Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Is This the Edinburgh Fringe, or a Wellness Convention?
The New York Times: As I made my way to Scotland for this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the three-week arts showcase that finished on Monday, I felt a little apprehensive. A conspicuous number of shows were themed around psychological maladies. These included plays about grief, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and gambling addiction. I had thought I was going to a festival, but this sounded more like a wellness convention.
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2 comments:
I had a performance studies professor tell me once that we could put whatever we wanted on stage as long as we took care of the audience while we did it. Now he meant this within reason, of course you can write something that makes an audience uncomfortable but allow them some window into the story, the performance isn't all about you. This point makes me have to disagree with the author who says "theater geared toward raising awareness can often be underwhelming, because the message gets in the way of a good time." It's not that the theater and it's purpose it bad, theater should be able to raise awareness for something, it's that there isn't a clear window for the audience in the story. That being said all theater doesn't have to be about having a good time, another thing the professor told us was that what made a good performance was that it made you think and remember it. The author's call-out of a performance about a manic bipolar disorder streak had the help of the slide-show, the vehicle for the audience. Sure they could just listen to the words but the pictures all them to see what the feelings meant they can actually interpret those things, and they will remember that in the future.
I think festival work reflects the state of mind people are in and if that’s mental disorders and bouts of internal struggle then I wouldn’t be that surprised. Still in the years following Covid 19 I imagine there’s an increase in people recovering from mental illnesses that manifested during the pandemic and its effects of social, familial, and personal losses. I think the increase of shows surrounding mental health issues also stems from the pandemic in that it is more socially accepted and de-stigmatized to discuss these issues in public and in art. I don’t think I’d like a festival like this because I personally use theater to escape the real world and I feel like some of the descriptions of these shows would not be my cup of entertainment tea. I also wonder if the festival had this heavy theme of mental problems being displayed to audiences if there were ever resources in place for audience members attending the festival.
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