fail at that particular fence – including quite a lot of people involved with the production!

I found it dead difficult to read myself, actually,” she laughs.

It’s a surprising, if typically candid, admission – as is her disclosure that “I struggle in the literary department.” For Carey’s novel is an extraordinarily literary work and certainly not, on first reading, an operatic one. The story of a Harry Joy, an ad salesman who suffers a heart attack and awakes with the firm belief that he has died and gone to Hell, the novel not only grapples with difficult subjects—cancer, incest, the meaning of “goodness”—but does so through a tightly controlled, at times impenetrable narrative.

Where opera is exuberant, exaggerated, melodramatic, Bliss is restrained, understated and sardonic. “The first time I read it I

76 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

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festinternational thought ‘I can’t do this’!”, admits Holden.

Much of the difficulty lies in the fact that Carey’s narrative is structured around short episodes – the reader is led, semi-blind, through Harry Joy’s rude awakening. Death opens his eyes to the decrepitude of his life and the lives of those around him. As the Hell narrative gives sordid meaning to things he’d never thought about before—where was his son’s cash coming from?—so do the connections between these episodes begin to crystallise, and their implications become clear. “That’s the fabulous thing for me because it’s such a challenge,” Holden says chirpily.

“The book gave me the idea of the episodic structure of the opera,” she says, running through the short intrusions that make up the opera. Incredibly, she seems to have pulled this into a coherent, even dramatic, whole. A mammoth choppingand-changing effort, and the clever use of a revolving stage, mean the action can be punctuated both with some of the book’s funniest scenes—at one point Harry Joy’s car is sat on by an elephant—and some if its darkest depths. “What we did was to take the ideas of the novel and do whatever we wanted with them, really. And I don’t think it would have been nearly as much fun if we’d thought ‘oh golly, we really ought to keep this because it’s here’.”

Just as complicated as the novel is the story of the opera’s somewhat unorthodox production schedule. Though Carey’s novel was published in 1981, Bliss is absolutely a product of the noughties – of the whole decade, in fact. Commissioned by Opera Australia in 2000, the opera has taken ten years, and two musical directors—one departed for another job; the other, Richard Hickox, for a better place—to complete.

Incredibly, though, and for reasons which are “off the record”, Holden was not approached until late 2006 to take on the libretto: “I felt a little embarrassed because I went and told everyone I’d got the commission and, actually, I got the commission in August 2007, by which time I’d written half of the thing. It was a bit hairy, actually.”

What followed was a truly international and, it appears, tremendously productive collaboration. What’s surprising is the brevity of the pair’s face time: “In that year [2007] in which I wrote most of the libretto, we met twice, very intensively, in hotels and really, well, jammed.”

A ten day boot camp in January 2008 was arrange to flesh out the libretto: “God I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in my life!” she laughs. “We were just chucking ideas at each other and I’m sure that was when the music began to fill up in his head, along with the ideas he already had from years back.”

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FEST BEST

EIF Opera

Porgy and Bess

Festival Theatre, 14-17 Aug, 7.15pm, £14-£64

Those musical ideas had already started to collect around Dean’s 2004 orchestral suite, Moments of Bliss. Then, in 2008, a commission from Simon Rattle for his return to the Liverpool Philharmonic gave an opportunity for Dean and Holden to road test some musical and dramatic ideas for the central character of Harry Joy, written specifically for baritone Peter Coleman-Wright.

Three arias, Songs of Joy, became set pieces in the final opera which premiered, at last, in Sydney in March.

A strange genesis indeed, and one through which the pair appear to have forged a strong bond . Holden is extraordinarily complimentary about Dean: “Brett is the most polymathic musician I think I’ve ever known. He can run a music college, he can play the viola as well as anybody in the world – you know, he’s just an extraordinary man. The most alarming thing about him is that he’s incredibly nice.”

“When we first met we just jabbered away about music,” she recalls, attempting to explain their instant connection. Indeed, Holden’s upbringing and education was thoroughly musical, rather than literary (her grandmother, incidentally, was the first ever female fellow of the Royal College of Organists). And it’s this musical starting point which defines Holden’s approach to opera and, perhaps, underlines her success in grappling with Carey’s tricky novel: “There was one radio programme that said I’d made a very good job of converting the novel, but I don’t feel that’s what I’ve done.”

“The needs of a libretto are so totally different to the needs of a novel. A novel needs someone sitting in an armchair reading quietly, and a libretto needs people screaming their heads off and a lot of people listening!” f

Bliss @ Festival Theatre

2 & 4 Aug, 7:15pm, £14-£64

Can flamboyant, sensual art and an exploration of slavery ever sit comfortably together in a production? EIF director, Jonathan Mills, clearly believes so, choosing Opera de Lyon’s production of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess as the highlight of this year’s festival. Promising a contemporary take on the 1935 opera, it will incorporate both video-installation art and urban dance from the Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu and Théâtre National de Chaillot. Blurring the lines between these genres, joint directors, José Montalvo—who brought On Danse to the EIF in 2007—and Dominique Hervieu are set to shed new world light on the injustices of the old world.

Montezuma King’s Theatre, 14-17 Aug, 7.15pm, £12-£35

Written in 1755, more than 200 years after the tragedy that it explores, Carl Heinrich Graun’s rarelyperformed opera Montezuma details the subjugation of the Aztec people and their ancient culture by Spanish colonisers. Beautifully gilded temples and palaces form the backcloth to a discussion of the dilemmas of leadership – why, for instance, did General Cortes see fit to destroy a whole people, and why did the Aztec King allow him? In the hands of Claudio Valdés Kuri, the result couldn’t be more pertinent to the EIF’s New Worlds theme; an imaginative collaboration between a modern day Mexican director, an 18thcentury German writer and his forward-thinking royal patron, with theatre companies from the UK, Mexico and Spain.

Idomeneo Usher Hall , 20th Aug, 7pm, £10-£40

Legendary 84 year-old conductor Sir Charles Mackeras will return to the Edinburgh stage this August—56 years after making his Festival debut. Mozart’s Idomeneo, set in the aftermath of the Trojan war, also returns Joyce DiDonato, a favourite of the Festival in 2009, to Edinburgh this August. Rarely performed due to the virtuosic demands it makes of the singers, Idomeneo explores the aftermath of the Trojan War: Cretan world meets Trojan world.

As much as anything on the EIF bill this year, Idomeneo looks set not just to pose problems about the New and Old Worlds’ coexistence, but to suggest some kind of resolution. It promises to do so beautifully. [Sarah Hardie]

edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 77

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FEST BEST

EIF Music

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Usher Hall

30-31 Aug, 8pm, £10-£40

Acclaimed as one of the top symphony orchestras in the world, the Netherlands’ Royal Concertgebouw returns to the Usher Hall this August.

A programme of modern music is set for their first concert, including Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments, and his Firebird suite. Expect a musical dialogue between the works of composers living at times of great change.

They are joined by the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus for Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 – one of the most exceptional symphonies in the repertoire.

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Usher Hall 4 Sep, 8pm, £10-£40

A clutch of Scotland’s musical talent will unite under the leadership of Donald Runnicles to perform another of Mahler’s symphonies in the Usher Hall this August: the 8th, which the composer himself called his “Symphony of a Thousand” because of the stupendous ensemble it requires.

The Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus, and a stellar lineup of soloists come together to perform this majestic piece.

Choosing to perform with the Edinburgh Festival Chorus when he returned home to Edinburgh in the early 1990’s for his International Festival debut—having sung it with the RSNO Junior Chorus as a boy—the symphony is a work close to Runnicles’s heart.

Jonathan Biss Queen’s Hall 14 Aug, 11am, £7-£27

Heralded by BBC Music Magazine as “no ordinary pianist”, the International Festival debut of this young American virtuoso is to be eagerly anticipated.

He opens the Queen’s Hall series with five lyrical pieces by Leon Kirchner – originally songs set to poems by Emily Dickinson. From Schumann’s Kreisleriana and Mozart’s Adagio in B minor to Beethoven’s Appassionata Piano Sonata, Biss will provide a showcase indeed – aiming to find the fire in his International Festival debut. [Sarah Hardie]

78 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Jonathan Mills

International man

The EIF director tells Evan Beswick about his global vision for the festival

F

or all of Jonathan Mills’s artistic credentials you can’t fault his much more prosaic knack for salesmanship.

“You will get sunburnt!” he warns, “even in the damp climate of Edinburgh this August.”

“These shows are damned hot. The heat that radiates off them is as sexy as we can get!”

It’s this year’s theme—loosely speaking, “an exploration of certain relations between North-South-Central America”— which, Mills insists, has lent the 2010 programme its decidedly sultry edge: “I didn’t go about trying to find a sexy festival. I think we came up with a sexy theme and the rest was inevitable.”

