ED2019 Preview Edition ED2019 Theatre ED2019 Three To See

Three To See 2019: American Classics

By | Published on Tuesday 30 July 2019

ThreeWeeks Co-Editor Caro Moses helps you navigate the Festival with her Three To See tips. This time three American classics.

Of Mice And Men | Gilded Balloon Teviot | 31 Jul-26 Aug (pictured)
There’s always loads of brand new and edgy stuff to partake of at the Fringe, but what about the classics? Isn’t there a place for them? Well, yes there is, as is evidenced by the fact that there are always well attended stagings of works by the likes of Mr Shakespeare and Mr Wilde in Edinburgh each August. But I thought that, if we’re honouring some favourites, we might go with a US theme this time, not least because of this excellent telling of John Steinbeck’s acclaimed story. It’s back at the Festival after achieving critical acclaim here in 2015, and we are really pleased to see it again. Listing here.

The Pat Hobby Stories | Gilded Balloon Teviot | 31 Jul-26 Aug
Source material you may not necessarily have come across, but definitely a classic author. LA-born actor Paul Birchard brings to life F Scott Fitzgerald’s collection of stories, published in Esquire Magazine from 1940-41, about a down and out and alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter whose heyday has passed with the advent of ‘talkies’.“Pat Hobby, script hack who was hot when the movies were dumb, lurches from job to job, managing by luck and low cunning to more or less avoid the abyss of unemployment and despair”. Expect something funny and highly evocative of 1930s tinsel-town. Listing here.

Well That’s Oz | Venue 13 | 3-24 Aug
This one, as you might have worked out from the name of the show, is somewhat related to another classic novel from a US Author, ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ by L Frank Baum. However, I don’t anticipate this show being, um, anything like traditional in its portrayal of that story, as it’s an “absurdist adaptation” describing itself as a dark comedy. But you know, I like the idea of taking ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ and making a dark comedy out of it: after all, Baum’s original works have some pretty dark moments in them. In this version, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion confront their existential struggles, while Dorothy tries to help but can’t rise above the “dismal truth of the land of Oz”. Listing here.



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