Category Archives: EdFestivals 2022

All our coverage from the 2022 festivals.

‘Cirque Berserk!’ (Pleasance at EICC, until AUG 28)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2022, Rated: Outstanding by

“Dos Santos’ is the nitrous oxide in the tank that sends ‘Cirque Berserk!’ into overdrive.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

They say that the second hit of something intoxicating has a far less profound effect than the first. Is this true of ‘Cirque Berserk!’, the single biggest thing to happen to Scotland’s capital since those enlightened types in powdered wigs stopped to wonder what life was all about? I’m not a circus reviewer, I do theatre, which is why I find the concept of a circus show curated to feel like a theatrical event so intriguing. When I saw the show in 2019 (also with Daughter 1.0, who is now 7yrs auld) it blew my tiny mind. After the longest 3 years in recorded history, is the rush of awesome to the head induced by ‘Cirque Berserk!’ still as potent the second time around? Spoiler alert! Most definitely, yes, possibly more so.

The lineup of acts is, as ever, electrically eclectic harmonised by professionalism and dedication to craft that must be seen to be believed. I am especially glad that the Timbuktu Tumblers are looking in such canny fettle in the wake of a global pandemic headlined by a serious respiratory infection. Their energy and skills makes the least use of props and the most use of their own physicality. If any group of performers was going to have been disrupted by COVID it might have been these lads but, of course, they are in superb condition – a testament to clean living and regular exercise which I’ll hear after I’ve got the next round in. Daughter 2.0 (4yrs) chuffing loves these guys. Above the excitement of the crowd, you can hear the cogs in her wee brain calculating that this is what she could achieve if only her Baba would let her climb on, and jump off, the furniture.

The Lucius Team, with their hair-brained, hell-raising stunt of driving motorbikes at speeds of up to 60mph inside The Globe of Death are beyond the power of words to describe. In the skies above our home in Englandshire, you frequently see Spitfires and other members of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flitting about in a manner most serene and picturesque. For the post-war generations, the closest we’ll get to understanding those magnificent men and their comparatively primitive flying machines, the speed, the power, the excitement, the danger, the drama, technical know-how, and the nerves of steel is to watch the Lucius Team doing their thing. You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps.

Elberel, the lady from the bottle, is back although her party piece of firing arrows with her feet is performed this year by Antonio and Connor, the amazing balancing act. They don’t hit the mark with Elberel’s surety, but spinning on your head and balancing on a stack of 5 chairs is more than enough to generate more excited gasps than Colin Firth coming out of a pond in the mid-1990s. Duo Garcia are from Spain and Ireland. I’d love to know how those guys met and how you even start a conversation about hanging by your teeth a mindboggling distance above the stage. Czech knife throwing act, Toni and Nikol, are an auld skool treat on target and on point.

If there’s a single star of the show it’s got to be Paulo Dos Santos, one of the most celebrated circus performers of our time. Combining incredible acrobatic power and grace with a true clown’s gift for connecting to the audience, Dos Santos is the nitrous oxide in the tank that sends ‘Cirque Berserk!’ into overdrive. His comedy partner, Whimmie, comes from a family of circus clowns. His great-great-grandfather performed at Windsor Castle for Queen Victoria who must surely have been amused at least that one time.

In her Fringe notebook, the one with Moana on the cover, Daughter 1.0 wrote: “When I walked in toit there was a big sepher. And there was music. First there was men that made towers with them selves. And there was motor bikes in a Sepher. And a lady in it! the acrobats went so high and were very bendy I could tell they had been practising. They juggled with fire! They also shot bows and aros with there feet there were lots of acrobats. The clowns were so funny one of them went in a balloon. and jumped up and down. I loved every moment of it!”

‘Cirque Berserk!’ loses none of its power to enthral, entertain, and entrance the second time around. In fact, I find myself sitting further back in my seat, settling into the spectacle more easily, sharing the moment with two of my favourite people to share anything with. I feel closer to them in those moments because for 60 minutes I am one of them. Wide-eyed at the wonder of the world and what special people can do given half a chance. I find myself recalling that the Edinburgh International Conference Centre is built on the site of a public house of which my girls’ ancestor was the landlord. I’d love to know what he’d have made of the happening on the site of his gaff a century or so later. I suspect he’d think he’d been over-sampling his own stock because with ‘Cirque Berserk!’ seeing is never quite believing that such impossible things can happen.