It’s a theme which, he admits, is much harder to define than in previous years: “The year before it was artists without borders – that’s easy. Last year it it was very much about a kind of intellectual bent. This year… it’s a texture; it’s a timbre; it’s a look; it’s a colour.” He slaps a copy of the garish programme. “It’s a different shade and intensity of light.”

Whatever else it is, it’s an extraordinarily diverse programme. Opening with John Adams’s opera El Niño, it includes Brazilian dance troupe, Grupo Corpo (“a very sexy bunch of dancers – the bumps are all in the right places!”) and Australian Opera’s Bliss (“not quite Little Britain meets opera, but still savagely funny”), closing with the usual opulent firework display – set this year to Bernstein.

The programme sees Bolivian monks rub shoulders with San Fransiscan dancers and is, one suspects, not a little inspired

by Mills’s own experience as a non-European artist: “If all we do is sit in our nice, manicured townhouses in Edinburgh and contemplate how marvellous European civilisation has been for the last couple of hundred years we’re not going to learn anything,” he says.

Much like 2008’s Artists Without Borders then, there’s an unmistakable political edge to what Mills is doing: “We live in a world of shrinking resources and increasing population. So it’s about asking a very different question to begin with, and that question for me, generally, is outside the arts. Its an arts festival, but it needs to be bigger than all of us.”

It’s weighty stuff for the man one commentator notoriously wrote off as a “minnow” following his surprise appointment as EIF director in 2006. But the Australian has more than settled into his stride since then.

He’s not afraid to set about some sacred cows, either – not least the long held idealisation of the EIF as the highbrow older brother of the edgier Fringe. “You revert too much to clichés in this country,” asserts Mills. “And the clichés are wrong, actually.”

“It’s really very important for people in the Fringe to say to the ladies of Morningside that there are some things that they might actually enjoy. And it’s also very important for us to say to people who might more identify with the Fringe audience that there’s quite interesting, experimental, edgy work in what we do.”

And, of course, sexy work, too. Front and centre of this year’s programme are shows chosen with a “friendly, hip, interesting” audience in mind, from Lemi Ponifasio’s Birds with Skymirrors—a beautiful work about the environmental degradation of the Pacific which “every young person in Edinburgh should see”—or The Gospel at Colonus, a soul retelling of Oedipus, starring the Blind Boys of Alabama.

Inevitably, Mills has to counter accusations of going downmarket.

“I haven’t chosen it because it’s accessible, and I haven’t chosen it because it’s not.

I don’t go around saying, ‘what’s esoteric that I can shove in the programme?’ or ‘what’s populist?’. I’ve done something different: I’ve said ‘what’s the big idea that we can all follow?’”

But, I press, there’s surely something deliberately provocative in a programme which so clearly stamps an attempt to “move the festival away from being an international festival just doing European work.”

Mills grins: “I promise you, I’m not sitting down thinking of the ladies of Morningside and how offended they may or may not be by anything I’m putting in or not.

“I’m trying to do something much more basic and think: ‘what kind of world do I live in?; what kind of experiences do I want to be part of?; what sort of experiences have I travelled the world to see that I desperately want people in Edinburgh to share?” f

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2010

‘Boundary breaking’ New York Times

Kronos Quartet Steve Reich George Crumb Aleksandra Vrebalov Saturday 21 August 8.00pm Usher Hall

Half price for ‘IN’ members Visit eif.co.uk/INsider for full list of membership benefits

Tickets from £8 Call 0131 473 2000 Visit eif.co.uk

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festinternational

o c n e m a fl without frontiers

M

uch like his music, Paco Peña’s voice seems to transport you to a place of easy contentment. But while the flamenco virtuoso with the mellifluous Spanish accent wants to create lyrical, passionate music, he’s also anxious to point out that his work comes from a serious emotional engagement with the world: “If you’re honest with yourself you can’t ignore certain things. It’s not that I have a political point to make, but I love people, wherever they come from. Flamenco is a legitimate form of music, which combines a lot of elements from different cultures; it is a music of people. If there is a problem right in front of me, my music is moved.”

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There is a fluidity when you speak to Peña that matches the technical elegance that has made him one of Spain’s most renowned guitarists. An innovator who has developed from solo performances on the Costa Brava to full-blown theatrical explosions, Peña has never been one to sit on his laurels. His new piece for the Edinburgh International Festival, Quimeras, continues his exploration of the possibilities of this traditional Spanish musical form.

“I never wanted to be a solo guitarist at all, I just wanted to participate in the whole flamenco scene – I’ve always loved the singing and the dance.” For a lauded soloist, Peña seems to bypass any 

Above Superstar flamenco guitarist Paco Peña teams up with director Jude Kelly for Quimeras

Honour Bayes talks to flamenco master Paco Peña about his new show Quimeras, and finds out how experiences of diverse cultures and eclectic artforms have bolstered his Spanish musical heritage

“I grew up in a place where a lot of immigrant s have passed by so I have been immersed in it for all my life.”

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FEST BEST

EIF Dance

Grupo Corpo: Onqotô and Parabelo

Festival Theatre 20-23 Aug, 8:00pm, £10-£28.50

Grupo Corpo’s first Fringe performance is sure to live up to the Brazilian dance troupe’s reputation for energetic technical mastery. Drawing on influences from all over the world, but particularly from Brazilian traditional dance and culture, choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras is renowned for his exuberant contemporary dance productions.

It is a playful exploration of the charming notion that the universe was created out of rivalry between Brazil’s two main football teams, Parabelo will focus on traditional customs of giving thanks through contemporary media.

Água Edinburgh Playhouse 27-29 August, 7:30pm, £8-£28.50

In her particular brand of dance theatre Pina Bausch was quite unlike any other choreographer. Often stark, raw and volatile her dance productions also characteristically incorporated the playful and ridiculous - creating disturbing, unsettling, yet always beautiful works of art. Though the choreographer sadly died last year, her company continue her revolutionary work, bringing Água to the Playhouse this August. Like other shows in the festival, it also draws much influence from experiences of Brazil, with video installations of swaying palm trees and waterfalls created by long-term Tanztheater Wuppertal set designer Peter Pabst.

Dust and Light and Rasa Festival Theatre 26-29 Aug, 8:00pm, £10-£28.50

Alonzo King—recently named one of the 50 most outstanding artists in the United States— makes his UK debut this August.

Expect to get lost in the vision of moonlight-bathed limbs moving in counterpoint to the spiritual baroque music of Poulenc and Corelli in Dust and Light. Following this, Rasa will provide a fascinating combination of Western contemporary ballet and Eastern tabla music, from Grammy award-winning Zakir Hussain, the New Worlds theme of this year’s Festival again apparent. Speaking of both vulnerability and abandon, the success of King’s productions is in their ability to

82 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

 egotism and is constantly hailing his fellow artists and collaborators in The Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company. Made up of his favourite flamenco artists and marked by international collaborations this company, formed in the 1970s, he has been pushing the boundaries of flamenco ever since. One such collaboration is with Royal Festival Hall Artistic Director and renowned theatre director Jude Kelly, who has directed both Quimeras for Edinburgh and Flamenco Sin Fronteras, which is currently playing to critical acclaim at Sadler’s Wells. A powerful and emotional mixture of music, dance and stage play, their work will be sweeping a strong, warm Spanish breeze onto the air-conditioned British stages this summer.

Herself an avid believer in the potential for dialogue between art forms, the collaboration is a fruitful one. “Jude Kelly can sense and feel my ideas in a way which she then makes her own, and she interprets [them] in her own medium, which is the staging of them.” Although the initial inspiration for a project undeniably comes from Peña, it is also a fully developed dialogue between the two: “We talk a lot. She suggests things like any director would do in order to highlight what I’m thinking. She doesn’t interfere but her contribution is very sensitive and very musical; she communes very strongly.”

At a point when immigration is at the top of the European political agenda, the timing of Quimeras could not be more appropriate. Peña speaks passionately about the right that immigrants have to try to make a better world for themselves and their families, sadly noting that their hopes are often destroyed. “Quimeras will try to bring to life the journey of several of these people, creating situations along the way that reflect good and bad aspects of their dreams, the reality of their lives and the interconnection with the people on the other side of the frontiers they cross.”

Peña grew up in Andalucía, where the proximity of North Africa means that there has always been an intense flow of people crossing in one direction or the other. The subject of such transcultural ambition has been with him for a long time: “I grew up in a place where a lot of immigrants have passed by, so I have been immersed in it for all my life.”

This interest in stories that are inherently both domestic and international is indicative of Peña’s cross-pollinating habit of taking inspiration from a variety of cultures. After a productive period working in Spain in the late 1960s, he moved to London. It was a decision that he counts as one of the most important of his career.

