Edinburgh Fringe Continues

Sunday morning started with Land Without Words, a solo performance in which an artist wrestles with the suffering she witnesses in Afganistan. It was a powerful piece – hard to follow with dense text, lots of emotion, clay and soil being spread over the artist’s body.

Barflies by well known Edinburgh-based group, Gridiron was performed in a pub (a real pub), and even better, we got a pint out of it (mine was a Guinness). The stale air hot air combined with watching the show from a bar-stool was hardly the most pleasant way to watch a show, and this show featured few pleasant characters: a misogynistic alcoholic writer, and his cohort of women all played by the same actress. It was a little like watching a Leonard Cohen song.

Beachy Head by Analogue Productions told the story of a widow coming to terms with her husband’s suicide. It never wallowed in depression; there was little time for that in a slick production where the set flew around the stage on casters, video cameras and mobile lights were deployed with dizzying speed and performers were wheeled around on four foot metal plinths.

In the afternoon between art gallery (stuffy; unfriendly staff) and museum (bright; happy staff) we had a madcap trip to Leith intending to see the sights. The only sight we ended up seeing was the concrete plant.