(1 of a series perhaps? is anyone going up this year, or will this just turn into me moaning about the graun?)
Of course, some of us were doing this sort of thing ten years ago at the fringe luvvie, and just because only 19 people came to see us all week (including my co-conspiritor’s girlfriend three times), doesn’t make it any less important. Unfortunately The Stage’s digital archive isn’t fully up and running yet or you could search the late August 95 issues for our less than complimentary (and thoroughly deserved I must say) review. Good to see that Stan’s Café are still knocking about though, I thought they’d given up years ago.
Lyn Gardner is wrong, pompous and hypocritical, to say the least, about edfringe.com though. It’s as though she’s never seen a performance featuring/directed/produced by someone she knows, never accepted a freebie (i’m sure she pays for all her own tickets) and even opines that “at least readers can be assured that [professional critics] are independant”. My mouth was opening and closing but no sound was coming out when I read this last night. This is gatekeeper/rockism 101 isn’t it? Independant of WHAT exactly? Even if “20 Hilarious Skits About Being a Med Student” gets 5 out of 5 from every “reviewer”, people still aren’t going to see it as clearly it will be wank. I know I’m preaching to the converted here, but really, I thought this sort of attitude died out about the same time the spice girls split up…