bob's blog - thankyou and goodbye

THanks  Gill , Claire, Jen and everyone who made it posible to have my 3 days in Edinburgh. Thanks too  to Sophie at arts Industry (she used to work at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, so it was nice to see a friendly face), and to Charlie Rowley of Arts Council who I bumped into when we were both ejected from the Traverse by the fire alarms, where we compared notes.
SPEED OF LIGHT - part of the main festival- is running (literally) from dusk to about 1.30am on Arthur's seat. You can pay a lot of money to go on a guided walk with light sticks which emit ethereal music the higher you climb (book at the Festival Office up near the Castle) , or if you're a cheapskate like me, just make your way into the Arthurs Seat country Park from the enrtance near Pollock Halls and the Royal Commonwealth Pool and keep walking till the light-suited runners come into view. If you get a balmy evening with a beautiful sunset, as i was lucky enough to do last week, there's  no better way to round off a Fringe visit.

bob's blog -THE BLIND - Old College Quad

Arts Industry got me a free ticket for this extraordinary outdoor show. About a country where the people, "Day of the Triffids-like" are struck down by a virus (or biological warfare ?) which turns them blind. Extremely loud, violent, with much more inventive uses of hospital beds than Danny Boyle manged for the Olympic Opening, lots of smoke, wind machines , ticker-tape and effective lighting, if you want an overview of Eastern European large scale theatre (it's a Polish company) this is the place to be.
Possibly more accessible is the copmpany's other show "Macbeth" with the witches on stilts and other characters on motorbikes.I only heard about that one.

Bob's Blog -TRANSLUNAR PARADISE - THEATRE AD INFINITUM

It was interesting to see this quiet , gentle, expressive piece in the same space which had, half an hour before, been occupied by the maelstrom of Curious Directive. Many bloggers have written about Translina r paradise  before and I can only endorse their enthusiasm. . I didn't get to see it last year , but it was top of my list for this year and didn't disappoint. I know Sue Robinson made approaches last year about getting them to do a rural tour. I see that they're planning to work on a new, arts council funded piece in the autumn, so it may be that this show won't be available after all.

It is beyond doubt the most perfect show - beautifully performed by the dancers and musician - held my attention completely, even as show number 13 in 3 days.

bob's Blog "After the Rainfall"- Curious Directive-Pleasance Dome

Had a spare hour so slotted this in. Another China Plate recommendation I think. 
It seemd to be an attempt to make a live-drama equivalent of one of those many-storied world-spanning films like "Babel" and the story was quite hard to follow at first, though became quite gripping. There were some interesting ideas, like planning to shift Britain's underground nuclear waste store from cumbria to Egypt, bribing a new regime. There was also the story of a Cumbrian miner who went missing, of his young relative who wanted to be an artist and melted down an old miner's brass instrument and poured it into an ant's nest to make a sculpture from their tunnels (studying ant colomies was yet another thread.) .There was much use of video projection and a two-wall set that could do clever things. In the end i felt it was just too busy and there were just too many ideas fighting for space in an hour's drama.
Interesting experiment, but I think less would have been more.

bob's Blog - BULLET CATCH- Rob Drummond, Traverse

A masterpiece of mystery, suspense and bamboozlement. Rob Drummond is very skilfull at creating atmosphere and suspense. THe mind-reading tricks are actually more intriguing than the bullet catch itself. It may depend for success on who gets chosen to be the audience member who will fire the potentuially "lethal" shot - we had a particularly cool female lawyer, who had just the right degree of seriousness to make it work.
Quite a cult - a popular show, but on reflection probably less than the sum of its parts.
Not particularly difficult technically, but does require a claustrophic smallish space. The Studio in the bowels of the Traverse was ideal.

Bob's blog- the CURIOUS SCRAPBOOK OF JOSEPHINE BEAN- SHONA REPPE- SCOTTISH BOOK TRUST

This must be one of the very best children's shows on the Fringe. We managed to get Shona to come down from Scotland with Cinderella a few years back, which was magical. This is a puppet showwithout a single puppet. The set is a forensic lab where Shona, the Doctor of Scrapology, examines and conserves scrapbooks. There's great use of video and sound . Although it's a small-scale show it is quite technical, but probably not more so than "Cloud Man" which some of us toured last year.
Children and adults alike were totally entranced. She's a very quiet performer, but very stylish, and every detail has been thought out and rehearsed to perfection.

Scottish Book Trust takes some finding. It's next to the Scottish Storytelling Centre on The Royal Mile (just uphill from it).

I would say this is an absolute must-see.

Bob's Blog - LETTER OF LAST RESORT - TRAVERSE

If you want some serious political drama at the Fringe you won't do any better than this. It's a "yes Minister" scenario where the newly installed future prime minister (a woman) is told by the Head of Arrangements that she has to write the letter which will only be opend by the Trident submarine commanders in the event of the UK being destroyed in a nuclear attack. The logical absurdities of the situation (which is absolutely true) are brilliantly explored. Unfortunately, about 10 mins before the end, there was a fire alarm and we all had to leave the building for 40 minutes. The actors then had to pick up the play - "Dear Commander" she wrote "There has been a f**ck-up" . Cheers from the audience.
It's in a double bill with "Good with People" - aplay about the divided community of Helensburgh, where the "town2 and the "nuclear base" have always been at loggeerheads.

Two two-handers- nothing there that couldn't be done for rural touring, but I think it's unlikely