News
Information on the 2012 Festival at Universal Arts will be coming soon, the programme is in production and will be released.
Watch this space!
The five-star hit show The Billie Holiday Story, which finished its Fringe run last weekend is to transfer to the award-winning New Town Theatre on George Street for four nights of the Fringe – from Wednesday 24 to Sunday 28 August (at 11.30pm).
Tomek Borkowy – artistic director of Universal Arts the venue producers is delighted to add the hit show to a programme already brimming with hits including DUST, SILENCE IN COURT and TURANDOT.
“It’s a brilliant show. The musical director Warren Wills is already appearing in New Town with theSneasons of Liz cabaret, we’ve got the piano and our oak-lined Mysterious venue is the perfect setting for Nina’s beautiful, expressive voice – as the critics have said, if you like jazz and the blues you must see this show!
Nina Kristofferson said, "I am absolutely ecstatic, delighted, tickled pink and extremely grateful to Tomek Borkowy and his team for allowing me to transfer to the beautiful and amazing Mysterious Rooms at The New Town Theatre. It is a superb venue and the perfect setting for my show! How exciting and I can't wait to see you all there!"
THE SHOW
The Billie Holiday Story is a brilliant cocktail of songs and stories from Billie Holiday’s life woven through the haunting memories that plagued her. Nina Kristofferson is a brilliant, emotional performer with a voice that is magnificently chilling and beautiful.
‘Hypnotizing, captivating, electrifying’ The Times
"more palpable emotion in this production than in half the Fringe guide" FIVE STARS for Vagabond in THREE WEEKS – read the full review here
"it truly is a unique piece of work" FOUR STARS from ThreeWeeks for Becc ... read the full review here
TURANDOT
is awarded a prestigious HERALD ANGEL
''a response to Puccini's opera that shows, in lurid style with a punk aesthetic, how the composer used the work to expurgate the guilt he felt over developments in his private life ... also features excellent and inventive live music'
Lucinda Curtis is nominated in the BEST ACTRESS catagory in The Stage 2011 Awards
FOUR STAR review in today's ThreeWeeks daily ...
Breaking News ... Three shows at New Town Theatre have made the shortlist for the TOTAL THEATRE AWARDS 2011
TURANDOT and SNAILS and KETCHUP are shortlisted in the Physical / Visual Devised performance catagory while SAILING ON is shortlisted in the Work by Emerging Artists catagory
read more
THE STAGE
Adelmo Guidarelli’s comic revue could easily be subtitled “An Idiot’s Guide to Opera”. Guidarelli is an American classically trained baritone and his mission is to make people who don’t know they like opera, like opera.
TOTAL THEATRE REVIEW
Pleasure Island: ‘It’s right there in the name’. Venetian masks, raunchy dancers in basques (the boys too!), a boisterous MC in a leather biker jacket, gas masks and feathers, and a blue fairy caught by her wings… Sweet dreams, you bad, bad boys! Company XIV take Pinocchio’s trip to the debauched fantasyland where boys grow donkey ears as their starting point and central motif. Life’s a carousel, my friend, so come to the carousel. And this is some carousel – a merry-go-round of decadent delights.
THE STAGE
The court usher instructs the audience to stand up as the judge enters the room. It is clear that this is going to be more of an interactive experience than a straightforward courtroom drama.
FringeGuru
DUST * * * * *
This is theatre as a well-researched, genuinely political, investigation. Set in the near future, on the day Margaret Thatcher dies, the play follows Arthur Scargill and his publisher as they meet an ex-miner to hear his story. But we soon shift to see another real-life Arthur – A J Cook, the 1920's trade union leader – delivering extracts from his own speeches to the miners, and to a modern-day family in Newcastle bearing the brunt of the latest cuts. Their stories converge, and while the wheels of coincidence and plot are occasionally too apparent, the pace never falters.
informededinburgh.co.uk
The Kist * * * *
The Kist is a story of the Scots travelling across the world, packing up their songs and taking them to new places, meeting new people and spreading their traditions around the globe.
informededinburgh.co.uk
Pinocchio: A Fantasy of Pleasures * * * *
A complete feast for the senses, Pinocchio takes us through his own fantasy of pleasures in a tale of desperation and love lost in the search to become a real boy.
The Edinburgh Reporter
The Kist * * * *
The Kist is a wonderful educational musical journey of Scottish music from its basic rhythms and Gaelic roots to the contemporary music from all over the world today.
Broadway Baby Review
I Nose This Is Good
This is what performance is all about. Take one fairytale, add a dollop of decadence, a splash of debauchery and the entirety of Company XIV. Twist until dark. Serve. Now enjoy the sumptuous feast that is Pinocchio: A Fantasy of Pleasures.
Broadway Baby Review
Dust Buster
Dust is a show with a message. I think it would have been impossible to notice that fact given the heavy hand with which it is executed. Underneath this, however, is a well put-together show with strong performances, great blocking and an excellently executed script.
The Scotsman
Theatre review: Turandot ****
|
the Scotsman's HOT SHOW award for Pinocchio, by Claire Smith: "A MAN injects a lettuce with fake blood, he cuts it and it oozes red. Two women in the audience walk out. If you want to know how intense avant-garde Polish theatre can be, imagine being able to offend audience members merely by assaulting vegetables. This production bursts with overpowering imagery. Strings of Barbie dolls, a table, a life-sized mannequin and an old-fashioned television all become symbolic of powerful emotional and political truths." |
Comedian and political activist Mark Thomas has tweeted that DUST is the 'best show I have seen this year – brilliant!' – thanks Mark, we think you're not too bad yourself ...
THE STAGE
Operation Adelmo
Adelmo Guidarelli’s comic revue could easily be subtitled “An Idiot’s Guide to Opera”. Guidarelli is an American classically trained baritone and his mission is to make people who don’t know they like opera, like opera.
