the edinburgh fringe festival
behind this cut is a list/review of the shows i’ve seen so far at the edinburgh fringe festival.
08/09/05 performances
#1 The Catalyst: a very bad play. the four of us were the only audience besides some of the people from the show’s crew. i wasn’t bored, but i wasn’t particularly entertained either. the title makes no sense except that it is a pun on the fact that one of the two characters is a cat. i liked the cat’s costume. really the reason we went to this show was because it was in our hotel and we knew we’d be too tired on our first day arriving here.
08/10/05 performances
#2 Terry Pratchet’s Masquerade: a very funny script, even for someone not so familiar with the works of terry pratchet. i think a random grouping of my actor friends with a halfway decedt budget could have done a better job of it as a shaffer show though.
#3 Science Fiction Blast Off Theatre: despite the fact that i went b/c of my company (we met some of my dad’s friends from the convention last week, eight people total from the world science fiction convention who made up the entire audience). it was very funny; a series of short skits w/ science fiction themes, all of which were humorous and pointless. afterwards we all went to a pub, and by all i mean all eight audience members and several of the cast as well. when the cast came in after us we said, “hey, the cast!” and they responded with, “hey, the audience!” and we proceed to discuss the time travel involved in the last skit. i think we scared the cast.
#4 Twelfth Night, or What You Will: this was just a straight forward shakespeare play, and obviously this was more my idea than the previous one. very minimalist set and costumes, but also very nice! the twins were very identical looking and - interesting note: the guy who played Sebastian looked exactly like Tracy, except without the super fancy long hair... it was kind of surreal.
#5 Folk at the Oak: at the fringe festival they will squoosh performances in almost anywhere, so on wednesday nigh we went to a small pub were a man was singing folk music with an accordion. and you know it was real scottish folk music b/c the other 15 people they were able to squoosh in with us in this tiny pub were all scottish and singing along! it was really fun actually.
08/11/05 performances
#6 The Reduced Shakespeare Company does Hollywood, All the Great Movies Abridged: FREAKING AWESOME!!! three guys doing a movie and making fun of the entire profession on the way. one of the actors looked like a young peter gallagher, or what ever his name is - big eyebrows from the OC. then there was the guy who played all the girls, he was a waif thin (i would guess he has no bigger than a 25" waist) and had tightly curled adam minks hair, only cut short - i liked him, he was cute!
#7 How to Build a Time Machine: a one man show written by the performer. a bit startling, but it would be nice to get a copy for monologues and the like.
#8 20,000 Leagues Under the Office: this is the play that eric and i will be performing next year on the shaffer stage (as well as k&p). directors wanted, see management for application.
#9 Tour of a Whiskey factory: this wasn’t an edinburgh festival attraction per-say, but i learned a lot about whiskey and it’s prepared me for my final week here in scotland when we travel around the highlands going to whiskey distilleries. and because of this tour i know that the highlands is only one of four regions in scotland that whiskey is made in, though the most dynamic of them. also, it was a seated tour, my first one ever. you just go from room to room and sit in different places while they turn on different movies and attraction, ending in a ride in a wooden barrel though whiskey history! very bad wax sculptures.
#10 the Edinburgh Military Tattoo: again, not strictly a part of the fringe, but an edinburgh attraction. lots of bagpipes. lots of plaid... forgive me, i mean tartan!
08/12/05 performance
#11 Hedwig and the Angry Inch: it was really cool to see the added improv stuff! this hedwig was very witty and made fun of the audience almost constantly. yitzhak was really convincing as a man, but at the same time you could tell how gorgeous the woman underneath was which made you hate her - she was also able to pull of the male physique in relatively tight clothes probably because she had a super model body w/ little need for breasts but still super hot. i hated her so bad! i would never be able to pull of the man bit as stylishly as her. that bitch! hedwig was a pretty girl but a very short and freakish looking man. there was an interesting twist in this production; obviously skizip could not sing b/c they had yitzhak sing “long grift” after hedwig had abandoned the stage. when hedwig was gone one of the band came up to yitzhak and said that hedwig was a horrible lead singer (“we’ve been here an hour and we’ve only done four songs... that’s a bad show!”), so he tells yitzhak that he’s good enough and should front the band himself, so yitzhak ends up singing that song with hedwig sneaking in towards the end (having done a costume change) and sings back-up. well, this puts things in place to change the end of the play. in “midnight radio” which is the last song, hedwig usually free’s yitzhak by putting a wig on her head and letting her leave the stage at last, so she can go be a wonderful drag queen on her own, possibly joining the yugoslavian cast of RENT. in this production, however, yitzhak comes back to the stage in hedwig’s original costume, puts on a wig and HEDWIG is the one to leave (through the tommy gnosis door) leaving yitzhak with the band to take over. yitzhak is essentially replacing hedwig! and yitzhak also ends up singing the last half of the song.
08/13/05 performance
#12 back to The Royal Oak, for Folk at the Oak: this time the performance was by three 20-somethings (well, the girl could be as young as 17, but i think she’s 20-ish); a brother and sister fiddle playing pair (the brother being the albino one) and a third who plays guitar and a number of piped instruments. the girl is apparently an art student and does fiddle competitions, and she plays with such ease that i see her from time to time smile and laugh at something she’s thinking about while fiddling - also she’ll look out at the audience every once in a while or at her sheet to see what she’s playing next, while she’s still playing a song now. she’s very captivating to watch!
