DAY 19: Breaking New Ground and Finding Middle Ground

What happens when what started on the “fringe” takes centrestage?

It becomes a global celebration of everything art. For 78 years, the cobblestones of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have witnessed the move of the margin to the mainstream. …And this year, it will also give volume to the 50 curated climate narratives that refuse to stay silent.

Storyteller and Arts Enthusiast Himali Kothari reports from Edinburgh.

DAY 19:

In 1947 the Fringe came into being as an unofficial offshoot of the Edinburgh International Festival. At the time, it had not yet been christened. But two features that would later go on to define it were established: the lack of official invitations to perform, and the use of unconventional venues. The first has led to an unimaginable — and perhaps unthinkable — variety of performances becoming a part of the Fringe. The second has resulted in an imaginative exploration of spaces for performance.

It Should Have Been Elementary, But Few Struggles Are

My first outing for the day is a reflection of both features: Alice Hawkins – Working Class Suffragette at the Arthur Conan Doyle Centre.

The building is a grand six-storey Victorian townhouse built in 1881 as the family home of brewer, politician and philanthropist William McEwan. Arthur Conan Doyle is one of the many literary heroes of Edinburgh, but this Centre has nothing to do with Doyle’s most beloved fictional hero, Holmes. In fact, the origin of its name lies in a relatively unknown facet of Doyle’s character — his deep association with spiritualism. In the latter part of his life, Doyle wrote the book The History of Spiritualism and spent a large part of his last years touring the UK to talk about it. The building was acquired by the Edinburgh Association of Spiritualists in 2011, restored to some extent to its original glory, and named the Arthur Conan Doyle Centre in honour of his connection with spiritualism.

Today’s performance promises the story of Alice Hawkins, one of the most well-known suffragettes of the working class. What has me intrigued is that the performance has been curated by Hawkins’ great-grandson, Peter Barratt. As far as first impressions go, Barratt does not make a great one. But a few minutes into the role of narrator he comes into his own, and his pride in his family’s history shines through. It is the performance of actress Ruth Pownall, however, whose readings of Hawkins’ letters and recreation of some scenes from her life infuse a vividness into the performance. Pownall is effective in creating resonance with Hawkins’s cause and her strife.

“Vera, you must use your vote, we suffered for it” — Hawkins’s entreaty to her granddaughter rings through as the last line. Hawkins’s fight may have ended, but the struggle for all that she and her sister suffragettes had set out to achieve hasn’t.

Siblings, Friends and Politicians… and the Elusive Middle Ground

The CCTA program today features five plays, a couple of which have been performed earlier. Nicolas Billon’s The Polar Bears has been a clear favourite with the theatre groups — one, because of the many laugh-out-loud lines, and second, for being incisive in making its point. One of the earlier performances had the actors in polar bear-style onesies with painted noses and whiskers. This one has the actors stand at the mics and express the lines, armed simply with their voices. But the effect is not dulled — such is the power of Billon’s text.

Angie Farrow’s The Launch is based on the concept of a green city. In the play, three activist-friends have accomplished their dream to set up a greening project in an urban enclave. Launch day is here and the world’s eyes are on them. Georgie the entrepreneur and Stu the visionary are present, but Lucas the scientist is missing. When he does show up, he seems to have gone off the rails. Through the play, Farrow asks: “How do we find a balance between our need to make a difference and our psychological well-being?”

Undertow by Keith Barker is also concerned with finding the middle ground, but on the socio-political level.
“In a political world determined to polarize us, I attempted to write something that is closer to a real conversation, emphasizing not the dichotomy of right versus wrong, but rather the hopeful idea of right versus right, and the art of finding a middle ground,” he says.
In his play, two siblings argue and question all of each other’s choices — from choice of transport, their jobs, to their like-dislike of vegan cheese. It is evident that some of the differences will persist, but can they find a way to co-exist?

Today’s programme is curated by Hamish Muir, the founder of Arctic Lion Theatre, which is focused on projects centred on themes such as ecology, nature, sustainability and the like. Muir ends the curated readings with a performance of Un-Quote, a monologue written by him. The piece is a satire on extracts from the IPCC Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change that was signed in 2015. As Muir reads the excerpts, he emphasises random parts of the text and plays with the language, driving home the absurdity of drafting policies unless they are supported by the right action.

The question of striking a balance continues to echo in the interaction between the audience, Muir and other theatre practitioners whose work has environmental concerns as their cornerstone. But it is not a question with a neatly tied-up bow for an answer. Perspectives continue to evolve and test boundaries — and accepting that is the first step towards solutions.