“I have been out of Spain so much – I have been exposed to unexpected artistic propositions and activity in the arts.”

Many of these opportunities have allowed him to take flamenco music to an audience previously unaware of its existence outside of a Spanish context (he once played on the same bill as Jimi Hendrix). It is a process of enlightenment that has worked both ways. “You project your roots and culture in this music you are sharing. At the same time you have been enlightened by so much that you see around you – that gives you an edge over someone who hasn’t been out in the world in the same way.”

It seems clear that Peña’s cosmopolitanism has given his music this elusive edge over others on the world stage. Even in the face of his indisputable expertise, it is his passion for bridging flamenco with diverse musical genres (including classical, jazz, blues, country and Latin American) while maintaining a healthy respect for its traditions that he feels is the real reason for his success.

“It is because I am constantly moving forward, I never sit still. I’ve done many shows, so you push ahead with your ideas and then they inevitably become more ambitious and accomplished in style.” He chuckles, and there’s the familiar humility again: “It is also probably because I am very old!” f Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company The Edinburgh Playhouse 2-4 Aug, 8pm,£8-£28.50

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edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 83

Eating

&drinking Top 10... restaurants.

Maeve Higgins Veggies Out Vegetarians, myself included, are often tense weirdos. This is because we think about everything all of the time. If one figures out that eating animals is awful then one has probably also figured out all sorts of other unpleasant truths – about shoes and governments and God. That’s the annoying thing.

Café Royal

19 West Register Street 0131 556 1884

One of the longest-established restaurants in Edinburgh, Café Royal is hidden away in a labyrinth of backstreets at the end of Princes Street – right behind the city’s Burger King, as it happens. Unassuming from the outside, the early Victorian decor—with Royal Doulton murals and the original 1817 bar in the centre—has been preserved in its entirety, making it one of the most beautiful places to eat and drink for miles around. With delicious oysters, mussels and home-smoked fish, the Café Royal offers some of the best quality seafood in Edinburgh. [DH]

Susie’s Wholefood Diner, now sadly closed, was comfy and odd. Once I found a little bit of rag in my broccoli and cheese bake, but I don’t mind that because I am sort of messy myself. The menu didn’t change much and I loved that; it was familiar and simple. I get a bit demented by all the festival has to offer, so this place would calm me down and make me feel tough, like “You’ve done this before, kid – it’s nothing you can’t handle.”

The good news is there’s still heaps of veggie-friendly places in Edinburgh, including cosy bar and restaurant Black Bo’s, upscale David Bann’s and new kid on the block L’Artichaut down in sunny Stockbridge.

Maeve Higgins: Personal Best @ Gilded Balloon Teviot 4-30 August, (not 16), 4:30pm, £8.50-£9.50

David Bann

56-8 St Marys Street 0131 556 5888

Vegetarians and vegans who often find themselves paying a premium for stodgy, uninspiring food will be glad to stumble across David Bann on St Mary’s Street. It’s just three minutes’ walk from Pleasance Courtyard, with prices starting from £25-£30 for three courses. Judged the best vegetarian restaurant in Britain by the BBC’s Olive magazine, Bann serves up food that proves that vegetarian cookery can go beyond being abandoned at the bottom of a menu or confined to student cafés.

The wittily named Shepherdless Pie—roasted vegetables in an onion gravy, topped with a rich potato and parmesan mash—is a popular choice on an original, adventurous menu. [DH]

David Bann

Ecco Vino

The Kitchin

Maison Bleue

Just off the Royal Mile on Cockburn Street, Ecco Vino stands out among Edinburgh’s overcrowded and mostly mediocre Italian restaurant scene.

A bustling, warmly decorated and elegant wine bar—with a wide range of wines covering one wall, floor to ceiling—Ecco Vino is perfect for a quick lunch before heading back across the Royal Mile to the shows.

An erratically priced menu means judicious selection is essential, although the the mixed antipasti—a large platter heaving with cured meats and cheeses and large enough for three people—represents good value. [DH]

Following its redevelopment over the past decade, Leith Docks has become home to a vibrant, bustling restaurant scene, with Tom and Michaela Kitchin’s eponymous restaurant at its centre. Voted the second-best place to eat in the UK by Eat Out magazine, The Kitchin offers world-class food a short drive or bus-trip from the city centre, and won a Michelin star just 6 months after it opened in 2006. The proudly Scottish menu focuses on fish and meat personally sourced from across the country, and although mostly pricey (the cheapest main course is £26), the £25 set menu is excellent value. [DH]

Tucked away on Victoria Street, just down from the Castle, Maison Bleue is one of the best places for French food in the city, although an exciting menu squeezes in Scottish and North African cuisine, with the haggis balls being an ideal way to start a meal in the cosy, comfortable snugs. Putting more thought than most into its starters and desserts, melted Camembert tart and Baileys crème brulee are reliable favourites. Reasonably priced for satisfying, plentiful food right in the city centre, it also offers an £8 lunch and pre-dinner menus. [DH]

19 Cockburn Street 0131 225 1441

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78 Commercial Street 0131 555 1755

36-8 Victoria Street 0131 226 1900

www.festmag.co.uk

festeating&drinking Mussel Inn

Marcel Luconte Crêpe Monsieur

61-65 Rose Street 0131 225 5979

If you want some true Edinburgh seafood but don’t fancy humping it down to the Shore, the best option is this inexpensive eatery on Rose Street. The decor is gaudy, the staff cheerful, and there’s a delicious range of shellfish. Sauces to grace your mussels (which come by the bucket) include blue cheese, salsa or your standard garlic and butter combo. This is an ideal spot for lunch for people coming from a show on nearby George Street, especially if it’s sunny enough to sit outside: half a kilo of mussels, chips and a beer is top value for £7. [DH]

Rhubarb at The Prestonfield Hotel

Priestfield Road 0131 225 1333

Another of James Thomson’s trio of Edinburgh restaurants, Rhubarb offers some of the finest food in Scotland, served in beautiful surroundings. Based in the spectacular 17th-century Prestonfield Hotel on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Rhubarb allows you to escape from the city for an afternoon but still be only just 15 minutes’ drive from most Fringe venues. The three-course pre-theatre supper is good value, although the à la carte menu is perhaps only for those with heavy wallets. Keen on mixing sweet and savoury, Rhubarb’s stand-out dish is duck breast with cabbage stuffing, gingerbread and candied peel. [DH]

The Tower

Chambers Street 0131 225 3003

Since the opening of the National Museum of Scotland in 1998, The

www.festmag.co.uk

During my first visit to Edinburgh last year, I was truly surprised by the number of restaurants in the city. But then I was just as surprised by the number of foods deemed acceptable for a deep-fat fryer (namely, anything). Do children attend school each day, I mused, with deep-fried apples in their pockets?

So instead I prefer to take my chances with the crêperie in Bristo Square.

Sometimes life’s simplest culinary pleasures are the most enjoyable. Here one can enjoy breakfast, lunch or dinner, while observing the world. And, in a country that will not even reveal the ingredients of an unpronounceable orange fizzy drink, it is refreshing to see food being prepared right in front of you.

Maison Bleue

Tower, based on the roof of the museum, has become one of the leading lights of 21st century Scottish food.

The beneficiary of effusive praise from notoriously bitchy food critic AA Gill, The Tower is a favourite with celebrities, but with prices starting at around £15 for the pre-theatre and light lunch menus, is accessible to most. James Thomson, one of Edinburgh’s star restaurateurs, serves up some of the best seafood in Edinburgh, including locally sourced Argyll oysters and Fife crab.

Just round the corner from Potterrow Dome and Bedlam Theatre, it has spectacular views right across Edinburgh and beyond. [DH]

The Witchery by the Castle 352 Castlehill 0131 225 5613

Since opening 25 years ago, The Witchery is James Thomson’s first and best-loved Edinburgh restaurant.

Right at the top of the Royal Mile, almost adjoining the Castle, it offers

“A meal outdoors in Scotland, Marcel?” you enquire, “Surely this is a brave gamble, even for you?” Perhaps, yes, but if one can enjoy a cigarette or six while eating, really it is worth the risk of rain. And often one’s mobility becomes an important factor in avoiding the deathly wail of Scotland’s national instrument. Alors, nobody’s dining music should be the slow, prolonged castration of a goat.

Marcel Lucont: Encore @ Underbelly 5-29 Aug (not 18), 9:30pm, £6.50-£10

one of the most unique dining experiences in the UK, in dark, brooding Gothic rooms overlooking the Old Town. Along with lovingly crafted seafood dishes, The Witchery boasts an impressive and award-winning wine cellar, with over 1000 bottles from around the world. With the beef Wellington at £78, the Witchery isn’t is unlikely to become your local, but it might just be worth going hungry for a while. [DH]

Urban Angel

121 Hanover Street/1 Forth Street.

0131 225 6215/0131 556 6323

Fast becoming an Edinburgh institu-

tion, Urban Angel is great for inventive dishes made from high-quality local ingredients, which goes some way to explaining the iffy slogan, “The main ingredient in everything we do is conscience”, as well as the sometimes surprising price tag.

