I grew up in an Edinburgh where locals tried their best to ignore the Festival and Fringe. Even so, I did go to the occasional folk concert and play back in the 1970s. It was only much later and living in the West of Scotland that we started to visit Edinburgh on a regular basis each summer and take in a few shows.
I will never forget the year we managed to cram 8 performances into a 3 day stay. That was before hotel prices during the festival went through the roof. There was an excellent stage version of ‘Twelve Angry Men’ with a star studded cast including Bill Bailey and Russell Hunter (his last performance). Then there was a rather dark play about euthanasia, ‘No more shall we part’, starring Bill Paterson and Dearbhla Molloy. To lighten the atmosphere we thought we would end our trip with the stage version of the TV sit com ‘Allo Allo’, set in René Artois’ small café in Nazi occupied France. To say it didn’t quite work is the understatement of all time. We were squeezed in at the end of a row of about thirty seats. There was no centre aisle. By the time Officer Crabtree said his first ‘Good moaning’ we were ready to say ‘au revoir’ but there was no escape until the interval. An hour or so later it became clear that there wasn’t going to be an interval. Like the painting of ‘the Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies’ hidden in the cafe’s cellar, we stayed in the dark right through to the end.
Fast forward to last week and the seating at the Pleasance made it equally difficult for an early getaway. Thankfully that wasn’t needed as everyone sat tight, laughing right through till the hour was up. We would have stayed for another hour if we could have.