Onwards to another list of shows and events, this time Week 3 of the Fringe, which is Week 2 of the Book Festival and the International. After a quick flourish of stand-up at the beginning of the week, followed up with a lovely work night out to a party, complimentary barbecue and 90 minutes of music, there was little Fringe action this week. The International Festival took centre stage, adding some theatre and discussion to the concerts of the previous week. Back to the Fringe for one final time though, in the sweat box of the Underbelly: definitely expressing an end of festival vibe through its pores and the looks on the faces of the battle weary staff. They've done well.
- Edinburgh International Festival: Conversation – The James Plays
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Romesh Ranganethan
- EFF: Blues!
- EIF: James I
- EIF: James II
- EIF: James III
- EIF: Gnossis
- EFF: Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
- Edinburgh International Book Festival: Edinburgh Napier event reception
- EIBF: The Poetry of War
- EIBF: Unbound, with James Yorkston
The James Plays have been held up as a triumph of this year's International Festival and I really enjoyed seeing them. I appreciate that some have felt some of the characters to be stereotypes, the plots drawing out limited pictures of Scotland. Still, they contained some very strong performances, taught me a lot about 16th century Scotland and have a real pace to them when required. Maybe I was only in it for the entertainment value, or was too knocked back by seeing all three on the same day to process it all in enough depth. (That's seven and a half hours of stage time, give or take.)Special mention must be made to Cecil Baldwin, part of the cast of 'Too Much Light'. Cecil is the narrator and mainstay of Welcome to Night Vale. I urge you to spend a little time immersing yourself in Night Vale and its small town idiosyncrasies.
The next edition of #10wos (10 weeks of summer) will be the last one. That might mean that it's nearly the end of summer. Let's hope winter doesn't last for all 42 weeks until I can do this again.