The Scotsman Fringe First Awards 2024 - Week three at The Pleasance Grand
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CreativityTranscript
00:00:00Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Scotsman Fringe Awards 2024. Hooray!
00:00:17We've made it almost to the end of another Fringe, and as ever, it's my joy and my privilege
00:00:23to be here today to present the Scotsman Fringe Awards to some of the greatest shows on the
00:00:29Fringe. This is the day, of course, when we not only award our week three Fringe first awards,
00:00:35of which we've got five today, but also a whole host of other awards to terrific shows on the
00:00:43Fringe, which will be transferring to Brighton, to Australia, which have made a huge contribution
00:00:49to mental health debate on the Fringe, and an award in memory of the wonderful young actor
00:00:55Philippa Braganza, who made a huge sensation on this Fringe some years ago. So we have many awards
00:01:03to award today, and it's an absolute delight to be here. As always with the Scotsman Fringe Awards,
00:01:10there are so many people to thank, and without whom it couldn't happen. But for now, my first
00:01:15huge thank you goes to the team here at the Pleasance, who are our wonderful hosts for all
00:01:21our Fringe first award ceremonies, and for the Scotsman Fringe Awards today. So can we have a
00:01:26roar of applause, please, for the wonderful team here at the Pleasance, and I can hardly see you,
00:01:36actually, it's very bright down here, and a huge thank you to them. And the other big thank you
00:01:42that we must make today is to our two new sponsors, Napier University and Queen Margaret University,
00:01:49Edinburgh. It's wonderful to have on board, as sponsors, these two universities in Edinburgh,
00:01:56which both work wonderfully in the field of arts education, in film, in theatre, in writing,
00:02:03in acting. So it's wonderful to have these two new sponsors on board this year, and without them,
00:02:09again, the whole Scotsman Awards ceremony couldn't happen. So a big cheer of applause for them.
00:02:20Now, as we all know, it's not easy getting to the Fringe, and particularly since the pandemic,
00:02:30for individual artists and freelancers, these have been tough times, and many, many, many of
00:02:37the artists here on the Fringe this year have had to really put themselves on the line to be here
00:02:44at all, and we know that these are not easy times for the arts in the UK, and we've had a very sharp
00:02:50reminder of that in Scotland this week, with a shocking decision by Creative Scotland that
00:02:56they're going to have to, for now, close their open fund for individual artists to all new
00:03:02applications. There's been a big shockwave through the Scottish arts scene. Of course, there are
00:03:08campaigns going on, there's an online petition, there's an open letter that people can sign,
00:03:13but what I feel most deeply about the kind of climate of austerity in which the arts now live
00:03:20is that, as a sector, we have to stay together in campaigning for better provision. I was lucky
00:03:27enough to grow up in a post-war period when governments were free and able to invest in
00:03:33their people, and I think we have to work together across the arts and with other sectors to
00:03:41campaign for a new system in which governments are once again more able to invest in their people,
00:03:47in their health, their education, in their creativity, and their imagination, because
00:03:52when you think of some of the crises we now face, those are the only things which are going to help
00:03:57us to free ourselves from those crises and to move forward. So let's all come together.
00:04:11And finally, a slightly longer introduction than usual, but today we have the UNESCO Day
00:04:19of Remembrance for the Abolition of Slavery, and in many fringe venues at 11 o'clock today,
00:04:26there will be a minute's silence to remember the victims of slavery, the legacy of slavery,
00:04:31which is still with us. We saw a wonderful international festival show last night,
00:04:36Christiane Jatahis' After the Silence, which deals with the impact of the long legacy of slavery
00:04:43in Brazil, and we are not going to stop our proceedings at 11 o'clock, stop the celebration
00:04:48of our work today, but I thought that we could, at this moment, just take a few seconds to think
00:04:56both about all the victims of slavery and its huge impact on our cultures, and on the huge
00:05:02extent to which Scotland itself was complicit in that trade, and the wealth that flowed back here
00:05:08was dependent on that trade, and also to think of the victims of oppression and suffering elsewhere
00:05:16in the world at the moment, who are very much in the front of many of our minds during this
00:05:21fringe, so can we just take a few seconds of silence to give thanks for the fact that we are
00:05:26here and together, and to think and reflect on the suffering of others.
00:05:42Thank you very much everyone, thank you, and now we move forward with this year's awards,
00:05:50and the first round of awards will be this week's Scotsman Fringe Firsts. As you know,
00:05:57every week we have a special guest star to help me present the fringe firsts, and this week
00:06:05I'm absolutely delighted to be welcoming to the stage a woman who is both an inspired solo
00:06:12performer, a stand-up comic, a ventriloquist, a magnificent actress, a woman who's doing her own
00:06:20show here every day at the Pleasant's Grand at 7.30 in the evening, and a woman who this week
00:06:28premiered her very first film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, a film called
00:06:33Sunlight, and here is a clue in which she plays a woman in a monkey suit. Please welcome to the
00:06:39stage the wonderful Nina Conti. Nina has Scottish connections of course, because she's steeped in
00:06:58Scottish showbiz history as the daughter of Tom Conti and Cara Wilson, but you've built this
00:07:03magnificent career for yourself, Nina, with your companion Monkey of course. Is Monkey here?
00:07:10Well, he is actually. I mean, yes, we'll have to get close to the mic.
00:07:16He is here.
00:07:17Hello, hello. I thought that was a great speech.
00:07:24That's interesting.
00:07:27Yes, so tell me about your relationship with the fringe, Cara, what does it mean to you?
00:07:33Well, it's shaped my life. It's all my fault. I've been coming here for 20 years. I mean,
00:07:40that's too long for any act. I can't believe where your hand has been for 20 years. 20 years I've
00:07:47been coming in. It's completely shaped my life. My children's lives too. They've grown up here
00:07:52and they've gone to fringe. I find the fringe to be like a university of humanity. It's where you
00:07:58learn about everyone's unique perspective and it's all here. It's the hugest thing in the world,
00:08:04the biggest expression of the arts in the world. I don't know anywhere like it and I don't know
00:08:10when I'll ever stop coming or please stop coming. Just do a TED talk and call it a day.
00:08:18But I mean, I love it here. Sorry, I'm hogging the mic. Come back, come back.
00:08:21No, no, no, no. That's fantastic. And the shows that you're doing this year, your show here
00:08:28is called Nina Conti, Whose Face Is It Anyway? Tell us about that.
00:08:33Yes. Well, that's because I put masks on people and I make them talk. It's fantastically
00:08:38disempowering. But I really love doing it because I'm actually quite shy and this form of expression
00:08:45has been my outlet. Oh dear, what a burden. And so the thing is, I get these masks and I'm shy,
00:08:54you guys are probably shy. I put the mask on one of you and it creates a sort of happy idiot who
00:08:58doesn't give a damn about tomorrow, which I find very liberating, very artistic. But yes,
00:09:05so I find that really like a sort of freedom of expression and all of that, which is so important.
00:09:10And the film, what was the experience like of directing your first film and having it premiere?
00:09:14Well, amazing. I mean, she did it in a monkey suit. I can't believe I wasn't in it. No,
00:09:20you are in a way, a larger version. Yeah, arc scaled me. And so I did the whole thing in fur
00:09:26and it was quite a lot to learn, but I'm very happy with the result. And I couldn't be happier
00:09:31that Edinburgh was the premiere for that film. It just felt really fitting and organic. So
00:09:38it means a lot to me, all of this. I'm really excited to be here and to be sharing these awards.
