| “Captivating. Entertaining. Brilliant Performances. Unsettling and Fun" |
Wales at Edinburgh Fringe in the 2020s |
| In the Small Hours- the Wyrd Systers , The Space @ Niddry Street, Edinburgh , September 9, 2022 |
The Fringe is not what it was. “The Edinburgh fringe is too long, too expensive and too gruelling. It must change or die.” So runs a headline in 2022 to grab the attention. The Fringe is not what it was. But then it never was. Forty years ago those-who-were-then-in-the-know were commenting much the same, how the whole thing had gone downhill. The laments had three causes. Theatre was on the retreat in the face of lower-cost stand-up. Four producer groups had agglomerated the venues and were scooping up four-fifths of the box office. A prominent entrepreneur-producer had a double-barrelled family name that denoted membership of a venerable banking dynasty. Lastly, celebrity names with television recognition were commandeering the big spaces and making big money. And yet. In all the melee the ecology was rich. The pace was maybe not quite so relentless. The stripping down of everything to an hour's duration was yet to happen. Over the years the Fringe has shifted geographically, southward in the main, the University a beneficiary. If it is stressful to ruinous for the makers the choice for the audience, and the range, is fantastical. The reviewers may have thinned- ScotsGay had high quality writers and is no more. But in the cyber-world viewers too speak. * * * * So to the Wyrd Systers. They are a group of women from Wales. The oldest actor is aged eighteen, the youngest sixteen. They got themselves to the Fringe with a couple of smart notions. The first was to choose a genre where they stood out. The second good idea was to get themselves a dramatist who knows how to dramatise. Remarkably, in this year after the arts' devastation, Owen Thomas completed a hat-trick of scripts at the Fringe of '22. The show used the simplest of props, sheets making fog, torches becoming candles. The audiences liked the Systers a lot: “This group of young, talented performers successfully create a captivating atmosphere through the intensity in their acting and their teamwork. There is always something interesting to watch, and I loved the use of physical theatre in the ghost stories! Overall a really enjoyable performance, and I was successfully spooked even with the show being in the middle of the day! “Very talented group of young actors created a satisfyingly imaginative spooky atmosphere “A really great new show brought to life by a group of talented young actresses! All of the performances were nuanced and mature, and the whole show was underpinned with imaginative direction - with relatively few props (pillows and sheets, a trunk, some umbrellas and torches) the cast were able to bring different settings to life, including a beach with crashing waves and a spooky graveyard. “I was unsure how "scary" a fringe show could actually be, but the ending literally sent shivers down my spine!! And this was only possible because I was totally immersed in the world the cast had created. A really great job from the whole cast and crew, would definitely recommend! “Cast and material are really well suited to each other, the synergy brought out by some excellent direction. The ensemble become a graveyard, the legs through which a young girl runs at a wake. “Umbrellas become cawing crows, the choreography reveals sinister hidden figures at crucial moments. The cast’s youthful energy captures the playfulness of the occasion, the sense of being naughtily out after dark, which sets up perfect moments of shock and sudden fright. On occasion, one wishes the actors might have the full confidence of their talent and allow the clarity of their young voices to convey fully the excitement & fear of their characters served so well by the composition, music and movement, but nothing detracts from a jolly good scare. “A great show! This group of young actresses are so talented! They managed to captivate their audience creating a fantastic and spooky atmosphere, dead suitable for their theme of ghosts and ghouls on Halloween. Very good! Must see. “A really captivating and entertaining story with some brilliant performances. Unsettling and fun! “Great group of young amateur performers who put a great story on stage with flair and originality. Very well put together show by talented young performers! Really liked it. “Captivating - great story telling, fabulous use of props, a strong young cast… a must see show “I like to check out something spooky everyctime I visit the Fringe and this took my fancy. I was not disappointed, this group of young actors ruled the stage with a mixture of great story telling and on stage visuals that was both funny and scary. Well done guys, superb debut.” * * * * Some summary words on the Fringe of 2022: 2,201,175 tickets were issued across 3,334 shows- the verb “issued” rather than “sold. The percentage bought by Edinburgh-ians was up at 39% of ticket sales. Some companies appeared in the press as case studies. An actor was interviewed in a Sunday broadsheet, 28th August, on his Fringe production. “It's costing about £35000 in all” he said. This made my hair stand on end. “Although thankfully I've got another investor on board. I've had a lot of eye-watering show-related expenses in recent months though- I've had to fork out £5500 on railing and lamppost hoardings alone. We had a lot of tickets to shift- there's nothing worse than having five people in a 250-seat venue.” The Stage of 4th August also ran some case studies. The publicity must have worked as they were all reviewed, and well. Accommodation was the number one cause of rancour. “Fat Chance” paid £2200 for two in a student hall. “Sugar” had a total budget of £5697. The funds had an atypical source. $2000 dollars had been spent in lockdown on Ethereum. When the time came to fund art it was a lucky time; that $2000 had become $10000. “Sap” had a company of eight. Accommodation costs crossed into five figures. Numbers need treating with care. In particular like needs to be compared with like. In the 1980's I visited a company in their lodging. The company was well-known. It lasted 25 years and was prestigious enough for its archive to be now held at a major university. The company had five actors and as many besides, plus a partner or two. The flat was down the hill towards Leith where the New Town turned grungy. Leith then bore no resemblance to now. The accommodation had a couple of bedrooms, and that was it, for everyone, sleeping bags piled up in abundance. Different days. Another company this year had a budget of £5714.03 and even forecast not losing money. But it came at a cost; staying in Carlisle, making a twice-a-day 75 minute journey and braving the no-train days. That sadly defeats much of the point of beign there. “Grav” wrote when he prepared to leave: “Watched 40+ shows. 510,664 steps. About the same amount of beer.” Those 40+ shows all matter for an actor. Last word to Mark Borkowski. 1982 or 2022 his observation pertains: “it's a controlled chaos that yields brilliant results.” The audience comments for “In the Small Hours” from: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/in-the-small-hours |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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