Alongside an enviably long list of current projects, Andy Field mentions that the Forest Fringe is still looking for people with good (read: interesting, adventurous, delicate, experimental, risky) ideas for the festival in August. As he’s previously explained at length, the Forest Fringe is intended to be a space for low to no-risk experimentation:
We’re not going to be part of the official fringe. We’re not going to charge artists anything to perform. All shows are going to be ‘pay what you can’.
We’re going to have to a wonderful mix of established fringe veterans and younger artists who’ve never performed at the venue before. No one is going to have more than a couple of performances. Everyone is going to have ample rehearsal time.
Everyone is going to be asked to give some of their time back to the place, either by staffing the bar or Front of House or by mentoring a younger artist – just spending a couple of hours watching their show and then talking to them about it.
Fringe veterans may immediately recgonise the irony of the idea of the “official fringe” – and how quickly performers and companies internalise and rationalise the artistic and financial commitments that go with it.
While I have a few questions about the rationale of staging this particular philosophy in Edinburgh in August solely during the festival season – is this just about the contrast? – I’m up for anything that offers an alternative to the “speed-dating equivalent of theatre” that marks many Fringe experiences.
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