The first thing to do this year at the Fringe proper was to pick up the mound of preordered tickets from the main box office. This accomplished, the Bedlam was our destination for Belleville Rendez-vous. I’d been to Bedlam last year, but in the main theatre had obviously never looked up and seen the immense space and gothic window above the stage lights. Anyway, the stage captured the film pretty much perfectly, from the excellently realised dog barking at passing trains to the ingenious method for catching frogs or the rolling waves of the Atlantic.
Meadowbank Sports Centre was home to the international Edinburgh vs Stuttgart Roller Derby match. Edinburgh led narrowly throughout the first half, but lost the lead shortly in the second half, and from then on it was a closely fought back-and-forth between the two teams. With two points between them going into the final jam, Edinburgh managed to claim just one more, thereby losing by the narrowest of margins. A great game, and Juicy Lucy made some excellent points in her final bout for Edinburgh.
The bout finished in time for us to catch M J Hibbett and Steve Hewitt in Moon Horse vs the Mars Men of Jupiter. I saw Dinosaur Planet last year, and this more than matched that for laughs and high production values; it’s an important story that needed to be told, about the man, horse (and robot) keeping us safe from threats from other worlds.
The last event of the day was Evelyn Evelyn at the new Assembly George Square. Very accomplished piano and accordion playing, with harmonious tunes and humourous lyrics, but I didn’t really see the need for the concept itself. The bits that weren’t songs just seemed to get in the way of the music slightly; the slight audience participation wasn’t that interesting, though shadow puppetry is always nice. If Amanda and Jason want to duet together, they should just do so, it’d be just as good, doing all the same songs and fitting in more.