Published: March 18th, 2013 A little publicity goes a long, long way
 The Traverse grabbed the headlines from the outset. By Thom Dibdin
There’s nothing like a good story to set the pulse racing. Especially one that promises sex, absolute peril or triumph over adversity. Or even a combination of the three.
Last night on BBC Radio 3, Joyce McMillan’s fantastic little homage to the Traverse Theatre – which you can’t really escape noticing is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year – had all three. Although being in the rather esoteric Sunday evening feature slot, it didn’t boast about the fact.
What it was all about was telling stories. That thing which theatre exists to do. Without stories to tell there would be no theatre – and in some ways. without the theatres to tell them in, the stories of our culture – stories which we need to make sense of our place in a changing world – would become lost and less distinct. … Continue reading Sex and death – selling theatres
Published: February 22nd, 2013
 By Thom Dibdin
Every part of Found at Sea is brilliant. This “preview of work in progress” at the Traverse to Saturday, is a succession of shimmering moments and glittering sequences.
It is based around a book of poems by Andrew Greig that recounts a sailing trip in a 16′ 5″, open boat from Stromness in Orkney out to overnight on Cava, an abandoned island up the Hoy Sound on the edge of the Scapa Flow.
The project got a one-off first reading last Fringe, as part of the Dream Plays, under David Greig’s direction with actors Tam Dean Burn and Lewis Howden.
Now, it returns on its way to something even bigger. … Continue reading Blog – Found at Sea
Published: October 9th, 2012 Response from Creative Scotland chair to artists’ letter
By Thom Dibdin
Yesterday, as reported in The Stage, 100 Scottish artists wrote an open letter to Sir Sandy Crombie, chairman of the board of Creative Scotland. The complete text the letter and its signatories is on the BBC website here.
This evening, Sir Sandy has responded to the artists.
David Greig and others
9 October 2012
Dear David
I hope you will not mind if I address this letter to you as a means of reaching all those who put their names to the letter you distributed yesterday and kindly sent to me via a colleague. A copy of this letter will be sent to media contacts after a delay that will allow you to forward it to all of those you can reach by e-mail. … Continue reading Sir Sandy Crombie Replies
Published: September 17th, 2012 To star or not to star?
 Can you have too many stars? Photo © Thom Dibdin By Thom Dibdin
First published in The Stage
To star or not to star, that was the question which leading theatre producer and actor Guy Masterson was fulminating over at this year’s Edinburgh fringe.
The annual rash of strips of four or five stars – which breaks out across posters the length and breadth of the city as publicists seek to share the pleasure which reviewers take in their shows – seemed far more pervasive than ever before and the number of four and five star shows more numerous,
But while the veteran producer and performer was happy to grab any stars which came his way and plaster them all over his posters, he was far from happy with what they had come to represent. And, in the midst of a final week which did not carry the kind of full-on audience frenzy for his shows that he might have wished for, he decided that enough was enough, and he would attempt to get them banned. … Continue reading If the star system’s broke, fix it
Published: August 17th, 2012 Burns, the Black Dog, Jaffa Cakes, heartless Chekhov, the Edinburgh-Leith divide and a gay musical
 A scene from Communicado’s Tam O’Shanter at the Edinburgh Fringe 2012. Photo credit: Douglas Robertson By Thom Dibdin
Assembly or Assembly Rooms? Who knows how the argument is going to fall out between the Stand’s Tommy Sheppard and Assembly’s William Burdett-Coutts – especially now that the latter has a year-round home in the city.
No matter for the moment: the one Assembly which no one is arguing over is the Assembly Hall on the Mound. It’s where the Church of Scotland assembles and was where Guthrie created his first ever Thrust Stage, for Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaites.
Now it is being used by Assembly and amongst the many things they have here (including the excruciating High Kick) is a 90 minute version of Tam O’Shanter.
It is a stoater. Easily a must-see show, and the perfect production to stage in this space, with all the history it contains. … Continue reading EdFringe Day 5 – Highs and lows…
Published: August 17th, 2012 Cbeebies’ Andy, Leith Circus, a disappointing Doctor and a Grads triumph
 Andy and Mike – publicity photograph By Thom Dibdin
Today is a Fringe Family day in which Emily, our daughter Cora (four and a half) and I get to see a couple of shows together. Normally we go our separate ways, so this is a real treat.
First up we have Andy and Mike’s… Tick Tock Time Machine. Andy is Andy Day off the telly – CBeebies – where he is one of their continuity bods and he has a bizarre show called Andy’s Wild Adventures, in which he and a cat zoom off into Blue Screen Land and investigate all sorts of wild situations.
