Returning home from Edinburgh late last night, I left the party behind in full swing - but awoke this morning, at least, to the now-familiar sound that had greeted me when I arrived in Scotland, too, namely driving rain. But the sun is trying to shine intermittently through it, and so am I. They’ve just played Handel’s Water Music on Classic FM as I write, and presenter Simon Bates has declared that some parts of the country have just had more rain in an hour than they usually get in a month.
But life has to go on, despite it - even if I’m now worried about the opening on Thursday of the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park musical Gigi. And though it’s difficult to believe when you’re in the thick of things in Edinburgh, there is an ongoing theatrical life, of course, beyond it, as that planned opening proves. And that’s not the only London opening this week, either: there’s also Piaf at the Donmar Warehouse tomorrow. Even if there has been saturation coverage of all things Edinburgh on the arts pages in the last week, I suspect that these London openings won’t be ignored - far from it, I suspect, since most of my first-string colleagues, it seems, are largely ignoring Edinburgh, so will be looking for something to see here.
As Ian Shuttleworth points out in his Prompt Corner editorial to Theatre Record, “It seems Lyn Gardner of The Guardian and I are now the only national press representatives to remain in Edinburgh for more or less the duration, and even we knock off before the very end of the International Festival”. Otherwise, Kate Bassett was alone amongst the Sundays in providing a fringe round-up last weekend, and Benedict Nightingale of The Times has filed reviews for both the opening round of Traverse shows and the International Festival opening production, which given that there was the RSC Hamlet inbetween has meant he has been to Edinburgh twice.
Strange to say, I ran into none of them in Edinburgh - Kate was actually there on the first weekend, before Stratford - but there are, of course, reviewers everywhere in Edinburgh. As Chris Wilkinson said in a Guardian blog entry last week, “In recent years there has been an astonishing growth in the number of publications and websites keen to give you their opinion on what rocks and what sucks.” Beyond the nationals and of course The Stage, there are the “local” papers The Scotsman, The Herald and the weekly listings magazine title The List, plus the student papers Three Weeks and the Skinny, and various websites like Culture Wars, Broadway Baby, Fringe Report and Chortle.
But as Chris points out, “Your guess is as good as mine as to whether the person writing the review actually has a clue what they are talking about. Ignore the star rating - if the writer can string a good sentence together and makes their case well, they’re probably worth listening to.” He then goes on to make a very interesting point: “Maybe, in fact, Edinburgh is the one place where that much-discussed face-off between bloggers and critics, between professionals and amateurs, really comes into focus. Given the sheer size and variety of the Fringe, it’s clear that one paper or site really doesn’t have a hope of covering the lot - and if you’re searching for the best shows to see, you’re going to need all the help you can get. It’s a strange thought that the oldest festival of its kind might offer a vision of the critical future, one where everyone has something to add to the debate.”
Ultimately, as I pointed out only the other day, it is word-of-mouth that counts; and before I left yesterday I spoke to someone who told me that includes the word-of-mouth of even the leafleteers. Given how much there is to choose from, an interesting pitch from someone handing out leaflets might well persuade this person to see a show. So I take back what I said then about leafleting not working; obviously if accompanied by more than just one being handed over, it can be used to build audiences. And this was born out by a piece in The Scotsman by performer Tania Katan, who explained her pitch for doing so for her show Saving Tania’s Privates, and has come up with a method that actually works. “Seriously, every person I’ve handed a flyer to has come to my show”, she tells us. “True, my method doesn’t allow me to hand out hundreds of flyers in a day, but it’s working!” And those armies of fringe flyers should take heed and follow her tips….
Right now, though, I am mildly relieved that I’m not having to dodge the leafleting armies myself anymore; even if I am still going to have to dodge the rain today!
I know it may feel like there's an over saturation on Edinburgh, and that guess what, life goes on in theatre land in London too. But for the rest of the year, all the focus ever seems to be is on the west end, london, the south, maybe manchester sometimes. And that's what is saturating the papers all the time. The London perspective as seen as the central, principle perspective kind of dominates everything else.
So if the plays in Edinburgh are all over the press, I'm mightily glad. For once, all the talent is focused elsewhere. How rare a thing.
Glad to know the only rain doesn't fall up north though. Who would have thought.