As the world’s largest arts festival, The Edinburgh Fringe is one of the most important dates on the annual arts and cultural calendar. Following the sad cancellation of 2020, it’s been great to see artists, performers and festival-goers back on the streets of the Scottish capital, and also joining in the fun via live streams and performance recordings which now abound thanks to changes post-COVID.
Wales might have had a smaller presence than in years prior to the pandemic, but there has still been plenty to enjoy from the Welsh arts sector with both live and digital offerings from Dirty Protest Theatre, Taking Flight Theatre Company and National Theatre Wales. To showcase Wales at the Fringe, Wales Arts Review has compiled reviews and interviews on 2021’s Welsh Fringe performances (both live and digital).
Phil Morris reviews FOW, the digitally staged play from Deaf & Fabulous Productions and Taking Flight Theatre Company which tells a romantic comedy story through Welsh language, English language and British Sign Language.
Read Phil Morris’ review here. Details of Fringe showing here.
Kill Me Now | Dirty Protest Theatre
Gareth Smith reviews Kill Me Now, the story of an undertaker’s “end-of-life celebration” funeral business experienced via a Zoom webinar, live-streamed directly from the Edinburgh Fringe.
Read Gareth Smith’s review here. Details of Fringe showing here.
Lisa Jên Brown In Conversation | Return to the Stage
While the rest of us have been adjusting to a return to life post-lockdown, Lisa Jên Brown – frontwoman of Welsh folk band 9Bach – has been busy adapting her audio play Double Drop for the stage in Edinburgh. The two-hander from Dirty Protest Theatre features Lisa alongside Mirain Haf Roberts in a story of colliding cultures in which the Eisteddfod clashes with the ’90s free party rave scene. Caragh Medlicott caught up with Lisa to hear more about the experience of writing, starring and providing the score for her own theatrical production.
Read Caragh Medlicott’s interview with Lisa Jên Brown here. Details of Fringe showing here.
Possible | National Theatre Wales
Phil Morris reviews Shôn Dale-Jones’ new show, Possible, a National Theatre Wales production which blurs mediums in an attempt to tackle the themes of lockdown and pandemic.
Read Phil Morris’ review here. Details of Fringe showing here.
