THE Edinburgh Festival Fringe is over for another year. Leaflets float in the wind, boards are coming down all over the capital and artists from all over the world are wresting with suitcases and props along the cobbles, making their way home.
The festival, which officially started on August 1, featured 3893 shows across 301 venues and welcomed performers from more than 60 countries. There were 320 street performers, with more than 37 local schools, charities, and community groups, and organisers estimate a total of 2,604,404 tickets were distributed between the festival opening and 10am on August 25 – the final day of performances.
I tried to do 10 shows in one day, spoke to artists from Scotland, the US and Palestine, and although frustrated at the queues on my morning commute from the capital to Glasgow, loved to see and hear visitors enjoying Scotland's culture and the world's largest arts festival.
Here are some of my final reviews from the last weekend of the Fringe.
Going
We used the app to find any shows on nearby now, and it was the best show I found without planning it. Going follows two strangers stuck in a train carriage on the longest day of the year, during a heatwave, after a suicide on the tracks.
One is a busker who rides the train all day and believes nothing has meaning or purpose. The other is a climate professor heading to a protest outside of a big oil company HQ who believes every being has purpose and hers is to draw attention to the climate crisis, and those profiting on the quickening demise of humans.
This was funny. Quick, witty, and not cringey - even when the busker pulls out a guitar and sings a very sombre number at the end. It breaks down everything wrong with our approach to climate and the protests that surround it.
You can’t come out of this without thinking of your purpose while wildfires, floods and pollution become part of our everyday lives, and what you will say to the next generation of the role you played.
Rating: 5/5
Find out more here.
The Spanking Goddess and Other Discarded Tales
Storyteller Clare Murphy leads a romp through the untold myths of the Celts, exhuming the Celtic canon to bring the wild women who never made the cut, back into the light. A shapeshifter spanks her opponents, a queen balances on the point of a spear, heroes are defeated by mother-daughter warriors.
Breaking the fifth wall, as every show I went to the Scottish Storytelling Centre did, she brought you on the journey with her. Her words and humour, as well as sheer passion in the stories carried the performance, along with her non-stop movement.
I very much look forward to discovering more stories the world has been deprived of now, with Murphy opening a whole world of empowered, feral and unapologetic women.
Rating: 5/5
Find out more here.
Benji Waterhouse: Maddening
Waterhouse, a psychiatrist and comedian, breathes life into the narrative around mental healthcare. The stale dust that surrounds the debate was completely swept away, with Waterhouse giving us humanity, understanding and compassion – and explaining why that can be lacking in our care services today.
Some jokes did not land, and perhaps it was due to it being the final Saturday of the Fringe and at 5pm (long days, hungry audiences) but I feel Waterhouse would’ve had a better landing pad at a better time.
Rating: 3.5/5
Find out more here.
A Dram is Worth a Thousand Words
A bit of a different show, which could possibly be better described as part of the Fringe, rather than a show. We went to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society on Queen Street to enjoy a guiding tasting.
Having been to the Scotch Whisky Experience several times before, and very much enjoyed it, my sister and I were keen to try more and learn. We did learn a lot, but it wasn’t as structured with lots of questions having to be asked of the whisky expert to get his knowledge rather than a seamless flow.
It felt a bit like trying to get blood from a stone, when all we wanted was uisge beath.
A bit of polishing of this tasting is needed to create a more friendly experience.
Rating: 2.5/5
Find out more here.