THE LIST on Pinocchio
Adults-only retelling is decidedly not Disney
Sometimes the spectacle is enough. The experience of watching Company XIV’s radical reinterpretation of Pinocchio is a little like gorging on gourmet food: something sensual and rich that might not offer you too much nourishment in the long run, but feels worth it in the moment.
read more: click here
SGfringe
Sneasons of Liz ****New Town Theatre
Liz Merendino stars in this fantastically innovative, impassioned glimpse into the formative years of a young woman blighted with allergies ‘so rich and so many that’ she made a show out of them. Merendino plays the part of Liz, who travels the world to escape the crush she’s developed on her step-father. She finds herself in oft comedic situations, with sexual liaisons which break her heart and force her farther round the globe. From the Venezualan cheat, to the London transvestite, and then the Tokyo deserter they all serve to distract Liz from her allergies – before breaking her heart and bringing them back with a vengeance. ‘Pollen comes from male trees – males are the problem!’ states Liz.
SGfringe
****Dust
New Town Theatre
The radio crackles into life it’s the morning news, Margaret Thatcher is dead and so begins the play called dust.
Dust is a political drama that takes us into the life of Arthur Scargill the firebrand leaders of the NUM who took the miners out on strike in 1974 and again in 1984 and the one man Maggie openly hated. It also takes a look at Arthur James Cook another mine union leader whose general strike in 1927 brought about his premature death at the age of 47 just a few short years later. The play has been commissioned to mark the 30th Anniversary of Scargill’s election to the post of president of the union. It is a fictional play using real life characters with the intention of showing what the average miner went through at the face of the strike along side Scargill’s fight against Thatcher that ultimately didn’t succeed.
The British Theatre Guide
Pip Utton Is the Hunchback of Notre Dame
Pip Utton
New Town Theatre
*****
Bells toll and the lights come up on Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, bending over the body of Esmeralda. He talks to her, expressing his love and gratitude and, over the next 70 minutes, reveals his story.
Utton condenses the 450+ pages of Hugo's novel into those 70 minutes, capturing the essence of both the character and the story without any gaps which impede the flow of the story and without wasted words. The story of Quasimodo is there in its entirety.
That in itself is a remarkable achievement but even more remarkable is Utton's performance. He is one of the most chameleon-like actors working today. He doesn't just don a hump and a bit of facial make-up but becomes Quasimodo, giving him a body language, even down to twitching fingers, which is sustained throughout, and a voice which is totally appropriate.
The packed audience was gripped for the full 70 minutes, understandably for he really is the master of the one-man show and this is one of his best.
Peter Lathan
THE HERALD
Turandot ****
MARY BRENNAN
12 Aug 2011
It’s Turandot – but not as we know it.
There’s no opulent chorus of soaring voices, no colourful pomp or elaborate scenery. Instead, a darkened stage houses fragments of grotesque puppet-play, bizarre moments of performance, bursts of film footage and a chorus of three dark-clad men who use sign language instead of voices.
There is music, but snatches of opera are doctored into a DJ mix while the rendering of Nessun Dorma chugs out, like an upbeat karaoke number with a cheesy, tinny backing. It’s deconstruction, potent, radical and memorable, but as we know it all too rarely on the Fringe. In some eyes, and ears, all this will be vandalism and sacrilege. This broodingly visceral mixed-media collage by Poland’s neTTheatre company might be unnervingly close to what was in Puccini’s mind when he started work on his last, unfinished opera.
We are sorry to announce that Rooftop Promotions will not be appearing as part of our Fringe 11 programme. The Company have been refused visas by British Immigration Authorities.
Thank you to the British Zimbabwean Society and to everyone who has helped or offered to help bring the Company to the Fringe, where they have appeared with success before. Thank you too to everyone who has shown interest in Rituals and tried to book tickets – we share your frustration, as Rituals contains stories that the world needs to hear.
FEST
Sneasons of Liz ****
BY CATHERINE SYLVAIN | PUBLISHED 11 AUGUST 2011
Once you get past the bizarre premise of Sneasons of Liz... well, actually you can’t really get past it, it’s so insane. A cabaret Bildungsroman told by a tragically allergy-ridden Brooklyn broad, complete with a hand sanitizer dispenser perched on the piano and a sizable box of Kleenex? Is this some sort of symbol of life’s prosaic realities or a broader metaphor for mainstream oppression?
FEST
DUST ****
BY BEN JUDGE | PUBLISHED 11 AUGUST 2011
A retired, elderly Arthur Scargill is pottering around his flat. He sits down at his computer, clicks onto the BBC News website, turns to his publisher and asks: "Have you seen the news? Thatcher's dead!"
Set in the not too distant future, Dust is an insight into the lives of some of the key protagonists (or, indeed, antagonists) of the great miners strike of the 1980s. It's a story of the defeated remnants of the old trade-union movement and their struggles not only for relevancy but for a mere place in the world.
remotegoat.co.uk
Review of Macbeth *****
A remarkably high-octane Macbeth graces the new town theatre in Edinburgh this month. Icarus Theatre Collective ensures that their shortened version of Macbeth is as action packed as it is exhilarating to watch. With sword, axe, spear and bare fist fighting it is an impressively energetic and dynamic production condensed into eighty minutes.
THE SKINNY
Pinocchio: A Fantasy of Pleasures @ New Town Theatre
****
Posted by Clare Sinclair, Mon 08 Aug 2011
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Decadent and debauched fairytales
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In recent years, as stand-up and sketch comedy have dominated the Fringe, it has become easy to forget that the festival is also a place to celebrate the more experimental side of performance - a place where artists can be free to merge a multitude of expressive arts into one big melting pot.
Thank the fringe Gods for Company XIV then whosePinocchio - A Fantasy of Pleasures is no ordinary children's fairy tale. In fact it is quite the opposite. Jay Donn, Laura Careless and company lead us through a spectacularly sumptious tale of love, lust and longing with beautifully Baroque stylings. The result is a wonderfully guilty pleasure.
