Get ready for the Fringes!

The harsh winter is finally fading away, Spring is blooming all around us and my mind is turning to all things ‘Fringe’. As a theatre lover, and sometime performer myself, I love theatre and there is nothing that appeals to me than the experimental, often part improvised, work that abounds at Fringes. That’s not to say that I have anything against big theatres and epic productions of the classics from Shakespeare, Chekhov, Brecht and the like but in my opinion seeing something that is completely new is an exhilarating experience.

We have now crashed into the Fringe season itself which kicked off this year at Brighton, from 1^st to 23^rd May, and will be followed by the fringe festival of Buxton from 7^th to 25^th July and finally the king of all fringes worldwide at Edinburgh from 6^th to 30^th August. Alongside these well established fringes will be local fringes covering the length and breadth of the United Kingdom with notable events due to be held in Oxford and London.

As a performer at the Buxton Fringe myself this summer, I will be performing my soon-to-be-award-winning poetry show, I am especially looking forward to the huge variety of theatrical performances that are on show in this beautiful Derbyshire town this summer. And that, in a word, is the key to the appeal of a fringe: variety! Whilst the larger regional theatres stick rigidly to the classics and a regular smattering of Alan Ayckbourn farces, anything goes at the fringes, some shows are even performed in storage units! Shows that I am particularly looking forward to seeing at Buxton this year include:

Shakespeare’s Guide To Women (Whose Shoes Theatre) - a drama about Sheakespeare encountering problems with the women in his plays, like Shakespeare in love with a wicked twist.

The Ring Of Stones (T-Chi Productions) - a musical centred around the terror that fell over the infamous ’plague village'of Eyam, near to Buxton itself.

The Inconsistent Whisper Of Insanity (Black Box Theatre) - a startling new play by the upcoming Manchester playwright Ian Moore examines how a man pieces together fragments of a life that he’s lost, performed by Fringe specialists Black Box.

For the traditionalist there will be modern, fun interpretations of Shakespeare as well as revivals of past Broadway hits, but to me the shows above are the essence of what makes a fringe great! There are no excuses this summer, head to Edinburgh or head to Buxton, hit the fringe and broaden your theatrical horizons!