Expect a mix of Scottish classics and modern staples; you can have cullen skink to go with your tapas or a burger with Strathdon Blue cheese.

There are two branches: the restaurant on Forth Street and the café (also open late) on Hanover Street.

The Forth Street venue slightly pips its newer sibling, not for better food or service but for its relaxing spaciousness. [DH]

edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 85

festeating&drinking

Top 10... breakfasts.

Botanic GardensÂ

(Entrances on Inverleith Row and Arboretum Place)

A morning stroll around the Botanic Gardens is the best way to squeeze some peace and quiet into your day at the Fringe. Best of all, there are two different places for a delicious bite: in the John Hope Gateway Centre, which serves a full range of continental staples and local Scottish nosh, and the less fancy Terrace Cafe, where the range is limited to a few scones and pastries. [EB]

is a perfectly tasty and reasonably priced breakfast selection. [CW]

Circle CafeÂ

1 Brandon Terrace Elephants and Bagels

This gem is perfect for a top-class continental breakfast or an equally tasty local one. Try the locally-sourced bacon and sausages or a delectable French pastries to go with your eggs Benedict. Charming staff and relaxing surroundings make Circle Cafe the perfect place for a civilised morning deep in the new town. [EB]

on any one of a welter of tasty bagels from sesame to sun-dried tomato. A range of good-priced teas and coffees.

Handily central, situated between two of the busiest venues - The Pleasance Dome and Courtyard. [EB]

131 George Street

Elephants and BagelsÂ

If you absolutely, positively have to spend all your money in the morning then go for the Champagne Breakfast where your smoked salmon and eggs are served with fresh strawberries with Greek yogurt and a sparkling glass of Perrier Jouet. Also available

The little sibling of George IV Bridge’s slightly fancier Elephant House, Elephants and Bagels is actually a much tastier option for breakfast or brunch.

Any filling you can imagine, including a very respectable bacon-and-egg,

Hidden in plain sight on Frederick Street, Eteaket is part antique shop and part tea nirvana. As the dozen or so lucky enough to squeeze in among the collection of curios will know, these true Brits love their morning tea. With a dazzling selection ranging from the sweet hazelnut to the smokey Suchong brews, tea

Browns

37 Marshall Street

Eteaket

41a Frederick Street

experts and novices alike will easily find something to their tastes thanks to the descriptive menu and friendly, knowledgeable staff. [CW]

Henderson’s

94 Hanover Street

An institution among Edinburgh’s veges, you get into Henderson’s via an unpromising flight of stairs going down to a cellar. Inside is surprisingly well-lit and capacious, with a cavernous dining area as well as the charming little cafe. The menu rotates constantly, but you can be sure of an appetising range of fruit, cereals and porridge. The (local, mostly organic) bread is fantastic. [EB]

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festeating&drinking Wil Hodgson Braw Breakfasts Idil Sukan

I always get tattooed at least three times in Edinburgh, which requires a good breakfast beforehand. I usually go for the Canongate Café which is on... well, Canongate and close to Studio XIII where I get tattooed. I always go for the American Breakfast with crispy bacon and scrambled eggs. I like a full English as much as the next man, but a good American Breakfast is pretty skill too and makes me nostalgic for childhood Floridian holidays. Few places in the UK do them well, so I salute the Canongate Café for bucking the trend of breakfast-based anti-Americanism.

Kilimanjaro on Nicolson Street does a really good healthy breakfast with yoghurt and stuff but you can’t have needles stuck in you with just muesli and yoghurt in your system. So in conclusion, if you’re getting Care Bear tattoos done, have breakfast at Canongate Café – but if for some bizarre reason you’re not, then you could try Kilimanjaro, I guess.

Wil Hodgson: Punkanory Just the Tonic @ The Caves 5-29 Aug (not 16), 3:50pm, £8-£9

Montpeliers

Snax

Having been open for business for over a decade, it’s hard to imagine Bruntsfield without Montpeliers.

Their tried and true breakfast menu has helped them outlive the competition. Alongside their mixed grill and numerous eggy options is a selection of light cakes and fruit smoothies should you wish to start the day with something fresher. [CW]

This greasiest of spoons serves up the perfect hangover-breakfast: greasy bacon, crumbling hashbrowns, a heap of haggis, a mound of beans, bangers containing probable pig. The vege option is just as appetising to the discerning customer. Best of all: the cafe caters for early-bird workmen, which means you can even conclude your night out with a heartening breakfast at 6am if you prolong your bender.

Fantastic. [EB]

Olive Branch

McDonalds

With branches in Broughton, Bruntsfield, George IV Bridge and beside the Botanic Gardens, you’re never too far away from an Olive Branch bistro.

The menu is imaginative offering a delicious smoked salmon, scrambled eggs on toast as well as the usual continental breakfast. And with an aromatic selection of herbal teas, the Olive Branch is to be enjoyed as an alternative to those hangover cure-alls found at other abodes. [CW]

Founded in 1940 offering “fastly deliverable cost-effective foodthings”, McDonalds is a young company still to make its mark on the world. Offering a range of burgers and equally edible toys, McDonalds signature breakfast dish is the Egg McMuffin wherein a Canadian Bacon, American cheese and undisclosed fried egg work together in a toasted English muffin inspired by the spirit of international cooperation. [CW]

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118 Buccleuch Street

2 Broughton Place

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edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 87

festeating&drinking

Top 10... pubs.

Bennets Bar 8 Leven Street

Bennets attracts a rather strange mish-mash of theatregoers and sports fans, situated as it is a stone’s throw away from King’s Theatre, and featuring a good number of screens showing most sporting events going.

Thankfully this doesn’t detract from what is a rather impressive pub setting. Stained-glass windows, mirrored booths and a beautiful wooden bar complement the extensive whisky list and good beer selection, while the food, although hardly ambitious, is done extremely well. [AC]

The Blue Blazer 2 Spittal Street

It may be surrounded by tacky chain pubs, strip clubs and sports bars, but at the Blue Blazer they take their drinking very seriously, a fact that’s reflected in the fine selection of real ales, malt whiskies and a monumental and ever-shifting rum list with about 70 varieties available at any one time. The crowd is a lively, mixed bunch, creating a relaxed and friendly atmosphere that makes the Blazer one of the best drinking holes in town. [AC]

Burlington Bertie 11-13 Tarvit Street

A pub that feels like you’re drinking in someone’s living room is generally a very good thing, and Berlington Berties is cosy and homely in that very way. There’s a limited selection of draught and some good bottled

beers, but drinkers go to this place for its warm atmosphere and friendly local crowd. There are screens for football but they don’t impose, and mostly Berties is filled with young and old alike enjoying a quiet drink with friends. Much more low-key than the noisy Blazer down the road, this is certainly the place to escape the hustle and bustle of the festival.

[AC]

The Cask and Barrel 115 Broughton Street

The appeal of the Cask is simple: real ale and football in a traditional pub setting, with a friendly clientele that don’t necessarily look as if they live for beer and sport (always a bonus).

Good ale is a given, but there’s also a decent selection of draught lagers, and on a sunny day it’s particularly good to sit outside and people watch on Broughton Street. Complaints about occasionally gruff bar staff can be put down to a few oversensitive souls. [AC]

Cramond Inn

30 Cramond Glebe Road

Take a number 41 towards Cramond and around 40 minutes later you’ll arrive in a quaint little village by the Forth that boasts the only Sam Smith’s pub in Edinburgh. Low ceilings, plenty of nooks and crannies and quiet corners and an assortment of old regulars at the bar make the Cramond Inn a proper old boozer in the very best way. Coupled with the cheap and excellent quality

88 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

Loretta Maine is drunk Am I only allowed one? Well then it has to be that pub opposite the jacket potato shop on the curving road down from the Mile. I don’t know what it’s called. It stocks booze and that’s all the information I need.

No other performers go there, which is good because it means that people are impressed by the fact that I am from the States and over here. To the Scots, that means that you must be pretty big, not that you failed and had to come try in a different country. And there is a guy who sings songs in the corner – local songs like Crowded House and The Eagles.

And they have loads of different whiskies. The only bad thing is they won’t let me drink JD because apparently it isn’t a real whiskey and it is insulting to them for me to drink it there. I was like, “Why do you stock it then?” and they said, “To sniff out the eejits like you.” I don’t know what it means but it’s nice to have a nickname. It’s just a shame they are closed so much. Quite often when I pop by they are just closing, even if it’s two or three in the afternoon. I guess it’s just some quaint Scottish custom. Or English. They’re all the same, right?

