Cabaret Chinwag at Fringe Central on August 6, 2014: (l-r) me, Miss Behave, Miss Hope Springs, the Wau Wau Sisters
Well, it’s all fun and games until someone loses an internal organ…
It’s been a slightly unusual Fringe. I had a week of great shows, lots of work and a little bit of play (less than I’d have liked thanks to those pesky London deadlines that I always promise myself will be cleared before the Fringe starts but somehow never are). Then I had a planned two-night break back in London, just to get out of the bubble for a bit. Only my arrival back down south coincided with the onset of acute appendicitis, so my quick break turned into a week of A&E, emergency surgery and convalescence.
Luckily it all went fine and I seem to have bounced back pretty well, so I’m back up here to try to make up a bit of lost ground. I just have to be careful not to overdo it. Or laugh too hard. So, erm, obviously the Edinburgh Fringe is the perfect place to be.
This year I’ve been reviewing for the Scotsman, and that’s where my writing so far has appeared. You can find all my Scotsman reviews here, on their arts microsite. Just one five-star job so far in 2014, for Lady Rizo‘s show, which I thought combined stellar showmanship with narrative and emotional sophistication and a subtle argument about the connection between the pursuit of honesty in life and the cabaret form itself. Among lots of other highlights, I thought Lynn Ruth Miller, Holestar, Dandy Darkly and Tomás Ford have all pushed themselves in new directions with very impressive and wildly different results.
Being out of the game for the middle of the Fringe means I’ve seen far fewer shows than I’d have hoped by this stage, especially by acts I haven’t seen before; I tend to make a beeline for the known quantities then try to broaden out. But I really liked Trygve Wakenshaw’s clown piece Kraken (it reminded me of Dr Brown, which might say more about my limited field of reference than anything) and Josh Ladgrove’s Come Heckle Christ, in which the Aussie comic assumes the persona and indeed cruciform position of Jesus and fields questions from the audience. Of course, I love work that emerges from the dynamic between performer and spectators and it was a pure example of that – so I booked it for The Not Television Festival! (Also delighted to confirm Lady Rizo and Jonny Woo will be reading White Rabbit, Red Rabbit during the weekend – cabaret stars as you’ve never seen them before…)
I also held one session of Cabaret Chinwag, my interview show/panel event/talking shop/drinky mingler for cabaret types at the Fringe. It was more or less packed out, in the handy-but not-exactly-glam environs of a Fringe Central classroom. The terrific Miss Behave gave us a preview of her fab lo-fi Game Show and talked about the need for a balanced diet of both velvet and cardboard; the Wau Wau Sisters discussed the perils of a show that attracts Death Threats (and Other Forms of Flattery) from fundamentalist nutjobs; Miss Hope Springs previewed her debut Edinburgh run (now completed); and there was lively discussion of how performers and promoters, who made up almost the whole audience, can connect with general punters, represented in this particular room by one chap called Brian. Then there was free gin courtesy of local start-up Pickering’s, which was very nice. Last week’s Chinwag was off, obviously, but normal service should be resumed for the last one on Wednesday 20.
Okay, enough blather. More shows to see. Just a bit more gently than usual. It’s good to be back.
