Poofs, Lunch and Worms - EEF

After deciding to come up to Scotland for the August long weekend, a few people had asked if I was going for the Fringe Festival. After looking into it a bit more, I booked a few shows based on their blurbs...and managed to see an assortment of good shows for my two days in Edinburgh!

Saturday afternoon I found my way to the Gilded Balloon for A Can Of Worms. The best of the shows I saw, this stage show depicted two twins coming together after the death of their mother, and sorting out the boxes in the attic. Going through the assorted collection of hoarded memories, the brothers recall significant moments from their dark, and trouble upbring, often memories that the other was totally oblivious too. Bizarre and funny, sad and haunting, the set was merely cardboard boxes, but used brilliantly to let us know time and event as each memory was told.

Saturday evening I saw 4 Poofs and a Piano - Strictly Neurotic at the Pleasance Courtyard. Famous for their interludes on Friday Night with Jonathon Ross (not that I knew...shows how little UK tv I watch!!), these four lads sang their way through the trials and silliness of growing old, and being gay.

This afternoon I have walked around New Town Edinburgh before finding The Assembly Rooms, and the policical and disturbing (I Am) Nobody's Lunch. Based on a collection of interviewed conducted in America in 2003, this cabaret looks at the question of media and information, and what we really know, and don't know, about all that's going on in the world. Hot topic at the time like 9/11, Guantanemo, Jessica Lynch, and Tom Cruise's sexuality, the show consisted of people reactions, and misinformation, apathy and the reading between the lines. Funny, anxious and haunting, this US production was thought provoking, and right on the mark when it comes to the matter of what we think we know.

Three very different and great shows. I could have arrived and picked any shows off the boards and the ever selling box offices, but I am glad I picked random and interesting sounds shows for my Fringe experience!