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  Search the programme listings by name/keyword Search the programme listings by date/style Dozens of artists showing in unusual locations Where and how to get tickets Tell us what you thought/you saw - contributions welcome! Message Board - click to join in the discussions Fringe 2001 home  


My Fringe: Wendy Matthews, Fringe Administrator

We've been planning what we're going to put on for a very long time & I'm most pleased when we manage to book things I wanted right from the start. Julia Morris was the best act we saw at Edinburgh, no question. Abdelkader Sadoun contacted us just too late for the 2000 festival, so we've been wanting to do him ever since. And his bassplayer's called Saddam Hussein...


My Fringe: David Stevenson, Fringe Theatre Programmer

  1. Forced Entertainment - Quizoola
    Only in the Fringe can you see such extraordinary theatre.
  2. Beckett's Malloy
    I know it's a repeat, I saw it last time, and I would not miss it for any other show.
  3. Beckett's Malone Dies
    This is a new work and if it's half as good as Malloy it's top of the list.
  4. Merchant of Venice
    Shakespeare. And an international company directed by Malachi Bogdanov.
  5. Hoi Polloi - Sweet Bobabola
    Silly comedy, with a dash of Peepolykus
  6. El Pez Cover Yourself
    Another dash of Peepolykus, this time award winning Spaniards.
  7. I Know What You Want
    Flat share comedy with too much sex, drugs and booze.
  8. Design for Living
    It's not only for Lesbians, it is also good theatre.
  9. The Dresser & Playhouse Creatures
    Two cracking good plays in one night.
  10. A Walk With Bath Parade Guides
    List complete and loads more good theatre, but I must get out and the Walks look just the thing, but which one???


Editors Choice:

(I really have read this programme more times than anyone in their right mind would want to...)

The best things about the Fringe are the things you wouldnt get to see in Bath any other way, or that no other festival would put on.
Forced Entertainment wouldnt be here otherwise, you wouldnt be able to go see a weird 6-hour piece in the Guildhall. Apart from the council themselves, I suppose. The Opener could be an odd one too, with luck.

We wouldnt get Spanish comedy companies or comedians who don't do standup if it wasn't the Fringe. Nobody, but nobody is going to book a session like Swingalonga Johnny & Jimmy.

Some of the best shows have bits of Bath in them: like Shakespeare in the Baths, like Bobby Mickleburgh, like all the stuff outdoors, Bedlam, the one in Sydney Gardens, Be-Artifacts. And there's two different sets of shows on buses!

There's never any decent world & roots music the rest of the year, especially dance gigs, and all of a sudden there's Santana Mongoley, La Timbala, Bayou Seco, the Baka/Kora thing, Abdelkader Saadoun, the Young Tradition Winners, Carthy... Festivals don't usually take pop music seriously, either, but there's Skip McDonald, Up Bustle & Out, Citizen Fish, Munter, Hazel Winter... If there's no Glastonbury I want my chance at some interesting bands.

But what I want to see most is stuff I don't know anything about yet, that odd night in the Fringe Club when everything went critically improbable, the International street performers coming to Walcot Nation: even better, I haven't had to write about those things and this programme is only limited use in finding them...