The Festival Fringe Society is delighted that the first round of awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been announced this weekend.
The Scotsman's prestigious Fringe First awards, which recognise outstanding new writing premiered at the Fringe, were announced on Friday 12 August. With the prizes awarded every Friday throughout the Fringe, seven shows received the award in its first week.
Six Bank of Scotland Herald Angels and two special recognition awards were presented this morning, Saturday 13 August, in the first selection of shows by the Scottish national, who will award across the Edinburgh Festivals as further events take place over the coming month.
The first Fringe Review Outstanding Theatre Award has been awarded to Anton's Uncles, based on Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Using only the male characters from the original play, Anton's Uncles at Bedlam merges the original text with new writing, movement, dancing and singing. Fringe Review awards this accolade three times during the course of the Fringe and to win a play has to receive a five star review and be selected by at least two of the publication’s reviewers.
The Irish new writing company Fishamble received both a Fringe First and a Bank of Scotland Herald Angel for their piece Silent at Dance Base which fuses new writing and an intense physical performance. Silent depicts the life of a homeless man who once had splendid things, but lost it all.
Triple Fringe First winning director Hannah Eidinow wins a 2011 Fringe First with Somewhere Beneath It All, A Small Fire Burns Still. Phil Nichol looks into seeking forgiveness in an unrelenting world, presented by The Comedians Theatre Company - Festival Highlights’ at the Gilded Balloon.
A Fringe First for Analogue Theatre’s 2401 Objects at the Pleasance is inspired by the story of Patient HM, who, back in 1963, was subjected to radical brain surgery in the US in a bid to treat his severe epilepsy - and lost almost all his memory as a result.
Previous Fringe sell outs, puppetry company Blind Summit’s The Table, at the Pleasance, wins a Fringe First for the intriguing story of a puppet stuck on a table.
The New York based TEAM has once again been rewarded with a Fringe First for new writing, with Mission Drift at the Traverse, and today they also won a Bank of Scotland Herald Angel. The company’s fourth consecutive show to receive a Fringe First Mission Drift depicts a pioneering journey across the USA in search of the character of American capitalism.
Zinnie Harris’s The Wheel, Traverse, is a powerful story from the National Theatre Of Scotland following a woman living in a landscape devastated by the death and damage that war inflicts on children wins a Fringe First. National Theatre of Scotland pick up two awards this weekend, with The Strange Undoing of Prudentia Hart, performed in west end bar Ghillie Dhu, winning a Bank of Scotland Herald Angel.
Futureproof received the final of the seven Fringe Firsts, seeing Traverse artistic director Dominic Hill going out on a high with his final show for the venue. A co-production with Dundee Rep Ensemble, the show tells the story of a travelling freak show which hits hard times.
Hotel Medea, performed overnight at new venue Summerhall by Brazilian company Zecora Ura sees the audience follow the demise of their ‘parents’ relationship in a retelling of the Euripides’ classic and today wins a Bank of Scotland Herald Angel.
Junction 25’s I Hope My Heart Goes First is also awarded a Bank of Scotland Herald Angel. The Tramway-based youth company disclose their take on the subject of love and the heart.
Three Balls And A New Suit’s Bank of Scotland Herald Angel is the first ever award won by a show in the new cabaret section of the Fringe programme. Mat Ricardo takes the audience through the highs and lows of a life spent juggling.
Bank of Scotland Herald Archangel is awarded to Heathcote Williams, poet and playwright at the Fringe. Zanzibar Cats by Heathcote Williams plays at the Gilded Balloon and the Little Devil Award goes to Lorne Campbell, at the Fringe with Tonight Sandy Greirson Will Lecture, Dance, and Box for channelling the spirit of ‘the show must go on!’
Published 13 August 2011