Book Description
What is the Edinburgh Fringe? Who goes there? Why? How? What safety equipment should you take? Every year, millions of pounds is spent at the world's largest arts festival. Careers are started, destroyed and prolonged. A lot of alcohol is drunk. And yet no-one has ever written a definitive book explaining how it all works and how precisely to deal with it.
Until now.
Fringe examines the Edinburgh Fringe from every angle you can imagine, as well as lots of angles you can’t. Whether you are planning your own show or just trying to decide which version of Macbeth to see (as a rule of thumb, generally the one with naked lesbian witches), the book provides a lively and entertaining tour through the dark work-house underbelly of UK theatre, answering such questions as:
is it worth paying attention to any reviews I read?
is it worth paying attention to any reviews I write?
how can I keep fit during the Fringe?
where can I get hold of a glitterball at short notice?
how do I get a homoerotic massage after midnight?
what do I do in the final week, with a permanent hangover and my eyes glued together?
Written by actual Fringe performers, Fringe is the ideal book for everyone interested in the annual boil on the face of Scotland's capital. Although they do go on about themselves a bit.
Excerpted from The Edinburgh Fringe Festival by J. Lark, J. Aylett. Copyright © 2006. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Imagine the scene: it is warm and sunny. The vista of a cobbled, Scottish street, walled on each side by historic buildings, stretches out before you, the bright blue of the sea glistening on the horizon. Wherever you look you see people dressed as Shakespearean characters, or animals, aliens, famous people, dead people, completely naked people… and all of them dancing, singing and acting their hearts out, clambering over any available bollards, bins or podiums to make themselves seen.
They serenade you with their performances; they attend to you, showering you with flyers, special offers and gifts, spreading their joy and happiness without repression or resentment. A few metres away Henry V is addressing the masses; a group with a guitar sing a song about the podium they are standing on; and a stall is giving away free samples of a chocolate liqueur.
You realise you have entered a fairyland.
Two weeks later you are living in a nightmare.
