Though Edinburgh is an artistic free-for-all, where everyone who can pay the rent (and have the money to lose) can come to the party, some shows are more equal than others; and there’s still a huge competitive angle to the festivities. For comedians, of course, it’s the Perrier that counts above all – and provides a short-hand way for all the lazy television executives who arrive for their own TV festival in the third week to search out this year’s “hot” acts. On the theatre front, there are a myriad of awards and accolades on offer, including those of The Stage, of course; but the longest-established of the fringe equivalent of the Oliviers are The Scotsman’s Fringe Firsts, which for more than 30 years now have recognised and acknowledged specifically new work on the fringe.
The best bit about them is that they’re not presented in one go, but once a week for every week of the festival; so there’s a constant buzz around about them. Today the first list of winners has just been announced, and I’m glad to say that of the five shows that have won, I’m already scheduled to see three when I go up later today; which either suggests I’ve chosen wisely, or they’ve given them to predictable shows! These are:
- East Coast Chicken Supper, a new Scottish play at the Traverse;
- Switch Tripytch, the latest show from the Riot Group, an American company who can’t seem to perform in Edinburgh without winning a Fringe First; and
- Grid Iron’s latest site-specific work, The Devil’s Larder, performed in Debenham’s department store.
But I’ve not actually hitherto even heard of the other two winners — Give Up! Start Over! (In the Darkest of Times I Look to Richard Nixon for Hope) at C venue, and Children of the Sea at the Royal Botanic Gardens — and that’s where Awards like this can have a purpose: to reward pieces that might otherwise get lost in the fringe melee.