WhatsOnStage.com
Rating: ****
You often hear of people who went to Edinburgh for years and years and then suddenly broke through. Michael McIntyre, for instance. Him, I was happy to wait for.
WhatsOnStage.com
Five Reasons to See ... The Kist
Date: 10 August 2011
The Kist chronicles the best of Scots music, from Gaelic rhythms to modern pop. With influences from around the world, wherever Scots have roamed, the show features young, new talent alongside Grammy Award winner Marcus Hummon. Here's why creator Fiona Kennedy thinks you should see the show.
Aside from going to see The Kist to find shelter from Edinburgh’s inevitable rain, here are five reasons to see this outstanding act.
FIVE STARS and PICK of the DAY in METRO
Italo Calvino's Baron In The Trees provides the inspiration for this darkly comic tale of familial dysfunction, brought vividly and breathtakingly to life by aerial artist Ramesh Meyyappan in association with Iron-Oxide.
Scotsman HOT SHOW
Pinocchio awarded FOUR STARS in this morning's Scotsman with a HOT SHOW tag ... read the full review here
"captures all the violence and sensuality of Turandot ... theatre of the edge" The Stage on Turandot
for the full review click here
"a compelling if gritty piece of drama" – The Times on DUST:
"One of the virtues of Dust, Ade Morris’s serious, wordy but ultimately rewarding play, based on research by Ralph Bernard and set on the imagined day of the death of Lady Thatcher, is that it manages neither to demonise him nor exculpate him.
In fact, if anything, the key characters are A. J. Cook, Scargill’s great hero, the leader of the Miners’ Federation, as it then was, in the General Strike of 1926, about whom this Scargill is writing a biography, and Lawrence, a once loyal lieutenant from the 1980s who arrives at the grace and favour flat that Scargill still controversially occupies in London to deliver a few home truths.
Ultimately, it is Stewart Howson’s blistering performance as Lawrence, broken, disillusioned and increasingly drunk, that turns what could be a history lesson into a compelling if gritty piece of drama, and he who delivers the key line about capitalism being a cancer that keeps returning unless you cut it out."
Review: Cock And Bull Story, New Town Theatre, George Street
Published Date: 09 August 2011
By Ray Philp
Cock And Bull Story, ****
New Town Theatre, George Street
COCK and Bull Story's freewheeling nature - it evolved from a series of improvisations - means it does ramble a bit, but there's little else to fault in the story of two friends whose close yet combustible relationship threatens to splinter in the hyper-macho culture of boxing.
Review: Kist, New Town Theatre, George Street
Published Date: 08 August 2011
By Josie Balfour
Kist, ****
New Town Theatre, George Street
Homesick Highlanders and North American visitors keen to get back to their roots are going to adore The Kist.
A live celebration of Scottish music and culture, this is the show every concierge in town worth their salt will be recommending.
The Kist is almost akin to the BBC's cult Transatlantic Sessions, but with the stunning addition of a shed-load of wooden boxes and some hardcore belt buckle action.
Evening News
Silence In Court *****
Published Date: 08 August 2011
By Drew McAdam
AS drama goes, this is a unique concept. An interactive legal case in which the audience find themselves in what looks and feels exactly like the austere halls of a courtroom.
From the moment the Court Usher directs the room to "All stand", any preconceptions of light entertainment are gone. This feels real. And for those audience members selected to sit in the jury box, this is as authentic as it gets.
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"Full of political passion and astonishingly relevant" – Broadwayworld.com on DUST – read the full review here |
"The personal politics and psychological make-up of Charlie Chaplin provide the basis for a fascinating play" – read the Scotsman / Edinburgh-Festivals.com preview – click here
"A poignant and well-acted study of one woman reaching for the stars, The Last Days of Gilda is a bittersweet and tender piece" – read the edinburghspotlight.com review here
VOICES awarded four-star review on WhatsOnStage.com – "we hear mash-ups of everything from African gospel to Balinese monkey-chant, as well as virtuoso turns from a superb beatboxer and a giant, booming bassist" – read the full review here
"Baroque choreography, eclectic music, Pop Culture, Opera, burlesque, ballet, gender-bending, high fashion, and sumptuous design ensure that this feast for the eyes succeeds in entertainment that’s both highbrow and accessible." – ScotsGay gets all hot and bothered at Pinocchio – FOUR STARS for its preview and, once it's run-in, "doubtless a five star show" – read the full review here
Rooftop Promotions are now due in Edinburgh on Wednesday 10th August ... the company have struggled to get Visas issued in time, which prevented their travel to open Rituals on 4th August as advertised. We apologise to all those people who have been so keen to come and support the company, whose stories of suffering and solidarity have resulted in cast member arrests in Zimbabwe but also great success with audiences there and in neighbouring countries.
Edinburgh Spotlight
FRINGE REVIEW: Turandot
"With its innovative multimedia direction and a theme inspired by the last days of Puccini, anyone coming to Turandotexpecting a traditional rendition of the opera will be disappointed. For anyone wishing to experience something a little more experimental however, neTTheatre’s production orchestrates a mix of physical theatre, live mixed audio & video and puppetry into a provocative, surreal and memorable whole."
Read the full review: click here
SGfringe.com
Austin McCormick’s bilingual operatic dance remix of Carlo Collodi’s classic delivers a mash-up of genres frequently seen fused on the Fringe stage, but rarely this well.
Ramesh Meyyappen has been awarded a £50,000 commission for the Cultural Olympiad, part of the London Olympics 2012. "This will provide me with a great opportunity" Ramesh told The Herald newspaper (05.08.2011)
Voices is one of Scotland's Culture Minister's top choices from all the Edinburgh Festivals. The Minister spent all the first evening of the Fringe at the New Town Theatre, seeing The Kist and Voices and meeting members of the Universal Arts team and many of the artists appearing here as part of our international programme.
