Between the Fourth Wall: Fun at the Fringe!

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

The Most Theatrical Experience of My Life (so far...)

There's no better time than NOW in the NEW YEAR to reflect on my other theatre highlights of 2017, a notable one being the Fringe Festival up in Edinburgh.

The festival takes place during the whole month of August and that present performances from professional to amateur performances. You would find any genre or hybrid genre you can think of (yes there is Shakespeare performed drunk). Imagine performances within theatres, on the street, in hotel conference rooms, the basements of restaurants (no joke), all were and are annually spread across the city, but mainly convened on the Royal Mile - perhaps the most convenient and at the same time, the most troubling venue to attract people due to its busy, too-close-for-comfort peak times.

Nevertheless, I performed with UoB's Pantomime Society's in our production of ROSE RED: A GRIMM PANTO where we were fortunate enough to perform on Royal Miles, specifically inside the Radisson Blu Hotel!

The production was a great bundle of fun, telling the story of Snow White's sister, Rose Red, and on the Grimm brothers: Jacob Grimm and younger Wilhelm Grimm. The romance seemingly goes wrong between Rose and Wilhelm, as in attempt to confess his affection, he confesses that she is to end up with the younger brother, she believes not him, but the Prince Charming's actual younger brother, Prince Farming, after seeing Snow White's happy ending with Charming came true. Snow White and Rose Red's nan - Nanny Grass Green tries to help, but really is a favourite to all from her wit, her desire to resolve matters, and being a man in a dress (Stan Ford). Perhaps Walt Disney might as well show up too to help with matters. Mhm. Maybe he doesn't really help.

The townspeople- Hansel (moi) and Gretal, Puss in Boots, Clever Hans, Grimilde and the frog... become fascinated by the rumour of the Grimm brother's ability to make fairytale endings come true. These, including me, are the ones generally confused and aren't much use to settling the drama between anyone, rather they create confusions for themselves (i.e.: I have a meltdown because I believe nobody wants to eat me...). In acting as an ensemble member and singing in the chorus, contrary to what many might think of being sidelined, is not at all the feeling in pantomimes, as every actor has the opportunity for you and your character to shine through. This experience came as a surprise, by having felt similar to Epic Theatre's style of multi-role (playing more than one role in a) play where everyone gets nearly equal stage time.

Of course, in every fairytale comes with a respectable villain, one of my favourite characters to hear and peep from backstage- and in ours it was MLM - Who's that? Good question, The Mysterious Little Man, who instead tries to turn Rose against her sister, but is actually a ploy in his/her scheme to feed the apple to Snow White. The Brechtian cross-gender role certainly was one that brought my attention to and persuasive in raising my love for the Pantomime tradition.

A definite set of enjoyable moments for me was when many of the meta (self-aware) dialogue referred to breaking realistic theatre conventions. An example I'll remember for a very long time was Rose Red's opportunity to ad-lib a problem, responding along the lines of: "I don't know how everyone keeps coming in my house, just going through my door" as MLM just walked on stage next to her. It is also in reference to Puss in Boots' comment after: "we really should get a lock on that door" as soon as Nanny enters. Trust me, when you see it for the first time on stage, it's much funnier than it reads.

Lest we forget the musical numbers that occur in Pantos, which brought a great joy to us and that can be said for our family audiences; parents, teens and kids! To have personally performed in Hello (from Book of Mormon) Whipped into Shape (Legally Blonde), and Dance with Me Tonight (Olly Murs), along with devising the choreography of Whipped into Shape, the Bristol rehearsals and entire Edinburgh experience was made, I must say, that much sweeter (yeah I remember an old line ;) )

A couple of sell-out shows, a couple needing more bums on seats, but overall a huge success in my eyes for a first debut (and that gained a profit so hey why not).

These listed are certainly my recommendations and a note to self for next time around!

Cabaret performance (not sure of the name) underneath an Italian restaurant

Man dressed as a Greek God treats his audiences as his peasants
Woman sings and plays the guitar of her experience of her tinder dates
Audience interaction is involved

GrIMPROV

Improvised sketches in best attempts to refer to Grimm stories
Talented few of university-led group from Southampton Uni

Lady Boys of Bangkok

Of Bangkok Thailand's transgender females, bring you late evening strip-tease extravaganza with some popular or patriotic songs.
Expensive at the bar, but worth every penny for their performance (especially its preview of 2 for 1 tickets).

Austentatious