Nick Hennegan's Bohemian Britain
Lifestyle tales from the city
Nick Hennegan’s VERY Rough Guide to the Fringe. He presents quick updates from the World’s Biggest Open Arts Festival – the Edinburgh 2022 Fringe! This time, Sir Ian McKellen, Sherlock Holmes and Scrummie Mummies!
Also at BohemianBritain.com — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bohemianbritain/message
Rating: 🍷🍷🍷🍷
4 out of 5. Almost the Full bottle!
Surreal, smart and unpretentious.
It’s one of the glorious, great things about the Edinburgh Fringe that you can be in the Assembly Club Bar tapping away on a laptop, when Guy Masterson, my ‘A Christmas Carol’ actor and Fringe stalwart, comes up to me and says, “What are you doing? Close that laptop and come and see a play. Here’s a free ticket.”
I first met Guy when Griff Rhys Jones arranged a Dylan Thomas Centenery celebration in Fitzrovia. He’s a great ‘Artrepreneur’ and is presenting this play, along with another… about circles? (I’ll see it this week and know more soon!) So you can’t really say no to him. Plus, in spite of Directing AND Producing ‘Winston And David’ at the Underbelly Dairy Room, (1.25pm every day! Come and say hello! Plug over, loves..!) I’m really in Edinburgh for the art, so its great to see stuff now my show is ‘bedded in’ as it were.
Horse Country by C.J. Hopkins, won all sorts of awards when it first appeared at the Ed fringe in 2002. And I kinda see why. Eventually. As I was given a direct invitation to see this first production, I’d not even read the flyer and it kept me guessing for a while. But two things became rapidly obvious from the start. The quality of the cast – and the quality of the direction. And when they got to the joke about “How many surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb?” (“The answer? Fish. Of course!) it started to dawn on me what was going on. And later, as I was buying Guy a drink in the bar afterwards (See! There’s NO such thing as a free ticket!) and I met the cast and crew, I realised what a quality offering this is.
Bob (Dan Llewelyn Williams) takes the straighter role of the two, but perfectly foils, criticises and lovingly relates to the more clownish Sam, played brilliantly and touchingly by Michael Edwards.
Director Mark Bell gives the surreal show a solid base, with inspired movement and physicality. Mark is perhaps best known for directing The Play That Goes Wrong, so has a deft and talented touch. Which means that even if you don’t get the twenty year old references to capitalism, it’s worth the price of a ticket for the magic, missing playing cards, fishing and sea lions. Oh yes, and genocide. And Adolph Hitler makes an appearance too.
How many brilliant actors, directors and presenters does it take to make a fine, fantastic, surreal Edinburgh Fringe production? The answer is obvious. Fish. No, sorry… Horse Country.
Rating: 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷
5 out of 5. The Full bottle!
We all know about Sherlock Holmes and his arch-enemy, Moriarty. And we all know about Holmes’ best friend, Watson.
But do we?
Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street is a world-wide Literary Legend. Indeed, I’ve quite recently interviewed an author who has been commissioned to write new Sherlock stories. Have a fumble through this blog and you’ll find it!
But here, at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, Watson is touchingly alone. His beloved wife Mary and the great Sherlock Holmes are both gone. London seethes with false reports and rumours. So it is time to set the record straight.
What the hugely talented Tim Marriott has done, with co-writer and director Bert Coules, is give us a fresh and fantastic take on the whole Sherlock Holmes and Watson story and what really happened with the two friends from Watson’s partisan point of view.
You need no previous knowledge of Sherlock Holmes. Tim (forever famous for playing Gavin in the rather brilliant BBC sitcom The Brittas Empire) takes us on an adventure that is both epic, yet strangely emotional. Watson, the now lonely old soldier, is very keen to do the right thing by everyone – especially Holmes. Marriott brings a very relevant characterisation to a fictional conceit and plays the various characters – including of course, Holmes – with a nuanced talent which is both intimate yet expansive.
Watson, the old soldier, has a story to tell. And we get an entertaining Boys-Own romp with an adult and emotional heart.
Elementary, my dear Marriott.
Nick Hennegan’s VERY Rough Guide to the Fringe. He presents updates from the World’s Biggest Open Arts Festival – the Edinburgh 2022 Fringe! Here we find out about a youth company in Edinburgh
Nick Hennegan blasts off with full coverage of the SpaceUK venue launch for the Edinburgh Fringe, 2022.
Contains some strong language and adult themes.
Also on BohemianBritian.com — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bohemianbritain/message
A collection of reviews from our Edinburgh premiere. We’ll update as more come in!
https://broadwaybaby.com/shows/winston-and-david/760447
Nick Hennegan’s Rough Guide to the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe continues with the creator of Fringe Review, Paul Levy. Also on BohemianBritain.com — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bohemianbritain/message
Nick Hennegan talks to Chole Rice and Natasha Roland, two young women from New York, USA, who worked two jobs to raise the funds to come to the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time with their show And Then The Rodeo Burned Down – and won a Fringe First! — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bohemianbritain/message
And Guy Masterson says hello! The latest update in Nick Hennegan’s VERY Rough Guide to the Edinburgh Fringe 2022! — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bohemianbritain/message
Nick Hennegan’s VERY rough Bohemian guide to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2022 starts here. With Dr Who and a lesbian breakup.
I’m sitting in the Brass Monkey Pub, on Drummond Street in Edinburgh. And my first week at the Edinburgh Fringe is almost up.
I had a comfortable train journey up from King’s Cross in London on Monday. I actually have a numbered seat for both directions, which I strongly recommend if you’re traveling by train. It can get very busy on the Edinburgh trains in August and there is nothing worse than having to stand for a five-hour train journey. This I know from bitter personal experience!
I walked to my digs from Waverley Station. It took about 20 minutes. I’ve been coming to the Fringe since 1992. The first time was with the comedian Jasper Carrott’s management company, Starward, who bought me here having seen my production of Henry V – Lion of England at the Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham. At the end of the show, I thought people were running for the door, but it was a standing ovation, and it’s one of those showbiz stories. John Starkey, one-half of Starward, said he liked what he saw and they would like to take us to the Fringe. I had no idea what the Fringe was, but I said yes.
I almost regret it. It changed my life forever. I saw the democracy of what happened in Edinburgh, Scotland in August and I was quite concerned that my city, Birmingham, Britain’s Second City, didn’t have a single fringe pub venue. As a proud Brummie, I decided to try and put that right. I’ve been financially very poor ever since! But it’s never been boring! The Edinburgh Fringe is a bit like a drug. And as I walk to my digs, I can feel the old familiar, horrific, horrible joy of being back.
Edinburgh is a beautiful city at any time of the year, but in August it becomes a world destination. And although the economics can be horrendous, there is nothing like it in the world. Post-Covid, its attraction is arguably even stronger.
I dump my bags at the digs. A basic students room, but en suite which is good. I then take my laptop to one of the many local pubs and do a bit of light script editing before tomorrow’s Technical rehearsal for Winston and David in the Underbelly Dairy Room of the McEwan Hall in Bristo Square. Within 20 minutes, a beautiful, blonde 24 year old woman suddenly sits opposite me.
“What are you doing working at this time on a Friday night?”
Good point. I wondered about that too.
“I’ve just split up with my girlfriend.”
She’s not drunk. I feel sorry for this stranger. We end up talking about who is the best showrunner for Doctor Who. We part and I’ll probably never see her again. But we both agreed – Russell T Davies.
Welcome to the crazy world of the Edinburgh Fringe!