 

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‘Our Teacher’s a Troll’ (theSpace on the Mile, until AUG 13)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2022, Rated: Outstanding by

“Not a beat missed, not a line fluffed, every laughter line as crisp and straight as the hem on Miss Jean Brodie’s sensible tartan skirt.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

School’s in this EdFringe and there’s something not quite right about our new headteacher. We enter to find four coloured boxes, a mic stand, and no sign of an Ofsted inspector. The kids are pulling a prank led by a couple of naughty, but essentially nice, twins. They’re asking ‘why’ a lot, and it’s sent the previous head out of her mind. So we find ourselves at assembly, even though we’re at SpaceUK. The deputy head, nice chap but rather dim, announces the arrival and installation of the new boss who is most definitely NOT the same as the old boss.

What follows are 50 minutes of undiluted, knock-your-socks-off silliness which may (or may not) carry a serious message about listening to kids when they tell you something is wrong. Or about how we tolerate the intolerable greed and oppression of our tyranny-driven overlords. Or about how the good get eaten. Or about the need to understand those who are most different from us. Perhaps it’s a variation on the theme of auld king log, his frog subjects, and that heron – but I never read Aesop.

The young cast are masters of revelry. Their actual school, Emanuel in Battersea, is an award-winning shaper of bright young things and the things on show in Edinburgh this August are a credit to their peers, parents, and pedagogues. Not a beat missed, not a line fluffed, every laughter line as crisp and straight as the hem on Miss Jean Brodie’s sensible tartan skirt. This is a show for younger kids by slightly older kids who are, as the saying goes, neither grass nor hay. How did they get on enthralling (or should that be entrolling) Daughter 1.0 (7yrs)?

In her EdFringe notebook, the one with the sequined unicorn on the cover, she wrote: “In Our teacher’s a troll the head teacher was teaching a class and the terible twins kept on asking why. And then they found her eating sand and mooing like a cow And to replace her it was a troll. “Oh no it can’t be it’s not it is!” He made them work in a Gold mine. And all they coald eat was brusill sproutrs ip peanut butter! The terible twins put worm in sanwiches and the boy who ate worms Was eaten. a nother child and a grown up was eaten they told the prime minester there Mum the police and the school inspector but they woaldn’t lisen. They were almost eaten! All this made my teeth chata. I loved it!”

This is a show which makes a lot of good choices (like Daughter 2.0 on one of her better days). The best, in my not especially humble opinion, was to represent the troll via that mic stand, with the cast taking turns to have their voices amplified and distorted into a fearsome roar. Together with the studied use of a green spotlight, the truly menacing effect was not unlike what the Dr Who props boffins achieved with that plunger on Jacqueline Hill back in the day – you know it’s done on a budget, but it’s still pretty scary if you’re up to your lime green heels in the drama.

Dennis Kelly’s possibly poignant, definitely laugh-out-loud script is more than safe in the hands of these wunderkinds – you saw them here first.

 

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EdFringe Talk: Séayoncé: Res-Erection (Seayonce)

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2022 by

“You will also see things that will inspire you forever whilst sat in a hot damp cave with asbestos.”

WHO: Seayonce

WHAT: “The baddest b!tch in the spirit world is back, the legendary Ghost Whisperer Séayoncé! What better way to feel alive again than with a big throbbing res-erection? Ghouls just want to have fun… it’s time you did too! A desperate soul haunts the festival and no, not a fringe performer… it’s time for a little exorcism. It’s bound to be an occult classic! Created by Dan Wye, rising queer star on the comedy scene. ‘A sharp edge of wit.’ ***** (TheLGBTQArtsReview.wordpress.com). ‘Queer, overboard and full of vice’ ***** (LondonBoxOffice.co.uk). ‘Favourite show I’ve ever seen… Séayoncé slays’ *****”

WHERE: Assembly Roxy – Upstairs (Venue 139) 

WHEN: 22:00 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

No this is my third Edinburgh fringe because apparently I’m a sadist and like to experience pain. Edinburgh is great, because it is the highest concentration of people with abandonment issues craving attention from strangers. You will also see things that will inspire you forever whilst sat in a hot damp cave with asbestos.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2019 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

To remember that the job is simply making people laugh, and that is an enjoyable thing.