00:09:42I'll go. Thank you so much.
00:09:54Thanks for being with us. Okay, so we plunge into this week's Fringe Firsts. We've already
00:10:01awarded 12 Fringe Firsts to fantastic shows on this year's Fringe. Many of the companies involved
00:10:07are here today, but today we have five more to award. And again, they are shows that really
00:10:14demonstrate the Fringe at its best, trying to tackle big subjects and doing it in ways that
00:10:19are hugely entertaining and theatrical. So the first show playing at Summer Hall is Instructions
00:10:29by Subject Object. Now, Subject Object are a company that will be known to some of you. They
00:10:34did fascinating things during lockdown with online drama that you could participate in at home.
00:10:42But for Instructions, they're doing something that requires a live performance. Every day,
00:10:49a different actor arrives to play Instructions. I was lucky enough to see Paul Adeyefo from a show
00:10:57called Bellringers at the Summer Hall, who was brilliant, but everyone who's seen it is hugely
00:11:02impressed with the actors who take on this task. The actor arrives, and they mustn't know what's
00:11:07going to happen. They mustn't have seen the show before. And the stage is brilliantly set up so
00:11:14that they receive instructions from screens around the stage about what to say and what to do. So they
00:11:20begin to do this, and they're playing an actor. The actor is having an audition. But as the show
00:11:27evolves, the audition ends, and the actor waits to find out what's going to happen next.
00:11:33The show darkens and darkens. It enters that place that artificial intelligence scientists
00:11:40call the uncanny valley, where you really begin to wonder about the impact of artificial intelligence
00:11:47and all the different technologies surrounding it on our sense of who we are and what it even means
00:11:54to be a human being in the world. It's a show brilliantly written by Nathan Ellis. It's
00:12:00performed by, every day, a different brave and gifted actor on this fringe. It's produced by
00:12:10Eve Allen. The tech is by Harry Halliday. There's dramaturgy by the team, and there's wonderful
00:12:18lighting, too, by David Doyle. And I'd like the whole team from Instructions at Summer Hall to
00:12:23come up and accept their Fringe First 2024.
00:12:48And...
00:13:05Oh, this is pretty cool.
00:13:10We made this show, a bunch of us, sort of in my living room, to be honest. So this is
00:13:15pretty amazing to be here. I'd like to thank the team. Joyce mentioned some of their names.
00:13:22Harry Halliday, David Doyle, Sam Ward, Ben Culvershit, Eve Allen, Nat Norland, and Benji,
00:13:29who was the operator of the show up here. It was amazing getting to do the show every day. Actors
00:13:35are incredible people, and I'm so grateful to all of them for taking part in the show and being so
00:13:41nice to me every day when I met them. I really love The Fringe. I've been coming here for a while,
00:13:48and it's very nice to be up here the first time. My first review was actually in The Scotsman,
00:13:54in print, and it was kind of an amazingly written, one-star review.
00:14:02And I have the clipping on my wall, and there's a line from that review that I absolutely love.
00:14:09They called it, um, so transcendentally boring
00:14:14that trying to engage with it on any level is like trying to scale a glass wall.
00:14:21Yeah, so, and that's my prize possession, so it's very nice that I will,
00:14:25I'll have this to go up on my wall alongside it. So thank you so much.
00:14:39Show number two also concerns itself with an impact of technology on our lives. It's a technology
00:14:46with which we're all much more familiar, of course, because it's been happening for 15 or 20
00:14:50years now. It's the technology of social media, um, and the nature of the interactions that can
00:14:57take place there, how controversies can take root and take fire and become hideously polarized
00:15:05within minutes rather than hours or days, and if you are on the receiving end of one of these
00:15:13torrents of online abuse, can radically change your life and damage everything in your life,
00:15:21your relationships, your prospects, your work. We've already had a show, which has received
00:15:29a fringe first, um, a wonderful show, um, last week, um, about a woman who's in an incident of
00:15:37rage, shouts something awful at her child, which happens to be filmed, and which appears that son
00:15:41of a bitch, um, at Summer Hall, um, but this week, um, the show that we're awarding, which deals with
00:15:47a controversy of that kind, is a little inquest into what we are all doing here, uh, playing at
00:15:55Zoo Southside. This is based on a true life story by Josie Dale Jones, who's the creator
00:16:01behind the show and, uh, one of the performer, the, the, the central performer of it, um, of a
00:16:08situation where she tried to make a show about talking about sex to young children, and some
00:16:14details, it was funded by the Arts Council of England, it was all fine, and details of this show
00:16:19leaked out in a way that became the subject of a hideous internet pylon and storm, um, which has
00:16:28radically, um, shifted and changed, um, her life. Um, it's, it's, uh, it's a brilliantly theatrical
00:16:35show. It begins with a very sort of quiet presentation from a table, um, about, uh, about
00:16:41her experience, but then it expands into a kind of visual and, uh, through movement and through
00:16:48dramatized scenes, an exploration of exactly what this has meant to her and how it has damaged her
00:16:54life. Um, like all shows which are solo shows or near shows, near solo shows, it has a big team,
00:17:00um, behind it, um, but I'd like Josie Dale Jones, now, and the writer of the text, Abby Greenland,
00:17:07and director, Rachel Lemon, to come up and accept their award for a little inquest into what we are
00:17:13all doing here.
00:17:15APPLAUSE
00:17:32Um, this show exists in the empty space where a show called The Family Sex Show could have been.
00:17:39Winning a fringe first often means that your work will tour, that it will continue to meet audiences,
00:17:44and that it will keep conversations going. There are lots of reasons that I doubt that this show
00:17:50will be programmed in this country. An award like this acknowledges that this show happened and was
00:17:56here regardless of what the future of it is. We will need to continue to be creative, continue to
00:18:03be resilient, and continue to push for joy to make and present and watch work that is political.
00:18:09We will need to find ways to do this outside of institutions that want to stop us from saying
00:18:14what we want to say. The trust that zoo venues have given me and being back at the festival
00:18:20over the last month has reaffirmed that this is possible. Thank you to everyone who supported this
00:18:27and everyone who made it and performed it with me. They have stood by me in a way that I could
00:18:32never have imagined. Here's to finding a way to make the next one.
00:18:37APPLAUSE
00:18:52Thank you so much Josie for a really brave show about a subject which I guess is affecting
00:18:58more and more performers. Anyone and particularly any woman who steps into the public space is now
00:19:03at risk of becoming the focus of one of these firestorms of hatred and abuse.
