The day the Fringe changed a bit

I’ll be honest: I wasn’t looking forward to taking part in the Fringe’s new Meet the Media event on Saturday, writes deputy arts editor Roger Cox. The thought of sitting at a trestle table for an afternoon while hundreds of performers queued up to tell me about their Fringe shows really didn’t appeal, for the simple reason that I don’t like giving people bad news. Although The Scotsman reviews way more Fringe shows than any other major UK publication, we can’t review them all (we typically manage to cover about a third) so for every person I was going to be able to make happy, there were going to be two that I would have to make sad. Or mad. Or maybe even violent. I know that if I’d put my life and soul – not to mention my life savings – into a Fringe show, only to be told by some bloke from The Scotsman that nobody was coming to review it, I’d probably be tempted to indulge in a little ABH.

In the end, though, something I thought was going to be a bit of a chore turned into an absolute pleasure, and nobody tried to punch me. Originally I’ll only planned to stay for my allotted 2pm-3pm time slot, then hand over to our arts correspondent Tim Cornwell and slope off to get some writing done. But when Tim arrived I was having such a good time that I decided to stick around for another five minutes… and then another ten minutes... and then another half an hour… By the time 4pm rolled around I was on my third cup of coffee and still utterly engrossed – really, genuinely inspired by the energy and enthusiasm of the people I was getting to meet. Finally, at 4:15pm, after two hours and 15 minutes of full-on datablast, I had no option but to drag myself away and empty my bulging bladder.

Judging by the number of press releases I managed to accumulate on Saturday, it seems I met representatives from 44 shows in two hours and 15 minutes. I’d love to give them all a mention here, but I don’t have time. The following folks really made an impression – I hope you’re able to go and see them if you get the chance.

There’s nothing like a striking costume to get you noticed on the Fringe (I should know: a few festivals ago – for a feature, not a dare – I had to dress up in various silly outfits and go out flyering on the Royal Mile. Dressing up as a toilet, I discovered, works remarkably well.) American writer/performer Jordan Herskowitz looked like he was about to pass out when he finally reached The Scotsman table, sweating profusely in a giant furry bull costume.

His show, Jordy Pordy, about his experiences as a professional sports mascot, is at Sweet Grassmarket until 30 August. Also impressively attired were the cast of Israeli show Matinee, togged up as superheroes to promote their silent tribute to Hollywood’s greatest films (Pleasance Dome, until 26 August). Most spectacular of all, though, were the traditional costumes worn by the performers from Memeza Africa. Their show, at the King’s Centre until 31 August, is a collaboration with Canadian singer-songwriter Holly Wright – surely the first musical Canadian-South African fusion ever to hit the Fringe.

Speaking of unusual musical combinations, I also received a visit from Austrian duo Living Room. Cristoph Pepe Auer plays the bass clarinet while Manu Delago plays the Hang – a percussion instrument that looks a bit like a flying saucer. Apparently they’re the only people in the world doing what they do, and they’ll be doing it at Sweet Grassmarket until 31 August. Oh, and while we’re on the subject of music, thanks very much to the cast of Blow Up: The Credit Crunch Musical (GRV, until 28 August), which features an Oompah band with a great sense of humour. They were kind enough to give me a CD of their music, The Oompire Strikes Back, which I’m listening to as I write this. Their Oompah take on Smells Like Teen Spirit is bloody brilliant.

I’m starting to get a bit peckish now, but before I head off to Piemaker on South Bridge for my nightly sausage roll, here are a few other shows I liked the sound of: serial killer thriller The Bone House (Underbelly, until 30 August), which Canada’s Globe and Mail reckons is even scarier than the Blair Witch Project; a production of Tennessee Williams’ Auto-Da-Fe, starring Scarlett Johansson’s old drama teacher Jeff Alan-Lee (The Space on the Mile, until 25 August); Token Yank, a multinational sketch comedy show (Speakeasy @ The Voodoo Rooms, until 15 August); and last but by no means least, Etty, a one-woman play adapted by from the diaries and letters of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch Jew sometimes described as an adult counterpart to Anne Frank. It’s taken Susan Stein several years to adapt Hillesum’s writings for the stage and all she wants to do now, she says, is bring the work of this remarkable woman to as many people as she can. Etty is at The Vault, just off George IV Bridge, until 31 August.