Tell us about your show.

My show is a comedy cabaret séance led by the mystic Séayoncé, which I wrote and perform in, accompanied by musical genius Robyn Herfellow and produced by Berk’s Nest. The first adaptation of the show had a two week run at Soho theatre during Halloween and it has changed and evolved massively since touring it around the country. We contact the dead, sing huge ballads and just act like silly queer witches. It is pure joy. It will change your life, you will never feel the same again, you will start stalking me because the withdrawal symptoms will get so intense and end up getting a restraining order after trying to cut my hair whilst I sleep. That’s a promise.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

Go see these gorgeous hilarious humans, Baby Lame, Siblings, Cat Cohen, Madame Chandelier and there are so ma ny more, basically support the queers! Also I am doing another show Dan Wye Am I Sam Smith at The Flick which you should also definitely see so you don’t die with any regrets.

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EdFringe Talk: It’s Fraser Brown, I’m Afraid

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2022 by

“I don’t feel I really got enough critical acclaim last year, so I’m back to throw as much shit at the wall as I can, until some of it sticks.”

WHO: Fraser Brown

WHAT: “Fraser Brown takes the audience on a hilarious and dark analysis of his own anxieties and worries. At only 22, Fraser (hopefully) has the majority of his life ahead of him, but is preoccupied with what’s happened in those first 22 years, for him to become the person who he is today. Unable to let go of the past, Fraser asks himself if he’ll ever be able to move on and forgive the grudges he’s held since his school days. An introspective extrovert, asking what it means to be happy; it’s Fraser Brown, I’m Afraid.”

WHERE: theSpace @ Surgeons Hall – Theatre 3 (Venue 53) 

WHEN: 22:05 (50 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my second year doing stand-up at the Fringe. However, as a by-product of me being lazy and uncreative, it’s almost the exact same show as last year. I don’t feel I really got enough critical acclaim last year, so I’m back to throw as much shit at the wall as I can, until some of it sticks.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2019 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

In 2019, I knew a grand total of fuck all. (About doing a fringe show. Shapes, colours and numbers, I could understand. Although I now believe I may know more about all of the above than the fringe society does). I’ve learnt that flyering is exhausting, and so if you guys could just come to my show on your own accord, that’d be great.

Tell us about your show.

I wrote this show, for the same reason any comedian writes their first show: sheer ego. I may endeavor to write something artistic in future, but for now it’s self indulgent drivel. Luckily I’ve managed to trick critics into thinking that it holds some kind of cultural value. But as long as it’s funny, who really gives a fuck? And luckily for my audiences, it is very funny.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

‘It’s Not Rocket Science’ is probably at the top of my recommendation list. I saw the show last year (having no clue what to expect) and I was blown away. It’s a touching story of a young girl growing up, and making her way through the aerospace engineering industry.

‘2 Mouthed Men’ are a great comedy’s duo who combine sketch comedy with beatboxing, a combination I doubt you’ll find anywhere else. I saw their show the other day, and I’ve been giggling to myself about some of their sketch ever since.

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‘Three Women and Shakespeare’s Will’ (theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, until AUG 20)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2022, Rated: Outstanding by

“Julia Munrow has one of the brightest smiles in the business, I wonder if they teach that at RADA.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

It’s one of the most analysed documents in English history. It’s a source of fascination and mystery, one of the few tangible links to the life lived by our most celebrated writer. Joan Greening’s script brings together three of Shakespeare’s women – his wife, his lover, and his other lover. They’ve come to grieve in that most passionate and sincere way, by arguing over what’s to happen with the dead guy’s stuff.

There can be few women whose memory is harder done by than Anne Shakespeare, née Hathaway. She has been portrayed as a bumpkin, a conniving seducer manipulating her much younger mark into an unhappy marriage. Sarah Archer’s Anne is nobody’s fool. She’s the iron hand behind the man, the brains of the operation who invested wisely, taking care of the home front while her wordsmith husband did battle to populate the vasty fields of empty paper with mankind’s most magnificent turns of phrase. Sarah’s Anne is the backbone on which sits the family’s head for business. She is not pleased, but neither is she at all amazed, not even in the slightest, when two potential cuckoos land in her well-feathered nest.

