Edinburgh Fringe Festival
..... takes over most of the city of Edinburgh
during August. Most of the streets are complete
and total madness - but there is a special madness and theatricality about the
Royal Mile (cobblestone road that stretches from Edinburgh Castle down to
Holyrood House.) The roadway is just
packed from side to side, top to bottom with buskers and with performers from
the various companies presenting shows at this year’s festival. All the troupes are out on the Mile trying to
drum up “business” for their productions with a little song and dance, or a vignette …..
And as a newly retired member of the print profession, I was
impressed with the amount of print material being distributed on the Mile for
the various shows being presented during the festival. In two visits to the Royal Mile, I collected
flyers for 32 different productions (and these were not typewritten, photocopied
flyers either!) Average price for a show
-7 pounds (about $10.00 Canadian). I didn’t have time to see one show (let alone
all of them!) – but if I could have made it to just one production, it would
have been ...
“Life Sentence – A Comedy –
a hypochondriac is diagnosed with immortality.
Watch as he battles against it right up to the bitter middle!”
... but then, I would have missed – “Frankie
Starr Ate My Hamster”; “Small Steps in
Random Directions”, “Upstairs/Downton – The Improvised Episode”, “The Goddess
of Walnuts”, and “I Always Think You Should End with a Good Death – A Writer’s
Lot”. But not to worry, the Festival
will run again next year, and if I were able to dig out enough coins from between
the sofa cushions ……
