Day one of the Fringe: it's been a warm, bright day in Edinburgh today. The mainstream and online media are abuzz with Edinburgh tales and the stream of early Fringe reviews is swelling. Now is the time that performers discover whether the months of planning and anticipation, exhausting rehearsals, frustrations, fears, expense, and last-minute panics were worth it.
I'm already playing catch-up with my festival coverage. Yesterday, was jampacked with media launches, so much so that when I came back to blog, I fell asleep in front of the laptop, lulled to sleep by the vision of my timebar of images downloading.
First up yesterday was C Venues. In the afternoon's drizzle, the tented bar at the Edinburgh College of Art looked something like a military field mess, but the 20-year-old Fringe company's new hub venue – with its pleasant, grassy courtyard - will come into its own with better weather.
Comedy, music, and revue were on the menu. Most memorable was the Korean based Perfordian Factory, the big babies with the pudding bowl haircuts and their underpants on the outside are back for a second year on the Fringe with their gleeful, physical humour. The nutty foursome's childish visual jokes belie some well-planned routines, one of which featured a wicked human beatbox. It's the kind of show both kids and parents can enjoy.
For fans of the old Motown, rhythm 'n' blue sound, check out Movin' Melvin Brown. Not sure if his tapdancing feet are as supercharged as in this undated performance on Youtube, from some years ago, but his voice is still warm and expressive. We only heard a part of a song in the preview, but in the show he'll also be sharing stories from a career that stretches back to the great Fifties explosion of black music.
From the old art college, it was over to another Edinburgh University institution, the Bedlam Theatre, the converted church that is home to the university's thesps. There's a friendly, collegiate atmosphere about the Bedlam. The small crowd - Fringe boss Kath Mainland among them - squeezed into the small cafe, steaming up the church windows. It's refreshing to be somewhere where theatre comes first – comedy and light entertainment now seeming to take up the lion's share of the Fringe. Bedlam also laid on a nice spread for the press of cucumber and smoked salmon sandwiches, cakes, pimms and wine. Sustenance was much needed at this point.
I can see why actors are not comfortable with doing theatre previews. Plays, unlike a song and dance or comedy act, don't always have neat segments that can be extracted for brief enjoyment.
Unlike a film trailer it's nigh impossible to perform the good bits to lure someone to the show (although some Fringe performers have created a whole show out of such a concept). I think that's why the stand-out show in this showcase of five Bedlam acts was performance art piece Antons Uncles. It didn't make any sense, had a technical hitch which meant that they had to leave the stage and start again, and yet this sartorial satire on Chekhov's Uncle Vanya was curiously beguiling from start to finish. Want to see four well-groomed men, waltzing with tea cups? Then go see mixed race, Los Angeles based Theatre Movement Bizarre.
I was also impressed by the first act, Scary Gorgeous, where we got two stream-of-consciousness monologues about a teenage boy and girl enfatuated with each other. It seems to be pushing the boundaries – the play is set to music – a 3-piece band – and both parts are played by females. The production also seemed like it had been put together well.
The showcase ended with theatrical improvisational games from The Improverts (below). This is a staple of The Bedlam – the nearest the Bedlam gets to cabaret and comedy. It's dependable fun, although there's now quite a few theatre companies doing this on the Fringe. We're reviewing the Improverts, so I will not add any more for now.
Continuing on my tour of Edinburgh University buildings turned Fringe venues, my last preview yesterday was the Gilded Balloon, which is back in the huge, rambling Teviot Union building. The Gilded has always been one of the campest, kitchiest of all the venues on the Fringe and sure enough, the opening act, Briefs, featured some strapping, young male dancers in underwear, doing a feather fan number.
The huge Gilded Balloon programme is also very Australian – around a fifth of the programme is from down under (including Briefs). That's apparently down to artistic director's Karen Koren's special relationship with Aussie companies. Such as Fiona O'Loughlin.
Her easy, conversational delivery is bright and engaging, not what you might expect from a confessional describing the impact her alcoholism had on a successful career and personal life.
The self-described “Prince of Crimplene” Bob Downe also surfaced. Bob Downe has been at the Edinburgh Fringe so long they should give him Scottish citizenship. The audience members beside me thought that he bore remarkable similarity to another Australian gentleman who was here in this very same building in June directing the Edinburgh Film Festival. Those that had been at the disappointingly low-key EIFF in June, also regretted that Bob didn't throw a few house-warming parties like the kind of current sweaty, alcoholic fling that the Gilded has built its reputation on.
It may have been number of cocktails swilled by this point combined with auditorium's heat, but Rich Fulcher: Tiny Acts of Rebellion, seemed original and absurdly funny.
I should also mention Fascinating Aida (pictured top), who were brilliant. If you been around on the Fringe, you probably already know that. I'm confidently predicting a spate of 4 and 5-star reviews for this trio (yes, Dillie Keane and Adele Anderson have a new member – the younger Sarah-Louise Young).
Their jolly, a capella number about buying a flight online for 50p which ends up costing a small fortune, builds to a crescendo of crisply enunciated expletives. It brought the house down.
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