Edinburgh

Apologies for lack of communication of late, I got really busy in the last week and have been running around like mad. I will recap over that last week a bit later.

Am now in Edinburgh which is wet, wet, wet and am having a great time seeing shows even though most of my day seems to be taken up by being rejected by theatres. The shows I have seen have been awesome, the acting has been awesome, my friend lives in an awesome apartment and Edinburgh is just buzzing with people. Today I met up with Duncan a mate from Sydney and we went to see a show and stroked through the rain as best we could and tomorrow we're going to do more.

The first night I arrived I went to see Santogold, who is this awesome M.I.A. type chick who is just laid back and cool. She had these cool laid-back dancers who wore sunglasses and were completely focussed and in the zone. The next day, after being floored by my friend's really cool arty, old apartment, I went to see the first of my three shows for the day, The Angel and the Woodcutter, a Korean physical theatre/dance piece by the Cho-In theatre company which was phenomenal and so moving. This is the second piece of Korean physical theatre I have seen, the first being A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Sydney Festival last year, and I'm starting to think that the Koreans are really good at it. The story was of a mother and her son who went off to war, and the woman he falls in love with, but it was really incredible, a bit Brechtian, a bit Mother Courage. The intensity and focus and lightness that the actors had were incredible, and with a small cast of five and light and colourful music they made a really moving piece. I really liked their use of breath and how it energised the acting and the movement.

After The Angel and the Woodcutter I had a bit of a break then went to see Class Enemy, by Nigel Williams but re-interpreted and set in Sarajevo and performed in Bosnian. The transferring of the setting and the production was really great, it was a really great play, but there was something missing in the translation of it. The staging and the stage business were good and suited the play but it was like the actors were instructed to perform extra big because of the language difference, so there ended up being a lot of overly-large, forceful performances, I felt. There was only one guy who I felt was in it the whole time but overall there were some nice moments and performances. It's a great play, I didn't realise it until I sped-read through all the subtitles. A lot of old Edinburgh-y people left within the first ten minutes which was a shame because it was a really good play and just because it started with (a lot) of swear words and sexual references didn't mean that the play didn't have a lot of really good things to say.

After that I went with my friend and her boyfriend to watch some comedian perform but he was average.

This morning I had a shit of a time walking round and round in circles trying to find a play I wanted to see that wasn't sold out. In the end I caved and around about 4.30 went to see a play called Surviving Spike, which was about Spike Milligan and the woman who worked for him. It was really well produced, the production and the acting were great, but the storyline was a bit boring I thought. Seriously, it was just Spike Milligan and this lady bantering on until he died. I really can't stand sentimental biopic style pieces but the oldies loved it and it showed. Then later after dinner again I went to see a show with all LAMDA kids in it called Who's Afraid of Howling Wolf, which was phenomenal in terms of the acting and made me all inspired and want to get into that damn school so I can act and write again. I don't know, perhaps it was because it was in a black box theatre and performed by kids who were great, I just felt like it was all totally achievable. All the kids had a great natural style, with the main girl practically oozing sensuality it was all so hypnotizing, like a warm whisky. The script itself wasn't so amazing (it got a bit general towards the end; it was about a lost love), but the dialogue was snappy and witty and the LAMDA kids delivered with such sharpness and wit and focus (how I love theatre that is alive and breathing right in front of me!) that I thought to myself a) fuck, I've got to get into this school and b) fuck, I've got to start writing again and have it said by such talented people and create images with words and images for the stage. So then I went to see Showstopper! The Improvised Musical with Duncan and afterwards we sat and picked at it from an actor's point of view and then felt guilty because we were picking on them.

A few things about the Edinburgh festival: I haven't really described it here but the Edinburgh festival is amazing. It's something like nine festivals put altogether, and in terms of the Fringe itself, there are over 1,700 shows, all of which perform nearly every day. That means from 9am till 1am in the morning THERE ARE SHOWS STARTING EVERY FIVE MINUTES. That's right, you can watch a show every hour, so technically you can see at least eight shows a day if you're organised. The amount of people and art and craziness here is incredible. The other funny thing about the festival is that all the shows are done with the most incredible lighting and set and costume and acting and direction and so forth, but then they're done in the shittiest of venues. It's almost a shame really, because they deserve better venues than that but it's the festival and that's how it goes.

I have to say though, I had a really weird vibe from Edinburgh when I first arrived. First of all, I had just spent the evening with all my girlfriends that were left over from the course staying at my house (long story, but amusing!) plus my flatmates, then a couple hours later hopped on a plane and suddenly I was in Edinburgh. They still used the pound but it's a completely different country. And it was wet. Secondly, the moment I stepped into Edinburgh, I have had things break on me. First my computer crashed and as the Mac man told me I have to take it back to Australia. Then my beloved boots broke and I haven't been able to find a bootmaker (sniff!). Then, after all these weird things, I couldn't get into the spirit of the festival. Yes, I was seeing lots of amazing stuff, I was seeing three shows a day, which in itself is inspiring, and all really cool international and local stuff, but I wasn't feeling like it was sinking in, it was all just surface appreciation. I hadn't had a break since LAMDA and it felt like I just came to Edinburgh and continued working, seeing shows. It was only after watching the LAMDA show and then meeting up with Duncan for a drink and a show that I started to feel inspired and in the groove. And now that I've been inspired I feel like I can take on anything.

My friend is staying at her boyfriend's tonight so I get the double bed all to myself!