FRONTLINES NEWS AND GOSSIP FROM ACROSS THE FESTIVALS
Diary
• The Festival can be a stressful time for us all, which is why Fringe performer and life coach Peter Antoniou is offering
coaching and therapy sessions on a
‘pay what you can’ basis. If you would like to take advantage of his services,
you can tweet him at @isyourmindsafe.
• Disabled access review charity Euan’s Guide has announced that voting is now open for its Accessible Edinburgh Festival Award. The annual award is presented to an Edinburgh Festivals venue that is doing something outstanding to include and welcome disabled audiences. The public can vote on Twitter using @euansguide and the hashtag #AccessEdFest. Voting closes Sun 21 Aug, with the winners announced Fri 26 Aug.
• The Edinburgh Digital Entertainment Festival is the new kid on the Edinburgh
Festival block this year. Taking up
residence in the Assembly Rooms, it has a focus on virtual reality, but also
has a selection of theatre, ballet, opera,
FESTIVAL NEWS IN A NUTSHELL
based charity Finding Your Feet, the event based charity Finding Your Feet the event is designed to show that amputees are strong, visible and able. It leaves Holyrood at 10.30am, and i nishes at the Castle at midday.
there, a slow and sombre procession there a slow and sombre procession will make its way to the Dugald Stewart
Monument on Calton Hill. We suspect this is all a joke, a normcore joke, but
we could be wrong. What is a joke,
• Comedian Will Franken has launched the Dei ning the Norm Awards,
special events and art exhibitions. ‘celebrating the safety, sameness and
• On Wed 10 Aug, Nils Bergstrand, the amputee writer and performer of The One Legged Man Show, unites with fellow amputees to travel up the The Royal Mile, as part of an event called The One Legged Mile. Held in partnership with the Glasgow-
sycophancy so integral to the world’s largest and most expensive comedy
festival.’ According to an article in
Spiked online,’gathering for the DTN Awards ceremony will commence at
11.30am on the morning of 28 August
near the Old Calton Burial Ground. From
THE WORD ON THE TWEET IS . . .
As Edinburgh embraces the Fringe, performers, promoters and audience members take to Twitter to share their excitement (and, er, other thoughts and feelings too)
@Philwalkercomic Just had a £10K haircut, it’s called the Edinburgh fringe #edfringe @ThisJavier Flyerer’s enthusiasm batteries are currently at 100% and they haven’t realised they’ve left their chargers at home for the month #EdFringe
@jamesbennison88 Heading up to #edfringe tomorrow and literally shitting myself (which is reminiscent of #edfringe2009) @notmurphy Things have taken a turn at #edfringe. Past-me wanted more audience, so present-me is making a l yering rota. Future- me is going to hate it
@GabrielEbulue It takes a year to forget the horrors of l yering and one vacant stare to remember the pain. The #edfringe has ofi cially begun @MrMichaelSpicer It’s time for another live tweet show in case you can’t get to the #edfringe but need to be let down by a comedian
12 THE LIST FESTIVAL 11–18 Aug 2016
anyway? • The Edinburgh International Festival opened in style on 7 Aug with Deep Time, a spectacular audio-visual display which lit up Edinburgh Castle. The event was developed by 59 Productions and explored 350 million year’s of Edinburgh’s geological history. It was accompanied by a soundtrack from Mogwai, and was attended by approximately 27,000 people.
WHAT A SELL OUT
Don’t end up on the fringe of the Fringe: get your tickets before they’re gone. Here’s what’s selling fast and and what’s already sold out*.
GOING, GOING... Daniel Sloss: So? • Ed Gamble • James Acaster: Reset • Katy Brand: I Was A Teenage Christian • Louis CK • Mark Watson: I’m Not Here • Nina Conti: In Your Face • Pete Firman: TriX • Seann Walsh: One For The Road GONE • Daniel Kitson Presents an Insufi cient Number of Undeveloped Ideas Over Ninety Testing Minutes Starting at Noon • Katherine Ryan: Work In Progress • Susan Calman
*Correct at time of going to press
CHOOSE TRAINSPOTTING
The Trainspotting sequel may be i lming right now, but we’re just as excited about the stage version of the original this Fringe. Here, we chat to Greg Esplin, who plays Tommy.
Best thing about the Fringe? The best thing about the Fringe is watching an entire city come to life with the arts at the core of that awakening. People from all over the world from different countries and cultures, coming together to celebrate the importance of art. This alone shows how important the Fringe is. The extended bar licences ain’t half bad either. Worst thing? The i rst day after the last. It’s like the end of Christmas. Also, no matter how hard you try, you will always miss one-off amazing pieces of theatre.
Strangest Fringe experience? Watching three actors naked, wrapped in cling i lm, with bags of popcorn tied to their hands singing about God. I was the only person there so I couldn’t walk out. Best thing a reviewer has said about you? ‘You stole the show.’
The worst? I haven’t really been unlucky enough to have been told anything bad by a reviewer. Well, maybe that one reviewer who admitted he wrote a review of a show without actually going to see it, that’s a pretty bad thing to tell someone. Trainspotting, Assembly George Square Studios, 623 3030, until 29 Aug (not 16, 23), times vary, £13–£15 (£11–£13)