Polish Cultural Institute preview Wiczy's exploration of fame, power, the artist and the state – read more
The Zimbabwean keeps up the pressure on the Mugabe regime's crack-down on cultural expression – read more
CO XIV gives you wings ... Red Bull (yes the drink) says Pinocchio is set to be one of the biggest spectacles of the Edinburgh Fringe – read more
Scotsman - Edinburgh Festivals
‘Quality’ New Town venues unite in a tale of two Fringes
By Tim Cornwell
Published: 2/8/2011
It’s the old Edinburgh story – faced with an unruly mob in the Old Town, Fringe venues in the New Town have banded together to keep their southern festival rivals from swamping them. Key Fringe venues in the New Town and West End are to sell each other’s tickets and market themselves as the quality festival experience in a year when the Fringe’s biggest fish have gathered on the other side of the city.
“As distinctions grow, so do opportunities,” said Laura Mackenzie Stewart, managing director of Universal Arts in George Street.
“What we are able to offer on this side is higher quality of service – certainly to the companies that perform here because it’s less of a complete theatre jam – but also to the audience.”
The closure of the Assembly Rooms for a renovation overhaul has seen the giant Assembly venue operation move south, joining the Underbelly, Pleasance, and Gilded Balloon venues in the Fringe’s “big four”.
It will turn the Bristo and George Square area, across the other side of the Royal Mile, into an even bigger Fringe hub, with thousands of people filling scores of theatre spaces and a growing number of bars.
But Universal Arts is carrying programmes and selling tickets in a joint deal with nearby ReMarkable Arts, which operates the Hill Street Theatre and, this year, a second, larger venue in St George’s West Church at the West End.
It has launched ticket-selling arrangements with two other venues so customers don’t have to “schlep around”, said Ms Mackenzie Stewart.
The Edinburgh International Conference Centre, which is operating major comedy, dance and other shows on the west side of the city as Venue 150 in the Fringe, is working with them informally.
Conference visitors in August will be offered concession rate tickets, while Universal Arts is overseeing marketing for one EICC performance – the Korean drum show Jasmin Gwangju.
A spokesman for Venue 150 said: “We are generally trying to be supportive to each other.
“We want to make sure audiences understand that there are lots of great things going on all over the city.
“It’s not a West End v Southside thing, but it’s nice to point people to local things as well as, say, Bristo Square.”
Cross-ticketing is partly a matter of convenience, said Mr Mackenzie Stewart, so customers can pick up all their tickets in one place.
But she added: “In the past none of us would have carried programmes for each other.”
The New Town venue operators say the quality of their festival offerings – from showcase Scottish shows, to gravity-defying physical theatre, to a burlesque Pinocchio and a performance for an audience of ten in a ladies loo – will speak for themselves.
The ReMarkable Arts director, Tim Hawkins, played down any rivalry. “I don’t think there is a threat from the South Side,” he said. “I just don’t see it. I have more respect for the audience of the Fringe. They come to Edinburgh, they don’t come to a bit of Edinburgh.”
But while they downplay the idea that the Fringe is splitting into rival camps, the venues are also keenly aware of competition.
Universal, just along the street from the Assembly Rooms, which used to throng with festival crowds, has boosted door-to-door and targeted marketing this year, and put its street canopy out earlier to draw attention.
“We also have got our marketing out earlier, to give local people more of a sense of awareness,” said Ms Mackenzie Stewart. “We are able to provide buildings that are less crushed and cramped.”
Evening News - Edinburgh
Venues join to sell tickets
Published Date: 02 August 2011
KEY VENUES in the New Town and West End are to sell each other's tickets and market themselves as the quality festival experience following the move of the biggest venues to the opposite side of the city.
The closure of the Assembly Rooms for renovation has seen the giant Assembly venue operation move south, joining the Underbelly, Pleasance and Gilded Balloon venues in the Fringe's "big four".
It will turn the Bristo and George Square area into an even bigger Fringe hub.
But University Arts is carrying programmes and selling tickets in a joint deal with ReMarkable Arts, which operates the Hill Street Theatre and St George's West Church.
Informed Edinburgh
Dance Highlights: Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011
A sneak peak of the highlights and hidden gems that will be dancing their way through town during this year’s festival.
This year nearly one hundred dance and physical theatre performances will grace the stages of Edinburgh from headliners to undiscovered gems. If it’s ballet and folk you’re after, or if break-dance and contemporary are more your thing, this year promises to find something for everyone. Alice Welby has thrown together a short list of this year’s must sees….
Pinocchio: A Fantasy of Pleasures
Coming to the Fringe all the way from New York, the Company XIV presents its Edinburgh stage with a reincarnation of the well-loved story of Pinocchio. This physical theatre company has brought the old classic into the 21st using a fusion of ballet, street dance and commedia dell’ arte. Inspired by the works of Italian film director Federico Fellini, the dancers have been decked out in elaborate carnival costumes in true neo-baroque style. This performance is a bold testament to the talent of this group and really keeps our old favourite alive and kicking.
Thursday 4th- Sunday 28th August, 7:00pm, £12- £14
New Town Theatre, Freemasons’ Hall, 96 George Street, EH2 3DH
FringeReview
Recommended Shows by Venue (10)
1. The Last Days of Gilda
2. I, The Dictator
3. Dust
4. Silence in Court
5. Pip Utton is the Hunchback of Notre Dame
6. .Cock and Bull Story
7. Sailing On
8. Waterloo
9. Pinocchio: A Fantasy of Pleasures
10. PassionFlower
Morning Star - Friday 29 July 2011
Star critics cherry-pick some of the best on offer in the weeks to come.
Judith Mackrell picks Pinocchio as one of two major dance highlights of the Fringe
(Saturday 30 July 2011)
"It will be hard to resist Company XIV Pinocchio: A Fantasy Of Pleasures, a wildly improbable mix of baroque ballet, commedia dell'arte, street dance and Fellini-esque surrealism that re-invents the familiar fairytale. Extravagant carnival costumes and hi-tech projection promise to deliver a 21st century fantasy of lies, mischief and redemption."
