Oh it was so nice!
I still had Andy and Mike in the morning (grr!) but then I went to Black Medicine for a huge hazelnut cappuccino (yum!) and wandered to Pleasance Dome to take in some shows.
First off was Dirty Great Love Story. I saw Richard Marsh's solo show Skittles last year and fell head over heels for it (see last years blog). This years offering was brilliant. Funny, sweet and moving, it charts two years from a chance meeting and one night stand between two strangers and their will they/won't they relationship. I loved it. DGLS brings out the romantic in me I think - but for unrequited love, missed opportunities and life after the one night stand. Love and happiness found in ridiculous situations a modern audience can identify with.
I'm gushing. I'll stop. It's brilliant. It's received a Fringe First Award - so very deserving.
After DGLS I put myself back together (more coffee) and went to see dark comedy play from creators of Late Night Gimp Fight, Rod is God. It was great to see the boys in a play (having trained as actors before delving into the world of S&M based sketch comedy). Some sketch habits were hard to break and knowing their background definitely informed my reception of the play - lot of sketch-style blocking. The narrative takes a darker twist and I think they could have embraced that spiral out of control even more - but I love a bit of angst and peril in my theatre so I'm biased. Good hour though and the final note is the perfect finish.
After being denied Nick Helm on my yellow pass (NOOOOO!) I went to see The Three Englishmen. Teched their preview at Leicester Square Theatre in July so wanted to see how it had changed for Edinburgh. The boys did not disappoint - I had a great time! Love their chef song finale (I'm a cooking programme fiend). I had some tech envy watching my venue manager from last year (Ben Luke) tech the show, I was *almost* the tech for The Englishmen but scheduling clashes meant that it was not to be. It's a great show and I wish I could have been a part of it. But if you read my work blog you'll see I had the opportunity to tech them a little bit!
I dragged my friend to see another PEEP with me. My god was that awkward!! 69 is better than Meat but only in that it didn't make me AS furious - its a very slim margin. It rattled through a plethora of sexual situations in a cringing checklist of "issues".
We had gays, pornography, paedophiles, threesomes, foursomes, bestiality, masturbation, AIDS (with some token mourning/crying in there), peep shows, orgies, lesbians and a random autopsy thrown in for good measure - all done really badly. I'm not sure of the message, or the stand on these things. It was literally a collection of things about sex. Disappointing. An onslaught of sexually explicit scenes without link, reason or proficiency. I stepped out into the sunlight feeling spent and dirty. If this was the intention, well done PEEP, but somehow I'm not sure this is what they were driving at. I could spend a long time taking about how much I didn't enjoy the show (and why) but my mother does read this blog and I do want her to still love me. So let's move on. Ps - apologies to the friend who saw the show with me.
Mother Gunn visited in week 3 so I sent her to Michelle Wormleighton's character show (Bewildered), both of Thom Tuck's shows and James Acaster. She adored all of them which was great. Feel that I did well on the comedy recommendations. She also came to see Jenny Fawcett and Ford and Akram (having seen the F/A preview at The Harrison) which she loved. It was really nice to have Mum in Edinburgh to see what the festival is like. I was really too busy to spend enough time with her, which I kept feeling bad about. I've never had visitors to the Fringe before which was a bit stressful but I think Mum enjoyed herself. Got a couple more visitors next week too, my friend Gemma is coming up mid next week and Simon is joining us for the final weekend. Now that Andy and Mike has finished I can stay out a bit later!
Amy
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