00:19:11The next show is another bold show which deals with a subject that is present on this year's
00:19:18fringe, although not I would say hugely prominent, but it's a subject that underlies so many other
00:19:27shows on the fringe and it is the anxiety surrounding poverty, the anxiety surrounding
00:19:34just not having a sufficient income to meet the basics that you need, to pay rent in any decent
00:19:40sized city where theatre tends to happen, to afford the basics of life. In My Mother's Funeral,
00:19:49playing in the wonderful Pains Plough roundabout at Summer Hall, the basic that the central
00:19:55character can't afford is a funeral for her much loved mother. Her mother dies and she learns
00:20:04pretty quickly that any kind of funeral, even a basic one, is going to cost four or three or four
00:20:11or five thousand pounds which she simply doesn't have. Her brother has long since been estranged
00:20:17from their mother and isn't very interested in helping. She feels that to have a council funeral
00:20:23which is the option for people whose families can't afford one wouldn't be dignified, wouldn't
00:20:27be right for her mum. She once had a kind of half joking conversation with her mum about everything
00:20:32she would like for her funeral and it certainly wasn't a council one. So she begins a desperate
00:20:41effort as a badly paid freelance writer, hopelessly patronised by the artistic director
00:20:47of the theatre that she's currently kind of vaguely but not really under commission
00:20:52to, to write a play about this situation that will earn her enough of a fee up front to pay
00:21:00for a funeral for her mum. It's a tremendously complex situation where the reality of what has
00:21:06happened to her and the reality that this director wants to see from what he perceives as a working
00:21:11class black writer begins to clash and overlap and it's all brilliantly handled by a cast
00:21:19of three. It's written by Kelly Jones brilliantly, it's directed by Charlotte Bennett
00:21:30and it's superbly performed by Nicole Sawyer in that central role and by Samuel Armfield and
00:21:36Deborah Baker as the brother and as mum and I'd love the whole team from My Mother's Funeral,
00:21:42The Show to come up and accept their award now. Thank you.
00:22:36I want to thank the Scotsman for this amazing award. I want to thank the Writers Guild of Great
00:22:47Britain who commissioned the original play in partnership with the Mercury Theatre Colchester.
00:22:53I want to thank all our producers and co-producers, Northampton, the Belgrade and Coventry,
00:23:00Mercury Colchester and Landmark Theatres and Team Pains Plough who I have long been a fan of and
00:23:06I've always dreamed of having a show with so to have one is amazing and have it at the roundabout
00:23:12directed by Charlotte is like a dream come true. All the creatives, Josh, Rhys, Asif, Rachel, Ronnie,
00:23:22Phil, the incredible actors who make me laugh all the time in the rehearsal room and there's scenes
00:23:28in the play that still make me cry even though I know what's coming, who were cast by the amazing
00:23:34Nadine Rennie. Dramaturg Laura Mooney for sorting my brain out and helping me work out what I wrote.
00:23:42Charlotte who is the best director I have ever worked with. I wrote this play because I found
00:23:49out that humour was really expensive and the alternative is the system isn't created for those
00:23:55that need it and there is a level of shame that is kind of put on working class people.
00:24:02The fact that Abby is a writer from a working class background isn't a mistake.
00:24:08This industry doesn't allow enough space for working class creatives.
00:24:12We don't need more articles telling us that there's not enough of us.
00:24:15We need support and we need doors boobied open for us so that we can get in.
00:24:25And awards like this and organisations like Pains Plough are doing the work.
00:24:34I'm going to pass over to Charlotte now who wants to say a little few words. Thank you.
00:24:42I just wanted to say very very quickly just one final personal thank you from me which is
00:24:47to my mum Alicia. There's a line in the play where Abigail says
00:24:52I know everyone says their mum is the greatest but mine actually was
00:24:56and it always made me think of my mum because my mum passed away two years ago
00:25:00just before we started working on this show and she was my best friend and life without her is
00:25:08incredibly hard. But she really taught me that grief is a price that we pay for love
00:25:13and I really feel like a bit of the love that I have for her has really gone into the show.
00:25:17So I just wanted to say a thank you to her for being a great mum and a thank you to the
00:25:21Scotsman because it really feels like it honours her as well and sorry for the snotty baby but she
00:25:26is branded. So thank you for that.
00:25:40Show number four is an absolute rip-roaring terrifying farce of a show and one of the
00:25:48boldest things I've seen on what has been quite a bold fringe in that it runs headlong at the
00:25:56question of anti-semitism in the UK today, to what extent it exists, the situations with which it
00:26:07faces Jewish people in the UK now and the ways in which it can be weaponised by forces whose
00:26:17interest shall we say is not in promoting harmony and good community relations. So it's an
00:26:26incredibly bold show that rushes straight at that subject through the medium of very dark, ultra dark
00:26:34comedy. The situation is that there's a brother and sister, they're Jewish, they go to their
00:26:40grandfather's funeral and at the funeral they meet a man who is basically a bit of a shit-stirrer,
00:26:47an old uncle, a very old uncle of theirs, who really wants to kidnap Jeremy Corbyn. This is
00:26:53all set a few years in the past when Jeremy Corbyn was still Labour leader, who really wanted to
00:26:57kidnap Jeremy Corbyn for his anti-semitism and possibly kill him or make some kind of show
00:27:04of him in order to make the point that Jewish people shouldn't have to tolerate any form
00:27:09of anti-semitism in the UK. But needless to say the politics of this enterprise rapidly becomes
00:27:16extremely complicated and spectacularly improbable as this brother and sister find themselves kind
00:27:24of emotionally blackmailed into taking part in the Jeremy Corbyn kidnap heist and they all end
00:27:30up in a warehouse somewhere with various global actors shooting it out over their heads and
00:27:37everyone escaping barely unscathed, including Jeremy Corbyn, who does not by the way have a
00:27:42speaking part in all of this because he's gagged the whole time. So the only people who have
00:27:48speaking parts are this fabulous brother and sister who are brilliantly played by Gemma Barrett
00:27:54and Dylan Corbett-Bader. The play is by Nick Kassenbaum, it's directed by Emma Jude Harris
00:28:02and I'd love the whole team from Revenge after the Lavoie to come up and accept their French
00:28:08First Award 2024.
00:28:20Thank you, congratulations.
00:28:38Thanks, it's quite interesting to hear it all talked about being so improbable because it's all based on a true story.
00:28:54We've had the most amazing team on this show. I'm going to say their names because although they all have
00:28:59roles as they've worked on specifically for the show, those roles have been fluid and everyone's
00:29:06really supported each other as we've made it. So Emma Jude Harris has shaped this play from
00:29:13when we first started working on it. It's been amazing working with Emma. Becky Plotnick, who's
00:29:17not here, our producer. I'm going to say their roles actually. Gemma and Dylan, amazing performers.
00:29:23Graham, who's been here as our technical stage manager that's held everyone together. We've got
00:29:28Alice Whitehead, our design. Amy Daniels, lighting design. Adam Lenson on sound design. Josh Middleton
00:29:33on sound design. Robin Hellier on fight design. Also a massive thank you to Storytelling PR who've
00:29:39really been supportive and a special shout out to Fergus there. I have to thank Dan Brody, the
00:29:46Shoresh Foundation, Sitsit, Uncle Dennis for the loan, JW Free, Soho Theatre Royal called BAC and
00:29:54Isabel and Ira. This show for me is for Jews who have ever been told their work is too Jewish
00:30:04or for anyone really who's been told their work is too anything. There's a space and need for those
00:30:10writing on the margins to step into the limelight and a huge joy to be found for everyone. The last
00:30:1610 years our community has been pulled apart and pushed to breaking point by people who don't care
00:30:23about us. By politicians, by celebs who think they can count and by the board. I was so glad
00:30:33that we were able to create something that talks about it with love and affection for the people
00:30:40it affected, specifically Jewish Essex and it's been amazing to see people getting it. This award
00:30:49is for telling your own story without compromise and a big thank you as well actually to Malcolm
00:30:57who is real and my Papa Lewis who did smash up his flat with a golf club the night he died.
