Performers at this year’s Edinburgh festival fringe are to focus on lies in modern politics, dating on Tinder and presidential assassinations, alongside a ballet on interracial love from Glasgow.
This year’s 3,269 productions are putting a heavy emphasis on the crises and challenges of modern life: revenge porn, the EU referendum and cyberwars feature alongside traditional theatre from Taiwan, the provocative Canadian comedian Mike Ward as a Fringe debutante, and Palestinian refugees from Bethlehem.
Scottish productions, specially funded by the devolved government in Edinburgh, include the musical dramatisation of the story of the “Glasgow girls”, the seven school pupils who campaigned to prevent an asylum-seeking friend’s deportation, and Whiteout, a dance theatre piece on interracial relationships.
Now in its 70th year, the fringe will feature comedy drama at a hair salon and a cocktail bar, dance theatre in a doubledecker bus touring the backstreets of Edinburgh, a car thief trapped in a crashed vehicle, and an Asian home furnishings shop among its 294 venues.
The event officially celebrates its 70th anniversary next year, marking its foundation in 1947 as an alternative to the new official festival, but this year’s headline figures show signs that it may have hit its peak after years of continuous growth, just as a new fringe chief executive, Shona McCarthy, takes the helm.
The number of performances in this year’s programme, at 50,266, is slightly lower than last year, while the number of venues in Edinburgh has fallen too, with events heavily focused on the city centre. That partly reflects a decision to take several events for arts professionals off the public programme.
The number of free shows has fallen too, to 643, a trend compensated for by a rise in the number of “pay what you want” productions to 164. The overall proportion of genres in this year’s programme is almost identical to last year. Among the 10 genres overall, 34% is again comedy; 27% is theatre, 15% is music, up slightly on last year; while dance and physical theatre has fallen by 1% to 3%.
McCarthy, who was appointed as fringe chief executive five months ago after success as director of festivals in Derry, Belfast and the Foyle film festival in Northern Ireland, said she was not troubled by the headline data but said she was keen to increase productions from other Scottish towns and cities, and from overseas.
“Is it peak fringe? Well, no,” McCarthy said. “Something radical could happen next year and that’s the nature of this beast, I think, and that is that things can change.”
She is targeting performers in Dundee, Glasgow and Aberdeen, and countries such as India, which has a wealth of artistic history and talent yet is poorly represented at the fringe. This year’s festival will feature productions from 48 countries, just over a quarter of the number worldwide.
McCarthy said contemporary politics and modern life were significant themes. “People in various countries have clearly picked up on the questions of truth, honesty and lies,” she said.
With events heavily focused this year on the city centre, with only three sites in Leith taking part, the fringe has also appointed a community engagement officer to increase its visibility and involvement by young people across the city.
McCarthy faces heavy pressure on funding: Edinburgh council is to cut arts financing by 10% over the next few years to cope with a fall in Scottish government spending. She said it was imperative that political leaders protected funding.
“Do not chip away, by killing by small cuts, the most incredible arts and cultural celebration that I have seen anywhere in the world,” she said.