Loretta Maine: I’m Not Drunk, I Just Need to Talk to You Just the Tonic @ The Caves 5-29 Aug (not 16), 6:35pm, £9-£10

own-brand beers and spirits, it’s well worth making a day of it, walking out to the island and sinking a refreshing pint or five at the Inn. Just make sure you catch the last bus back to town or it’s a long walk home. [AC]

The Pear Tree

38 West Nicolson Street

The Pear Tree may be overpriced, and inside there may be little to distinguish it from most other pubs in central Edinburgh, but it does boast the biggest and best beer-garden in

town. On a sunny day in Edinburgh, that’s certainly worth paying a little over the odds for. The ranks of tables mean there’s rarely a problem finding a seat, and occasionally during August there’s live music on the corner stage. There’s not many better ways to enjoy the sun than over a pint in the P.T. [AC]

Royal Oak

1 Infirmary Street

A Scottish folk institution since the 60s, when Dylan and other greats

www.festmag.co.uk

festeating&drinking Vladimir McTavish whisky haunts The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is a private members’ club, but not at all up its own arse.

They have two branches: one in Leith and one on Queen Street, a few minutes’ walk from The Stand Comedy Club. Quite simply, they offer the best selection of single malts in the world, all of which are cask strength (i.e. get you blootered quicker).

The Pear Tree

popped in as they were passing through, upstairs at the Royal Oak is a tiny bar where drinkers mostly stand and mingle. On most nights you’ll find a musician in the corner playing traditional folk to an appreciative audience. The pub is a focal point for the Edinburgh folk community, and a great place to get a sense of its immense influence on the Capital’s music scene. [AC]

Sandy Bells

25 Forrest Road

One of a couple of pubs in the Old Town known for their fine folk music tradition, Sandy Bells is a poky little corner pub where you can enjoy a pint or a good malt whisky. However, visit in the evening and you can also take in some authentic Scottish folk in the place where many stalwarts of the folk scene played in their early days. As if that wasn’t enough, Sandy’s also has a tradition of chess playing, so feel free to challenge one of the regulars. Just don’t expect to win. [AC]

The Stockbridge Tap 2-6 Raeburn Place

Stockbridge has no shortage of rather well-to-do drinking establishments, so the Tap is a welcome change, with its friendly and knowledgeable bar staff and a more traditional feel than the swanky bars nearby. The excellent beer and whisky lists aren’t the only attraction here, as the Tap also does hearty, thoroughly satisfying pub grub. They’ve also opted to ditch the screens, creating a sanctuary for nonsports fans, an increasing rarity even in the most traditional pubs these days. [AC]

The Star Bar is one of Edinburgh’s best kept secrets, hidden away in a mews in the New Town, just off Northumberland Street. Great beer, a great range of malts, a great beer garden and 3D TV. The screen is situated above the main door as you enter the pub, so when they are showing a football game in 3D the first thing you see as you go in the door is a whole load of people wearing dark glasses looking straight at you.

Spier’s Bar on Ferry Road may appear to be a theme pub, but in reality nothing has changed since 1974 – not the décor, nor the clientele. If you are a fan of combover haircuts, this is the place to drink. I was once in here on a Sunday afternoon at around 5pm, and a guy had fallen asleep right beneath the dartboard. However, this didn’t stop people the pub darts team from continuing their match, in the course of which he never woke up.

Vladimir McTavish in Whisky: An Idiot’s Guide The Stand Comedy Club III & IV 4-29 August, (not 5, 16, 23), 6:50pm, £8-£9

Sandy Bell’s

The Tourmalet

25 Buchanan Street

Much less yuppyish than the nearby Boda or Victoria, The Tourmalet is a perfect alternative to the rather expensive, trendy bars situated in this slowly gentrifying area of Leith. It offers a cheap pint, chatty bar staff and a warm welcome in a pleasing, shabby pub with a rather haphazard approach to décor. [AC]

Come and meet the neighbours Gilded Balloon Teviot 4 - 30 Aug 2.30pm

Box Office:

0131 622 6552 gildedballoon .co.uk www.festmag.co.uk

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festeating&drinking

Top 10... fast bites.

Kebab Mahal

7 Nicolson Square

The daddy of them all, the Mahal has been open for thirty years and won best Scottish Takeaway 2009. Aside from the curries, the doner, chicken, shish and shashlik kebabs have a local reputation so you may have to be a little bit patient and if you’ve worked up a big appetite a King Doner with nan may be in order (only available in LARGE). Pizza and burgers are also available into the small hours along with pakora, tikka and samosas, the perfect way to settle those eight or so beers. [SR]

Mosque Kitchen

50 Potterow; Potterow Dome

Edinburgh’s worst-kept secret, the open-air restaurant at the back of Edinburgh Central Mosque has been consistently popular since it opened in 2004. Every Fringe the cooks set up shop over the road in the Pleasance Dome as well. The novelty of eating three-quid curries off paper plates has garnered it excessive praise, but the portions are large, and the food consistently good, if not as spectacular as its 2010 Scottish Restaurant Awards nomination would suggest. Vegetarian dishes and barbecued meat and vegetables are on offer in addition to the wide range of curries. [DH]

The Baked Potato Shop 56 Cockburn Street

A far healthier option than any of the above, the best tattie shop in town serves up great value nosh for those

idling down the Royal Mile or on their way over to George Street. Take your pick from a seemingly limitless selection of fillings. There’s chilli and haggis for the meat-eaters, and beans and vege-haggis for the veggies. Vegans are well catered for here and there’s always a gluten-free option or two.

There are salad boxes, pittas, and vege sausage rolls for those who don’t fancy a potato. [EB]

Che

10 Forrest Road

The staff are friendly and always willing to cater to the more health conscious, if you do require a 1am cheese salad pitta but they specialise in meaty kebabs and pizza. Cheese and chips are another top stodge option but some rather fancy sounding paninis are also on the menu. Choose from salami and mortadella, spicy chicken, or if you like your offal, chicken livers and spinach.

Or if you prefer the more conventional and greasier option, you can try Cappadocia across the road. [SR]

Dario’s

85-87 Lothian Road

One of the rare late-night haunts where the food is just as edible sober, Dario’s is the benevolent provider of late-night bags of chips. If not sustained by salt and sauce alone (and never vinegar, you’re in Scotland now) then battered fish, smoked sausage, white and black pudding, pies, Mars Bars -pretty much anything you can see really- will be fried while you wait. Pizza , garlic bread and even

late night spaghetti carbonara are on offer as Dario’s is a respectable Italian restaurant by day, so try not to stash a fish supper in your handbag for the taxi back, please. [SR]

La Favorita Bristo Square

Another of the takeaway vans which materialise by Teviot in Bristo Square for the month of August only to pack

up and leave with the tourists. La Favorita is the best pizza restaurant in town (it delivers, too: 0131 5566171 if you’re staying in), and the chefs somehow manage to maintain their high standards serving pizza by the slice in a veritable Tardis of a working area – it doesn’t look larger than your average wood-oven. There’s not the variety you’d get in a restaurant, but there are always a few alternatives to the standard margherita. [EB]

-

90 fest edinburgh festival preview guide 2010

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festeating&drinking a doner pizza with garlic dip. There are also mezze platters alongside the usual chicken and lamb kebabs and the staff are very pleasant and ready to offer a student discount. [SR]

Sammy J Quick Bites Edinburgh in August means one thing: Aberdeen Angus Beef Burgers from the van in Teviot Place.

Pizza Paradise 34 George IV Bridge

Sure, I tell everyone back in Melbourne that I’m heading over for the Fringe, and usually end up writing a show to keep up the facade, but my journey is only complete when I’m strolling past the purple cow, stuffing one of those cheese-topped patties into my face like a culinary sex offender.

During the festival you’ll be lucky enough to dodge the local school kids who head here in their droves for a slice of pizza and you’ll soon agree, it’s good stuff. You’ll find no deep-fried monstrosities here instead, fresh, made-to-order thin-bases rule. They also do falafel, baked potatoes, burgers, filled rolls, cake...pretty much any fast food you can think of, not forgetting chips. For those who never quite left school, chips with a generous helping of cheese or curry sauce awaits. There are plenty of seats so you can watch whoever happens to be passing Greyfriars Bobby while you tuck in. [SR]

It’s really quite unfair, the way they prey on the vulnerable. No, not the cows. I’m talking about the artists. Is it our fault we’re so malnourished? Is it our fault we’ve had a few drinks? Surely a cup of tea and an apple would suffice – but before anyone’s got their hand in the fruit bowl, there’s the burger van. Waiting. Watching.

