The Pig Yard

Pig Yard @ Edinburgh Fringe Festival - August 2009

This was our third visit to the Fringe and this time we rented a one bedroom flat near Grassmarket, convenient for central Edinburgh making it easy to walk to all the major venues of the fringe. During the week we managed to see 17 different shows with a huge variety of genres, most of it very good, some of it excellent and only a couple of things that were disappointing.
Our flat wasn't large and you could probably fit the whole flat into our main living room but it was comfortable and had all mod cons including wifi - if only we'd had a netbook with us.  

Steve standing outside the communal entrance to the 3 flats in the block.

It was along a small cobbled alley and just around the corner from Grassmarket.

  

The alley way outside our flat with steps up to the main road. There was a pub on the right hand side corner and it seemed to stay open and noisy until around 3am.

We came back late one night and surprised a bunch of blokes urinating in the back entrance to the pub - nice.

(This photo was taken on the last day, the only serious rain)

Wherever you walk there is entertainment. This chap was juggling on a unicycle outside the Fringe Shop.

It was interesting to see how the performers draw the crowds in and keep them there for the whole performance.

   The views across the city are striking and this was a picture from outside the Assembly rooms on the Mound. We saw several things at this venue.  

Outside the city hall these Chinese performers were doing their dance routine to  typical Chinese music. The performers on stilts dressed as horses were particularly impressive.

There is a great temptation to rush from venue to venue but we've learned our lesson from previous visits and made sure we took time out to relax.

Steve is sitting outside the Bank Hotel bar drinking a Cappuccino and reading the paper.

   Even the simplest performances are fascinating to watch. This woman had a bucket of soapy water, two sticks and a piece of string in a loop. She made it look easy but we're sure there was a technique.  

We'd been advised by Tony & Jude that the department store Jenner's had good tea and views over the city. On our way up to the cafe we came across a group of young people performing in the clothing department.

You couldn't turn in any direction without coming across talent.

We took a break from culture and walked up to Arthur's Seat.

At 2,000 feet it was quite windy.

   Just as we near the top it started to spit with rain but it couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces.  

Part way down we had excellent views across the city even if the weather had turned against us.

At the end of a superb week we were up early on the Saturday morning to get our pre-booked mini cab out to Edinburgh airport. We'd had reasonable weather most of the week but we did experience some rain and Edinburgh had it's typical farewell because it was raining quite heavily.

We didn't have too long to wait at the airport before we were boarding the Flybe Dash 8 aircraft. It's been a long time since we've flown on such a large turbo prop aircraft and it was a pleasant experience. (We read later that these aircrafts are some of the most economical.)

An hour after take-off we were landing at Birmingham and within a very short space of time we were on the bus taking us back to the airport car park.

There follows, in no particular order, our reviews of the events we went to see.
A British Subject - This was an excellent play. Well acted, poignant, funny and moving in equal part. It was a story of a British born Pakistani who returned to his homeland and entered the country on his Pakistani passport. On the taxi journey from the airport he was attacked by the taxi driver and he accidentally killed the driver in the struggle. He was jailed for 18 years without trial. The play follows the events of a cynical British journalist who in his attempt to get himself a story and thereby fame becomes obsessed with seeing justice done and the release of the unfortunate "British Subject".
Rachael Sage - An evening with the New York born singer Rachael Sage was billed as a cross between Elton John and Kate Bush. Steve was hoping she would be like Regina Spektor, also a New Yorker, however it fell short of his expectations but it was pleasant enough. Perhaps some of the atmosphere was lost because there was a very thin audience.
Morecombe - A one man tribute to Eric Morecombe's life. Wow, this was magical. We were part of a full audience and certainly we were lucky to get tickets. We laughed, we cried, it was brilliant. There was a standing ovation at the end.
John Hegley - He is one of our favourites and we made sure we booked seats at his first performance. His poetry is surreal and we really enjoyed the show particularly the way he apparently makes notes throughout on the way the poems and the jokes are going. If things don't go as he had expected he takes time out with the audience to discuss it and how it could be improved upon - genius.
Lucy Porter - She is straightforward stand up and this time on a theme of Gold. Plenty of light weight laughs and the hour went very quickly.
Adam Hills - He is extremely funny in a typically relaxed Aussie way. He didn't actually start his set routine for at least fifteen minutes whilst he was down in the audience getting to know what made them tick. Once he got amongst an extended family with an 80 year old grandmother he was hilarious even performing a male lap dance for the octogenarian because it had been a birthday recently. We loved the show.
Marcus Brigstock - The title of "God Collar" was really appropriate and he was completely irreverent about all religions from Judaism to Muslim, everything in-between and no religion at all. Richard Dawkins came in for a hammering because of his smugness. There were plenty of tangential, humorous stories along the way including some derisory comments about iPhones - "you bought it, you didn't invent it!". Another full audience who went away really happy.
Early Long Island Iced Tea - an unusual one for us, music at lunchtime and from someone we'd never heard of, but the tickets were free so why not. Peter Straker has an excellent voice and his theatrics were relaxed and amusing. It made a pleasant change and overall enjoyable. It was a lunchtime cabaret.
Me, Mum & Dusty Springfield - A disappointment. It was half an hour of someone explaining how their mother had been a Dusty Springfield impersonator and she had difficulty living with someone who literally had a split personality.
Angle of Incidence - A good idea but strangely didn't make a connection with us. The setting used several 2 way mirrors to demonstrate one actors reflection and the other actors the other side of the mirror. It was a clever stage setting but quickly forgotten.
Losing Susan - Why do young people come to the fringe with a poorly rehearsed show and expect to get recognised? This maybe a bit harsh but the reason we went to see it was because it had a theme of Alzheimer's. You would expect them to have researched it very well and on the face of it they had but in places it was trying too hard and in others it seemed to miss the point altogether. They seemed to have mixed Parkinson's Disease symptoms with Alzheimer's.
Tap Kids - This was one of Jane's immediate choices and Steve was there for the ride. As it turned out, even though we didn't have the best seats, it was an excellent show and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Non stop tap dancing with great skill and high energy.
Anna & Katie - This was supposed to be surreal humour however they became phased by the fact that there was a couple of young children and a baby in the audience (why would parents think that adult humour with swearing would appeal to the under five's). Some of the jokes were lost due to noises from the audience and the timing just slipped. There were a few moments, none of them memorable, and we left feeling quite flat.
The Sociable Plover - We sat down in a small auditorium wondering why we'd booked to see this and didn't have a clue as to what it was about. Were we in for a pleasant surprise. With a simple story of two men in a bird watching hide, a complex series of events unfolded. The acting was excellent, the story had twists and turns and we thoroughly enjoyed the event.
Unknown Album - Another group of young actors trying to make a point and losing us on the way. Well acted and a clever stage set, just a bit too deep and clever plot which left you thinking who was who??
Beachy Head - A brilliant piece of theatre with clever staging and a harrowing theme. A husband commits suicide by jumping from Beachy Head and his wife hasn't clue why he was driven to such a dramatic act. Meanwhile two film makers have inadvertently managed to capture the event on video and one tracks down the wife on the pretext of making a documentary knowing full well that they have the video of her husbands death. It was an interesting story, well acted and well set.
The Overcoat - this was the last show that we saw and what an incredible one to finish the week. It's difficult to describe the effect of this dance, drama, mime, musical because it leaves you speechless. The setting was brilliant the mime was perfect and the interpretation was mind blowing. Given a chance to see this again we would go immediately. The Gecko Theatre company is something to look out for in the future.