Julia Munrow has one of the brightest smiles in the business, I wonder if they teach that at RADA. As the first of the rivals, Anne Whateley, she has, or rather had, much to smile about. Whateley, some scholars argue, was the true love of Shakespeare’s early life. The couple may even have been betrothed or married in some form or another. Our present author picks up on the theme of Whateley having been Shakespeare’s muse, or perhaps even the true author or the works attributed to him. Julia throws out familiar lines from the canon with all the pride of a mother hen leading a healthy brood of chicks about a farmyard.

The biographer John Aubrey, as well as the satirist Samuel Butler, tell us that in his regular travels Shakespeare spent much time at the Crown Tavern in Oxford. This establishment was owned by that city’s mayor, John Davenant. Shakespeare may have been the godfather, perhaps even the biological father, to the future poet laureate, William Davenant, the definite son of Jane, his landlord’s wife. As Jane, Lemon Squeeze Productions’ Creative Director Emma Hopkins, completes the trio. Jane’s ace up her sleeve is that her son William, is possibly the only surviving male heir to the Shakespeares’ fortune. The wrangling that follows is as delightful as the scheming is dastardly. Here is a comic-drama that any master bardian trainspotter will revel in.

There’s definite room for improvement, but of those minor sorts that come with the territory when a play is tested in the unforgiving crucible of EdFringe. The off-handed treatment of Hamnet Shakespeare’s death by the other women is out of character, discordant, and deeply unsympathetic. Grief is grief and none of these individuals is as the snake roll’d in a flowering bank, With shining chequer’d slough, [that] doth sting a child That for the beauty thinks it excellent. (If you’re reading this, Joan, you’re very welcome to this, my pet theory on how Hamnet died as told in the most private lines in Shakespeare.)

What is 100% on target is the dynamic between the three actors. These are women of the world played by women of the stage with the skill, talent, and craft to pull together the many coloured strings of a carefully woven tapestry. The norns beneath Yggdrasil must look and carry themselves in much the same way Sarah, Julia, and Emma snip at one another as well as the man they each loved in their own particular way.

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‘The Wonder Games with Maddie and Greg’ (Underbelly George Square, until AUG 13)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2022, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“My youngsters asked if they could recreate an experiment at home and watch more of Maddie and Greg’s videos. Result.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

If you don’t have children under the age of 10 you may never have heard of Maddie and Greg. They are though to the CBeebies generation rockstars. Their popular science videos on YouTube were enormous hits during lockdown and helped inspire a generation of youngsters to stay curious.

We arrived early at the big purple cow to see a queue already snaking off towards the Meadows. Many children (and some adults) in Maddie and Greg t-shirts. There was a genuine hubbub. Maybe even a hullaballoo.

And then Maddie and Greg bounded on stage. They explained the Wonder Games: a series of games – with full audience participation – which would bring science to life.

The duo are exceptionally skilled pros. Working with kids and parents wearing comedy Sou’Westers isn’t easy. Experiments can go wrong.

They make it look easy as they guide the audience through the science. Youngsters cheering, clapping and desperately hoping to be picked. From the first minute to the last they hold their young audience in the palm of their hands. Youngsters nearby shouted out for particular games or experiments they’d tried at home and wanted to see in the flesh (I suppose a bit like those middle aged dads shouting ‘’Do more Beatles’’ stuff when McCartney was playing Glastonbury)

Over the course of four games – all involving the audience, all built around learning about science in a fun way – Maddie and Greg compete with each other. We were resolutely Team Maddie. There’s vortexes, intros to gravity, Irn Bru, and a genuinely hilarious game called Fact Bombs. Our girls – and two friends they bumped into – thought this was hilarious and were properly belly laughing. Maddie was doing her best to corpse Greg but he was just about fly enough to get through it.

It is a highly polished, inventive, enjoyable show. It makes you want to learn more about science. My youngsters asked if they could recreate an experiment at home and watch more of Maddie and Greg’s videos. Result.