08/09/05 performances
#1 The Catalyst: a very bad play. the four of us were the only audience besides some of the people from the show’s crew. i wasn’t bored, but i wasn’t particularly entertained either. the title makes no sense except that it is a pun on the fact that one of the two characters is a cat. i liked the cat’s costume. really the reason we went to this show was because it was in our hotel and we knew we’d be too tired on our first day arriving here.
08/10/05 performances
#2 Terry Pratchet’s Masquerade: a very funny script, even for someone not so familiar with the works of terry pratchet. i think a random grouping of my actor friends with a halfway decedt budget could have done a better job of it as a shaffer show though.
#3 Science Fiction Blast Off Theatre: despite the fact that i went b/c of my company (we met some of my dad’s friends from the convention last week, eight people total from the world science fiction convention who made up the entire audience). it was very funny; a series of short skits w/ science fiction themes, all of which were humorous and pointless. afterwards we all went to a pub, and by all i mean all eight audience members and several of the cast as well. when the cast came in after us we said, “hey, the cast!” and they responded with, “hey, the audience!” and we proceed to discuss the time travel involved in the last skit. i think we scared the cast.
#4 Twelfth Night, or What You Will: this was just a straight forward shakespeare play, and obviously this was more my idea than the previous one. very minimalist set and costumes, but also very nice! the twins were very identical looking and - interesting note: the guy who played Sebastian looked exactly like Tracy, except without the super fancy long hair... it was kind of surreal.
#5 Folk at the Oak: at the fringe festival they will squoosh performances in almost anywhere, so on wednesday nigh we went to a small pub were a man was singing folk music with an accordion. and you know it was real scottish folk music b/c the other 15 people they were able to squoosh in with us in this tiny pub were all scottish and singing along! it was really fun actually.
08/11/05 performances
#6 The Reduced Shakespeare Company does Hollywood, All the Great Movies Abridged: FREAKING AWESOME!!! three guys doing a movie and making fun of the entire profession on the way. one of the actors looked like a young peter gallagher, or what ever his name is - big eyebrows from the OC. then there was the guy who played all the girls, he was a waif thin (i would guess he has no bigger than a 25" waist) and had tightly curled adam minks hair, only cut short - i liked him, he was cute!
#7 How to Build a Time Machine: a one man show written by the performer. a bit startling, but it would be nice to get a copy for monologues and the like.
#8 20,000 Leagues Under the Office: this is the play that eric and i will be performing next year on the shaffer stage (as well as k&p). directors wanted, see management for application.
#9 Tour of a Whiskey factory: this wasn’t an edinburgh festival attraction per-say, but i learned a lot about whiskey and it’s prepared me for my final week here in scotland when we travel around the highlands going to whiskey distilleries. and because of this tour i know that the highlands is only one of four regions in scotland that whiskey is made in, though the most dynamic of them. also, it was a seated tour, my first one ever. you just go from room to room and sit in different places while they turn on different movies and attraction, ending in a ride in a wooden barrel though whiskey history! very bad wax sculptures.
#10 the Edinburgh Military Tattoo: again, not strictly a part of the fringe, but an edinburgh attraction. lots of bagpipes. lots of plaid... forgive me, i mean tartan!
08/12/05 performance
#11 Hedwig and the Angry Inch: it was really cool to see the added improv stuff! this hedwig was very witty and made fun of the audience almost constantly. yitzhak was really convincing as a man, but at the same time you could tell how gorgeous the woman underneath was which made you hate her - she was also able to pull of the male physique in relatively tight clothes probably because she had a super model body w/ little need for breasts but still super hot. i hated her so bad! i would never be able to pull of the man bit as stylishly as her. that bitch! hedwig was a pretty girl but a very short and freakish looking man. there was an interesting twist in this production; obviously skizip could not sing b/c they had yitzhak sing “long grift” after hedwig had abandoned the stage. when hedwig was gone one of the band came up to yitzhak and said that hedwig was a horrible lead singer (“we’ve been here an hour and we’ve only done four songs... that’s a bad show!”), so he tells yitzhak that he’s good enough and should front the band himself, so yitzhak ends up singing that song with hedwig sneaking in towards the end (having done a costume change) and sings back-up. well, this puts things in place to change the end of the play. in “midnight radio” which is the last song, hedwig usually free’s yitzhak by putting a wig on her head and letting her leave the stage at last, so she can go be a wonderful drag queen on her own, possibly joining the yugoslavian cast of RENT. in this production, however, yitzhak comes back to the stage in hedwig’s original costume, puts on a wig and HEDWIG is the one to leave (through the tommy gnosis door) leaving yitzhak with the band to take over. yitzhak is essentially replacing hedwig! and yitzhak also ends up singing the last half of the song.
08/13/05 performance
#12 back to The Royal Oak, for Folk at the Oak: this time the performance was by three 20-somethings (well, the girl could be as young as 17, but i think she’s 20-ish); a brother and sister fiddle playing pair (the brother being the albino one) and a third who plays guitar and a number of piped instruments. the girl is apparently an art student and does fiddle competitions, and she plays with such ease that i see her from time to time smile and laugh at something she’s thinking about while fiddling - also she’ll look out at the audience every once in a while or at her sheet to see what she’s playing next, while she’s still playing a song now. she’s very captivating to watch!