Greenside Venues are now into their second decade of Fringe productions and continue to offer a mixed programme of comedy, dance, theatre, family shows and music that merits breaking out of the big venue bubble. The bulk of their shows are in their venues at Nicolson Square and Infirmary Street, but don’t forget the original venue over at Royal Terrace near the Playhouse if you’re in that part of town.
Current world affairs mean we’re not short of possible dystopian futures to consider, and 2044 offers one such scenario – refugees from a flooded England herded into a Scottish refugee holding camp. It’s at Infirmary Street at 11:30. An apocalyptic scenario from real life is recalled in Allison After A Fire – the tale of someone who lost everything in the worst wildfire in Colorado’s long history of wildfires. Meanwhile, The Doomed tries to see the funny side of armageddon with sketch comedy that asks, what would you do if there were only five years left til the end of the world? We might all soon find out!
Understandably, there’s also a lot of millennial angst at this year’s Fringe. Boys examines what happens when partying hard is used as the solution to a bleak future, while Wasted sees Cambridge Uni Am-drammers do a slam poetry take on disillusionment, in a theatre piece written by Kate Tempest.
There are plenty of lighter moments in the programme too! Like What The Funk?, the story of funk played out live by eight-piece band Lights Out By Nine. It’s pretty hard to be troubled when you’re really feeling the funk. And on the subject of music history, Ears on a Beatle, explores a dark little corner of the life of a legend. Based on the secret files the FBI held on John Lennon in the decade running up to his assassination, it asks questions about celebrity and conspiracy.
Comedy legends Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy get the biographical treatment by Searchlight Theatre in a two week run at Nicolson Square, while revered playwright Alan Bennett also becomes a double act, found talking to himself in Alan and Bennett at Infirmary Street.
As ever, this is a mere sample of what’s on offer. We’ll be reviewing as much as we can and reporting back from Greenside’s launch on Wednesday lunchtime. In the meantime, the full Greenside programme can be downloaded from their site www.greensidevenue.co.uk