00:31:06Thank you very much.
00:31:20Thank you all so much. A true story much stranger than fiction as we've just heard.
00:31:30And finally the suffering and the horror in Gaza has of course been in front of many of our minds
00:31:37this year and there are one or two shows on the fringe which are brave enough to tackle that
00:31:45but none braver than Chawla Ibrahim's A Knock on the Roof which is playing at the Traverse Theatre
00:31:54in the second half of this fringe. A Knock on the Roof simply follows the life of a young woman
00:32:02in Gaza. Her husband is overseas studying and she lives in Gaza with her little boy,
00:32:09who's four, and when the war intensifies as it so radically did after the Hamas attack on South
00:32:22Israel last October, she finds herself thinking about the technique that the Israeli Defence Force
00:32:31uses of dropping a little bomb on top of an apartment building to warn the residents to get
00:32:38out and then five minutes later dropping a huge bomb which will demolish the whole thing. So she
00:32:46begins to prepare in the way that a sort of slightly frazzled young mum might begin to prepare.
00:32:53She weighs her little boy when he's sleeping because kids are heavier when they're sleeping.
00:32:58She puts the same weight of books into a bag. She packs another little bag with their stuff
00:33:05and she starts to practice how far she can run from their seventh floor apartment building
00:33:11through the streets of Gaza in five minutes. And that's basically the setup of this brilliantly
00:33:21powerful show which Chawla herself also performs. It's not long, it's a shortish show, it simply
00:33:30goes through those weeks as this woman becomes more and more frazzled and desperate, as her city
00:33:38becomes more and more devastated, and as she runs and runs and runs in an effort to train herself
00:33:45to save her own life and that of her boy, and if she can, that of her old mum too, who moves in
00:33:51to the flat to be with them in this time of crisis. It's beautifully done because it is
00:33:59in a way a timeless and universal story about the impact of the horror of war on ordinary civilians
00:34:07and yet it is also completely specific to the situation that's currently confronting us
00:34:13on our news bulletins every night. So it's written and performed by Chawla Ibrahim,
00:34:19it's directed by Oliver Butler and I'd like the team from A Knock on the Roof to come up and
00:34:24accept their award for Scotsman Fringe First 2024. Thank you.
00:34:43Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for the award and for the recognition of the
00:35:03play and the text and the performance. I would like to start by thanking the team that helped
00:35:08put this play together piece by piece. Our producers, Wendy, Tom, Kendra and Tess,
00:35:14thank you very much. Without them we would never reach this point. Our artistic team, Frank, Hannah,
00:35:22Muad, Rami, Bren and Lisa, and finally my partner on this play, the person that like
00:35:31for the past two years read like unnumbered amount of drafts and like notes and gives and
00:35:40takes, my partner Oliver Butler, the director of the play. Thank you.
00:35:48I don't have much to add after the beautiful description that Joyce gave to the play. Thank
00:35:54you for this. I would just like to share a real thought that I have been having since I started
00:36:01performing this play, which is I honestly truly from the bottom of my heart I wish this play did
00:36:08not exist. I wish this play was not inspired by the reality that we live in. This play started as
00:36:15a 10 minutes monologue in 2014 and 10 years later here we are stuck in the same reality.
00:36:23I have nothing to add for this play unless I wish that we will wake up all to a different world,
00:36:30for a world that governments and leaders fight for peace and for security and not fight wars,
00:36:36fight for better circumstances for us, the people that are living in this world.
00:36:42I wish this reality will end tomorrow, that we will wake up to a world full of peace,
00:36:48not only for the Palestinians in Gaza but for all over the world. Thank you very much.
00:37:18Thank you. Nina, what did you make of that?
00:37:23It's a wonderful range and I want tickets to every show. They're going to be sold out,
00:37:29aren't they now? I can't wait to see all of those shows. They sound incredible.
00:37:33Congratulations everybody. It's wonderful work.
00:37:40Tell us, is the film career going to continue after Sunlight this week? Do you have another
00:37:45project on the stocks? I do, I do. Occasionally you get an idea that makes you work for it.
00:37:52I mean really hard and that one did. I worked six years for that so I need a little nap and then
00:37:58hopefully I'll get another one of those ideas. But yes, it was amazing to do and with Shanoa
00:38:04Allen, my partner, who's also a fringe veteran from the Pajama Men. We've been coming here for
00:38:09years and none of it would exist without the Edinburgh Festival so I'm very grateful.
00:38:14Thank you. Well it's been wonderful to have you with us today.
00:38:25And now I take a step back and I hand over the stage to the people who are going to announce
00:38:31the shortlists and the winners of some of the biggest awards on the Edinburgh fringe.
00:38:37And the first up is the Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence. So please welcome the patron of
00:38:45the Brighton Fringe, Richard Jordan, Duncan Lustig-Preen from the Brighton Fringe,
00:38:51Sarah French and last year's winner, Philippa Dawson.
00:39:07It's a great pleasure to chair Brighton Fringe. It's a place where our audience expects artists
00:39:13to take artistic risks and they love that. It's a large fringe, not as large as Edinburgh by any
00:39:20means, but it's an intimate fringe where the artists couldn't get to know each other, work
00:39:25together. Our Fringe Academy nurtures and supports people throughout the year. It's also fairly low
00:39:34cost. Accommodation is cheaper, registration is cheaper and we work on schemes this year to make
00:39:42emerging artists have an even more cost-effective experience. Thank you to everyone who's been
00:39:49nominated for this award. It's been really bloody difficult to sort out winners, so difficult in
00:39:57fact we've decided to award three prizes. There'll be the overall winner and then there's going to be
00:40:04runners-up who will get a free registration and also some marketing and other support from the
00:40:10Fringe team. So the prize for the award winner is to put on a show in a 100-seater black box theatre
00:40:25which is superbly equipped and teched, Ironworks, which is brought to you by the team that also
00:40:33brings a very significant pride to England, Brighton Pride.
00:40:43Hello everyone, so the Brighton Fringe Award began about over a decade ago and it really
00:40:48was about building this handshake between Edinburgh, the largest festival in the world,
00:40:53with Brighton the third largest and the largest in England and it's been one of the most exciting
00:40:57things about this award is that often it's sometimes been one of those awards as well as
00:41:01recognising excellence, it's also sort of clipped in with often finding a lot of talent spotting
00:41:05within it that have been artists who've won it, who've gone on to great things, notably Toby Marlowe
00:41:09who went on to write Six, Luke Barnes who's been a very successful playwright within the award
00:41:14and last year's winner which is Philippa Dawson. Philippa, do you want to just say a couple of
00:41:18words about what's happened since winning the award last year when we saw it at Greenside and
00:41:22what's happened next? Hi, hello, yes, winning the award was incredible and I'm really excited for
00:41:28the winners today, it opened so many doors, gave me so many opportunities, the team in Brighton are
00:41:33amazing so I recommend Brighton Fringe to everybody and yeah it was just such a,
00:41:39it's really lovely to be acknowledged for all the work that I've done.
00:41:47And Sarah, I think the all-important moment is to reveal the shortlist.
