We arrived in Edinburgh after a horror of a public transport experience. Cancelled trains, noisy teens, Overcrowded and overheated trains. But we arrived in time, and had a great day. It was certainly busy, but it was the last weekend of the fringe festival so to be expected.
We saw two shows, “Strawberries in January“, and “Danny’s wake“. As a conversation with somebody on the train had made explicit what I think everybody notices, the Edinburgh fringe features a lot of simple comedy acts, and it can be hard to actually dig beneath that and find shows which are a bit more than one or two people and a microphone.
“Strawberries in January” was absolutely delightful, and we thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the show. For a start, I was chuffed to get tickets. I’d been intrigued by the 
flyer picture we’d seen at our local in Glasgow, and doubted we’d get to see it in Edinburgh. Since seeing plays in London at The Orange Tree theatre, Richmond I’ve come to much prefer the ’simple’ staging approach with minimal sets, close proximity to the actors, and all-round seating. Compared to the “big” stage shows, with a front stage, and distance from the actors (particularly the case with the big west-end musicals), I feel the plays are much more intimate and engrossing, and give a much more atmospheric experience.
The story is an amusing one of “love and fate in contemporary Montreal”. This is the first UK production of the play, and I can safely say we weren’t disappointed. Well acted and well staged, it was a light-hearted show but effectively covering some more serious dilemmas and issues. I think it left everybody in the audience feeling that they had experienced something special. I do hope that the production gets to be seen elsewhere.
After a few hours of poking about the Royal Mile, watching a few people hawk their shows and push flyers on us, we grabbed some dinner, then headed over to the Pleasance, where we saw Danny’s Wake. This couldn’t have been more different from Strawberries. The story is that two school friends are reunited for the first time since leaving school 15 years before, to attend the wake of their school friend Danny. It’s a sombre setting, but it’s well presented and very amusing, as school recollections are argued over, and disagreements set in.
We had hoped to see another show between the two that we did, but by the time you incorporate all the hiking about, food, and waiting in line for tickets, plus the atrocious train provision between Scotland’s two largest cities (we didn’t want to stay too late), two shows and a leisurely dinner made for a great day. The fringe is pretty much finished now. We were fortunate to have seen some great shows in the two weekends we were over, and are very much looking forward to next year.
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