 

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‘Pip Utton as Dylan’ (Pleasance Courtyard – Beneath, until AUG 29)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2022, Rated: Outstanding by

“Only someone as crazy as the man who brings to the Fringe three separate shows at three separate venues would be unhinged enough to come to Scotch-land and promote an American rye.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Full disclosure. I’m a massive Pip Utton fan and have been since I saw him “As Dickens” at EdFringe 2011. Bob Dylan on the other hand, meh not so much, but then I don’t much care for that Hitler chap Pip’s currently playing either. Bob Dylan has been described as the voice of a generation and that generation is queuing round the block. Their combined ages would take us back to a time when Noah was thinking about growing a beard and Keith Richards was qualifying for a seniors’ bus pass.

We enter to find ourselves backstage at Dylan’s last live performance. He’s taking a few questions from the press, chronicling the past with a soft-spoken worldview that is anything but weary. There’s a bottle of Heavens Door Tennessee Bourbon, the whiskey owned and approved by Dylan, which incorporates into the design the gates to Dylan’s home which he welded himself. Only someone as crazy as the man who brings to the Fringe three separate shows at three separate venues would be unhinged enough to come to Scotch-land and promote an American rye.

Starting with Dylan’s whiskey is a smart and stylish opening by the play’s author, the magnificent multi Fringe First-winning John Clancy. The fruits of Dylan’s success as a songwriter have liberated him, materially-speaking, to concentrate on intellectual and spiritual pursuits. We are hearing the voice of an unwilling guru who prefers questions to answers, individuality to conformity. Yet Bob Dylan, we learn, is just as much a carefully curated brand as his spirituous liquor. There’s some great fourth wall smashing over Utton’s choice of attire for the upcoming final performance – should it be the dark or the light black shirt. Folk know what Bob Dylan is supposed to look like and they’re meant to.

Brand Bob Dylan is a single oak tree, grown of over 200 acorns – the memorized folk songs which became his early musical bedrock and turned Robert Allen Zimmerman’s stage persona into a household name. The Dylan on our stage has no desire to become an exhibit, a fossil on display like one of the pictures on those bucket lists of paintings one simply has to see this side of heaven’s door. And so he’s calling time, and what a time it was. A time of war in SouthEast Asia. Social and political discord in the West. Changing fashions and age old problems. What must have it been like to have seen all this from the personal and professional perspective of Bob Dylan?

I come away liking Utton’s soft-spoken, open-minded, big-hearted character. I’d like to buy a couple of t-shirts, or maybe some tea towels with some of John Clancy’s most ringing lines and phrases. But then, of course, they wouldn’t have the impact of Utton’s unique, transcendental delivery. I’m looking at Pip Utton, but I’m seeing Bob Dylan. How does he do that? Maybe we’d all look this good if we had David Calvitto directing us too. Calvitto is an actor’s actor. A firm Fringe favourite and the ideal choice to stage a show that walks so softly while carrying a big stick. Utton performing, Clancy writing, Calvitto directing. It’s like all our EdFringe Christmases have come at once. Just add Guy Masterson and Sir Ian McGandolph selling ice cream in the foyer and you’ve got yourself the perfect theatrical experience.

 

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‘Will Tell and the Big Bad Baron’ (Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose – Doonstairs, until AUG 26)

Posted in *Written Interviews, 5*, EdFestivals 2022, Rated: Outstanding by

“An August without Theatre Fideri Fidera would be like the Edinburgh Tattoo without bagpipes.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

For our family there’s one theatre company at EdFringe which is officially unmissable. For their 2022 offering the Brighton-based family firm are returning to themes inspired by their Anglo-Swiss heritage. I’m not sure I could have told you before now that the legend of William Tell, the archer famous for his apple-shot, was Swiss or that he used a crossbow. Like our own Robin Hood, Tell is remembered as a freedom fighter, a people’s champion loved by the good feared, by the bad.

We enter to find an upturned soapbox, that symbol of plain-speaking and fearless truth-telling of which ex-PM John Major was so fond. There’s also a sign informing the citizenry that from here on in they are to bow, genuflect, and kowtow to the feathery hat of Bad Baron Boris (I’ve heard it might just have easily been Bad Baron Donald but Boris is a funnier name) which is hanging on one of the sign’s corners. It is a very silly hat. Flanking the soapbox and sign are two stone towers. I spend more than a little time trying to figure out if these are made of real stone or if they are painted. Obviously it’s the latter, but this precision and attention to detail speak quiet volumes about Theatre Fideri Fidera’s approach to their craft.

