The Edinburgh Fringe's "fallow" year might turn out to be a healthy thing "in the long run" says pioneering theatre maker Tim Crouch in a new video published as part of the ShEdinburgh online series.
In the first SHEDx of this Fringe, Crouch gives a 12-minute monologue from the shed in Soho London. He draws an analogy between farming and the ecologies of theatre, saying:
"The industrial scale of the Fringe now makes it a tricky place for delicate, organic material to thrive... openness and vulnerability, so beautiful in performance, are often overpowered."
Crouch stayed away from the Fringe for 19 years after bringing his first experimental show to Edinburgh. "We lost all our money".
He almost didn't come back.
"It's hard to stay away. It gets in your blood. It's both the best and the worst of us," he said of his return to Edinburgh.
ShEdinburgh is carrying a series of theatre and comedy shows throughout August, out of two sheds at the Edinburgh Traverse and the Soho Theatre in London.