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FESTIVAL INSIDER British author-cum- broadcaster-cum- Fringe show stalwart Gyles Brandreth talks about the highs and lows of his festival fortunes
E dinburgh is a parallel universe. We do things differently here. I was a middle-aged, ex-MP with a tragic comb-over and a roomful of woolly jumpers until I discovered the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The experience changed me forever. It does.
I first came here in 2001 with a show called Zipp! We performed 90 musicals in 90 minutes. We gave you the complete works of Andrew Lloyd Webber in one hundred seconds. On a good day, we managed it in 85. At one point in the show, I did a sequence for suspenders and fishnet tights. I used to put them on in my flat at the beginning of the day – and then I looked out of the window and caught sight of the old lady in the flat opposite watching me. I was so embarrassed – until she flashed me a thumbs up. that called
In Edinburgh, in August, anything goes. You can have breakfast where you want, when you want, with whom you like – no questions asked. When I was
last here I got my head shaved (on the advice of Steven Berkoff: ‘Lighten up, Gyles’) and fell in love with a girl from The Guardian. (The Guardian, for God’s sake! It may seem like nothing to you, but for a Tory ex- MP it’s A Big Deal.) This is my third Fringe and my favourite haunts remain the same: the bar in the Assembly
Rooms on George Street (for the quality thespian crowd), a bench in the Pleasance Courtyard (for the sunshine and the stand-ups), and the launderette in Raeburn the Place. launderettes are dead. In Edinburgh at Fringe-time they buzz. The last time I went to wash my tights in Raeburn Place I found a group called The In London,
Lipstick Lesbians performing a musical Macbeth with marionettes. I kid you not. Only in Edinburgh in August. Gyles Brandreth appears in The One to One Show at Pleasance One, daily, 4.30pm; his play, Wonderland, is on at the Assembly Rooms, George Street, daily, at 1.45pm.
BRIBE OF THE WEEK Farm Boy This week’s best bribe was this charming miniature 1922 Fordson Tractor, sent by the folk behind Michael Morpurgo’s Farm Boy (adapted by Daniel Buckroyd). The play is a sequel to War Horse, which focused on a young boy and his horse on a journey through WWI. Farm Boy takes place years later, when the tractor was becoming the driving force behind British farming. The show combines storytelling, drama, original music and, yes, a tractor.
‘I’d go as far as to say that, alongside the old man and his grandson, the tractor is actually the third character,’ says Buckroyd. ‘In our staging it’s always there at the centre of the action.’ When asked about the reaction from the vintage tractor- loving community, Buckroyd admits: ‘It’s been characterised by a little suspicion at first when they hear that we’re using a replica Fordson rather than the real thing – tractor treason apparently!’ Controversy on the Fringe: who knew? If you want to bribe us, send your unique promotional merchandise to Big Fat Festival Bribe, The List c/o Niki Boyle, 14 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TE. ■ Farm Boy, Assembly @ George Street, 623 3030, 7–30 Aug (not 17), 11.45am, £10–£11 (£9–£10). Previews 5 & 6 Aug, £5.
8 THE LIST 5–12 Aug 2010
OVERHEARD IN EDINBURGH
‘Why isn’t that tram moving? It’s holding up the traffic.’ As heard by a young lady, on a city centre bus, about the model tram on Princes Street.