00:41:52Hello, the shortlist is actually quite a long list because we were
00:41:56really overwhelmed with how much amazing work that we saw, so I'm going to ask you to just
00:42:01applaud at the end so that we can all leave on time. I've got 16 different shows to read out
00:42:07and they were all phenomenal. So we've got 1984 at Summer Hall, A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God,
00:42:14whoever reads this first, at the Space, Chris Grace Sardines at Assembly, Drum at Underbelly,
00:42:24A History of Fortune Cookies at Summer Hall, In the Lady Garden at Pleasance,
00:42:30Shit Theatre or whatever is left of us at Summer Hall, Pludes at Summer Hall, Roller Coaster at
00:42:38Assembly, Sawdust Symphony at Zoo Southside, Son of a Bitch at Summer Hall, Show Pony at Summer Hall,
00:42:49Tennis at Zoo Southside, The Border at Pleasance, Ugly Sisters at Underbelly,
00:42:56and You're So Fucking Croydon at Underbelly as well.
00:43:04And Philippa, I think you've got the envelope.
00:43:07I think we'll do the runners-up first. Do you want to announce the runners-up?
00:43:15We're really well rehearsed. Okay, so we've got two runners-up and we're really
00:43:19thrilled about both of those. The first is You're So Fucking Croydon
00:43:26and the second one is Chris Grace Sardines, if you'd both like to come down.
00:43:57Okay, and Philippa, would you like to do the honours with the envelope?
00:44:02Okay, and the winner is Ugly Sisters.
00:44:26Thank you, thank you very much, thank you, thank you, thank you very much.
00:44:33Yeah, great. God, not me winning with conjunctivitis.
00:44:43Thank you so much for this and, well, I've got to say my first thank you to Charlie Cowgill,
00:44:51who is the other half of Piss Carnation, who's not here, and thanks to the amazing team,
00:44:58Joanna and Daisy, with me. It's really hard making work right now, obviously,
00:45:06and so it's quite hard to feel like you're part of a scene and it's incredible that for a month
00:45:12of the year we all really get to feel like we have a scene, so that's what I'm grateful for.
00:45:19Do you want to say anything? I think that's everything. We've had a really great month and
00:45:25thank you to all the audiences who have come and supported the show and
00:45:29taken themselves out of their comfort zones. That's been a real honour for us, so thank you.
00:45:35Yeah.
00:45:51And thank you so much, Brighton Fringe. I think everyone who cares about the Edinburgh Fringe
00:45:57really values these connections that Richard was talking about there and all the very,
00:46:02very best to those brilliant winners and runners-up on their runs in Brighton. I'm
00:46:09sure they'll have a fabulous time at what really is a great and very fun festival.
00:46:15And now on to an award which is very close to my heart and to the hearts of all of us who
00:46:20sit on the judging panel for it. This is the award in memory of young actor, brilliant performer
00:46:29Philippa Braganza, and it's an award for an emerging female solo performer, female or non-binary
00:46:36solo performer on the Fringe. And I'd like to welcome to the stage Karen Coren of the Gilded
00:46:43Balloon who produced the shows that Philippa appeared in, Henry Naylor who wrote the show
00:46:50in which she made her greatest impact, Angel, and her friend and fellow actor Felicity Holbrooke
00:46:56to announce the shortlist and the winner. Thank you.
00:47:08Hello folks. Thanks very much for having us here. Thank you, Joyce. Yeah, this is I think the sixth
00:47:13time we've given this award in honour of Philippa. And for many of you here, the Philippa Braganza
00:47:19Award is an award. For us, Philippa was a very dear colleague, a brilliant actor, lots of fun,
00:47:28loads of energy, very politically motivated. If there was a Stop the Oil protest, she'd be
00:47:34on the front line. And she passed away at the age of 27. And I think, 24 was it? Oh God,
00:47:45sorry Philippa. And we wanted to remember her and remember what she did. And so this reward
00:47:54kind of reflects her values. And there's some incredible work this year. And frankly, you're
00:48:02all amazing. I think putting yourselves on the line the way that you do, night in, night out,
00:48:08not only emotionally, but financially. And often in the face of families who sort of think,
00:48:16why don't you all get a proper job? So, you know, you are amazing. But also,
00:48:22can I just say this thing? I'd like us all to just to sort of look out for each other. We are
00:48:27a unique breed of people. We're all kind of like a family. We often think this job is very lonely,
00:48:33but we are all have the same issues. And so if we can all look out for each other,
00:48:38just ask each other, how are you? Are you okay? And keep doing that with each other. Keep checking
00:48:45up on each other. Because, you know, this is a very, very vulnerable industry. And we're all
00:48:54very vulnerable people. And, you know, I think we should also remember, this has been a great
00:49:00festival for you guys. You've all won stuff and or be nominated for stuff. There's a lot of people
00:49:06out there performing to two and three people have been standing out in the rain, giving out flyers,
00:49:13not had any reviews for them. They've had an awful time, but it's their festival too. And
00:49:17those are the people we also need to look out for. So please check out and go and see their shows.
00:49:22I'm going to hand you over to Fliss who's got the shortlist and it's been an exceptional year.
00:49:34And before I go, can we just say thank you, not only to Karen, but to Joyce and her team. I mean,
00:49:40if you've been nominated for this, you are really outstandingly talented. The team that Joyce has
00:49:47put together are some of the best critics, not just in Scotland, not just in Britain, but in
00:49:52the world. So if you are one of those lucky teams to be on that list, wow, you are good. So thank
00:49:58you very much for that Joyce. The judges have been absolutely amazing. We meet once a week
00:50:10to go over all the nominees and I can't tell you how much dedication they have. And
00:50:16I'm very, very proud to be able to have created this award because Philippa was
00:50:21an absolutely wonderful actor and we miss her very much. So Felicity, could you give us the shortlist?
00:50:30We're so grateful to Philippa's family and the Gilded Balloon and our amazing team of journalists
00:50:36who make up the panel for this award for providing such a beautiful platform to celebrate Philippa.
00:50:42And it's really special for us to be able to remember her and celebrate her alongside the
00:50:47incredible artists who've been nominated this year, all of whom encapsulate the spirit of
00:50:52creativity and impact and excellence that the award champions. It's been a really difficult
00:50:58year and as such, we have six nominees this year and it's my absolute pleasure to read them out to
00:51:04you now. So at the Pleasant's Courtyard, Sell Me I'm From North Korea has left audiences shaken
00:51:12and enlightened. Our first nominee gives a raw and heart-wrenching performance in her piece
00:51:18inspired by the true stories of North Korean women defectors. She is Sora Baik.
00:51:25Elfriede Jellinek's harrowing and evocative play Bambi Land at Zoo Southside is brought to life with both
00:51:38delicacy and power in an utterly captivating performance from our second nominee, Jelena Basic.
00:51:46In Somebody Jones's How I Learned to Swim at the Roundabout Summer Hall, we are deftly taken along with Jamie on her journey of discovery and healing and fall for her warmth and honesty thanks to the charismatic talent of Frankie Hart.
00:52:07And as we've already heard at the Traverse, we watch as Mariam prepares for a knock on the roof in Gaza.
00:52:21The audience are completely drawn in by a mesmerizing comedic and heartbreaking performance
00:52:28from writer and actor Hawla Ibrahim.