And knowing, like a schoolgirl spurned, that no matter how much you claim to be perfectly happy in your new relationship with other food, you’ll be falling back into her greasy arms for a bit of hot loving once Mrs Salad has looked the other way. I’m getting hungry just writing this. See you in Edinburgh.

Stoats Porridge Stands Various locations

The Baked Potato Shop

Palymra

22 Nicolson Street

For the hotly-contested title of ‘Best Falafel in Edinburgh’, Palmyra is certainly a strong contender, having pinned down the golden ratio of chilli sauce to yoghurt. Not limited to wraps, Palmyra also does a mean pizza and if you’re willing to kill two birds with one stone, (and not worried about the state of your arteries) try

The ideal fortifying snack if you’re in a rush, especially good for warming you up when it’s cold and rainy.

Stoats’s main line is rather dull cereal bars, but this stall—normally confined to farmers’ markets—has a great range of porridge, porridge bars, and that’s actually it. It’s all made with organic and (what else?) Scottish oats, and comes in various flavours.

Best is the “Classic Cranachan”, which is crammed with raspberries, single cream, honey, and toasted oats. It’s rather less austere and doubtless worse for you than the purists’ recipe (oats, water, maybe a little salt to taste if you’re a feeble sassenach) but far tastier. [EB]

Sammy J: Skinny Man, Modern World @ Underbelly 5-29 August, (not 16), 9:50pm, £10-£12.50

Mmmmm, Well Hung and Tender

Well Hung and Tender Bristo Square

Despite the unsavoury moniker, this burger van is—along with La Favorita— the pick of the bustling fast-food joints found next to the busy Teviot student union, just off Bristo Square (the place with the huge inflatable cow).

For four quid you get a bun packed with a considerable slab of deliciously juicy Aberdeen Angus beef, a greasy mound of fried onions, a handful of cheddar (graters are for salad-eating wimps) and a dollop of spicy relish to decorate your shirt. Or there’s a steak

baguette, and frankly these two options alone are enough to ensure that carnivores can quite happily subsist on cow all August long. There are a few cheaper imitators scattered about but this is the real deal. [EB]

cabah00ray “...breathtakingly good.”

“...brilliantly hilarious.”

Australian Stage

The Groggy Squirrel

THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

9th – 22nd August, 20.40 Sweet Grassmarket www.petersproductions.co.uk www.festmag.co.uk

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12/07/2010 21:01

Laughing Horse @ THE COUNTING HOUSE VENUE 170 - 38 WEST NICOLSON ST 0131 667 7533

BALL ROOM

19 - 29 AUGUST 12.30 - 1.30 NIGHTLY MORE INFO WWW.FREEFESTIVAL.CO.UK

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edinburgh festival preview guide 2010 fest 91

festeating&drinking

Top 10... drinking & dancing.

The Bongo Club

Electric Circus

Respected Fringe venue by day, Bongo is best known to Edinburgh residents as the city’s foremost alternative nightclub, specialising in everything from reggae nights—complete with crusty, flailing, ageing hippies—to the most cutting-edge Drum n Bass and Electro DJs on the circuit.

Interiors are pretty functional and the drinks menu is restricted, but in truth the Bongo doesn’t try and cultivate a trendy or pretentious ambience.

At it’s core its a music venue, and a great one at that, a thriving dance hall showcasing the most eclectic local and international dance acts in the city. [SF]

Karaoke, which takes its name from the Japanese for “murdered classic”, provides the perfect gimmick for this slick and relatively new club. Taking a leaf from Tokyo’s book, Electric Circus features handy booths to insulate the innocents on the dance floor from your strangled wails. They’ll be flailing about to something retro and noisy, or something trendy and electronic; you’ll be working your way through a massive library of backing tracks both old and new, your screeches drenched in satisfyingly excessive reverb. You’ll be godawful, but with echoes like these you’ll be godawful – in a cave! [LB]

Cabaret Voltaire

GHQ

While it doesn’t always live up to the “breaking boundaries in music” strapline, Cabaret Voltaire has long offered a strong mix of electro, indie, drum’n’bass, catering largely to a student crowd. With two downstairs dancefloors, insulated from one another by the huge cellar walls, there is likely to be a choice of DJ’s. The quieter upstairs bar—a welcome recent addition—is great for a laid-back drink if you don’t fancy braving the sweaty dancefloor. [EB]

To Edinburgh’s rather sad and meagre gay scene, GHQ brings a welcome dose of style – well, relatively speaking. The jewel in the shabby crown that is the so-called Pink Triangle, it may resemble a WAG’s boudoir (White leather! Pink lights! Shiny things!) but it’s a sight classier than some of the other gay haunts on offer. Though the usual crowd-pleasing cheese is ladled out in dollops, look out for slightly more credible dance music in the back room. A word of warning, though: the club’s high profile means the mainstream has caught wind, so it’s often crawling with heteros.

Perverse, yes. [LB]

37 Holyrood Road

36 Blair Street

City Café

19 Blair Street

Forget the numerous thespy Festival drinking hubs, the real Edinburgh can be found in bars like City Café, the Capital’s original pre-club venue. Half art-deco chic, half shabby 50’s diner, City Cafe has been an Edinburgh staple for over 25 years. Mainly utilised as an upbeat late-night primer for nearby Cabaret Voltaire, the bar actually has a decent vibe at all hours, attracting a genuinely mixed and unpretentious clientele. ‘Trendier’ bars come and go but City Cafe has a timeless, enduring appeal. A genuine Edinburgh institution. [SF]

36 Market Street

4 Picardy Place

The Jazz Bar

1a Chambers Street

The Jazz Bar is everything a jazz bar should be (which is lucky considering the bold choice of name). It’s a dark, crowded cellar, moodily-lit, with black-and-white pictures of the legends adorning the brickwork.

There are never enough tables, but this is the kind of place where it seems quite appropriate for everyone to rub shoulders clutching gin-andtonics. There’s live music five nights

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Jazz Bar

a week pretty much all year round, and the Fringe always attracts some big names to complement the truly excellent house band. All in all, a classy joint that deserves a classier name. [EB]

The Liquid Room 9c Victoria Street

This summer sees the long-awaited re-opening of one of Edinburgh’s best-loved clubs, which burned down in the Old Town fire which also gutted Khushi’s restaurant in 2008.

The management are keen to make a splash for the club’s rebirth, hoping to begin recouping a refurbishment bill that topped £3 million. Regulars will rejoice most of all at the return of the weekly Indie disco (every Wednesday night) but the venue will also host several of the biggest acts from the Edge festival, including the Divine Comedy, Feeder, and a solo show from Steve Mason of the Beta Band. [EB]

Penny Black

17 West Register Street

For those still going post 5am, fear not – Edinburgh doesn’t disappoint. Opening at 6am is the infamous watering hole, Penny Black, usually reserved for Edinburgh’s most hardened drinkers.

Mixing goggle-eyed clubbers with 24-hour alcoholics and posties with weirdos, the Penny Black certainly attracts a “diverse” clientele. Described

by Fringe comic Michael Fabbri as “the roughest pub he’s ever been to”, Penny Black doesn’t tend to win awards for ambience or fashionable accoutrements. However, if you’ve come to The Fringe looking for spectacle, this cultural experience will surely outstrip anything the Ladyboys can throw at you. Not for the faint hearted. [SF]

Pivo Caffe

2-6 Carlton Road

Czech it out. Czech, please. CzichityCzech yourself before you wreck yourself. If you find yourself drinking at Czech-themed Pivo with one of

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festeating&drinking roundings – commie chic, apparently.

A laidback drinking den with just the right level of buzz, this could well be your best option for a spot of latenight drinking. [LB]

Underbelly 56 Cowgate

GHQ

the Fringe’s lesser comedians, this list is almost certain to continue. Not to worry – drown out your desperately unfunny companion with a two-pint pitcher of some of the best beer Eastern Europe has to offer. Souvenirs from the bloc decorate the cushy sur-

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Nowhere better encapsulates Edinburgh’s annual shift from gentility to feverish cultural hub than the Underbelly. The vaults of Edinburgh’s central library are vacant all year round (and frankly nobody’s quite sure how the crumbling building remains standing) but they become a seemingly endless booze-warren in August. It’s dark. The walls sweat beneath the posters of festivals past. It’s technically open till 3, but inside you encounter strange, pale folk who clearly haven’t been outside for days. After thirty seconds of looking for a particular bar (there’s several, all named after different kinds of belly) you find you have climbed an improbable number of staircases and don’t know where you are in relation to street-level. It’s a joy, in other words.

