Edinburgh Festival Picks
Our green room spy runs the rule over this year’s offerings in Auld Reekie
Preview by Geoffrey Ledwell
For better or worse, Scotland’s capital city once again finds itself knee deep in actors, dancers, musicians, comedians and street performers - all madly peddling their wares. With many thousands of events to choose from, it’s hard to know where to begin, and the democratic nature of the festival inevitably produces more than a handful of decidedly awful shows. But, like life, it’s better to focus on the positives, because when you look in the right places you can find some incredibly original, creative and exciting new work. Here are a few of the best places to start:
Firstly, the Traverse Theatre; a cornerstone of new writing both north and south of the border, this impressive theatre continues to offer an array of original, powerful and challenging new work each August. Highlights this year include Tomorrow, Vanishing Point’s meditation on dementia and old age, Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree, fresh off the back of its run at the National Theatre Shed and Ontroerend Goed’s A Game of You, an intimate little show which focuses on the self - go and see anything here, however, and the odds are in your favour.
Equally high on your agenda should be the formidable Forest Fringe. Founded by Deborah Pearson and Andy Field in 2007, Forest Fringe has been presenting some of the best work at the festival ever since, made all the better by the fact that it is all completely free - an antidote to all those overpriced comics. An eclectic mix, peppered with surefire successes, including the reliably entertaining Little Bulb, with their new show Wail (17th-19th), the playfully anarchic, darkly funny Made In China, with Tonight I’m Gonna Be The New Me (24th-28th) and Pearson herself, performing one of her own characteristically gentle and insightful pieces, History History History (21st). Find them at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall, an old army barracks on Dalmeny Street.
Also worth seeking out are Pains Plough, the self proclaimed “national theatre of new writing”, who are taking their brilliant, beautiful, self-contained and pack-away theatre, the Roundabout to Edinburgh this year, which is much sturdier and more comfortable than it sounds. Inside you can catch Dennis Kelly’s acclaimed show for children, Our Teacher’s A Troll, or Duncan Macmillan’s rather wonderful gem, Every Brilliant Thing, performed by the faultless and exuberant Jonny Donahoe, as well as Daniel Kitson’s Polyphony although tickets for this will be like gold dust. The whole lot will be temporarily parked at Summerhall which will be hosting an array of events itself, including the politicised comedy of Mark Thomas and a new show from Northern Stage Newcastle: Human Resources by Hannah Jane Walker and Chris Thorpe.
After all that you might be hankering for something a little more traditional, and for that you should seek out the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, an annual institution and a dazzling array of pomp on show up by the castle each evening. And if you want to get away entirely for a few hours then the short walk up to Arthurs Seat offers a quick getaway with an incredible view. 
Photography courtesy of ©Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society