00:52:38The Daughters of Rasheen at the Pleasant's Courtyard uses poetry, song and enthralling
00:52:43storytelling to ask us to stand up and remember the women of Ireland and their children.
00:52:49It is beautifully told by its incredibly skilled writer and performer Eve Johnson.
00:52:58And finally, the Pleasant's Courtyard also plays host to a warm and poignant show which is full of heart.
00:53:09In For the Love of Spam, our final nominee brilliantly entertains and educates the
00:53:14audience on Guam, colonialism and of course the joy of spam, Sierra Civila.
00:53:28And we're absolutely delighted to say that the winner of the Philippa Braganza Award for 2024
00:53:33goes to Hawla Ibrahim for A Knock on the Roof.
00:53:58Wonderful. Thank you.
00:54:02Well, thank you very much. I'm sorry you need to hear me again.
00:54:08I'm very happy, delightful and thankful and honored. To be honest, also to be
00:54:16surrounded by all these powerful performances and women especially, stories about women,
00:54:22women writers, actresses and directors in this Fringe Festival. I'm very honored to be here and
00:54:29this is to us all, to our voices. Thank you very much.
00:54:34And now another award which means a great deal to us. This is the Mental Health Foundation
00:54:55Fringe Award which goes to a show on the fringe which makes a special contribution to the
00:55:01understanding of mental health and of people living with mental health issues. And I'd like
00:55:07you to welcome to the stage Gail Aldam of the Mental Health Foundation and our Scotsman
00:55:12Festival Editor Andrew Eaton-Lewis to give you the shortlist and the winner.
00:55:26Yes, sure. Excuse my notes on my phone. I don't want to forget anything. So yeah, thank you,
00:55:32Joyce. I'm Gail. I'm Arts and Events Manager at the Mental Health Foundation. And before I pass
00:55:37over to Andrew to announce the shortlist and the award, I want to say just a few words about the
00:55:42work we do at the Mental Health Foundation, particularly around the arts. So at the Mental
00:55:47Health Foundation, we know that poor mental health is not something that's inevitable.
00:55:51We believe that everyone deserves to live mentally healthy lives. So we want to build a society where
00:55:59everyone can thrive and we're challenging the way that things are done so that no one in Scotland
00:56:05and the rest of the UK is deprived of the opportunity for good mental health because
00:56:09of who they are, where they come from or where they live. The arts has been a huge part of our
00:56:15work over the last 20 years. We lead the annual Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival. It's a
00:56:21festival that started back in 2007. It's a Scotland-wide multi-arts event which aims to
00:56:27explore how the arts can help prevent mental health problems and support people to lead
00:56:32mentally healthy lives. And we do this through engaging with communities and connecting with
00:56:38artists and forming collaborations to celebrate the artistic achievements of people with lived
00:56:43experience of mental health problems, to challenge stigma and perceptions and encourage participation
00:56:49in the arts to promote good mental health. The festival this year takes place in October and
00:56:54explores the theme of invisible, looking at how the arts and our festival can give people a voice
00:57:01and make mental health more visible. And we know how powerful the arts can be as a way to open up
00:57:07conversations about mental health and to share stories and experiences in a way that's engaging
00:57:12and entertaining but can also challenge and really encourage people to think differently.
00:57:17And we've seen over the years the impact that seeing your own experience reflected back at you
00:57:23can have on stage and screen can have and in a way can make people feel less alone. And so over the
00:57:30last few years we've seen a real big increase in the amount of people that are making work about
00:57:34mental health and that's been particularly evident at the Fringe, so much so that five years ago,
00:57:40five years, five years ago we decided to create this award to celebrate and support the best
00:57:46mental health show at the Fringe and we've awarded some really incredible pieces over the years.
00:57:52And I want to say as well the past two years this award has been supported by the Cornwall
00:57:57Charitable Trust and that's in memory of arts journalist Tim Cornwall. Tim worked as an arts
00:58:02correspondent for the Scotsman and had been on the judging panel for this award as well and we're
00:58:07incredibly grateful for the foundation's support of this award. Before I finish up and hand over
00:58:12to Andrew I also want to recognise that while making and sharing work about mental health is
00:58:17incredibly important and we're so grateful to everyone that does that, it can also be quite a
00:58:22difficult and confronting process at times as well for the artists involved and while an incredible
00:58:27experience we know it can be very exhausting as well. So I just want to check in, I hope that
00:58:32everyone's doing okay at this stage in the Fringe looking after their mental health and also just to
00:58:37mention we have a resource on our website mhfestival.com called Performing Anxiety which is
00:58:43a free resource designed for people that are making public facing work about mental health, so
00:58:48please do access that. So huge thank you to everyone that's addressing mental health in their
00:58:53work at the Fringe this year. I was lucky enough to see some of this work and just really blown
00:58:57away by the range and quality this year. So yeah I'll pass over to Andrew now to announce
00:59:04the shortlist and the award. Thank you.
00:59:13Thank you Gail and this award I think is dedicated as well as to Tim Cornwall's
00:59:19memory to everybody at the Fringe who puts on work here as Gail said. It's quite a
00:59:24challenging environment for anyone's mental health, there's so much work and effort and resources
00:59:28goes into putting a show on here so this is for everybody. But we saw some incredible work this
00:59:34year and we have a shortlist of five shows. I'm not going to say anything about them just to give
00:59:39you the names but there will be information, our own reflections on these shows on our
00:59:45Mental Health Festival website a bit later but I should give you the names of the shows just now.
00:59:51So our nominees for our shortlist for this year is Make the Bed at Zoo Playground, Flickr at the
00:59:59Pleasants, Batshit at the Travis, In Two Minds also at the Travis and 300 Paintings at Summer Hall.
01:00:09The winner of the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award for 2024 is Batshit.
01:00:17I'm the ring in, Leah's actually on stage delivering Batshit in this moment. My name's Linda Catalano and I produce the work with Leah and she's given me some instructions so bear with me.
01:00:47We want to acknowledge that Batshit was made in Mianjin also known as Brisbane and that Indigenous
01:00:54people in Australia are four times more likely to access mental health than non-Indigenous Australians
01:01:01and it's a gap that needs addressing in our country at home. Batshit takes an axe to the lies we're
01:01:06told about women's mental health and it's also a requiem for Leah's grandmother Gwen so I want to
01:01:13thank Gwen for her life and her story and Leah's family for allowing it to be the subject and thread
01:01:18for this show. I'm so proud of Leah and this work. She's made something deeply personal and I'm
01:01:25thankful to her mum Christine for her involvement in the creative process and permission to talk
01:01:30about intergenerational mental health and how it can impact people's lives. The fact that this show
01:01:38resonates with so many people makes it clear that it's a really important topic so thank you for
01:01:43the award and the acknowledgement of the impact of telling these stories on the people that tell
01:01:48them and the importance for people to hear those stories in a context like this. Thank you.
01:01:54Thank you for that fabulous award and the wonderful Leah Shelton in Batshit. A fantastic story about the medicalisation of women's restlessness and unhappiness in a deeply patriarchal situation and about the horrors to which they've been subjected.
01:02:21It certainly resonates with a great many people who see it but it's also
01:02:29funny, theatrical and brilliantly performed so congratulations to Leah.
01:02:34Amazingly we have come to our final award for 2024 and this is a precious one.
