The Edinburgh festival has been on my bucket list for years and given that this year it also coincides with a “significant” birthday (all birthdays are significant but this one ends in a zero) we thought that we would celebrate by making the trip.
Like every holiday we take we plan it within an inch of its life and this one was no different. By the time we flew up here we already had a number of shows in the bank. However, we will look to supplement those with both some free shows and a bit of culture.
So far the trip has been full of surprises:
- The plane left Heathrow on time
- The plane arrived at Edinburgh half an hour early
- The sun was shining in Edinburgh
- Let me repeat that the SUN WAS SHINING IN EDINBURGH!
- There is a lovely new tram to take you from the airport to the centre of the city.
The marvellous weather was, quite frankly, an added bonus as the forecast has been for rain this week, in fact it is still showing as such, so we made the most of it while we had the chance.
Being Fringe virgins we weren’t quite sure what to expect. The first show we had booked was called “Victoria Wood + Me”, a one woman show performing the songs and sketches of Victoria Wood. The venue was tiny. Had I thought about it that would have made perfect sense of course, with so many shows on they can’t all be in massive grand theatres. The show was enjoyable but we probably knew the work too well to find it laugh out loud as we did the first time we heard them but still it was a good introduction and a good bit of fun.
Our next show was the other side of the City but one of the great things about Edinburgh is that it is very compact and eminently walkable. We had booked to see The Missing Hancocks where actors take on the parts of those from Hancock’s Half Hour and re-enact two radio shows, the scripts of which were missing and they were never aired. It was very simply done – it was as if you were watching the recording of the radio programme – but was brilliant, so funny. Made better by the actors seeming to enjoy it so much too. There were a number of bits that seemed to be ad libbed but you can’t really be sure – they are actors after all.
All the shows we have booked are part of the Fringe, so not the Festival at all, but there is so much else going on here away from the shows. Already we have been to a craft show and taken a wander through the book festival. Tomorrow we have booked to see a show described as a cross between “stomp and the muppets” – should be fun!
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