Festival Front
Always believe in...
Who’s getting up to what this festival f
I Yeehaa. Let’s celebrate - it’s festival time again. Same time every year, a bit like suiCidal feelings and Visits from your piss- stained aunt. Actually, InSider usually vacates Edinburgh for the month of August to lie prostrate in a crackhouse in Barcelona but those pesky card-carrying activrsts at the BA check-in desk have fOiled lnSider's plans. 80. rather than leaVing this column to the List minions and those awfully nice backroom people. InSider has deeded to give the people what they want: festival goss and the low-down on the good. the bad and the downright ugly.
I l'isitier .‘.titl nexe' .i t\ ii admirer of the 19808 poptivists Spandau Ballet. t‘ut t‘iir‘ see the \(iltlt‘ of ant tran.l ruir'teit
after .i i‘oitt‘i-ntration nirnii rleath itini‘e I? .o.. were a fair, and hea\en knows; Till}; it; time It' (‘eletirate at; the L‘iltl‘. annexrsa", of the release of '(Soitl' it; irnrniiieiit, ‘,ti;; shoulii i‘tietk .iut the SH special exent at Hal (1 at C.Venui-L%.1_ (Thiiiiitiert.
I lnSider has long since been convinced that the Edinburgh Military Tattoo is the work of
some Rumsfleldian devil. who called his lead character Nathan Top to bottom: The Street on Sziltlltlii‘. ;)
is determined to return us. by hook White. only to later change it to PiFk'ed King. August with speezai
or by crook. to the diseased womb Nathan Miller. And then would “"9"” Qreadi guests The Marguerite’s ‘
of imperial Crotch grabbing. But if you were looking for a decent reason not to accompany your senile relative to the dumbest show on earth, you might now have a reason. The organisers have just announced that this year things are gonna change (Middle England on tour - hold onto y0ur hats). Yes. that '5 right. the music of Vangelis and Westlite is to feature in the programme. Case. as they say. closed.
you believe it the actor who Birthday and Spandettes. What riot-s. landed the role was called Nathan corpus around comes aioiirtil. it“. White. someone Winfield had the, :;a‘.
never met before. Guffaw.
I Do you lintl that you often have to weigh up ‘.'.’il(}lllt:l to spend your pocket money on Fringe tickets; or food at festival time? Then why not choose your shows more carefully and eat and drink for free. Vegemife Ta/es; at the Pleasance is giving away
I Here are a few of the plays Insider wants to big up because some beautiful, big, weird images of them have come into InSider's posseSSiori. Corpus. by crazy old Johnny Berliner and Fintan O' Higgins. was inspired by
I Insider has noticed (in a moment
of chicken-plucking boredom) just Gunther Von Vegemite on toast. how many bird-related play titles Hagen's Topping and Butch at the there are at this year's Festival. BodyWOr/ds Underbelly is serving Just a cursory glance of the exhibition. It tells sherry to whoever can programmes reveals the titles the story of , laugh the loudest and M, Seagull, Chicken, Birds, Bird's Eye several ;,_" ‘ Mother's Soup at Hill View, Birds Of Sarajevo and Duck. characters' Street Theatre If} COOklflfl q a - ' ' vain effOrts J and serVing chicken ‘ to Win - w ‘ soup on stage. Go on. immortality. get a bellyfiil,
Then there is Marguerite '3 Birthday Wis/i,
Hollywood screenwriter You too can play this game. Send Natalie Lazarus‘ a postcard if yOu spot any more one woman- and then book y0urself in for some show. and finally major therapy. there is The Pick/ed King. the I Here's a funny little story (funny epic tale of a as in claret-choking-thespian- loveable king's funny). When Zack Winfield. the struggle to escape I Group drumming has writer of Festival play Mighty his six foot jar been scientifically proven Dread. first wrote his script, he of vinegar. Cool. to offer health
improvements that help to
o o boost the body's S natural defences. So why not take yOurself
I There's a lot to get thrOugh, so first up is Sharon Neill. bigger than a magic potato in down to the Drum Cafe her native Ireland. SharOn is a blind clairvoyant. who c0unts among her many fans Ash. Interactive at Rocket ’ai Van Morrison and assorted members of Coldplay. She came to prominence in the 1995 BOXy Art HOuse this BBC News Ireland programme The Home Truth. on which she did some mind-blowmg festival? YOu WI“ find a reading work on the site of an old monastery. Needless to say. some circus ringmaster got I 1, Diembe dl‘Um On VOUF
seat and yOu Wlll expected to pm in. Group therapy a go go.
his filthy nails into her and she has been towing ever since. What can Insider say? The lady sees dead people. so if you want to get that fiver back off yOur dead Uncle John. her show may be well wonh checking out.
6 THE LIST FES‘I’NAL GUIDE 31 Jul—7 Aug 2003