Edinburgh Fringe

By Stewart Collins

I’m going to go back through my records one day and work out just how many Edinburgh Fringes I’ve attended, but ignoring the covid interruption I reckon I’ve been in Edinburgh every August for more than 20 consecutive years. It’s intoxicating.

Planning an assault on Edinburgh is just that: it requires almost military planning. Every year a fat brochure comes out containing details of 1500 or more shows, and I know that, even at peak fitness, I’m unlikely to be able to see more than 30 of them whilst in Auld Reekie. That’s 30 shows in five or six days, so you can see I have to be exceptionally well organised when fixing the what’s, where’s and when’s of my ‘assault’.

So how was it this year? A minor triumph I have to say. In any normal year it’s almost inevitable that I will catch a few turkeys. Many of the shows I really want to see happen within the peak times of 5 to 9pm, so you have to go to other shows as well if you want to optimise the use of your time. But no turkeys this year? OK, there was one theatre piece that rather ineffectually attempted to draw attention to the issue of flora and fauna extinctions brought on by climate change, but even that slightly irritating 60 minutes prompted debate and reflection – which I suppose is what you want from pretty much any show.

Highlights? Many. Absolutely brilliant comedy from Geoff Norcott and Daniel Sloss; top theatre in the shape of a piece from the States called Ohio, and shows by a Belgian theatre company called Thank you for coming and a Spanish company called Teenage Odyssey; And of course the brilliant improvised musical Showstopper…. See you next August Edinburgh!