by Barry » Sun Aug 09, 2009 6:17 pm
August 10th 2009
Murder mystery musical – Edinburgh fringe
Well in spite of various bumps along the way, this two month period has been an exhilarating and wonderfully eccentric and sort of creative journey, and a journey that has taken in a Buddhist centre in Bethnal Green, a beach hut in Lincoln, an amatuear theatre in Altrincham, a piazza in Turin, and finally Edinburgh. I’ve certainly not been involved with the Edinburgh fringe before, and getting a show on there has been full of problem solving and such. It all began with sitting in Ben’s wonderful garden surrounded by his colourful family. We sat there and at his beach house discussing how to visualise the musical with the enormous restrictions necessarily imposed; a miniscule budget, and a set and costumes that not only had to fit in a nine foot long van but that havd to be set up in under 15 minutes by the cast, as we would be sharing the venue with six other shows; these ranged from a children’s musical, to Gingers – the musical, a very erotic Wolfboy, Porn; the musical, an improvised musical – all fighting for attention and space, both of which were limited. As it turns out we were both a little ambitious with the set and most productions in the fringe made do with furniture or a token image. But our show had a full set and transformations and the whole shebang – this was happily justified as it got applause and laughs during the performances I saw, and has been commended in the reviews. It was more than was necessary but served the show very well and looked great in the space. It was a long way from my original idea of a dolls house tumbling out of a huge Pelican book but gave a good professional look to the piece.
Along the audition and rehearsal way we lost some actors, a song, a few jokes, our sense of humour, our patience, our morale, and after a truly awful tech dress run we nearly lost the show, but it all came together wonderfully for the first performance, with a packed house loving the show and cheering loudly. It seems Edinburgh audiences are out to have a good time, and are very volatile in their support. The numbers of audience were good as some shows seem happy that they have twenty in, and certainly the shows I saw were very thin. Pythonesque, not being able to use a word of the scripts, neatly transposed iconic images onto scenes showing the forming of the Pythons and their history. A great cast almost made me want to revisit the Pythons – almost as I was never a huge fan. Wolfboy had some spectacular flesh on display and a creepy intense atmosphere, but music that suggested it would be stronger as a play. Showstoppers, inspite of a title almost as inadequate as ours, was actually packed for the two shows I saw. A show of some genius where the audience suggest key elements for a musical being written on the spot. The first night it ended up being called Rum bar in Barbados, or something, and the second, thanks to my suggestion of the story of gladiators in love, and the flavour of Elton John music, became Sandals in the wind, though Gladiator School Musical would have done just as well. Sheer joy watching the performers rise with the material thrown instantly at them. A beautifully designed show as well, with a strong black and red themeing to all the props and costumes.
I didn’t get to see much of Edinburgh, but certainly enjoyed all the parks and glimpses of the views. There’s such a buzz on the streets, with everyone selling their shows, and a constant race from one production to another – every company clearly believing their show is bigger and better than the others. It's great bumping into some truly world renowned performers or directors casually having a crepe or downing the delicious cider.
It’s hard to know the true value of a show in these circumstances, especially with them all having to come in under seventy five minutes in length, and other such restrictions. Some shows are clearly fast food fodder, taking random ideas and throwing them together, which can work – amid such bizarre ideas there are serious profound works, but generally it seems to be about comedy and satire, but especially on the Fringe everything seems to be a condensed version or try out of what the show could be.
I’m sad not to be with the cast for the whole run, but they have all pulled together and got through any concerns and worries, and are now so strong – a truly lovely balanced group full of laughter. They’ll have great fun for this month. As always, being either the director or designer, it’s odd to walk away from the show and not to be part of it any more. It’s been a long two months, an expensive one with so much fraught travelling and lugging of cases. It will have cost me more than my fee, and I won’t miss trawling round charity shops trying to dress the cast or searching for props, all for as little as possible. But we’ve done well, and it is a big big show crammed into a smaller one. It’s probably evolved into something much more different to what Ben and I intended – we had imagined something dark and creepy and inventive, but we have a very spirited, funny, musical musical with some macabre moments. I’m pleased to have done this for so many reasons. There are no real photos to show as there simply was not the time to take them. Any work I wanted to do on the set was consumed by the sheer necessity to put it up and open the house. But we’ve done well and I would like to hope it has earnt me some sort of brownie points towards the next job whatever that may be, though for now .If not brownie points I have made some good friends.