"a Chaplin who is about as far from Robert Downey Jr’s interpretation as one could imagine."
Mark Brown catches up with Wiczy in Madrid before the company heads to us for the Fringe – click here
"A surreal and dreamlike multimedia piece"
edinburgh spotlight talks to neTTheatre director Pawel Passini who adds his own singular vision and advances of technology to the staging of Turandot. click here
Fest Magazine picks Dust as a highlight of Fringe 11:
Perhaps the only show at the Fringe with a CBE-toting producer, the famous programme-maker and Classic FM founder Ralph Bernard launches his new theatre company with the premiere of DUST. It's a project which began in the '80s with Bernard's documentary series on mining communities, Down to Earth. 30 years on, DUST imagines Arthur Scargill on the morning of Margaret Thatcher's death. [Evan Beswick]
NEW TOWN THEATRE, 4-28 AUG (NOT 16), 3.30PM, £5-£13
The brilliant Adelmo Guidarelli and his show Operation Adelmo are featured in the article below:
Company XIV – Pinocchio: A Fantasy of Pleasures is a Guardian Pick of the Fringe 2011 click here
And Icarus Theatre Collective – Macbeth is in the Top 10 Fringe shows 2011 (Evening News) click here
And finally tNew Town Theatre's programme is highlighted in the The Stage click here
Date for your Diary….
Wednesday 13th July 2011 at 12pm
Roxburghe Hotel
Edinburgh
Tartan Silk Showcase’s Edinburgh Festival Acts The KIST and VOICES
The Kist is a vibrant, international entertainment brand, giving a platform to new and outstanding talent through live
stage concerts, television, the Internet, CDs and DVDs. The production is a musical celebration of our heritage through
song and story and embraces all genres, from traditional folk, bluegrass, gospel, rock to American country.
VOICES is the unique acapella theatre experience that thrusts you into a non-stop energetic vocal journey with international
tones to capture your imagination. Techniques include Indian, European, African, gospel and hip-hop’s beat-boxing sounds.
The result is non-traditional, intimate and explosive.
All press welcome for interviews and pictures - we look forward to seeing you there.
Our 2011 Programme is now available to view online!
Have a browse through the wonderful shows coming for the 2011 Festival Fringe and start planning your trip to the New Town Theatre.
Tickets will be available online and on the Fringe booking line from 10th June 2011.
Rainer performs an extract from the show and talks to Mark Lawson on Radio 4's Front Row – listen on the BBC I-player – click here
“it felt the caged bird of my heart would break through my chest and soar away from my body when Miguel Vargas began dancing …he took my breath away… this is flamenco to get your teeth into: go discover your soul this Fringe” – read the FOUR STAR Fringe Review here
"And the winner is…
Universal Arts’ New Town Theatre
With two stunning performance spaces, pop-up bars, friendly staff ... New Town Theatre featured a varied and exciting programme curated by Edinburgh-based arts patron Tomek Borkowy. Polish drama, Indian pop music and Spanish flamenco shared the space with one-man theatre shows from Pip Utton and Rodney Bewes, and the classical rock theatrics of Barockestra.
True to the original spirit of the Fringe and with an interior that is almost as fascinating as some of the shows playing within, Universal Arts’ New Town Theatre is therefore awarded our BEST VENUE AWARD
Read all the reasons why Edinburgh Spotlight decided New Town Theatre was best, click here
“pure, unadulterated, adrenalin-fuelled flamenco”
The Scotsman HOT SHOW Pick for Miguel Vargas Flamenco – read the FOUR STAR review:
click here
Fringe venue Universal Arts makes a Big Issue of its promotion tactics
reports The Scotsman ...
click here
And this news story has been picked up by numerous news agencies and marketing websites!
Fringe Guru awards Barockestra FOUR STARS: “brilliantly crafted … uniquely cool” – read the full review here
"Gleeful young rock kids break out of Mumbai" – The List on STR's Feels Good to be Live
The series of virtuoso displays, from the furious Wood Drum Dance to love songs accompanied by guitars, violins or unusual woodwind instruments made out of bamboo, are infectiously enjoyable ... The List reviews Guizhou – click here
Deena Payne and Lorraine Chase talk to Edinburgh's Evening News about Emmerdale and Luton Airport ...
click here
Read an interview with Boguslaw Schaeffer and his collaborators in the Era Schaeffera event at the EICC starting on 20 August:
click here
four star review for Miguel Vargas Flamenco in The List today 10th August – click here
Shoe Shop to Stage – Polish Actress Natalia Kostrzewa's play was inspired by her own experiences – read the full article from The Herald here
"... moments of raw emotion and heartfelt pain ..." read the Edinburgh Spotlight here
A great turn out of photographers arrived in the venue yesterday morning (tuesday) for a photocall with Miguel Vargas Flamenco Dance Theatre .... forty minutes later, one happy snapper has gone through two memory cards and Trish McGuinness, our press manager and Queen of the Photocall is purring with delight at the sound of clicking cameras.
We've already received some fantastic images from the shoot and both The Scotsman and the Herald feature big photos in their news pages.
Miguel and his company have settled into Edinburgh completely and, despite the frequent rain showers, they're performing intricate percussion around the New Town streets and playing to standing ovations each afternoon.
