Edinburgh 2008 - Day One

Over two years ago I set off for my second Fringe with Richard and Nat. It began, as most things do, with bagels. (I do have a good memory but I don't have an insane memory - I'm writing this with a copy of a letter I sent Liz when I came home) We were really excited and we were there for ages. We'd gone up for the very first day - which was a bit annoying as there was a huge cavalcade in the city when we arrived so it made getting from venue to venue harder.

We began (an amazing start to a Fringe, not to be beaten until the wondrous Kevin Eldon) with a play, What's Wrong With Angry which remains one of the best plays I've ever ever seen. I think the main reason we saw it (although that really is hard to remember) was that Stephen Fry recommended it (he must've been quoted in the programme). And it was about being gay. And it was set in a school. Yep, those three things are enough to make us see a play (me and Nat anyway!).  Oh, maybe this poster had something to do with it:

Anyway, the play was wonderful - it was about being gay in school (aged 16) and was set in the days where the age of consent for gay men was 21. Which seems mad now. However, the nineties weren't all bad and this play really captured the dance/pop music of the period ("What is Love" by Haddaway etc) which was evocative of my childhood. And the dancing in the play was really brilliant - I'd never seen dancing like that in a play that wasn't a musical. And I loved the important points it made about being gay, about hiding and about love. It's always good to see a play that changes and enriches your life. It was made into a film (Get Real) but you can't buy the actual play anywhere that I've found.

After that I think we begun one of our Edinburgh traditions when we went to the crepe place for the first time (that isn't in my letter, I just remember that!). It's a van in Bristo Square (where the big purple cow of the Underbelly, the Gilded Balloon and the Pleasance Dome are) where you can get crepes - they're yummy and more importantly quick to make and eat when you have barely any time between shows.

Then we saw Not Stalking David Tennant (aka Having It All) from which we learned the very important lesson: do not be swayed by the name of a sexy and talented actor in the title; the tenth Doctor had barely anything to do with it. We'd hoped it would have been an interesting take on obsession, love, TV (you know, the things that matter) but instead it was weird. Bad weird. It was a one-woman play split into four parts, in each part she played a different female character. The first role she played was a woman in therapy. It was well done and intersting though a bit depressing (but depressing is fine; some of my favourite things could be called depressing though they don't depress me).  In the next bit she was being a chav; it wasn't great. It wasn't funny. It could've been an okay sort of thing though nothing special if not for the third bit: the dreaded physical theatre. It was some super prententious Japenese physical theatre called Butoh. It was really slow and tortured - I absolutely didn't get it. Anyway, the final bit was about David Tennant (at last!); we kept checking watches, eager to make our next show and escape this strange woman. The DT bit wasn't bad. Anyway, you're supposed to see some absolute shit at the Fringe so that was fine!

Then we saw an all female production of The Picture of Dorian Gray which was pretty cool - they did some really interesting things with props, making a picture frame become a table etc. Very inventive. I hadn't read the novel at the time. 

The last thing we did that day (we really didn't do too much in the early days!) was see Andy Zaltman's Political Animal which included Zaltz's trademark "we apologise for the late start to this show; this is due to the unstoppable march of time" and was a really good show (despite being in the boiling Underbelly) featuring:

Andrew Maxwell, an Irish stand up who'd been doing comedy for various soldiers on both sides (Irish and Northern Irish), Kevin Gildea, also Irish, not very political but funny (mustn't have been too hilarious or life-changing as I haven't seen him again) and also that night was how we discovered the amazing James Sherwood who is brilliant - he sings and plays the piano - topical songs and he's really sweet, very funny. I always try to see him. Wonderful special man. And here he is:

Sunday was quite rainy but that was nothing compared to what was to come. Still, it was a great start to an amazing week.