LUCY BENSON-BROWN: CUTTING OFF KATE BUSH
"Cathy is having a crisis", says the blurb. "And she's venting on YouTube through the medium of Kate Bush". Well you gotta check out that one, haven't you? Lucy Benson Brown has penned and performs in this new one-woman show 'Cutting Off Kate Bush', exploring how people commonly share private moments in the public domain in this here social media age.
And she herself took to the net earlier this year to help fund the Edinburgh show, raising some of her budget through Kickstarter and having to record her own online video as part of the fund-raising campaign. We caught up with Benson Brown ahead of the Festival to find out how the Kickstarting went, to get the heads up on the piece, and to find out exactly how Kate Bush fits into it all. Click here to read the interview. |
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LONG LIST PUBLISHED FOR FRINGE'S ECO-AWARD
Edinburgh Festival awards aren't all about the best jokes and nifty scripts, and each year since 2010 the Center For Sustainable Practice In The Arts and Creative Carbon Scotland has been dishing out the Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award to "the greenest and most sustainable shows". And gags and plays are all well and good, but not much use if there's not planet left in which to deliver or perform them.
All and any shows performing at the Fringe this year that felt they met the mission of the Sustainable Practice Award were invited to put themselves forward for consideration, and yesterday The List magazine announced this year's long list. And it is a pretty long list. Maybe print it out, take a taxi to your local Starbucks, tell them to crank up the air-con, and give it a read. No, only joking...
Here is that longlist, the winner is announced on 22 Aug at Fringe Central.
A Walk at the Edge of the World
Arrest That Poet!
be-dom
Dannie Grufferty's First World Problems
End of Species
India Street
John Muir: Rhapsody in Green
Mates
Misa-Lisin
My Luxurious 50 Square Feet Life
Out of Water
Princess Taz and the Fearsome Forest
Robert Lewellyn: Electric Cars Are Rubbish. Aren't They?
Song of the Earth
SOS – Save Our Spaces
The Bee-Man of Orn
The Big Bite-Size Plays Factory Goes Down the Toilet
The Evolution Will Be Televised
The Handlebards
The World Mouse Plague
The Worm – An Underground Adventure |
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3 TO SEE: TOP IMPROV COMEDY TYPES
ThreeWeeks co-Editor Caro developed a sincere love of improv comedy during her years as a student in Edinburgh, when attending the regular Friday night 'Theatresports' at the Bedlam Theatre (now 'The Improverts' of course) became a routine. The Fringe's comedy programme is absolutely full of improv shows though, and surely they can't all be brilliant...? No, they can't. But here are three that Caro is expecting great things from.
Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel
I'm an occasional indulger in both Austen novels and 'TV bonnet shows' (or costume drama, as people more usually call them), and, as you may have gathered, I quite like comedy, so this show attracted me from the first time I saw it in the programme in 2011. As you may expect from the title, the theme here is the 'lost' works of Jane Austen, and what you can expect from this talented troupe is a brand new, different and consistently funny story in every show. This is their third year at the Festival, and they've previously received two glowing reviews from us featuring the use of hyperbolic phrases such as "supremely talented", "blinding one-liners" and "nothing short of heroic". Yes, they are that good.
Pleasance Dome, from 30 Jul until 25 Aug. Tickets here.
Cariad & Paul: A Two Player Adventure
As well as liking their quality improv, ThreeWeeks reviewers are known to be very vocal in their praise of the very super (and also Edinburgh Comedy Award Newcomer nominated) character comedian Cariad Lloyd, and although we are less well acquainted with the live work of Paul Foxcroft, we are very much aware of just how brilliant this show was last year. These two are consummate skilled improvisers, by the sounds of it; to the point that certain viewers last year had trouble believing it was genuinely improvised. There are only a few shows, so be careful, don't miss it.
Pleasance Dome, from 18 Aug until 23 Aug. Tickets here.
Oh boy! The Quantum Leap Show
When I saw the title of this next show I was almost ready to tell everyone to go home right away, because this lot have won the Fringe. But I do appreciate that these are the possibly slightly worrying sentiments of someone who was, as a younger person, ever so slightly (completely?) addicted to US TV import 'Quantum Leap'. If you've never heard of it (shame on you), it's a sci-fi-ish show about a very nice man who is forced to flit around in time, putting right what once went wrong. This show offers a new and improvised episode every day, and while the team behind this – The Maydays – may not actually be Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell, they are a well established and respected group of improvvers. Woooo!
Cowgatehead, from 1 Aug until 24 Aug. Tickets here. |
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