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Edinburgh has spawned many notable
original shows and helped
establish the careers of many writers and performers.
In
1960, Alan
Bennett, Dudley
Moore, Peter
Cook and Jonathan
Miller performed at the Royal Lyceum theatre in
Beyond the Fringe
,
introducing a new wave of British satire and heralding a change in attitudes
towards politicians and the establishment. Ironically,
this show was put
together by the Edinburgh International Festival as a rebuff to the emerging
Fringe. But its title alone helped publicise "the Fringe", especially when it
went on to London's West End and New York's Broadway for the next 12
months.
Tom Stoppard's play,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
was first
performed in its full version at the 1966 Fringe.
It has also launched or advanced the careers
of a number of noted
actors, such as Derek Jacobi, who starred in a sixth-form production
of
Hamlet,
which was very well regarded.
During the 1980s, the Festival Fringe attracted a number of major
touring companies. Joint
Stock Theatre Company, arguably the leading
innovative touring company at that time, brought two productions to the
Fringe. These were
The Great Celestial Cow
by Sue Townsend and
Fire in
the Lake
by Karim Alrawi. In 1986, the Fringe saw the breakout performance
of Craig Ferguson as "Bing Hitler", a "parody of all the über-patriotic native
folk singers who seemed to infect every public performance in Scotland."
2003 saw a very successful production of
12 Angry Men
staged at
the Assembly Rooms using established comedians in the roles of the twelve
jurors. It starred Owen O'Neill in the role
made famous by Henry Fonda,
Juror #8. Stephen Frost, Phil Nichol and Bill Bailey also featured.
A 2004 version of
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
was beset by
problems, including the lead actor Christian Slater contracting chicken pox
and the
original director, Guy Masterson, quitting the project before it opened.
Masterson was replaced by Terry Johnson.
In 2005, a production of Neil Simon's
The Odd Couple
starring Bill
Bailey and Alan Davies was staged at the Assembly Hall, the meeting place
on the Mound of the Church of Scotland. This had been taken over by
Assembly Theatre and transformed into an 840-seat theatre.
The Tattoo set-up at Edinburgh Castle served as the 6,000-seat venue
for
a
one-off
performance
by Ricky
Gervais of
his
stand-up
show
Fame
in 2007. Gervais was accused of greed
and taking audiences
away from smaller shows. Gervais donated
the profits from the show
to Macmillan Cancer Support.
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