People are always complaining about the lack of good new writing on the Edinburgh fringe away from the Traverse, but the truth is that it is the cruellest environment for fledgling playwrights, writes Lyn Gardner.
In Edinburgh not only is the fledgling playwright often matched with a fledgling director rather than the likes of John Tiffany or Roxana Silbert - who could both make the telephone directory seem like a masterpiece of dramatic invention - but they also have to contend with venues whose get in times mean minimal production values and sometimes no values at all.
Then there is the almost complete lack of a budget. In some spaces, once the play has started, the actors will then be competing with the airconditioning and the shouts and screams emanating from the space overhead.
The result is work that sometimes looks highly exposed and is too easily dismissed.
But I wonder: wouldn't some of the plays regularly seen at the Soho, the Bush and the Royal Court look just as exposed if produced under the same adverse conditions and without the support and safety net of a lot of artful packaging from great directors and designers?