Just don’t wonder what would happen in a fire. [EB]

Thom Tuck nightlife Idil Sukan

Having lived in Edinburgh for six years (none of this “one month a year” stuff here!), I’ve had ample opportunity to sample the nightlife. If you want to start off in a bar, Dragonfly just off the end of the Grassmarket can do no wrong.

Moving on, just wander down the Cowgate (wearing your non-fighting face) and find yourself at Cabaret Voltaire on Blair Street. It’s cracking but only a wee place, so you’re advised to get in early. My friend Ian often used to front Trouble (the now sadly defunct drum and bass night) and now performs as one half of the excellent band The Correspondents, who often crop up doing spots during the Fringe. Do catch their swing-hop happiness if you can.

Below Negociants (opposite Pleasance Dome) there is the Moroccanthemed club, Medina. The music there is wildly different every night, so check before you go. The atmosphere is always great, being as it is a carpeted subterranean bunker with three or four awesome private caves.

Again, get there early to bag one.

Finally, if you’ve managed to party your way through the extended August opening hours, wander about for an hour until the Scotsman’s Lounge opens at dawn and enjoy a pint of Guinness with the postmen. Delightful.

The Penny Dreadfuls @ Pleasance Courtyard 4-30 August, (not 17), 6pm, £12-£14

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Top 10... Cafes.

Laura Solon Coffee Break I am going to pick 2 places: Urban Angel uses words like “philosophy” and “locally sourced” – plus the menu is all in lower-case font, so it has to be good for you. I would go there to have amazing eggs Benedict before my show.

And sometimes cake – but organic cake so, again, better for you and kinder to polar bears.

Black Medicine

But then there’s Black Medicine Coffee Co., which is also brilliant. Their huge mugs and heavy wooden tables make the whole place feel mighty – the kind of café Thor would go to for his afternoon Ribena.

Laura Solon: The Owl of Steven Pleasance Courtyard 4-29 Aug, 5:00pm, £12-£14

Nile Valley

Anteaques

17 Clerk Street

The man who owns the shop next to Anteaques has never heard of it: it’s that much of a secret. Open only on Fridays and weekends, this tiny antiques-cum-teashop is the most original and quaint of all Edinburgh’s cafes. It’s like the attic of some dead collector. You sip tea surrounded by urns, replica ships, and under the watchful gaze of eight or so fox pelts.

A huge selection of tea, clotted cream scones and tiny cakes to coo over, but don’t ingest too much sugar as you may become dizzy and knock over a priceless grandfather clock. [CS]

Artisan Roast

57 Broughton Street

A snobs’ coffee shop on Broughton Street, Artisan Roast has no counter and no nonsense to get between you

They even serve alcoholic milkshakes, presumably to quieten the bambinos.

Student discounts, free newspapers and table service are just the sprinkles on the cappuccino. Also, after 3pm most of the food is half-price so you have no excuse not to gorge. [CS]

and your espresso. Boasting its own coffee roaster and staff who know far too much about blends, it is handsdown the best coffee in Edinburgh.

The smell enough makes your hands shake a tad. Don’t leave here without tasting it, though if you must they also stock some pretty dandy chocolate from Coco in Bruntsfield (also worth a visit). You may never be able to drink Starbucks again, let alone instant. [CS]

excellent street views. Another branch in Bruntsfield and one in Marchmont that boasts Dylan Moran among its regulars. Drop in for a coffee as you get a biscuit with it, that’s right, a biscuit.

Aaaah – it’s the littlest things. [CS]

Black Medicine

Caffé Lucano

There’s a couple of Black Medicines in Edinburgh but the one on Nicholson Street is the daddy. While the snack fare is standard and the coffee fine, it is the ambiance that makes this cafe.

Woody interiors and a constant playlist of Tom Waits, The Rolling Stones and That New Band You Have Yet To Hear But Will Love, it’s dark, cosy, with

Step into Caffé Lucano and you feel like you’re in a scene from The Godfather; they’re going to make you a coffee you can’t refuse…. and much more besides. Flogging pastries for breakfast, panini for lunch, pasta for dinner, coffee and liquor round the clock; it’s no wonder the elderly Italian men of table 4 appear never to leave.

2 Nicolson Street; 108 Marchmont Road

37-39 George IV Bridge

Forest Cafe 3 Bristo Place

The Marmite of Edinburgh cafes; you’ll either buy into the hippy screw-theman vibe or you’ll just want to go wash your hands. Run by volunteers who are “not your bitches” it doubles as an art space and concert venue.

The murals and posters cover most of the dirt and the clientele are sociable if a tad threateningly bohemian.

Check out the art gallery, the “free shop” and the various vegetarian options or come for a poetry-readingcum-psych-folk gig. And then have a shower and go back to your day job. [CS]

y r a n o i t a t S xcess E

MADE IN CHINA THEATRE

A thirty-minute, champagne fuelled electric shock to the system that will scream out to anyone who UNDERBELLY DELHI BELLY has loved and lost.

5-29 AUGUST | 11.15AM | £6-£9

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festeating&drinking Black Medicine

Peter’s Yard 27 Simpson Loan

Set in the glossy new Quartermile, this Swedish cafe stocks pastries which sound like Ikea furniture and look like lego. Other fare includes home-made ice cream and artisan bread, but don’t dwell on the prices too much; the real appeal of this cafe is the acres of outside seating. Looking out onto Middle Meadow Walk, this is the perfect Festival people-watching place. Pricey but look out for the ever-full “complimentary” coffee table beside the counter with a guilt-inducing Honesty Box as you wander back for your eighth free latte. [CS]

Black Medicine

Kilimanjaro

Nile Valley

Pavillion

Jawbone Walk

Spoon

If you don’t feel like taking any risks, Kilimanjaro is probably the safest cafe to go to; it’s impossible not to like it. The coffee is award-winning, the food homely and affordable, and the setting immaculate. Get a generous portion of the soup of the day and sit by the wide windows looking across Nicholson Street. Alternatively try the peanut butter and banana milkshake, the all-day breakfast, or just enjoy the beautifully crafted cappuccinos made by Scotland’s Barista of the Year.

Kilimanjaro is unpretentious, uncomplicated, unparalleled. [CS]

This informal Sudanese cafe is a student favourite with the wraps on khobz bread proving the most popular.

You pick your own fillings from a ton of unpronounceable sauces and vegetables – like Subway but for people who actually like food. The decor is as basic as it gets but the clientele are trendy and the food somewhat addictive. Good for vegetarians, meat-eaters and anyone looking for a budget dinner (it’s BYOB). This is the sort of place relaxed enough that you don’t notice how “authentic” the experience of going here is. [CS]

Like the creche version of Forest Cafe with toys instead of subversive artwork, it gives you the cheery face of Edinburgh’s hippy subculture.

Ideally situated on the corner of the Meadows it is the only bathroom for miles and you might as well have a coffee while you’re there. The staff are friendly and the hours flexible with great vegetarian fare and intriguing cakes as long as you don’t mind squatting on a child-sized table next to some greying teddy bear. It’s the children’s birthday party it’s OK to intrude upon. [CS]

Only recently opened, Spoon is already a well-established Newington favourite. Maps are glued to the tables and 70s magazines are glued to the walls, but don’t feel alienated by the all-too hip interiors of Spoon; they also stock old back issues of Cosmo and Men’s Health. The food is basic but brilliant and served all day, though brunch may be the best time to enjoy the bright interiors. Spacious, relaxed, you can kill hours in here. It’s one floor up from busy Nicholson Street and a world away. [CS]

104 Nicolson Street

6 Chapel Street

15 Blackfriars Street

“One of the finest shows you’ll see” TIME OUT LONDON CRITICS’ CHOICE

VENUE 272 LAUGHING HORSE @ THE THREE SISTERS MAGGIE’S CHAMBER, 139 COWGATE EH1 1JS AUGUST 5-8, 10-15, 18-19, 21-22, 25-29 8.45PM-9.45PM WWW.FREEFESTIVAL.CO.UK

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FestPreview.indd 1

2/7/10 13:54:07

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Top 10... asian eateries.

Karen Wong’s Chinese Restaurant 107-109 St Leonards Street 0131 662 0777

The Karen Wong’s Chinese Restaurant experience often ends up being more about Karen Wong than the food. The chirpy proprietor bounces around the tables with an irrepressible energy, usually striking up some banter with the diners and giving the restaurant an entertaining, sociable atmosphere. For its price range the food doesn’t disappoint, and there’s a fairly broad range of Chinese meals on the menu. Banter aside, service is astute and courteous.