Today, he and his comedy partner Mike James have no such technical expertise to back them up, but they still manage to go back in time, forward in time, dress up a lot, get a mum and a dad in the audience to dress up a lot, do lots of silly dances and generally entertain the kids.
It’s no surprise that Andy and Mike used to have a comedy double act by the name of Annie and Fannie – at least according to their website. … Continue reading EdFringe day 4 – Wild adventures in Circus Land
Published: August 10th, 2012 Comedy lunch, island tales, a mad doc and a Smiths-inspired monologue
 The cast of First Bicycle’s The Idiot On The Wall – Photo Credit: John Garfield-Roberts By Thom Dibdin
The first Sunday of the Fringe has become Comedy Sunday, the day when Nika Burns hosts the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards opening lunch for a bunch of industry peeps and journalists.
It has also become the day when, as tradition has it, the heavens open and the rain comes down in buckets. So the pervading smell at the lunch, in Heights at the Apex International hotel on the Grassmarket, is of wet dog.
Burns is a serious bigwig when it comes to comedy and the theatre world. She’s director of the Awards – she bankrolled them the year that they lost their original sponsor – and co-owner of Nimax, the company which runs six London west-end theatres.
She has some serious words to say, too. Her London theatres are feeling the effect of Olympic blight – with takings 20% down. She feels lucky though, as the big … Continue reading EdFringe Day 3 – It’s raining, comics
Published: August 8th, 2012 Voyeurs, a stitch in time, desperate footballers and a rejuvenating island
By Thom Dibdin
 Peep: Ifan Meredith in Kefi Chadwick’s Sex Life. Photo credit Peep It was Sunny Saturday in Edinburgh – super too, but definitely sunny. Very sunny. Much to the consternation of the producers of Peep – a peepshow experience with three short plays.
Consternation because they had planned for every weather eventuality – apart from hot, balmy sun. And their black plastic box sitting outside the Pleasance Grand was soaking up the heat like a solar-powered oven, leaving performers and voyeurs roasting inside.
Peep is a bit of a roasting whatever the weather, to be honest. Experiencing it is done alone, looking through a one-way mirror into a central box of a playing area while listening in on headphones.
What is seen by you is also seen from the other one-way mirrors, spread around the box. Each with a slightly different view of the actors. Each hiding another voyeur.
Sex, unsurprisingly, is what all three plays are about. In Sex Life, Kefi Chadwick has a couple trying to reinvigorate their love life three months after the birth of their first child. 69 Contains … Continue reading EdFringe Day 2 – Here comes the Sun
Published: August 6th, 2012 Harry Hill has got the White Stuff
Thom Dibdin
 Harry Hill is serious about his hobby – standing in front of CT In The Wilderness and Schofield’s Dream. Photo credit: Thom Dibdin Had to pop in to White Stuff while I was down on George Street on Friday. It’s not merely a favoured shop in this household, but it is also hosting a show of artworks by this household’s favoured comedian.
Lades and Gentlemen, I give you Mr Harry Hill. He has been in town for a series of small-scale, pre-fringe tryout gigs at The Stand, in preparation for his return to stand-up comedy and big tour later on. And he has taken the opportunity to add a series of his artworks to the Edinburgh Arts Festival.
“It’s not really an art gallery, is it,” he commented to the Annals, graciously breaking-off from his chat at the private view, to pose for the accompanying photographs. “It’s just a shop.”
Who cares? It seems quite appropriate and great leveller for the art world. Although there are interesting revelations to be found in the free newspaper which accompanies the show. Besides images of the paintings it contains … Continue reading EdFringe Day 1a – Harry Hill’s Hobby
Published: August 6th, 2012 An economist, an old comic, some love letters and the blind
By Thom Dibdin
 Les Dennis nails the role of Jigsy in the Edinburgh Fringe, with a performance which is wistful, compassionate and impeccably timed. The sun still shines even though the Edinburgh Fringe is now officially open. Surely some mistake? Equally sure, is the prediction that it won’t last. Today is time to check out a couple of new venues – or old ones reinvented.
First off is C Nova. I didn’t mention how hot and sweaty the Cabaret Bar in that venue is in yesterday’s blog. But it is quite positively sauna like, at least on a sunny day – quite reminded me of the original C venues down at Overseas House, 100 Princes Street.
Down in C Nova’s belly, MKA Theatre’s The Economist is playing in a found space. I am very happy to discover it is directed by the often controversial but usually spot on Van Badham. And this does not disappoint in the slightest.
The Economist is based on the writings and various reports and interviews around Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik. It is a response to his terror bomb in Oslo on June 22 2011 which killed 8 people and the following massacre on Utoya Island when he murdered a further 69. … Continue reading EdFringe Day 1 – Get in there!
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