Over a rachus, occasionally ridiculous, and always entertaining hour we meet young Will who must rescue her father and free the princess from Baron Boris’ castle. Natasha Granger and Jack Faires are reunited with that same spell binding on-stage partnership we saw in ‘Ogg ’n’ Ugg and the World’s First Dogg’. Natasha is the Portland Vase of playacting – so delicate, so intentional, so well defined, classic yet immediate. She has a lovely way of bringing groups of children onto the stage and weaving them into the magic and fun. Daughters 1.0 (7yrs) and 2.0 (4yrs) were brought up to help Will don his suit of armour from a collection of colanders, dustbin lids etc. and (obviously) that was the best bit of the show. Jack Faires is big, bold, and brilliant as both the baron and his beautiful (in her own special way) daughter. It’s a pleasure to boo him with all one’s might.

Daughter 1.0 had this to say in her notebook: “In Will Tell and the big bad baron Will’s Dad was toled (by the baron) to fire a arrow in to an apple on Will’s head. And he was traped and my sister helped her to get dressed. She rode on a donkey Rosina Who was made of a bike. She had a fight with the baron and saved his dauter Who was traped too! And then she found her Dad in a dundion. And afder that they all went home together. I loved it!”

An August without Theatre Fideri Fidera would be like the Edinburgh Tattoo without bagpipes. Their sets and puppetry are second to none. They’ve roared out of lockdown doing what they do best, making children laugh while they think – or should that be think while they laugh?

 

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‘Peppa Pig – My First Concert’ (Assembly Hall, until AUG 21)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2022 by

“Come for Peppa, stay for the music, take with you memories of one of the best wee puppet shows you’ll be seeing in Edinburgh this year since those chaps who do that thing aren’t in town.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Whether you’re a Prime Minister under pressure, or a parent at the end of their tether, you can ALWAYS rely on Peppa Pig to come to the rescue. Years and years ago, in November last year, the soon to be no longer current PM tangentially referenced the British cultural phenomenon as he struggled with speech notes at the CBI. And why not? Since 2004 millions of families in over 180 countries have tuned into the lives of the anthropomorphic cartoon character, her friends, and relations. It’s hard to tell who’s the bigger deal this EdFringe, Peppa Pig or Sir Ian McGandolf.

If they gave out awards to front-of-house staff, this team of red-shirted heroes would take them all. They must have been specially recruited for having the patience of saints. Assembly Hall, where once the Scottish Parliament first remet, is an awkward enough venue without the addition of more buggies and strollers than if Mammas and Pappas had a baby with Mothercare. But for all the logistical nightmares, a mini-orchestral recital in that grand auld space is a dream. And this is first, if not entirely foremost, a classical music concert.

As we take our seats we are serenaded by one of the three violins and the horn – the horn won. The master of ceremonies is Sarah, who’s definitely had her coffee this morning. She introduces the musicians, each dressed for a night on the tiles with Fred and Ginger. They are a youngish bunch, technically – so far as I am any judge – flawless, as well as being engaging (if not natural) performers. A few year’s back ‘Paddington Bear’s First Concert’ (a similar concept) deliberately brought a cast fresh-faced enough that the older children in the audience could identify with them and imagine themselves making a life in music. I’d have liked to have seen more of an effort to get the kids thinking about music as something they might like to do and not simply something they might also like to watch.

The other occupants of the stage require no introduction. They are Peppa, her mummy and daddy, as well as George, her younger brother. The big thing that this show has which the Paddington incarnation did not is the inclusion of the headliners on stage. Peppa and George are superbly designed and beautifully articulated puppets. Mummy and Daddy Pig are full-sized costumes worn from the inside (although, come to think of it, I don’t suppose anyone has ever worn a costume from the outside). Come for Peppa, stay for the music, take with you memories of one of the best wee puppet shows you’ll be seeing in Edinburgh this year since those two chaps who do that thing aren’t in town.

