The circus is about to move on. After more than 28,000 performances, the fringe 2006 draws towards a close. The 17,000 artists will pack their costumes. Relationships have started — and ended; friendships have been made; million of pints have been drunk; and even a few careers begun.
Just like any other year on the fringe? Not quite. One of the most surprising things about the fringe is the way it manages to reinvent itself just a little every 12 months. That was especially true this year.
Good weather and the smoking ban made the city feel more like Barcelona than Auld Reekie, while the heart of the festival had subtly shifted to the area around Bristo and George squares.
So what else will fringe 2006 be remembered for? Here’s everything you need to know.
Best new venue
Udderbelly. It has the atmosphere of a barn and you’ll be waiting until doomsday before you get served at the bar outside, but credit to anybody who can come up with the idea of a giant, inflatable, upside-down purple cow.
Most D-list celebrity
A tight contest for this honour: Edinburgh in August has looked like one great audition for Celebrity Big Brother. But eventually, Neil and Christine Hamilton pipped Christopher Biggins and the soul-food restaurateur Momma Cherri to the prize. Les Dennis was disqualified for charming almost everybody he met.
Biggest talking point
If there was a theme to this year’s festival it was political theatre: you couldn’t move for plays about Iraq. That could have produced a dour fringe. Instead, it made for a lively three weeks.
While (I Am) Nobody’s Lunch went for whimsical cabaret, We Don’t Know Shi’ite used an agit-prop style that was infuriating and invigorating in equal measure. What I Heard About Iraq was a blast of angry polemic, tightly scripted and beautifully directed; the superb My Name Is Rachel Corrie, which transferred from the West End, mined the diaries and e-mails of a peace activist.
At the Traverse, Particularly in the Heartland and Henry Adam’s ambitious but deeply flawed Petrol Jesus Nightmare #5 were, in their very different ways, dreamlike explorations of America’s role in the age of George W Bush.
Second biggest talking point
Mel Smith’s refusal to not smoke a cigar on stage (he was playing Winston Churchill) made the ban on smoking in enclosed places front-page news. Smith eventually backed down after council officers threatened to shut down the Assembly Rooms.
Most troubled rebranding
Intelligent Finance spent a lot on turning the Perrier Award for comedy into the Eddies (presumably the Iffies didn’t sound right). Despite this, the prize is now known as “the whaddyoumacallit, y’know, Perrier” award.
Coolest hang-out
It used to be the Club Bar at the Assembly Rooms, but the smoking ban has made The Loft Bar roof terrace at the Gilded Balloon this year’s place to preen and be seen.
Best eavesdrop
Christine Hamilton, overheard at the Pleasance Dome: “We had Colin and Justin redesign our flat, but, of course, we’ve ripped out everything they did now.”
Hottest venue (literally)
The Candlish Hall at Assembly St George’s West. If animals were transported in these conditions, the RSPCA would be called. Scientists have recorded that the heat generated in this room has raised global temperatures in August by 1C. All of which raises a serious question: in a bid to expand, have some of the venues neglected the basics?
Best publicity stunt
The director Toby Gough getting Kylie Minogue to go on stage during his Cuban dance spectacular Havana Rumba! at Assembly St George’s West. Cue endless “Kylie’s Havana good time” headlines. One person the stunt did not work for was the Assembly Rooms boss, William Burdett-Coutts, who needed a friend to tell him why the petite woman was exciting the audience so much.
Biggest self-publicist
This award seemed to be sewn up by 23-year-old drama graduate Johnny Miller, who invested his £100,000 trust fund in a new venue on Northumberland Street, with a programme entitled Johnny Miller Presents . . . But, even this could not quite trump the comic Tim Vine, who plastered a billboard on the Cowgate with a picture of himself and the words: “Tim Vine is not appearing at this year’s festival” .
Most mistimed pronouncement
The former morality campaigner Moira Knox observed that she could find nothing to be offended about at this year’s event. A few days later, Anthony Neilson’s play Realism opened, causing a storm with its language and the depiction of a woman performing a sex act.
Best original song
The expletive-laden rant against the gas board in Realism. Oh, to be a fly on the wall next time somebody comes to read Neilson’s meter.
Best improvisation
Phil Nichol and Stephen K Amos in Talk Radio. After the sound failed — stopping the recorded phone calls that are central to the show — Nichol launched into an impromptu rendition of Morris Albert’s Feelings. A masterclass in recovering the irrecoverable.
