Festival fever ... so much to choose from at the Edinburgh Fringe
One of the beauties of the Edinburgh Fringe is that however many times you plough through the programme (all 288 pages of it), however many educated guesses you make and however much expert advice you take, there will always be shows that catch you completely unawares.
The surprise hits are hidden away somewhere in the programme - which was launched today and will be online from Monday - but, like all good surprises, they're impossible to spot.
So when I mention some of the shows I'm looking forward to in August, it is with the proviso that what I'm really looking forward to is stumbling across an unexpected delight. That's what happened last year when I took a punt on The Smile off your Face by Belgium's Ontroerend Goed and had a head-spinningly intimate experience that sent me proselytising into the street. For that reason I'll be eagerly taking my seat at the Traverse to see how the same company's Once and For All We're Gonna Tell You who We Are so Shut up and Listen fares in comparison.
Also at the Traverse is the TEAM, who were my discovery of 2006 when I took a chance on Give Up! Start Over! and A 1000 Natural Shocks and found a company brimming with theatrical energy and imagination. This year, the New Yorkers are collaborating with the National Theatre of Scotland on Architecting.
In truth, I'll lock myself in at the Traverse and work my way through the whole 12-play programme. A back-to-back line up in Traverse One of Simon Stephens, Zinnie Harris, Enda Walsh, Mark O'Rowe and Daniel Kitson reads like a day in theatrical heaven.
It'll be good to catch up with a number of shows arriving with a strong pedigree, among them Footsbarn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, to be performed in a tent on the top of Calton Hill, Nottingham Playhouse's On the Waterfront, directed by Fringe legend Steven Berkoff, and Office Party, a site-specific novelty first seen at London's Barbican in which the audience plays the part of workers in a fictional company.
Looking internationally, there is a healthy showing from Poland, including Bite the Dust, an anti-war drama by Teatr Provisorium, which won a Fringe First for Ferdydurke, and Emigrants performed in a camper van by Teatr Wiczy to 11 audience members at a time. The irrepressible director Toby Gough is sure to unearth some feelgood international music and dance in the World Festival, but in the true nature of the Fringe's unpredictability, who's to say whether it'll be the Cuban rhythms of Hemingway's Havana or the Cambodian stories of Children of the Khmer?
These are just my initial thoughts. Plenty of wading through the programme to come. And all hot tips are welcome. What are you looking forward to?