Daughter 1.0 (7yrs) is a moderate to medium Peppa Pig fan. It’s definitely a show she and Daughter 2.0 (4yrs) can compromise on when they haven’t remembered Bluey. Daughter 2.0, the outgoing one, was very much taken with the puppets, especially her favorite George, “I liked the bit where George and Peppa was dancing and jumping up and down.” Daughter 1.0 had this to say in her notebook:

“In peppa pig’s first consert they had an orcestra wich peppa pig called an ‘orcitrala’ the person who intraducsed every one is called “Sarah!” There was costumes for Mummy pig and Daddy pig. As peppa and Gorge there were pepole behind the puppets that made them move and said what they were ment to say. The songs were not reconisable but I thawt they were very interesting. Daddy pig got jam on his fingers! And a bea folued him while he was conducting! It was sooo funny. In the end mummy pig did it. insted and they all did it beatifuly. I loved it!”

The bee was definitely one of my own favourite parts of this funny and engaging insight into the world of concerts and classical music pitched as perfectly as Shane Warne’s first ever delivery at Lord’s. This is a highly accomplished live performance that could teach Sir Ian McGandolf a stage trick or two. You gets your money’s worth and then some. You might even say ‘Peppa Pig – My First Concert’ brings home the bacon.

 

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EdFringe Talk: Sad Book

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2022 by

image of event

“As an artist and creator, it can be a very high risk/ high pressure environment, but it’s also where dreams are made.”

WHO: Andrea Walker: Director and Choreographer

WHAT: “‘Stand-out dance of the summer’ (Guardian on 201’s Skin). We all have some sad stuff – maybe you have some right now, as you read this. What makes Michael most sad is thinking about his son Eddie, who died. Through an intimate, visual spectacle that includes dance, storytelling, animation and original music, 201 and Choreographer Andrea Walker bring Michael Rosen’s award-winning book to the stage.”

WHERE: ZOO Southside – Main House (Venue 82) 

WHEN: 18:30 (55 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

No, this will be our fourth time! Our first ever show – “Smother” – premiered at Ed Fringe back in 2015. We brought “Smother” back in 2016, and then followed with our second production – “SKIN” – in 2017. I feel the Fringe is such an incredible place: As an artist and creator, it can be a very high risk/ high pressure environment, but it’s also where dreams are made. I don’t think 201 Dance Company would be here today with a brand new show if we hadn’t risked it all at the festival all those years ago. The Fringe is where we really got noticed, it gave me a career and it gave the company a future.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2019 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

I feel that because of Covid-19 the way we create work has changed: We were supposed to premiere “Sad Book” – our latest show – back in 2020, so when the pandemic hit we really had to re-think how to create it in a way that was safe for everyone involved. I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved, and now that “Sad Book” is finally hitting the stage after a 2 year delay, I feel the company is stronger than it ever was.

Tell us about your show.

“Sad Book” is an adaptation of Michael Rosen’s award-winning book. It tells Michael’s personal story of losing his son, and – simply – the sadness attached to that. Sad is a very complex emotion: It can be destroying, but like Michael shows in his novel, sadness can also be beautiful and melancholic in the way we remember a moment in our life that was wonderful, yet is no longer here. We are honoured that Michael trusted us to adapt such a touching, important work. The show includes a mix of dance, animation and original music. I feel it will touch anyone who’s ever struggled with mental-ill health, or simply struggles to put their sadness into words.

“Sad Book” has been over 5 years in development, and it’s a work that is very meaningful to me. Since 2014, 201 Dance Company’s mission has been to to tell stories that matter. “Sad Book” felt like such a beautiful fit for the company the second I first read it. I directed and choreographed, and we have Patrick Collier as Associate Director, who also produced the show in its development and preview stage. “Sad Book” is now produced by Pip Sayers, and this run at Ed Fringe will be the show’s premiere. “Sad Book” will be available to tour from Autumn 2023 – Spring 2024.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

Please please please get yourself to Séayoncé: Res-Erection! Honestly one of the funniest shows I have ever seen, and I’ve seen it 4 times now! I don’t wanna spoil it for you…Go in with fresh eyes! It’s created by Dan Wye, who is a wonderful, hilarious queer artist. You can catch Séayoncé at Assembly Roxy (upstairs) from the 3rd to 28th August (no show on the 17th), 10pm.

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