Rainer would probably win the prize for best dressed comedian ... he should also win the prize for the joke that stopped the show ..." Read the review in Australian Comedy Review – click here
"impeccable comic timing ..." Edinburgh Spotlight on legend Rodney Bewes – click here
FRINGE IS UNIVERSAL – The Big Issue in collaboration with Universal Arts gives free tickets to Big Issue vendors – click here for story
The first week of the Fringe saw several companies receive Herald Angel awards while the first Archangel of 2009 was awarded to UNIVERSAL ARTS:
"This week's Archangel winner is an organisation with a Fringe history that now stretches back over 20 years. Universal Arts is directed by Tomek Borkowy and managed by Laura Mackenzie Stuart, and has been a crucial part of the fabric of the Fringe, bringing performances of music and theatre, dance and work for children from all over the world to a succession of venues. They have included St Brides in Gorgie, the Gateway Theatre on Leith Walk and the tiny Hill Street Theatre, which was once run by Judith Docherty, founder and producer of Grid Iron. This year, as last, Universal Arts is operating from the Freemason's Hall in George Street (styled the New Town Theatre), St George's West and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre with another vibrant and colourful programme." (The Herald, Sat 15 August)
Daniella Tugues, principal dancer, co-choreographer and dance manager with Las Lizarraga who's Venezuela Viva is once again receiving standing ovations at the EICC, travels to London after the Fringe where she is appearing as the guest dancer in
Paco Peña – Flamenco sin Fronteras, at Sadler's Wells in London
Delving into an often overlooked period of flamenco history, Paco Peña explores the many dance styles that emerged through the migration of Spanish performers to Latin America in the early 1900s, and their significant impact on flamenco today
EVENT: What’s the Fringe worth?
The event is organised because there is a growing belief that that there is a serious lack of understanding about the Festival Fringe amongst the majority of stakeholders of the Edinburgh Festivals.
Whether you are a participant (performer or ticket buyer), a cultural authority (local government, national government, international governmental agency), a local business (shop, restaurant, hotel, technical supplies) or simply interested Edinburgh city life, this is your opportunity to debate what the Fringe is worth.
The debate will provide an opportunity to discuss the value of the Fringe, both in economic and prestige terms and what price, if any, should be placed on keeping it going and developing it for the future. The debate in the style of “Question Time” with a panel of speakers will put forward widely varying ideas for the Fringe in the 21st century.
The panel is:
Kath Mainland, CEO of the Festival Fringe Society
Christie Anthoney, Director of the Adelaide Fringe Festival
Julian Caddy, Director of SWEET venues
Donald Emslie, ex-CEO of SMG
Graham Birse, Deputy Chief Executive, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce
Ailsa Falconer, Principal Officer, Destination Promotion Team, City of Edinburgh Council
It will be chaired by Lord Wilson, former Chairman of the National Museums of Scotland, and former Governor of Hong Kong
Free Event: 17 August, 11am
New Town Theatre, Freemasons' Hall, 96 George Street
Watch video extracts from artists featuring in the Universal Arts Festival programme on the UA You Tube channel: click here
Help daniel k make his Q & A in Edinburgh
In the "outrageously inventive" (The Straits Times) Q&A, daniel k asks his audience: what do you want to see? He then bravely attempts the ‘perfect’ dance formed by the fate of economics and quirks of democracy.
You can contribute to daniel k's performance in advance by completing a survey (about 15mins) – click HERE
(NOTE: This questionaire is ONLY for people residing in the UK)
For more show information about Q & A please click here
Sponsor News
ETC lights Universal Arts venues in Edinburgh
For the third year running, ETC is supplying lighting control systems to Universal Arts in three of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe's leading venues.
In previous years, Universal Arts has used ETC's Congo lighting control desks. However, at PLASA Focus in April, ETC launched Element. This new desk caught the attention of Universal Arts production manager, Anthony Newton, who approached ETC's Jeremy Roberts to explore the possibility of using Element to light all the shows in the Universal Arts Festival of international theatre.
Newton says: "Element seemed like the perfect desk for Fringe venue application. It has the software of the successful Eos and Ion range with simplified features to ease user control, making the basic functions easier to navigate with greater hands on fader control. It's a much friendlier looking desk to the inexperienced or unfamiliar operator.
"In an environment like the fringe you need a desk which is quick to programme, easy to operate and reliable. Element is all of these and I am really excited about getting to show them to our visiting companies from across the world."
The lighting systems are being installed at Universal Arts @ St George's West, EICC (Edinburgh's International Conference Centre) and at the New Town Theatre at Freemason's Hall on George Street.
ETC will train Universal Arts staff on Element. The Universal Arts technical team will then put their training into practice, helping designers and technicians from visiting international companies to plot and operate the lighting for their shows for the duration of the festival.
Jeremy Roberts, ETC's associate regional manager for the UK & Ireland, says: "As the Element is new for us this year, the Fringe seemed like the perfect launch pad for the product and a great way to allow more people from across the UK and indeed, internationally, to get some practical experience with the desk. The idea behind the desk is that it's a great introduction desk for operators who can graduate with relative ease to the Ion and then Eos as their careers progress or their shows get bigger."
ETC is supplying three Element consoles and one Ion console. In addition, Universal Arts is hiring a Congo console from Stage Electrics for the hit show Venezuela Viva at the EICC. Some 23 shows from across the world will benefit from use of the desks across the three Universal Arts venues.
Maja Ardal wins Dora Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female in the Independent Theatre Division for the 2008-09 Toronto Theatre season, for You Fancy Yourself.
For more show information about You Fancy Yourself please click here.
An open letter to the Board of Directors of The Edinburgh Fringe Society
From Tomek Borkowy, Artistic Director, Universal Arts Ltd., Edinburgh
First of all I would like to start by saying thank you to all past and present staff of the Fringe Office including the new Chief Executive, Kath Mainland, who returns to the Fringe Office after 13 years. All of them have been doing their best to help Venue Producers to carry out their difficult and financially risky work. My special thanks go to Eileen O’Reilly who has done a fantastic job as Promoters’ Liaison connecting a number of our clients to significant international producers.
