Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2005
7 – 29 August 2005
Each year the Edinburgh Festival Fringe transforms the city into a seething hub of activity and innovation with what has become the largest arts festival in the world.
On offer are over 1800 performances and events including theatre, comedy, exhibitions, musicals and children’s shows.
The Fringe has long been known as fertile ground for fresh talent in theatre and performing arts, and is increasingly recognized as the launching pad for the careers of aspiring performers, comedians and artists internationally.
(Read more about the background to the Fringe) |
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Scotland plays more than just host to the festival, with Scottish productions aplenty. The Scottish Arts Council supports a range of arts organisations and artists appearing at the Fringe. Highlights include:
Drama and theatre
Dance
Music
The Traverse Theatre Company’s East Coast Chicken Supper explores the highs and lows of young enterprise, 'where cookery and cocaine meet', in small town Scotland. Styles are rich in variety.
David Leddy’s Through the Night has been described as ‘like Cinderella re-written by the Dalai Lama’. In stark contrast, classics retain their presence at the Fringe, with Theatre Babel performing Macbeth as one example
| Of the hundreds of international visitors, the Italian Teatro della Contraddizione present The Jew of Malta, their ‘physical nightmare’; and the Canadian Volcano present My Pyramids!, grappling the political theme with the very topical story of Private Lynndie England. |
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Scottish Dance Theatre - Scotland’s leading contemporary dance company returns to the Fringe with a captivating and original work by one of Britain’s hottest young choreographers, Liv Lorent. |
Fusing the narrative of theatre and the rich language of dance in an intensely physical and typically spirited performance, the award-winning company presents the hauntingly beautiful LUXURIA.
LUXURIA is an earthy, edgy piece tinged with sadness and the work features a passionate classical score, gorgeous over-the-top costumes, an epic cinematic feel and Scottish Dance Theatre’s ten talented dancers.
You can see this spellbinding piece at Southside (Venue 82) 117 Nicholson Street Aug 17-21 & 23-28, 11.30am
Music features heavily as ever at this year’s fringe, with dozens of performances of traditional, classical, contemporary, rock music and opera. One to watch out for is Theatre Cryptic’s new multimedia production ‘Trojan Women’ at the George Square Theatre. It uses Brendan Kennelly’s contemporary adaptation of Euripides’ classic tragedy and is sure to be powerful and provocative.
Popular group Mr McFall’s Chamber are performing at the Queen’s Hall this year with their usual varied programme of music by Zappa, Piazzolla, Raymond Scott, Joe Zawinul and King Crimson. The 2005 Fringe programme also sees the return of Magic Feet, a group originally brought together by a Scottish Arts Council Tune Up tour. Led by drummer John Rae, the ensemble combines rhythms of Ceilidh music alongside hard bog and gypsy melody, creating a distinctly Scottish/Hungarian sound.
The festival will also see exclusive songs from the new album by Franz Ferdinand, who’ll be performing two gigs in Princes Street Gardens. There’s loads of exciting jazz at Henry’s Jazz Cellar on Morrison Street, and Blazin’ Fiddles will be raising the roof at the Brunton Theatre and Acoustic Music Centre. From solo to ensemble sets, they blow audiences away with a fiery blend of traditional tunes.
Check out the Festival Fringe 2005 programme for more.
The Fringe was born back in 1947 when a handful of performers were denied entry in the Edinburgh International Festival, so set out to gatecrash the event with their own unlisted shows. This year the festival boasts over 26,995 performances of 1799 shows, with an estimated 16,191 performers taking part from all corners of the world. Yet the guiding principles of the first Fringe still stand all these years later, as nobody is invited to the Fringe, and each performer comes on their own steam. |