Hi NTW Community,

Its been a week since I came back from the Edinburgh Fringe and I've felt like I needed this time to contemplate and get my head back in order. Being at the fringe is like being in a little bubble for the time that you are there. You are so focused on the show that you are working on and seeing all of the great shows that are on offer that its near impossible to focus on everything else. Its great that all that young, fresh new work is grouped all in one place. 

In my last couple of days I saw some great gems of the fringe: two one-woman pieces at Venue 13, a new production of East by by Moonlight Theatre and  a children's show at The Pleasance Courtyard, Super John.

Venue 13 is a venue run by the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (click here to go to their website), this year they had some really interesting Welsh show and showcased a lot of talent. I managed to see two very different one-woman shows, Round 'ere and Unlucky for Some. Round 'ere was a politically charged contemporary exploration of what it is like to be a young woman from the North of England. The piece was very personal to the performer, Katherine Pearce, and so was emotionally powerful. Kate Tempest watch out! The piece was beautifully poetic in its delivery whilst exploring hard-hitting, real life. Unlucky for Some was a comical look at life working in a bingo hall for a recent graduate. The narrative was strange, interesting and the delivery was endearing. It was great to see two very unpretentious pieces of new writing. 

Later that same day, I ventured outside of the city centre to a lovely venue called Douglas House to see a production of Steven Berkoff's East performed by byMoonlight Theatre (click here to go to their website). Having seen Steven Berkoff's own production of Oedipus last year at The Pleasance, I wasn't particularly looking forward to seeing this production. I had found Oedipus slow, lacking tension and boring, overall a bit of a let down. ByMoonlight's East was the polar opposite. It was well paced and well directed. All the ensemble worked well together and this gave strength to the piece. This is a company to watch for the future and I will be interested to see some of their self created work as well. 

Justin Teddy Cliffe posted a blog post on the community called 'Whats Happened to Ed Fringe?!' where he discusses the prices of tickets at the festival. I completely agree that ticket prices shouldn't be as high and that if they were cheaper companies would get more audience members willing to take a chance on their productions. However, I think the issue is with the venues rather than the companies. Most venues control the prices of the tickets and impose prices on the companies. I think the fringe needs more pop up venues, as the big guns seem to be monopolising the market. More pop up venues like Douglas House (which is a mixture between a shop front and a living room) are needed and companies in these venues need to charge less than the bigger venues and then audience members will move away from the big venues.

Super John was the last piece of theatre I saw at the fringe (click here to visit their website). It was a piece of children's theatre about a young boys battle with leukemia and how his family were effected by this. At points this piece was heartbreakingly sad but most of the time it was uplifting and fun, the balance between the two extremes was perfect as to shy away from the reality of the situation would be wrong. Again, another strong ensemble cast, who worked well with the multiple costume changes and props. It was nice to see a piece of children's theatre which wasn't patronising and creatively explored a serious issue which could have been depressing and hopeless. I'm sure that a lot of the children went away with a lot of questions for their parents which is a credit to production as a whole.   

I have one more blog to write about the international work that I saw. I'm missing Edinburgh though and can't wait for next year.

Over and out.

Sarah