Most misconceived improvisation
Jim Henson’s Puppet Improv – For Kids! They’re small children, you Muppet. They don’t know you’re making it up and, frankly, they don’t care.
Worst planning
The Pleasance bars, which managed to run out of beer twice on the opening weekend.
Busiest performer
The comic Mark Watson: in addition to performing several one-hour stand-up sets and a 36-hour comedy marathon, he has been writing a chapter of a novel inspired by suggestions from his audience.
Best solo show
Tom Crean — Antarctic Explorer at Assembly Rooms. Aidan Dooley’s tale of a forgotten Irish sailor who served on expeditions with Shackleton and Scott is beautifully written and delivered with a perfect mixture of wit and pathos.
A reminder that the best things about the fringe often come in the smallest packages.
Most disappointing show
Midnight Cowboy. Enough of the film adaptations. Please. Depressingly, it has already been snapped up by a big-name company.
Most unlikely drinking buddies
Alan “Truly Madly Deeply” Rickman, Brian “Scarface” De Palma and Steve “I Am Alan Partridge” Coogan. It should be an episode of Ricky Gervais’s Extras.
Most futile act of PC
The radio presenter who asked the black comic Reginald D Hunter not to use the world “nigger” on air. The title of the comic’s show is Reginald D Hunter – Pride and Prejudice and Niggas.
Biggest winner
It’s hard to see how the National Theatre of Scotland and Vicky Featherstone, its artistic director, could have had a better festival. Black Watch got an unheard-of eight five-star reviews in national papers and proved that the new theatre could tackle an issue central to Scottish life without being parochial. Realism showed that the company’s “national” status (and funding) would not stop Featherstone taking artistic risks, even if it meant offending people along the way.
Festival Top 10: Theatre
Black Watch
Beautifully acted and brilliantly directed by John Tiffany, Gregory Burke’s unofficial history of the Black Watch regiment is streets ahead of the competition.
Township Stories
South African State Theatre’s show is a violent parable about township life. It runs until September 2.
Finer Noble Gases
A weird tale about a washed-up rock band.
The Receipt
It’s extraordinary what two men, a Moog synthesizer and three filing cabinets can do. A bittersweet ode to the awfulness of city life.
Improbable Frequency
Rough Magic’s silly musical about spies in wartime Dublin is an astute take on the Anglo-Irish love-hate relationship.
Unprotected
Liverpool Playhouse’s compelling verbatim drama about sex workers left many sobbing.
Knots
Putting the writings of maverick psychiatrist R D Laing to dance sounds unlikely. But Liam Steel and Ireland’s Coisceim Dance Theatre make it a potent mix.
Tossers: More Balls Than Most
Amazing display from people who can juggle almost anything.
Talk Radio
Phil Nichol’s talk-show host is the backbone for a superb ensemble performance.
Food
Sean Campion gives a stand-out performance as a Michelin-rated chef descending into paranoia.
Festival Top 10: Comedy
Shappi Khorsandi
With most of the festival’s comedians resolutely ignoring the Middle East, it’s a relief to find Shappi’s true-life tale of an Iranian family on the receiving end of a fatwa is powerful and — most of all — funny.
Reg D Hunter
Hunter’s about as mesmeric as it’s possible for a stand-up to get. Close to the bone, but his punchlines always justify the risk.
Ed Byrne
The new show by Byrne is a masterclass in observational comedy. It’s almost seamless stand-up.
Phil Nichol
This year Nichol is in two plays as well as his stand-up show. The exhaustion has improved him.
Fat Tongue
This year’s big discovery. A sketch troupe too new to even have an agent.
Stephen K Amos
A stalwart circuit comic who’s moved up a gear with this intense and personal show. Just ignore the irritating opening character.
Laurence & Gus
Superbly scripted reworking of La Ronde connecting a series of sketches with intelligence and wit. Comedy for smart people.
Lucy Porter
It’s impossible not to be charmed by Porter’s mischievous comedy. Appearing dressed as a carrot is a masterstroke.
Doug Stanhope
Not the next Bill Hicks, but an American comic with something to say all the same. There’s more to him than just excess.
Dirty Book Club
Robin Ince’s late-night literary bill show is the only one worth bothering with. Surreal and funny.
