- 'Krapp's Last Tape' by Samuel Beckett and directed by Fiona Baddeley, featuring Tom Owen (from 'Last of the Summer Wine'). An old man listens to recordings he's made over the past forty years reflecting on his life and relationships and prepares to make his final tape. It's a very moving and sad play and was brilliantly performed.
- 'The Fantasist' by Theatre Temoin & Cie Traversiere. The play explores 'the murky depths and glorious heights of bipolar illness through a stunning collision of puppetry, physical theatre and original music.' I came out of this one reeling; it was so powerful. Again, brilliantly performed, with the puppets adding a surreal and disturbing quality to the story.
- 'And No More Shall We Part' by Tom Holloway, directed by James MacDonald and co-starring Bill Patterson as Don and Dearbhla Molloy as Pam, performed at the Traverse Theatre. The play 'looks at what happens when death comes into the room.' Pam has a terminal illness and plans to end her life. Don doesn't want her to, but she needs his help. The story raises ethical issues about a person's individual rights and autonomy and the impact of euthanasia on their partners. The performances were so convincing that audience members were bawling and hugging each other as they left the theatre.
- 'Gullivers Travels' by Jonathan Swift performed by the National Theatre of Romania. We'd seen their amazing production of 'Faust' a few years ago and perhaps were expecting too much. It's a very visual production with great imagery and set, a wonderful avant-rock score and huge ensemble, even featuring a live stallion on stage. However, not knowing the intricacies of the story I was often lost and confused. Gave us lots to talk about though.
It was a relief to see some comedy interspersed. This included:
- Shappi Korshandi, an Iranian stand-up comedienne with stories of her filthy sex life
- Jarlath Regan, an Irish stand-up comedian with a show, entitled,'The Audacity of Hope and The Inspirational Stupidity of Perseverance.' Funny, but seemed a bit mild after Shappi.
- John Shuttleworth, a Yorkshire comedian/storyteller trying to play the organ with a show described as, 'weird,whimsical and wacky'. His followers were in hysterics at every throwaway remark. There was one song about the tragedy of having two margarine cartons open in the fridge at the same time. I'm now a follower.
- The Dog-Eared Collective's new show,'You're Amazing. (Now Look At Me) ' Fast, physical, funny and surreal sketches of their world. They are all great performers, but couldn't take my eyes off the versatile Joanna Hutt. Partly because she looks the spitting image of her mother as a younger woman. And partly because her mother was sitting next to me.
Other shows included:
- 'Julia Donaldson's Children's Show ' Julia acted and sang her stories against an illustrated backdrop, accompanied by her husband, other actors and children from the audience. Stories included The 'Highway Rat', 'Paper Dolls' and 'The Gruffalo', performed in the Scots language. Over 600 children and their parents sat enthralled. Including us.
- 'The Big Bite-Size Breakfast' We had Menu 1: 'Vintage 1940's, which included strawberries,croissants,coffee and four very clever short plays by Lucy Kaufman on the theme of Vintage.
- 'Chapel Street,'by Luke Barnes. This was part of the Old Vic's New (meaning 'young') Voices programme. The play was performed as two interweaving monologues telling the individual stories of the teenagers' drunken Friday night out and the aspirations of a disaffected generation. Clever writing and excellent performances by Cary Crankson and Ria Zmitrowicz.
There was also a lot of eating, imbibing, strolling, meeting friends, chatting and soaking up the rush. If you have never been to the Edinburgh Festival, you really should. You'd love it!
PS I slept for a solid thirteen hours afterwards.
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