Secondly, I would like to remind members of the Board of Directors of the position that the Fringe Society has had in the past and its present responsibilities. Circumstances over the past years have given many of us cause for concern – in particular, a lack of leadership in providing guidance to Fringe Office staff, a lack of openness and sincerity in dealing with other Fringe Festival stakeholders and total misjudgement of the time frame needed to introduce a new box office system and the mismanagement of its implementation, culminating in last year’s Box Office disaster. This has led to a significant drop of confidence in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe amongst participants and the ticket buying public, especially after an independent review held the Board of Directors responsible. This has resulted in enormous hardship and fear of losing business among many professional Independent Venue Producers. It has also revealed a total lack of accountability by the Board and, following last year’s crisis and subsequent damning report in which the Board of Directors of Edinburgh Fringe Society’s were criticised for the poor response to public concerns and the failure to attempt to boost falling confidence in the Festival. Bad press exacerbated this. I believe it is time to instigate a wide public discussion of the role of the Society and of all other stakeholders in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Historical Perspective
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has undergone a number of changes from its spontaneous formation in 1947. One of the first major steps was the creation of The Festival Fringe Society formally constituted in 1958. Its core aims were giving information, publishing a brochure of all Fringe shows and selling tickets centrally. In other words it served performing artists, who needed support as they not only performed but also created and ran their own venues and sold their own tickets. For this purpose the Fringe Society created the Fringe Office and for nearly 20 years it was the perfect solution for the type of arts festival that the Edinburgh Fringe then was. However with the creation of Assembly Theatre, the first managed multi-stage venue in 1981, this status quo began to change.
Since this date, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been undergoing constant change. Beginning 28 years ago, participating artists gained support from managed venues. This support has grown with the professional development of Venue Producers and has become the performing artists’ most important relationship. Obviously not all venues are on the same level of development and not all participants of the festival are in need of professional support but generally Venues are the main service and support providers to the participating artists.
Like it or not, managed multi-stage venues started the commercial concept of the Fringe and led to a great expansion of the programme. This is when it became known as the greatest performing arts event on Earth. But, at the same time, the Fringe started changing its character. From a spontaneous celebration of the arts, it has evolved into a largely market-led presentation of the performing arts. Venue Producers had to embrace this change or get out of the festival. At the same time many other stakeholders welcomed a more market-orientated Fringe, as it started to generate more money for the economy of the City and the region. Landlords of spaces hired by Venue Producers, owners of accommodation rented during the Festival to participants and visitors, restaurateurs, hoteliers, shopkeepers and The Fringe Society itself started to benefit from an increasingly commercialised Fringe. In my twenty years of service in the Festival, the Fringe Office’s permanent staff has tripled, while most Venue Producers struggle to afford enough staff to cover their workload. The Fringe Society has also built a successful commercial company as its subsidiary. All of this is relies on the work and financial risks taken by Independent Venue Producers. I stress that without us the Festival would not be able to exist.
The current safety and employment regulations, together with the cost of creating and running venues, prevent the Fringe from going back to a time when participating companies could run their own temporary theatres. We are faced with rising rents for spaces used by venues, higher costs of equipping venues and constant demands from the public and participating companies for better and more comfortable theatres as well as a raft of new safety regulations from Edinburgh City Council including the demand for costly professional reports and a rise of 650% (yes, six hundred and fifty percent) over three years in the cost of temporary theatre licenses. It has all contributed to steadily growing financial risk and administrative responsibilities to create temporary venues. Undoubtedly, and especially in the current economic climate, the danger of a spectacular financial collapse by one of us is just around the corner.
Financial make-up and the structure of the Fringe
One of the main problems that has led to a lot of misunderstanding is that not many people know how the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has evolved in the last quarter of the century and how it really works at the moment. What is significant is that the Board of Directors of the Fringe Society did not try to understand or disregarded this knowledge for years.
There are number of stakeholders in the Fringe. I have recognised seven distinct groups: Participating Companies, Independent Venue Producers, Ticket Buying Public, Fringe Society, Edinburgh Businesses, Edinburgh Landlords, City Authorities and the Scottish Government.
The first three are investors in the Festival Fringe, thanks to them it exists while the remaining four are beneficiaries. The first group of investors are Participating Companies, who bring their art to Edinburgh and pay for the privilege. The second are Venue Producers, who create theatres used by performers, help them with technical (and often artistic matters) and generally look after performers’ well-being during the festival. Venue Producers provide the main Festival infrastructure and are often also involved in producing shows. The largest group of investors is the public, who buy tickets and allow all of this machinery to move forward. I stress this once again with emphasis: these first three groups are the only reason the Edinburgh Festival Fringe exists. Thanks to them the City and the region’s economy is injected with about £80m every year and as a result of this investment the Fringe Society continues to exist.
It is worth highlighting that this large injection to the economy is delivered without meaningful support from governmental or civic authorities but with ever-greater risks undertaken annually by the first two investors. Other beneficiaries (including certain City Council members and civil servants) would do well to remember this every time they make a decision without thinking through the consequences of decisions that threaten to damage the venues’ operations for example: the threat to allow fencing to run the length of Princes Street dividing the City in two, making pedestrian flow between the New Town and the Old Town extremely difficult.
Professional Venue Producers provide a service to the performing companies and the public. We create and invest in businesses that should generate returns. The Universal Arts (Festival) Ltd operation is typical of a small professional Independent Venue Producers. Like most, we are a self-financing organisation and, because of our size, we have difficulty attracting sponsors. As a result, the risk of running two venues with four stages and a total capacity of 732 seats is about £250K per year (generally the cost per seat is between £290 and £350 for venues with between 500 and 1000 seats.) This is the actual cost of 10 months of work – programming, running and closing operations, theatre rental, equipment hire, publicity and administrative, technical and front of house staff. In order to break even (and thus to remain a viable business) we need a proper infrastructure and a well organised business environment in which to operate. Venue Producers are left to take risks without any economic or infrastructure support from local and national authorities. I would like to make absolutely clear, that although financial support would be welcome, Independent Venue Producers are actually seeking promotional, regulatory and infrastructural support across the entire Festival, which would allow us to carry on and to ensure that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe continues to be seen as the premier Fringe festival in the world.