01:02:42The Holden Street Theatres award which enables a winning show from the Edinburgh
01:02:49Fringe to transfer to the Adelaide Fringe in Australia, the second biggest fringe in the world.
01:02:56I want to welcome to the stage Richard Jordan again who is part of the liaison for
01:03:02the Holden Street Theatre awards and I think Shona McCarthy of the Edinburgh Fringe.
01:03:08Please come to the stage Richard and Shona.
01:03:10Hello again everyone. I get the auspicious honour of being Martha Lott's understudy.
01:03:22Martha can't be here. She runs the Holden Street Theatres which is a venue in Adelaide for new
01:03:27writing because she's currently in rehearsal in Australia but she's been very much a presence
01:03:32throughout these awards and with the judging team that's been very involved with communicating back
01:03:36to her in Australia and she's promised faithfully that she's going to be here next year in person so
01:03:41we'll look forward to seeing her then. This award, I'll take a moment to just tell you how it began.
01:03:46It began in 2006 actually in Arthur's Bar not just a stone's throw from where we're all sitting now
01:03:51and at the table Martha sat down with myself and another great producer, a great friend of mine
01:03:57and Martha's called Paul Lucas. Paul was an amazing New York producer. Some of you in the room will
01:04:03know who he was. He epitomized what fringe spirit was. He would sit down, he'd meet an artist, he'd say
01:04:10what do you need, how can I help you and it's a spirit and a mantra that certainly is I think
01:04:14something we carry through all of us as artists in the room trying to help with each other.
01:04:19Paul sadly passed away in 2020 and he loved this fringe and he loved this festival and he was a
01:04:27great architect of building this award to become the award that it became so when Martha said
01:04:32you know I've got this idea, I want to create an award, I want to build the relationship I have
01:04:35with Adelaide and Edinburgh. I want to create something where I can take a company
01:04:40and an artist and bring them to Adelaide and give them that exposure on the stages over there.
01:04:46Do you think it's a good idea and we both nodded very quickly and the Fringe Society jumped on and
01:04:51started to support that and the first award was in 2007. That was for a play called The Tale of Inverness
01:04:56and over the years every year afterwards a show has been awarded to come and last year it was
01:05:00Mark Thomas in Ed Thomas's play England and Son. So it's been a real joy to watch how that
01:05:06award has grown and also as I say we remember people like Paul within it every time we come
01:05:12here to present that award. I have to say it happens also due to the support of many many
01:05:16people and one of the key things has been the sponsors who've helped this award and the belief
01:05:20that they've had through sticking through it. I need to just tell you who those are they're
01:05:23Weslow Holdings and Thebarton's Theatre, Arts South Australia, Jeff Hardy Wines, Cooper Breweries
01:05:31and Beck Hardy Wines. So whoever wins this award is going to have a very merry time in Adelaide I
01:05:35suspect. Nicholas Eli Designs and Novatec Creative Industries. I'm going to hand over to Shona to say
01:05:41a few words about the Fringe but also from me congratulations to everyone today who's won an
01:05:46award and also across you know the entire Fringe for being here so thank you.
01:05:55Thanks Richard and good morning everyone. I have to say what an absolute privilege to sit
01:06:01here this morning and just watch artist after artist, show after show come up and every single
01:06:07one of them completely different from the last one. Just an extraordinary testament to the risk
01:06:13that is taken by the artists, by the producers, by the technicians, by the venues, by this whole
01:06:20massive crazy thing that we're all involved in. So before I say anything else I just want you
01:06:25all to give the biggest most massive round of applause to every single one of you in this room
01:06:30because you make this phenomenal festival the thing that it is every year and I get the privilege
01:06:35to be part of it so thank you. I also want to pick up on the point about mental health
01:06:50and remind people that in Fringe Central at the Grassmarket Community Centre we partner with
01:06:56Health and Mind so if anybody does need support or help at any point through the festival there
01:07:01is an available support there and one-to-one sessions. I also wanted to pick up on Henry's
01:07:06point about the Fringe and about the Edinburgh Fringe and about this this crazy community that
01:07:12we are. The mantra of the Edinburgh Fringe, our collective mantra, is to give anyone a stage
01:07:18and everyone a seat. It's a much easier thing to say than it is to do. Our three core values are
01:07:24about artists thriving, ensuring that artists thrive, about being open to all and then the
01:07:31third one is about looking out for each other and I just wanted to kind of reinforce that because
01:07:36I thought Henry said it so beautifully. The whole mantra of giving anyone a stage and everyone a
01:07:42seat gets more and more challenging and someone alluded to just the sheer cost of coming to this
01:07:48festival. We've done everything in our power including creating the Keep It Fringe fund which
01:07:54we're enormously proud of which has given out 180 bursaries of ยฃ2,500 to artists this year. We will
01:08:02do the same thing next year. We're also working our asses off to source affordable accommodation
01:08:08for artists in this city but it almost feels at times that we're having to work against the policy
01:08:14environment that things keep coming out that make it even more difficult. So I think collectively
01:08:21we've all got a job in this place to ensure that working class artists, that artists of colour,
01:08:27that anyone who faces a barrier to becoming and being part of this festival, that the current
01:08:32situation we had Lisa Nandy, the new government minister for culture in town this week, we know
01:08:38that she met with Angus Robertson, our own cabinet secretary for culture. Surely to God it is not
01:08:43beyond the power of those two politicians to come together, to get their heads together and realise
01:08:48what is all around them in this city at this moment, in Brighton later in the year, in Adelaide
01:08:54across the world and know that this is game-changing, life-changing, life-enhancing
01:08:59and find a way to bloody well support it properly.
01:09:06And I should say how delighted I am that we work with Adelaide Fringe and Brighton Fringe and all
01:09:11the other amazing fringe festivals around the world and Martha Lott's award is amazing and I'm
01:09:16delighted to be able to announce it soon.
01:09:18Okay so now I have the auspicious honour of announcing the shortlist. There's quite a lot of shows on here so what I'd say is hold your
01:09:27applause for the end but isn't it fantastic because it gives a real lift of showing that the
01:09:31fringes are bouncing back post-Covid and there's been some amazing work that I know the judges
01:09:35have had a very tough time making some decisions on. I'm also relieved that I remembered to pack
01:09:39my glasses. So okay here's the shortlist. A History of Paper at the Travis Theatre.
01:09:461984 at Summer Hall. Son of a Bitch at Summer Hall. The Long Run at Summer Hall. Play Fight.
01:09:53Roundabout at Summer Hall. A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God or whoever reads this first at the
01:09:59Space UK. VL at Summer Hall or What's Left of Us at Summer Hall. Shell Shocked at the Pleasants.
01:10:06Precious Cargo at Summer Hall. Heartbreak Hotel at Summer Hall. Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse for
01:10:12England at Underbelly and a Knock on the Roof at the Travis. Now before it's announced there is
01:10:18one small issue. Actually everyone just give everyone a quick round of applause for us.
01:10:28Unfortunately there's meant to be a trophy but for the joy of Australian Post
01:10:32and the joy of the Royal Mail somewhere it's probably sitting on someone's doormat in Peebles
01:10:36and they're kind of wondering what the hell have I just won. So but there was a bit of good news
01:10:40there because I understand from the judges that it became a very very difficult decision.
01:10:44So at about 1am last night Martha decided to give two awards at the Adelaide to take two
01:10:51shows to the Adelaide Fringe and we're really pleased now for Shona to announce who those will be.