It’s perhaps not the best destination for a quiet, pensive meal, but a great venue for a high-spirited dinner with a large group of friends. Count yourself lucky if Karen starts dancing in celebration of your order. [NP]

Khushi’s Diner

32b West Nicholson Street 0131 667 4871

An offshoot of the defunct Khushi’s Restaurant in the Old Town, Khushi’s Diner is more suitable for large parties and speedy service than most Indian restaurants, and is all the better for it. Instead of laboriously collecting individual orders from large groups, a wide selection of dishes and sharing platters are brought to share. These tend to supply all the options you were thinking of asking for, and it makes the whole experience flow a lot easier. Bring a few bottles of wine (it’s BYOB) and a lot of friends, and Kushi’s Diner will deliver a great evening out. [NP]

Celadon

49-51 Causewayside 0131 667 1110

Celadon offers eye-wateringly good Thai food for slightly-less eyewatering prices. The usual are on offer—like green and red curry—but here they’re cooked to near perfection. Most dishes have a spiciness that newcomers to Thai cuisine should approach with caution.

The service and ambience in the restaurant are similarly upmarket, making this a great location for a well-earned treat or a romantic dinner for two. Staff are beyond polite, though the atmosphere remains friendly and congenial. If you don’t mind a larger-than-average bill at the end, Celadon is a must for fans of authentic Thai cuisine. [NP]

Wild Elephant

21 Newington Road 0131 662 8822

Wild Elephant is another strong contender in the Edinburgh Thai restaurant scene. The quirky elephant stylings which are to be found on almost every surface lend the place an amiable charm, and the secluded atmosphere makes it a pleasant getaway from the hustle and bustle of Edinburgh. Its pricing is more modest than its nearby contender Celadon, though the food is perhaps not quite as exquisite. However it offers a more low-key experience in an informal setting, and is still a very high quality restaurant. [NP]

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Namaste

(Kampong Ah Lee) Malaysia Delight 28 Clerk Street 0131 662 9050

Malayasian food isn’t particularly familiar in this part of the world, and Malaysia Delight serves as a brilliant introduction. Expect plenty of noodles, soup and seafood, often mixed together and drizzled in spicy, tangy sauces. The tapioca tea is a charming addition to the drinks menu. Unlike your standard cup of builders’, it is served chilled and contains small balls of tapioca which are sucked through a wide-barrelled straw. Prices are very reasonable here, making Malaysia Delight an interesting and worthwhile diversion from the usual East Asian fare. [NP]

Noor

56 South Clerk Street 0131 667 0404

Though technically a takeaway rather

than a restaurant, Noor deserves a mention for being the Indian takeaway of choice in the south of Edinburgh. Prices are very cheap and deliver food of an unexpectedly good quality. A good sized meal for two will only set you back about £10. Noor’s website makes ordering online easy, though picking food up in person lets you have a chat with the friendly

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festeating&drinking Hardeep Singh Kohli Hot Stuff Steve Ullathorne

Edinburgh has the castle. Edinburgh has the breathtaking architecture. And Edinburgh has the world’s greatest festival. But when it comes to curry, Glasgow is the unimpeachable Scottish capital. So it’s unsurprising that my favourite curry house in Edinburgh has its roots in Glasgow.

Mother India Cafe on Infirmary St is the sister restaurant of the Glasgow branch. It is the only Indian place I’d take my mum to for dinner, such is the quality of the food. It’s an uncomplicated, uncluttered curry house. A handful of freshly cooked curries and breads are all served in the tapas style, so you’re not tied down to one dish. It’s the closest Scotland gets to home cooked, authentic Indian food – so much so that the owner, Muneer, did the catering for my wee brother’s wedding.

Kalpna

from both the outside and inside, they make and serve consistently good, old-fashioned food, along with a series of Red Fort specialities you’d be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.

Dodgy music and décor make for a traditionally British Indian dining experience. Get there at lunchtime to get the all-you-can-eat (including a drink and desert) deal for £7.50 or strike up a conversation with the friendly staff which usually results in an unofficial discount. [DH]

The lamb padina and keema muttar are the stars of the menu, and Mother India is one of those rare Indian restaurants that does decent fish dishes; more than a big bit of fish dumped in a prepared sauce. Once you try the hearty, hale offering of Mother India you’ll struggle to enjoy a Punjabi meal anywhere else (Other than my mum’s house. Obviously).

Kalpna

Hardeep Singh Kohli: Chat Masala @ Gilded Balloon 4-30 Aug (not 25), 6:30pm, £11-£12

Getting INto The Spirit of The Festival A partnership between the Edinburgh International Festival and The Skinny, IN explores new ways to engage with the Festival, removing it from the confines of the theatre and reaching out to the next generation of music, dance and theatre enthusiasts.

Throughout August, members of IN can attend a series of unique events: exclusive access to rehearsals; the chance to mingle with the stars and bargain price tickets for Pina Bausch’s groundbreaking contemporary dance; drinks receptions with the company and artists of Alonzo King Lines Ballet (Thurs 26 Aug); and free tickets to The National Theatre of Scotland’s flagship show Caledonia (20th Aug). An open rehearsal of The Sun Also Rises (13th August) will reveal how Elevator Repair Service prepare their celebrated shows, while the drinks receptions and parties are a chance to socialise with fellow enthusiasts.

Other exclusive events include pre-party drinks at Local Takeover, The Skinny’s festival party in Princes Street Gardens on 11 August, and a reception with Teatro Cinema on 1 September before ending the Festival on 9 September with a party at Hotel Missoni where future events will be revealed.

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2-3 Saint Patrick Square 0131 667 9890

staff. All the basic Indian dishes are available, and have a colour and vibrancy to them that most takeaways lack. Portions are generous and are bound to leave you full. [NP]

Namaste

17-19 Forrest Road 0131 220 2273

Though branded as Nepalese, Kathmandu Namaste’s offerings have much in common with those of Indian restaurants. A familiar batch of curries and naan breads can be found here, though usually served with a Nepalese twist that sets them slightly apart from other Indian meals in the city. The lunchtime Thaali menu, which contains various platters of small, mixed dishes, is a good option with plenty of variety. If you’ve got a pressing afternoon show to attend its central location makes getting to venues around Old Town fairly easy, though beware of long waiting times when it gets busy. [NP]

Red Fort

10 Drummond Street 0131 557 1999

Three minutes walk from the Pleasance, the Red Fort is a firm student favourite and one of the best value Indian restaurants in Edinburgh. Plain and unassuming

Kalpna is a long-established Indian restaurant marked out by its allvegetarian menu. Meat-eaters need not fear being stuck with unappetising options, as everything is cooked and presented to a fantastic standard. It’s worthwhile getting a diverse selection of dishes, as there are some very interesting and unique meals you’ll struggle to find anywhere else.

For the less adventurous, the range of rice and daals will satisfy the most demanding of pallets. Able to cater for parties large and small, Kalpna is an essential visit for vegetarian foodies. [NP]

Dusit

49a Thistle Street 0131 220 6846

Dusit’s sophisticated take on Thai staples and elegant surroundings mean that this charming Thai eatery—the pick of bustling Thistle Street—is usually full, so book ahead.

The restaurant is known for its use of Scottish ingredients on the traditional Thai wok and grill, so you can try out a Phat Phet Prig Tai Ong with venison if you don’t fancy the standard duck. Dusit offers guaranteed quality, so it’s not cheap, although the recent addition of a fixed-price lunchtime menu is a fantastic bargain. [NP]

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edinburgh transformed The Pleasance Courtyard is a hive of activity in August, not to mention one of the nicest drinking spots at the Fringe – when the sun shines. For the rest of the year it's a car park for the University of Edinburgh.

July

August

Time to get ready for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Visit the Fringe Box Office Your one stop shop for tickets for every show on the Fringe. Book online at www.edfringe.com, over the phone on 0131 226 0000 and in person at 180 High Street.

Be our Friend Join as a Friend of the Fringe and receive amazing membership benefits, including 2 for 1 ticket offers for over a thousand shows throughout the festival.

Sign up at www.edfringe.com/friends

Download the iPhone App The official Edinburgh Festival Fringe iPhone App gives you the most up-to-date show listings and Half Price Hut offers directly uploaded to your iPhone. Find out what’s on tomorrow, today or right now. Available free from the iPhone App store. Search the store for Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Connect with us @edinburghfringe www.facebook.com/edfringe edfringe.com

Browse the Fringe Shop You tweeted your cover ideas and we turned them into an exclusive range of 2010 merchandise – t-shirts, bags, posters, mugs and much more. Take home your own piece of the Fringe from 180 High Street.

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STAR OF CHANNEL 4’S ‘DIRTY TRICKS’ AND ‘DERREN BROWN’S 3D MAGIC SPECTACULAR’

“This guy is a complete star”

★★★★★ TIME OUT

“The best magic tricks in the Universe” INDEPENDENT

“The Myspace generation’s Tommy Cooper” SCOTSMAN

PHOTOGRAPHY :

Steve Ullathorne

7 .10PM 4 - 30 AUGUST

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