Independent Venue Producers, the Fringe Society and Authorities
We all have to keep in mind that the contemporary Edinburgh Festival Fringe has changed from a spontaneous celebration of the arts to a largely market-led, performing arts trade fair and has to be treated as such. The time has come to change the way in which the Edinburgh Fringe is perceived and run, not only because of its ever-evolving nature but also because of the global economic environment in which we operate.
However I am afraid that the enormous complacency shown by the City and national authorities combined with inept Board management of the Fringe Society has put the whole Fringe in grave danger of mirroring the thinking of the creators and governors of the banking system, whose idiocy has led to the collapse of the global economy.
It is symptomatic that Independent Venue Producers were not included in the creation of ‘Festivals Edinburgh’. If the Fringe Society, City authorities and Scottish Government don’t take Venue Producers more seriously, if they continue to deny our indispensable role, we are in great danger of losing this magnificent Festival and its significant financial injection to the economy.
Having put together what I feel to be a very strong programme this year, it is clear to me that there has been a loss of confidence in the Fringe from a lot of theatre companies in the UK and abroad. The lack of decisive and positive action from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society and the City, combined with the global recession has made many small and medium companies think twice about performing in Edinburgh.
Where do we go from here?
In my 20 years at the Fringe I have seen, heard and experienced a great deal of antagonism from members of the Board of Directors and some Fringe Office management towards Venue Producers. There has been a common view that we are all more or less dodgy business operators who make vast amounts of money. All too frequently this notion has been communicated to participating companies and the general public. This is the first issue that needs to be addressed. The second is to determine the real purpose of the Fringe Society in the 21st century and what kind of relationship should exist between the Society and Venue Producers. Failure to resolve this could drive the Associated Independent Venue Producers CIC whose membership accounts for all Edinburgh’s professional Venue Producers, to investigate the possibility and value in creating a separate organisation to provide essential services required by Participating Companies and audiences. This could either lead to the demise of the Fringe Society or to the creation of two separate festivals – one run by professional Venue Producers and a second by the Fringe Society.
Nevertheless I strongly believe in the value of refashioning the Fringe Society in order to preserve and develop the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It is only by working together that we can ensure Edinburgh continues to be seen internationally as the premier UK arts festival. To do so, we need to find a new formula in which the Venue Producers, Fringe Society, the City authorities and Scottish Government can work more effectively together and fulfil their different duties.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a significant business creating jobs and injecting £80m a year to the economy. It has to be treated by the City and national authorities as any other significant industry. The Made in Scotland Fund is a very small but positive step in the right direction.
The Society has to identify its contemporary role. In the last 15 years or so, the Fringe Society’s main objective has been its own growth. Its sponsorship deals and grants have benefited mainly the Society’s own structure with very little passed on to key stakeholders. Saying that, I have to admit that the Fringe Office staff did fantastic work, which was vital to the Festival on a number of issues including the fight to retain its ‘Work Permit-free status’ and visa conditions for companies from outwith the EU and the relationship with the Performing Rights Society.
By publishing a combined festival programme, the Fringe Society has a contractual relationship with performing companies, but does not have any equivalent relationship with Venue Producers. Given that substantial sums of money are trusted to the Fringe Box Office by Venue Producers, this situation is wrong. There is an absolute and urgent need for a formalised relationship between Venue Producers and the Fringe Society to prevent bad practice and misunderstandings. For example the Fringe Society runs a ‘Friends of the Fringe’ scheme. It collects funds from subscribers to whom it provides benefits including discounted tickets, yet this discount is effectively loss of revenue to performers and venues. Also, for many years, venues have been asked to display boards with their venue number (not their name) and a Fringe Society sponsor’s logo. None of that sponsorship income is passed on to participating companies or Venue Producers and yet the sponsorship would have little or no value without their collaboration.
The Fringe Society has to go back to its origins and become again a charitable organisation providing services to investors in Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Fringe Society also needs to stop behaving like a secret society, hiding its ideas and working practices behind closed boardroom doors. In order to survive and develop in a positive way the Society has to work in close collaboration with Venue Producers and its representative body Associated Independent Venue Producers CIC (AIVP). The Society cannot behave as business chasing growth and profit. Nor should the Fringe Office allow itself to be a cheap way for the City Council to fulfil its community aims by providing a questionable quick ‘fringe experience’ for citizens via events such as Fringe Sunday.
To achieve a new, vibrant and forward thinking organisation, a number of changes have to be made in the structure and working practice of the Society:
- Obtaining membership of the Society should be simplified and encouraged
- Society’s work has to be made public
- The Board of Directors should be reduced to a maximum of 12 members including the chairperson
- Members of the Board should not have more than two consecutive periods on the Board
- All existing Board members with more than 4 years on the Board should resign at the next AGM and, if they wish to, stand for re-election
- A minimum of 30% of the board should be recruited from Venue Producers
- The Chair of AIVP should be an ex-officio membership of the board
- The Board of Directors should adopt an American volunteer arts board style of ‘give or get’ structure where members undertake to either provide a professional (or significant) service or raise finance for the organisation.
Other changes need to be made with regard to the Fringe Office, its work and employees. I hope that with the new management including Tim Hawkins, and especially with Kath Mainland at the helm, both of whom have long-term experience of the Fringe from both a Fringe Office and venue perspective, there will be an improvement to the quality of staff knowledge and services. An emphasis should be put on the development of marketing the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the UK and around the world to a standard and level that the biggest theatre event on earth deserves. There is also an urgent need to improve the website.
In conclusion and to stress the importance of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the City and for Scotland, I declare that Universal Arts will organise an open discussion about the future of Edinburgh Festival Fringe with an invited panel comprising of a member of the Board of Directors of the Fringe Society, Independent Venue Producers, an MSP and representatives of Edinburgh City Council responsible for culture (see below).
I also declare that at the next AGM of the Fringe Society I will put myself up for election to the Board of Directors. I hope that all Society members who agree with all or parts of my comments will vote for me. We need change!
Tomek Borkowy
Artistic Director
Universal Arts Ltd.
Universal Arts Festival Ltd.