I wanted to come to Edinburgh originally out of a desire to see something of the Film Festival, but when I realised that the Fringe Festival would still be on I decided that it would be stupid not to have a look around at all of the other theatre and music\dance things that were on.
For those not in the know (not that I know a lot about it myself) the Fringe is a longstanding festival in Edinburgh, wellknown in Britain mainly for giving big breaks to comedians and actors. It has a reputation for oddities and weirdness, as well as for innovation and originality. In the last few years I think that reputation has matured as well, and people recognise that there are lots of genuinely interesting and groundbreaking theatre coming out of the Fringe Festival.
With that in mind, my first taste of the Fringe was an hour long play: "The Matrix - The Pantomime".
Filled with dreadful puns, riffs on popular culture, adaptations of cheesy songs and playing on all the usual panto staples (male hero played by a girl, pantomime dame "Mrs The Oracle" played by a guy) it was the perfect start to my festival experience following a good (if wet) day walking around Edinburgh. It was a great, gloriously silly hour, with lots of absurd postmodern moments.
"Morpheus?"
"Yes Neo?"
"Why are we eating this soup with forks?"
"There *are* no spoons..."
Tomorrow: the European Premiere of Knocked Up! Will there be celebrities in attendance??? We can but hope!
To be continued...
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