Claudia Massie

Spirit of the Fringe

• From magazine issue: 11 August 2012

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  Spirit of the Fringe

  

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Alexander Larman

What happened to the Rishi Sunak I knew at school?

Bankrolled by the financial consultant and sometime Downing Street adviser Robert McDowell, the 2.5-acre site incorporates theatre and exhibition spaces, studios, workshops, libraries and little museums. There are two courtyards and 500 rooms. The designer Pam Hogg was persuaded to have a show there ahead of London Fashion Week purely by the lure of the venue, and the post-mortem room in particular.

She’s not alone. Summerhall’s bar, the Royal Dick (above), is becoming one of the city’s most fashionable after-hours drinking spaces. Here punters can enjoy a pint from the in-house craft brewery while perusing the enormous Summerhall festival programme — over 60 events every day — drama, dance, art, installations, workshops, lectures and more.

One show that will be hard to miss is 24h, a one-man Fringe play running from 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. the next day. The old Dissection Room will host Rime, an acrobatic circus show born out of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ while Teatr Zar’s visceral Caesarean Section — Essays on Suicide plays out in the specially constructed Black Tent venue.

Teatr Zar are part of a strong Polish contingent, reflecting Summerhall’s defiantly non-parochial outlook. A highlight of the film programme, Boro in the Box, is also Polish in flavour, presenting a reimagining of the life of director Walerian Borowczyk and accompanied by his influential short animations.

There are 30 art exhibitions in total, including a special show dedicated to the Demarco European Art Foundation. The archive of artist, curator and cultural maestro Richard Demarco has found a deserved permanent home here. The former library is the appropriate venue for David Michalek’s hypnotic, Muybridge-influenced anatomical photographic studies Figure Studies and Slow Dancing.

The dizzying array of events at Summerhall, most of which are under £10 if they cost anything at all, bridge the gap between the high arts of the International Festival and the extravagance of the Fringe. There may be 503 stand-up acts in Edinburgh this month, but it is at Summerhall that you will find the true spirit of the Fringe.