More Fringe Shows

Time to review the other two Fringe shows I watched.   One of them was Panga, written by my friend Sam Siggs.   It had a very interesting concept.   It centres around a 20 something year old woman, Lucy, who's a bit of a mess, and her boyfriend.   One day her mother sends her a bunch of her old toys, and her cuddly panda, Panga (pronounced like that because she had adenoids) suddenly comes to life, as a full-sized talking, walking panda.   At first she's terrified, but very quickly warms to the idea of having her childhood playmate back.   The two of them spend their days playing wild games and getting incerasingly drunk.   The climax of the play comes when Panga tries to kill Lucy's boyfriend.   A fight ensues, and Panga gets his head cut off, whereupon he transforms back into a harmless cuddly toy.   I have to say that I have mixed feelings about this play.   It was staged very well, with plenty of little creative touches, and the acting was excellent.   As I've said before, I thought the concept was very interesting, and it was very funny, but I just feel like the play was missing a message of some kind.   A tangible effect Panga's visit had on Lucy.   Some sort of point to the play.   It just left me a bit confused really.   It was actually quite strongly reminiscent of the film Drop Dead Fred.   It had the same feeling of chaos and mischief and losing control.   Worth seeing, but not Sam's best.  

          



Finally, the Blanks, also known as The Worthless Peons, Ted's band from Scrubs.   They're an a capella band.   I enjoyed seeing them.   The singing was really good, and they did all their famous ones.   It was interesting to see that Sam (Ted) was by far the worst singer amongst them.   The other three were all really talented.   Perhaps I just don't have very much patience, because the filler between songs really pissed me off.   It was just so American and tacky, unfunny and unnecessary.   They also performed a Hallowe'en song, which was very funny, but just gave me the impression that their repertoire is pretty small.   All in all, an enjoyable show, but could have been better.

    

Fringe Shows

Today I thought I'd share with you my thoughts on some of the Fringe shows I went to see this summer.   To start with, the Makropulos Case.   It's a Czech opera, and was part of the International Festival.   The story was a bit odd.   There's an ongoing legal battle about an inheritence, and a woman turns up, who knew a strangely large amount about the case.   She offers to tell people where the will is in exchange for a document kept with it.  It's all very mysterious, but in the end it comes out that the document is the formula for the elixir of life.   She needs it to make herself some more because the dose she took many years ago is wearing off.   But in the end she doesn't, and grows old and dies onstage.   Now odd stories are fine if they're done right, but what really bothered me about this opera was the translation.   It was so clumsy!   It distracted me all the way through.  Very jarring.  Would have much rather seen it in Czech!   It also struck me as odd that there were no arias at all.   It was all cantanta.   Having said all that the music was gorgeous.   I think I would have really enjoyed it if it wasn't for the awful translation.  

Next, Gilbert and Sullivan in Brief(s).   This was a brief introduction to all 14 Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.   There were four people on stage, playing the parts of the four main characters that Gilbert and Sullivan operettas always have.   Amid much clowning about on stage, they delivered a summary of the story and history of each operetta and performed a song or two from them.   It was educational, the singing was excellent, and it was a very entertaining show.   For me though, it was too brief!   It missed out lots of my favorite songs.   Could have done with being a bit longer I thought.   But I did enjoy it.  

And finally, Irish Shorts 2.   This was one of two shows put on by the same theatre company.   It was two different short Irish plays by Sean O'Casey: Bedtime Story and A Pound on Demand.   The first starred one of my friends as an Irish boy the morning after a one night stand, full of remorse and fear, trying to persuade the girl to leave quickly and quietly.   It was very atmospheric and funny, and the cast were great.   The second was also very funny.   It was about two drunk and uneducated Irishmen trying to withdraw a pound from one of them's post office account for more alcohol.   This proved to be easier said than done.   The cast of this one were also fantastic.   A very entertaining show.   I can't find a picture specific to the show, but this is the logo of Theatre Alba, the company who put it on.

Fireworks!

At the end of the Fringe in Edinburgh there is a fireworks display, set to music, from the Castle.   I very much enjoyed this year's performance.   The Castle was beautifully lit and I preferred this year's music to last year's.   Less obscure.   More relevent.   The fireworks themselves were good too, though not hugely different to last year's.   I, of course, took my camera, tripod and remote release along to capture the action.   Sadly the people I was with had chosen to stand somewhere that wasn't ideal for photography, but nevermind.

I'd never really photographed fireworks before and wasn't quite sure how to go about it.   I really just pointed the camera at a random patch of sky, set the focus to infinity and hoped for the best!  It went ok, though most of my photos came out looking pretty smoky.   I think this was more to do with the wind than with anything I'd done.   I also found the long lens to be unnecessary.   They weren't that high up really!  

There was only really one photo I was really happy with.   For your viewing pleasure:

I also discovered that I want a new camera!   My flat mate's newer camera had an autofocus that could cope with the lighting conditions.   Jealous!  

Fringe Chaos

Every August the chaos that is the Fringe comes to Edinburgh.   Hundreds of acts descend upon the city and clog up the Royal Mile, annoying residents, but delighting photographers.   The main challenge with getting good snaps is battling your way through the crowd and finding an angle that isn't blocked by the heads of a dozen tourists.   A little rudeness pays off in these situations.   Nothing extreme of course, but it's surprising how often you'll be forgiven for pushing your way to the front and blocking someone else's view if you're carrying a big camera.   A few of my favorite Fringe snaps:

 nice wide aperture blurs the background so that the passing tourists are less distracting

The most important thing I learned from photographing the Fringe this year was to not just go to the Royal Mile once and assume I'd captured the Fringe.   Who's there and what they're doing changes every day, so go often and you never know what you might find!