Posted By: Richard White, 11 August 2010
As part of the Escalator East to Edinburgh scheme we're supporting 5 Live Literature artists performing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe: Tim Clare, Molly Naylor, Dean Parkin, Ross Sutherland and Hannah Walker.
You can keep up with their adventures by clicking on the above relevant names, but if you're feeling particularly lazy you can check back here; we'll be posting their latest blogs throughout the rest of the festival.
First up, a few posts from Molly Naylor who's performing
Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You.
Family and mates (and Donny and Anne)
August 10th, 2010
Hello! I’m having a plum.
Life is good here at the Fringe. I’ve been having some family and friends time to remind me that life exists outside of this weird bubble. Ross Sutherland took me to meet his family and have a barbecue at their friends house – Donny and Anne. They were so lovely to me and I hope I didn’t ruin it by eating all the food in the entire world. I hadn’t eaten for about ten hours and so by the time Donny fired up the charcoal I was positively drooling all over his sausages. Smooth Naylor, smooth work (Someone called me Naylor in a review the other day. It was a bit of a highlight. I might start referring to myself like this. Naylor took a sip of her tea and finished her plum). Hanging out with Ross’s fam was a treat – his brother and sister are beautiful, normal people and they didn’t hand me any fliers or ask me about my show. I’m very bad at talking about my show. I need an elevator pitch. Luckily I have some excellent flierers, including Norwich’s very own Andy Bennett – part of Shitty Deal Puppet Theatre.
My parents arrived today, which is also lovely. I spent yesterday with
Kim Hope, a brilliant comedian who took me to see some ace shows (Celia Pacquola and Tripod) and pimped me out to all her comic mates. She knows EVERYONE. I had to stand like a gormless twat while she told them all I was amazing. Friends are brilliant! Family too. It’s important to remember the wider world at a time like this, otherwise one could turn into a bit of a twonk. Hopefully I’ll be able to hang out with them without talking about audience numbers and writhing on the floor in tears. Wish me luck!
Right – I’m off to prepare. Have a lovely day x
Oooh, if you’re up here my recommendations today are
The Harbour by Limbik Theatre and
Flying Solos by Celia Pacquola. Both are funny and startling and moving.
Aces
August 7th, 2010
Hello! Good morning. I’ve got some tea and about five minutes spare which I wanted to spend with you. It’s all a bit mental here, in a good way. Channel 4 news came to my flat yesterday to film me for a feature on verbatim theatre at the Fringe (airs tonight on the news, unless something more newsworthy happens. I can’t imagine this for a moment), then I had me first preview (all good, lots of lovely audience), then I saw a bunch of shows.
I made the mistake of trying to have a bit of banter with the Channel 4 man. It didn’t work. He was nice, but I think TV people are sometimes baffled by theatre people. He filmed me for a bit and then went ‘that’s actually okay. I thought it was going to be massively shit’. Huzzah! I tried to offer him a look at Broken Music (Sting’s autobiography – it was here when we arrived), but he just shook his head. He was a proper person, and could tell that I am not. But it was still cool, and maybe I’ll be on telly.
I saw some shows! I saw some shows!
Dean Parkin’s DEAN’S DAD’S DUCKS is so, so, ace and brilliant. It’s funny and interesting and honest and moving. I highly recommend it.
Tim Clare’s DEATH DRIVE, although I’ve seen it six times (we did previews together) is still one of my favourite stand-up shows ever. I also saw Ross Sutherland’s THE THREE STIGMATA OF PACMAN the day before. Oh Ross. If you haven’t seen him perform, I think you’d like him. He’s a beautiful, shambolic human being and his show is lovely and weird and surprising. He told me the story of him arriving in Edinburgh the day before – he dropped his iphone onto the railway tracks at the station and ended up being lowered onto the track by his legs by a kindly (?) conductor. He definitely almost died.
I’ve finished my tea. I think that’s it from me. Yesterday I saw all my friend’s shows, now I’m going to check out some other stuff. Thanks for coming to see me! It’s been nice. x
Edinburgh – Hullo!
August 4th, 2010 | 3 comments
Hello! I apologise in advance for my overuse of exclamation marks. I’m excited, bordering on crazed. Welcome to my Edinburgh Fringe Festival Blog. A short post now, and then I need to get stuck in to real life…
We arrived (myself and Producer Sarah) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last night, ready for a month of performing, drinking, seeing stuff, and possibly going a bit mad (everyone says this is inevitable).
Our flat is good. It comes with Sting’s autobiography – Broken Music. No, I don’t know what this means either. I have promised P.S. nightly readings from Broken Music. She’s happy about this, in a way.
I am nervous. But excited. I promise this won’t be a blog in which I go on about my show, and my reviews, and boring stuff like that. I’ll talk a bit about cool things I’ve seen, dickhead things I’ve done, good shows to see, and maybe quote some Sting. Thanks for reading! More soon… x
