Our theatre team have been out and about at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. First time Fringe goer, Jodie Ratcliffe shares her experience…
The run-up
In the days running up to the kick-off of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, I sat at my kitchen table looking through what I can only describe as an epic theatrical Argos catalogue – the Edinburgh Fringe brochure. I spent hours flicking through the categories and circling the shows I’d like to see, building up a wish-list of around 60 productions. But I had only three days… I realised that I needed to be realistic and ruthless and so those 60 became a final list of 12. I couldn’t help but feel I might miss the best party in town, but my selection served me well.
The arrival
As I stepped out of Waverley Station and into the surprisingly sunny city, I was greeted by a sea of promoters thrusting flyers at me from all angles, and was taken aback by some of their inventive flyering techniques. Being a Fringe novice, and there being so much to see and so little time, I took them all with a niggling part of my brain screaming ‘How will I fit all these in?!’ I followed Google Maps around the bustling city stopping at each corner to watch jugglers or listen to extremely talented buskers. Tourists took photos, locals wormed their way through the swarms of people, street performers drew in audiences, and I saw it all unfold under the watchful eye of Edinburgh Castle standing stoic and beautiful from its spot high on the hills. I had an overwhelming feeling that I wasn’t in Kansas any more and desperately wanted to be a part of the madness.
The shows
Over the three days, I spent my time running from one venue to the next to see a mixture of shows from puppetry to new writing, site-specific to game show-esque. To be honest, I had probably under-estimated the distance between venues and entered some shows out of breath with feet full of blisters from all the walking. But it was so worth it as I saw some absolutely brilliant pieces of work and even managed to fill my spare time sitting in the lovely cafes and wandering round Royal Market, a hidden gem of a place in a church on the Royal Mile. From horror stories I’ve heard on the grapevine, I half expected to see some ‘odd’ productions but I really enjoyed the majority of shows I saw so it was quite difficult to create a shortlist of my top five picks of the Fringe. But here it is, in chronological order:
Dublin Old School @ Pleasance Courtyard
Greater Belfast @ The Traverse Theatre
Early Doors @ The Jinglin’ Geordie Pub
Meet Fred @ Summerhall
We Are Ian @Pleasance Dome
I was also lucky enough to catch Mighty Heart Theatre’s last performance of When I Feel Like Crap I Google Kim Kardashian Fat on the Free Fringe, and loved it just as much on the fourth viewing.
For years I’ve wanted to go to the Fringe to witness the magic of the city and the festival, and it blew all expectation out of the window. It was a creative magnet with a gravitational force bringing people from all walks of life to experience the unknown. It is also a beautiful city full of history and dramatically tall buildings. If you do one thing in Edinburgh outside of seeing the shows it is this: look up! It really is magical.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe runs until Mon 29 August. And you can follow @HOME_mcr on Twitter between 19:00 – 20:00 daily for our #EdFringe updates.
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