Final Punter Thoughts before the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Gets Going

This is a summary of our thoughts at the end of July, just before the Fringe gets going. Look here if you want to plough through the detail.

Decisions … Decisions

We always leave some gaps in our programme until we get to Auld Reekie and have had a chance to read reviews and, importantly, to listen to the word on the street. So these are our current thoughts, albeit subject to the inevitable last minute tinkering.

The general view appears to be that the Visual Arts and Traverse programmes are going to provide the main highlights this year.

While we are spoilt for choice with respect to the arts exhibitions; we will probably plump for Picasso on Paper, Warhol and Naked Portrait. Hopefully, we will pass by the site specific installations by Michael Lin, Apolonija Susteric and Richard Wright around the theme of Jardins Publics which have been commissioned as part of the International Festival.

Re the Traverse: Damascus, Long Time Dead, Walworth Farce, Is This about Sex, Venus as a Boy, Yellow Moon and Game Theory are all booked. Also, we enjoyed Tim Crouch in The Oak Tree a couple of years back and look forward to seeing him again in England. Stoopud F**ken Animals and Believe - Linda Marlowe are on our shortlist.

Elsewhere on the Fringe drama front, Nijinsky (Teatr Jaracza), Chaplin (Pip Utton – one of Edinburgh’s stalwarts in the one-man show genre), Romeo and Juliet (Aquila Theatre), Macbeth: Who is that Bloodied Man? (on stilts), and Breaker Morant are among those shows that are on our current shortlist.

On the Dance front we are Aurora Nova fans and have booked Astronomy for Insects (blackSKYwhite), Hangman (DO-Theatre) and Jos Houben of Complicite on The Art of Laughter.  Lacrimosa, Leitmotif and Victoria are also possibles at the moment.

We are probably not the people to listen to with regard to stand-up comedy; the new breed mostly does nothing for us. For what it is worth we plan to see: Jerry Sadowitz – Comedian, Magician, Psychopath (you need to know what to expect from him?!); Will Adamsdale in The Human Computer (very good in The Receipt last year) also gets our vote; Punt & Dennis: Stuff and Nonsense (from the Now Show and Mock The Week); and Johnson & Boswell Late but Live which sounds intriguing (but perhaps we are just falling for the marketing device?!). Killer Joe (a comedy drama) is on our shortlist.

Our dates at this year’s festival unfortunately mean that we will only manage one play on the International Festival, the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of The Bacchae.

Finally, although we are not music aficionados our friend and fellow punter Susan’s views on the music and opera programme can be found in the initial thoughts on the International Festival.

Stop Press

Having waded through the initial reviews, we have now refined our short list by adding: Air Balloon across Antartica, Truth in Translation, Emergence:See, Victoria, Woyzeck, Exits and Entrances and An Age of Angels.

Unfortunately, time pressures mean that several of the original choices have now had to be removed to make way for them: Nijinsky (show cancelled), Stoopud F**ken Animals, Believe - Linda Marlowe, Romeo and Juliet (Aquila Theatre), Breaker Morant, Lacrimosa, Leitmotif and Killer Joe.

Recommended Links

There are plenty of places where you can find information in the form of recommendations, previews and feature articles. To my surprise, as I am not a particularly great blogging fan, it is blogs that top my recommended list of links: Lyn Gardner (The Guardian), seaninthestalls and viewfromthestalls. I would also add Peter Lathan in the British Theatre Guide.

The majority of newspapers have by now produced their lists of recommendations. If you are pushed for time choose any two from: The Scotsman, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard and The Observer.

Let me know if you have any recommendations to add to my list.