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smokingbootMallory's_Camera came to stay over to see the Edinburgh Fringe in all its glory!
We explored the city and saw many fascinating things. Reviews may come later, or maybe they won't, because at least two productions defied description, but there was one show I attended, to which I'll devote the rest of this post, because it stayed with me: The Strange Undoing of Prudentia Hart.
I went to this by myself because Mallorys_Camera was still recovering from her flight, and R was pretty certain this wasn't his cup of tea. It was very much mine, though.
The venue was in the Playfair library (https://archello.com/project/the-playfair-library-at-edinburgh-universityat my old stomping ground. As can be seen, it's a lovely venue for an interactive promenade play, though the shape is no help to acoustics. I could watch it again tonight, indeed I think I would enjoy it more, relaxing into the pace with a knowledge of what's going to happen. There's songs and rhyming couplets, poetic beermats, paper snow; there's the devil and an Aldi carpark and a pub in Kelso, Kylie Minogue plus a lot of folklore. It is, however, over 2 hours long, so one needs to settle, relish the immediate rather than pursue the outcome.
I loved it, in fact we all loved it, save one person who, with my superpower of Attracting These Types, sat right next to me.
'Eau,' she groaned at me, by way of greeting, 'how I yearn for a proscenium arch, with actors who are just there to entertain me!'
I was puzzled by this. Anyone who knows anything at all about the venue knows that a proscenium arch is unlikely in the Playfair library; how did she think one would fit into the space? Was she expecting a rebuilt interior? And had she not read that the play was interactive? Her yearning could be fulfilled in any Ayckbourn stuffed theatre up and down the UK, but here plays are often more experimental, new, cutting edge stuff you won't see elsewhere. I let my surprise show.
'I think you're at the wrong play,' was the most diplomatic reply I could give.
'We weren't warned,' came her riposte.
There was more from her, when the cast asked us to rip paper napkins into snow.
'No,' she said, 'I have paid £25 for my ticket, I don't expect to entertain myself.'
The world around her shrugged and left her to it, done with someone too lazy to get even a grasp of what she was attending. We ripped enough paper towels to cover the building in fake snow, and the play played out, not perfect, but brilliant. Ironically, it could be performed in a proscenium arch theatre, but that would have been a shame for the audience, who found itself at once in a folk pub, and at a conference on Border Ballads, and in Hell; and credit to the Yearner, she was well behaved, barely talking to her companion, and at least not accompanied by children who understand nothing beyond screaming at their parents. I could get lost in what was happening and
by the end felt for the devil as well as Prudentia, wishing I was in a real folk pub somewhere listening til long past midnight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT5zlcYIYk0
We explored the city and saw many fascinating things. Reviews may come later, or maybe they won't, because at least two productions defied description, but there was one show I attended, to which I'll devote the rest of this post, because it stayed with me: The Strange Undoing of Prudentia Hart.
I went to this by myself because Mallorys_Camera was still recovering from her flight, and R was pretty certain this wasn't his cup of tea. It was very much mine, though.
The venue was in the Playfair library (https://archello.com/project/the-playfair-library-at-edinburgh-universityat my old stomping ground. As can be seen, it's a lovely venue for an interactive promenade play, though the shape is no help to acoustics. I could watch it again tonight, indeed I think I would enjoy it more, relaxing into the pace with a knowledge of what's going to happen. There's songs and rhyming couplets, poetic beermats, paper snow; there's the devil and an Aldi carpark and a pub in Kelso, Kylie Minogue plus a lot of folklore. It is, however, over 2 hours long, so one needs to settle, relish the immediate rather than pursue the outcome.
I loved it, in fact we all loved it, save one person who, with my superpower of Attracting These Types, sat right next to me.
'Eau,' she groaned at me, by way of greeting, 'how I yearn for a proscenium arch, with actors who are just there to entertain me!'
I was puzzled by this. Anyone who knows anything at all about the venue knows that a proscenium arch is unlikely in the Playfair library; how did she think one would fit into the space? Was she expecting a rebuilt interior? And had she not read that the play was interactive? Her yearning could be fulfilled in any Ayckbourn stuffed theatre up and down the UK, but here plays are often more experimental, new, cutting edge stuff you won't see elsewhere. I let my surprise show.
'I think you're at the wrong play,' was the most diplomatic reply I could give.
'We weren't warned,' came her riposte.
There was more from her, when the cast asked us to rip paper napkins into snow.
'No,' she said, 'I have paid £25 for my ticket, I don't expect to entertain myself.'
The world around her shrugged and left her to it, done with someone too lazy to get even a grasp of what she was attending. We ripped enough paper towels to cover the building in fake snow, and the play played out, not perfect, but brilliant. Ironically, it could be performed in a proscenium arch theatre, but that would have been a shame for the audience, who found itself at once in a folk pub, and at a conference on Border Ballads, and in Hell; and credit to the Yearner, she was well behaved, barely talking to her companion, and at least not accompanied by children who understand nothing beyond screaming at their parents. I could get lost in what was happening and
by the end felt for the devil as well as Prudentia, wishing I was in a real folk pub somewhere listening til long past midnight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT5zlcYIYk0
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Date: 2022-09-01 12:59 pm (UTC)But I knew if I didn't catch up on my sleep, I would be a complete zombie over the next few days.
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Date: 2022-09-01 01:14 pm (UTC)