Edinburgh: Week Three
It’s all over. I’m writing this in Manchester Piccadilly, after seeing Potted Potter start its week’s run in the Lowry last night. Already the Fringe seems as if it was months ago. The last few days went by in a hazy fatigue, teetering on the edge of futility. There would be no more reviews, audiences would remain at similar levels as previously – for better or worse – and there would be few new insights into character or script.
A friend who was visiting at the weekend tried to engage me in a conversation the other night that was nothing to do with the Fringe, and I found myself incapable of talking to her about anything normal. People putting on the shows seemed locked into the same three conversations; how had it gone, what was next, and how tired and ill you felt and looked. It felt like the final stages of the siege of Paris: if you weren’t exchanging recipes for cooking rats, then forget it.
I saw forty-nine shows – apart from my own – and would have made the half-century had the fantastic Maeve Higgins not cancelled her final show. Here are my personal highlights… The charming Terry Saunders’ Missed Connections, the loopy Bridget Christie – The Court Of Charles II, and the unexpectedly moving Hippo World Guest Book. I’m also looking forward to the next show by Tommy and the Weeks. Their excellent show this year, which blithely subverted expectations, sketch comedy, and taste, promises great things for the future. Paul Foot and Josie Long each created a truly distinctive, beautifully written, and very funny hour of stand-up; Tim Key and Tom Basden each wrote impressive debut solo shows, which for me were even stronger than their work in sketch act Cowards.
Now to start planning what we’re going to do at the 2008 Festival Fringe…
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