festival
theatre - dance - comedy o kids
lIIEAlRt PRE‘.’IE‘."J How To Be Successfully Mad
Air your anxieties: How To Be Successfully Mad
'A user’s manual for the brain,’ says writer/performer Jeremy Ward of his Edinburgh debut. A hefty subject for lunchtime entertainment? Perhaps. But, given the current fascination with mental health and self/discovery, a live chat show about the mind's workings could prove enticing for Fringe audiences.
By day a hypnotherapist, Ward created the piece in response to clients’ unrealistic expectations for therapy. ’More and more pepple go into sessions expecting to be cured of an ailment,’ he complains. ’With mental health, you know what’s inside your head better than any therapist.’
Ward’s show draws on anecdotes from his profe55ional experience, providing an inSight into the mind and its potential failings. He also inVites the audience to air their anxieties about madness and its causes.
Those wary of sharing an auditorium with a legion of neurotic Woody Allen clones need not fear. Ward's passion for his subject is coupled with a wry sense of humour, which should make for an entertaining event. He's also refreshingly impatient with the psychobabble of the so-called 'therapy age'.
’50 many people talk about the unconsoous mind without the
vaguest idea of what that is,' he laughs. 'I want to make people aware of how inexact labels like paranoia, depression and schizophrenia actually are.‘ (Allan Radcliffe)
I How To Be Successful/y Mad (Fringe) Outrageous Scripts, Roman Eagle Lodge Studio (Venue 27) 226 7207, 6—22 Aug, 10.75am, 23-29 Aug, 77. 75am, £6 (£4.50).
COMEDY PREVIEW Wedding Belles
It’s the morning of Janice's big day. The preparations for the short walk towards the big plunge are firmly
headspinningly funny.
’When I did it in New York I wasn't sure they'd get it, but they did. It has the kind of resonance that all
: weddings share —- that beautifully
underway and events are fast taking a i
turn for the . . .iittery!
’Weddings are the most dramatic events,’ says Sally Woodcock, the one woman whirlwind behind Wedding Bel/es, who besides writing and producing, also plays the show's five acutely rendered characters. 'They're just such potential minefields aren’t they? And therefore, they lust can't help but be extremely bloody funny '
A bittersweet tale of love, life and lipstick as viewed through the eyes of its five female narrators, the show (described by Woodcock herself as 'light, silly and frivolous, but very, very real') is a critique of our most revered/maligned institution, which aims to be nakedly honest as well as
human aspect, fraught with a host of doubts and terrors; and in anyone's eyes what could be funnier than that?’ (Barry Mcpherson)
I Wedding Bel/es (Fringe) Sal/y
Woodcock, Gilded Balloon 1/ (Venue 36,) 226 2757, 7—«30 Aug (not 9, l6, 7 9, 23) noon, f 7. 50 ([5); Hill Street Theatre (Venue 41) 226 6522, 7—30 Aug (not 79) 6.20pm, £7.50 (f5).
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The Scotsman ’97
Special Thanks to BRl'llSll AlRWAYS
Performed due to the generosity of Mrs l.iccy Dahl and the Dahl Estate
6 - 22 August (not Mon 16) 12 noon £5 (£3) Venue 34, The Famous Grouse House, 5 Chambers St. Box Office: 0131 220 5606
“'5
Dahl,
“Looks spectacular, sounds fantastic
...an inspiration’
“don’t feel you have to take a child to The Scotsman ’98
see this show... Revitalising”
5e“
Adapted and Directed by Lindsey McAlister
“Stunning stufi”
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he Herald ’98
Numerous *‘thr and *** reviews, Picks of the Day and Best of The Fest! in ’97 8c ’98
"Ill": KIINE llllllll IIIIIS HSIIIIIIl
presents a unique adaptation for ’99
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5-12 Aug i999 TllE ust 29