FRONTLINES NEWS AND FESTIVALS
GOSSIP FROM ACROSS THE
DIARY FESTIVAL NEWS IN A NUTSHELL
• The longlist for the Fringe Sustainable Practice award has been announced. The award, which is run by the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts and Creative Carbon Scotland, recognises those mean, green Fringe shows that help to raise the audience’s awareness of, and responsibility for, their own environmental impact. There are 21 shows featured on the longlist, including Ndebele Funeral (pictured), Tim Spooner’s The Assembly of Animals, Paines Plough’s Lungs and last year’s winners, the HandleBards. • Roll up, roll up: the Underbelly Circus Hub ofi cially opens this week (7 Aug) on the Meadows. It’s the i rst ever Fringe venue dedicated exclusively to circus, and is made up of two big tops: the Lafayette (750 seats) and the Beauty (250 seats). However, the Lafayette won’t now open until 10 Aug as high winds have delayed its construction.
EIF participants will be taking part in a series of intimate chats about their work in front of a small Edinburgh audience, which will then be streamed across the world on bbc.co.uk/arts. Featured guests include dance star Sylvie Guillem (7 Aug), actor Juliette Binoche (13 Aug) and theatre- makers Robert Lepage (18 Aug) and Simon McBurney (20 Aug). All events are being held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel.
• Let’s talk about the Edinburgh International Festival’s Conversations strand. Several • Tree’s a crowd it would seem, as the ofi cial meeting point for the Edinburgh Festival has been announced as an ‘alien tree’ in
Waverley station. Yes, you read that right. The i ve-metre-tall artwork by Charles Avery, made up of 162 coloured acrylic rods hanging from bronze branches, has been commissioned by the Edinburgh Art Festival, and will be located next to platform two until the end of August. • Good news, Fringe-goers, you can now take as many #seli es as you want without fear of running your phone battery down. Bus stops on Princes Street have been equipped with mobile phone chargers, so feel free to text, tweet and talk away.
#WTFRINGE WHAT A SELL OUT
The F word is all over Twitter, as Edinburgh gets ready for the Fringe
@Gildedballoon: The countdown is on. Teviot transforms…#before #getin #edfringe #gilded30
@bigsexycircus: Big top number one is up! Top number two nearly there #circus #Wtfringe @_JulianneMc: Route to work is now lined with huge #WTFringe posters. Strong urge to see a circus act before 9am
@CityCabsEdin: I can hardly believe that the @ edfringe is just around the corner #WTFringe
@orbitalsound: #FringeFacts Our supply of cable to #edfringe would stretch from Edinburgh to Glasgow! #WTFringe @edfringe @KellyTeruko: Beyond excited to spend an evening working on my @edfringe spreadsheet. #WTFringe
10 THE LIST FESTIVAL 6–13 Aug 2015
Tickets don’t last forever, y’know. Here’s what’s selling fast at the fest, and what’s already sold out* (5–11 Aug).
GOING, GOING . . . • Aisling Bea: Plan Bea • Alan Davies: Work in
Progress • David O’Doherty: We Are All in the
Gutter, But Some of Us Are Looking at David O’Doherty • Flight • Gruffalos, Ladybirds and
Other Beasts • James Acaster: Represent • Jason Byrne: 20 Years A Clown • Oh Hello! •
Reginald D Hunter: Bitchproof • The Colour
Ham – One. Last. Time • Tommy Tiernan Alive
in Edinburgh
GONE • Avenue Q • Bridget Christie: A Book For Her
(limited availability on 11 Aug) • Katherine Ryan: Kathbum • Nina Conti: In Your Face •
Paul Foot • Polyphony • Rob Beckett: Mouth of
the South (sold out 7, 10 & 11 Aug)
*Correct at time of going to press
RESIDENT TOURIST
Year after year, artists from all over the
world return to Edinburgh for the Festival, and make it their home for the month. One of those people is Andrew Hunter Murray, one part of Jane Austen-inspired improv
comedy group Austentatious
Describe the Fringe in four words. Exhausting. Exhilarating. Expansive. Expensive.
Why do you bring your work to the festival? It’s a wonderful festival to be a part of, like nowhere else in the world. Also, frankly, we crave the attention. What do you take away from the experience? a) The attention (see above), and b) the sheer delight of making up a new story every day based on nothing more than a suggestion from the audience.
What was your most surreal festival experience? Watching a man wearing nothing more than underpants, a lanyard and make-up judging people’s personalities based on which of the Rocky i lms was their favourite. What is the best thing reviewers have written about you? The Guardian once said our show was ‘one of the most enjoyable 60 minutes on the Fringe’, which was very nice of them, not to mention unstintingly accurate.
Where are you likely to be found this festival? Propping up bars, playing frisbee in the Meadows, and in the Underbelly at 1.15pm every afternoon, in breeches. Why do you think acts return to Edinburgh year-on-year? For the glamour, the enormous paycheques, and the sunshine. ■ Austentatious, Underbelly George Square, 8–31 Aug (not 18), 1.15pm, £11.50–£12.50 (£10.50–£11.50). Previews 6 & 7 Aug, £7. See page 48 for an interview with Murray’s fellow cast member, Joseph Morpurgo.