The New York Times: “Fringe” implies decoration happening out on a margin, threads on the hem of a larger garment. But if you have ever elbowed your way down a crammed Edinburgh sidewalk in August, past hundreds of posters for stand-up shows and circus spectaculars, accepting promotional fliers from, say, a woman wearing a disco ball on her head — you might wonder what garment could possibly be larger than this.
4 comments:
There's a quote from the film "Asteroid City" that's stuck with me ever since I first saw it in a comically long movie theatre in suburban Kansas City. It's an obscure (as in a smidge incomprehensible) film with several layers of plot, but all you need to know is that an actor is playing a character in a theatrical production of real life events (the events that the rest of the movie is about) and asks his director
“I still don’t understand the play.”
To which the director replied
“Doesn't matter. Just keep telling the story.”
And that’s the whole point of Edinburgh Fringe, isn’t it? To be taken on a wild ride, experience everything good and bad about art and try to make something of it – but to keep living in the moment. This doesn’t mean that you should just let everything wash over you – and this writer certainly doesn’t, in a way I might appreciate as someone who enjoys reading about plays as much as I like watching them myself – but you should live in the moment as much as possible. Thinking about which shows will make it out of Fringe, while fun in the same way betting on horse races is, is equally hollow (in my opinion). Just keep watching the story.
I like the intro about accepting the chaos in order to get the most out of your experience at the Fringe Festival. I think that the point of attending a big theatre festival is to see as many unique shows as possible and some of that is to just see whatever is playing without trying to find an overall link between every performance. With Playground coming up we keep getting told that “Playground is where you will see the best and worst theatre of your life.” I think this is because the entire week is about experimenting and making something new. Similarly the Fringe can be very experimentational and there is a wide selection of different shows that fit the variety of performers and audience members that attend. I also find the point about time interesting, shows at a giant festival typically are shorter in length so that more performances can be seen during the festival, however this can be limiting to the storytelling because there is not much time for detailed character development. I think that this just provides an extra interesting challenge for the artists to figure out how to convey their message effectively and efficiently without sacrificing their artistic vision.
Having been to the Fringe this summer, I also thought a lot about what the author wrote about in terms of thinking about what shows might “escape” the Fringe. There was one show “Hole!” that I went to and was brilliantly done as a show with a lot of foley and only two artists that never leave the stage. It was a show that did incredibly well at the Fringe, but I unfortunately do not see it going farther because a two person musical about a cult that wears butt plugs at all times has a very specific audience that in my mind does not really exist outside the Fringe. “Penelope” on the other hand was a beautiful show that I can see going farther because the content is not as “silly” or “childish”. I think that the author did not fully capture the overwhelmingness of the amount of pieces at this festival. They mention the number once, but there really is no way to describe the overwhelming feeling you get when you walk around and are just bombarded by poster after poster after poster after poster. You could walk around for 30 min and still not see a poster for a quarter of the amount of shows there are.
I feel like this article does a really good job expressing what being at the Fringe, or any large theatre festival for that matter, can be like. When there are just truly a gargantuan number of shows you could see, how do you decide? You could go to the shows that are the most highly rated and have the best reviews; you could go to a show from a flyer you got handed on the street, or you could just walk into a random venue and try your luck. Any of these methods could turn into the best theatre of your life (or the worst), which is a really magical thing. I was lucky enough to attend the Fringe in 2025, and my experience was very much like this article described. I especially resonated with the part about how the true power of the Fringe comes from artists watching and supporting other artists. I think that’s very much the point of the whole festival. There was so much camaraderie from other people who would come see our show, tell us about theirs, and then we would see their show in return. It’s a really special environment.
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