01:10:56This is so exciting. Two very very different shows.
01:11:04First of all we have Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse Freely
01:11:15and secondly we have the brilliant A Knock on the Roof.
01:11:27Luckily we do have some wine to give people.
01:11:52No I'm kidding I'm not gonna do this again.
01:11:56Hey everybody my name is Oliver Butler. I'm the director. This is my first time in Edinburgh and I'll just say
01:12:04if anyone who knows me I just cannot believe I haven't been here before. What a wonderful wonderful
01:12:08place that I feel so safe. I don't really choose projects to work on I choose people.
01:12:13Hal and I met and she became like an artistic soulmate and has proved to be true.
01:12:19And I also sort of see plays as this thing they're these things that get to teach me about
01:12:24myself and help me move on to some like new level of myself. And this play has transformed me in
01:12:30incredible ways. I want to and I just want to thank Hala. She's incredible. She truly is as great as
01:12:36she seems. I also want to thank some places. Just speaking of Edinburgh I feel like places change us.
01:12:44I want to thank the Traverse for having us here. They've been a wonderful home for us. I want to
01:12:48thank New York Theatre Workshop who's going to bring us to New York in January of next year.
01:12:55We worked on this what? Under the Radar. Under the Radar in New York. Yeah I mean there's just so many.
01:13:01And we I got to go to a lot of wonderful places to work on this show. Hala is from Majul Shams
01:13:08in the Golan Heights. So we went there last May and we spent two weeks preparing for a reading in
01:13:14Ramallah. We stayed at her family's house. I met everyone in her family. The whole sort of Druze
01:13:20community there. I've been trying to sort of become a part officially a part of the family as
01:13:26an honorary Druze but that's not something that's actually possible. We worked on this play in her
01:13:32family's cherry orchard. We worked in the theater in her town where she first learned to she wanted
01:13:39to become a theater maker. It is one of the most beautiful places on earth and her parents would
01:13:44make us. I want to thank Isam and Adma. They'd make us lunch every single day. I want to thank
01:13:50her grandma Tsitsihana who cooked maklubi on the floor and I ate with her whole family.
01:13:59It was just like a truly wonderful experience and again like Edinburgh I'm just so thankful to have
01:14:05that in my life. It's like the play and the place allows me to understand something about myself and
01:14:10move further into the world and the last thing I'll say is that town which is like this idyllic
01:14:16almost like ski town. I mean it was just the most beautiful place I've ever been but they
01:14:22had an incredible tragedy just about a month ago where a rocket hit a soccer field and killed 12
01:14:27kids. I played soccer and I just think about one I want to honor them you know just some kids who
01:14:37are out playing on a day in a place where they shouldn't have expected anything terrible to
01:14:42happen. The families and the sadness that comes you know along with that and I also just want to
01:14:48say what an intense and incredible honor we all have to just sit in the dark safely together
01:14:55which I sometimes think like I know we're trying to make a great play and like blow minds but maybe
01:15:01it's just enough that we get to sit here safely and imagine something together and I want to say
01:15:06I'm so thankful to do that with you so thank you.
01:15:16Hello, I'm a bit shell-shocked to be honest. I don't really know what's going on.
01:15:22It was a late night in the abattoir as well last night so I feel a bit peaky but this is
01:15:26this is unbelievable. I feel quite emotional really. I wrote this show just coming out of
01:15:33drama school about a man that put a flare up his bum at the at the Euros in 2021 and um
01:15:41yeah and I yeah I don't I don't and well now it's going down under so that's unbelievable
01:15:47and I thank you so much to the director Sean Turner, the producers Matt Emony and Josh Beaumont
01:15:53and yeah this has been a real labor of love and I'm very thankful for this. Thank you so
01:15:58much to everyone. It's been amazing. Thank you.
01:16:19I just want to I just want to do one last massive massive massive thank you
01:16:23to Joyce Macmillan, to Jackie, to Mark, to David, to Sarah, to all of the people who spend so much
01:16:30time watching all of these shows making such excellent and carefully thought through judgments.
01:16:36Joyce stands up here and does this every year and we all absolutely love the care and attention
01:16:41and detail to which she gives to describing the show so massive thank you Joyce.
01:16:56Thank you so much Shona but honestly it's a pleasure and such a privilege for these three
01:17:02weeks of the year as several people have said this morning to be part of this amazing event
01:17:08to see so much astonishing work from all over the world in my home city and to have the chance
01:17:15to meet and to recognize some of the finest artists here. No one could have more of a
01:17:21privilege and more of a pleasure and I think I speak for our whole Fringe First judging panel
01:17:27and for the other judging panels that I've sat on over the years when I say that everyone
01:17:33feels that everyone loves the sense of privilege and involvement that's involved in taking part
01:17:41in this fantastic festival even if only as critics and spectators so thank you very much Shona but it
01:17:48really is an absolute joy. Well once again we've come to the end of the Scotsman Fringe Awards
01:17:55for this year and of course many many thank yous to everyone involved. Once again I'd love
01:18:03to thank the team here at the Pleasance they are so wonderful just you know here until late last
01:18:08night as Nina Conti said and back here this morning making this wonderful stage for us
01:18:13so thank you again to them thank you. Thank you all.
01:18:21Thanks once more to our fabulous new sponsors without which absolutely nothing Queen Margaret
01:18:27University and Napier University here in Edinburgh and thank you to our whole Scotsman
01:18:34team, our festival editor Andrew Eaton-Lewis, our wonderful arts editor Roger Cox, the whole team
01:18:41of critics and without whose thoughts and recommendations and reviews none of it would
01:18:46be possible and of course the judging panel for the Fringe Firsts itself some of whom Shona's
01:18:53just mentioned. You all know who you are, we all know how hard everyone works to try and make
01:18:59these awards as fair and as wide-ranging and as reflective of the work on this fringe
01:19:07as possible and so thank you everyone for all of your work and all of the people who do the same
01:19:13job in relation to the other awards that we've celebrated today. I mean if ever there was a
01:19:20reflection of the range of this fringe I think Knock on the Roof and the man who put a flare
01:19:27up his arse for England just about says it all and it sounds incongruous but you know when people
01:19:35are trying to say important things about power, about nationhood, about identity, about conflict
01:19:44then they find many different ways of doing it and both of those shows I'm sure do that and I
01:19:49wish them both the very very best on their trip to Australia. But finally of course
01:19:57I need to thank all of you for being here this morning to help us to celebrate this wonderful
01:20:03fringe. I need to thank and congratulate all of our winners over the three weeks and all of our
01:20:09winners today for wonderful work done and for great prospects for the future even in these tough
01:20:15and difficult times, difficult for the arts and difficult for the world. And above all I think
01:20:21even beyond that I want to thank everyone who is here out there on that fringe, the audiences
01:20:28tramping from show to show, the artists who haven't been recognised today but are still
01:20:33out there doing their work, selling their tickets, looking forward to the final weekend of the
01:20:39festival. We are incredibly lucky to be here, we are incredibly lucky to be together and able to
01:20:47celebrate the arts in this city as we do every year and with any luck and God willing we will
01:20:54be back to do it all again at the Scotsman Fringe Awards 2025. So thank you for everything and good
01:21:02luck for the rest of the year.