Army@TheFringe is returning to the stage at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, after going digital in 2020, welcoming audiences back inside the historic Hepburn House drill hall in Edinburgh’s New Town.
As ever it aims to present bold, high-quality, independently produced performance art – much of it from Scotland.
The venue, in East Claremont Street, is being adapted to create a COVID-safe environment for a programme that will feature theatre, comedy, cabaret, installation, conversation and more.
The programme explores everything from the tales of Gorbals folk heroes, the experiences of a Pakistani family arriving in 60s Scotland and a dramatic escape from the Soviet Bloc to a magic show inspired by the tricks which fooled the smartest minds and a variety show packed with comedy, music and fun.
Taking place from 6-22 August the first shows (see details below) to be unveiled are:
- The Trick That Fooled – Kevin Quantum (in-person show)
- Tickbox – Lubna Kerr (in-person show)
- Tunnels – Further Theatre (in-person show)
- The Mind Is The Frontline – Rosie Kay (in-person and online)
- Live @ The Drill Hall – with Mark McKenzie (in-person and online).
Tickets for these shows go on sale this week and from next Thursday they will be available for:
- Punch, with Johnny – The Arts Enigma
- Dandelion – Creative Electric.
Brigadier Ben Wrench, commander of Army Headquarters Scotland, said; “I’m delighted to announce that Army@TheFringe will be back on stage for 2021 – and in a COVID safe environment.
“The Army in Scotland has had a busy year protecting people through our support to government COVID testing and vaccination programmes, while continuing to train and deploy soldiers around the world.
“But we believe it’s important to also maintain our contribution to this great Scottish festival at a time when it is under pressure, and to support the prosperity and cultural life of the city in which our Headquarters is based.
“It’s a mark of the agility of our people that we are able to turn on a pin from delivering operational and public safety missions to supporting the nation’s cultural life, especially in a year in which the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo has had to be cancelled.”
This will be the fifth edition of Army@TheFringe and Since its launch in 2017 it has hosted a wide range of productions which explore themes connected to service life, or values such as diversity and inclusion.
These are all aimed at providing insights into different aspects of the military and creating a public dialogue about its role and interaction with society.
Lt Col Gordon Mackenzie, director of Army@TheFringe, said: ”Since 2017, we’ve had theatre, dance and even contemporary opera productions from Britain and around the world, with thousands of people interacting with our soldiers at our unique venue.
“This year the programme will be more stripped-back with smaller shows, but we hope the effect will be just as exciting.
“Our plan is to reflect a diversity and genres and to include works by a number of Scottish and Edinburgh-based artists.”
Last year the event shifted to a fully virtual programme at short notice and was rebadged Army@TheVirtualFringe. But this year the Army is drawing on its COVID-management expertise in order to deliver in-person performances.
The East Claremont Street venue in Edinburgh’s New Town is being configured with a computer-modelled ventilation system, a covered outdoors reception area with sanitisation stations, socially-distanced seating with reduced numbers and one-way traffic flow, a track and trace system, and an intensive cleaning programme between performances.
Serving personnel will be trained to safely conduct all the front of house audience interaction for the event.
Lt Col Gordon Mackenzie added: “For people looking to feed their longing for stimulating and contemporary live theatre and art in a safe environment, Army @The Fringe offers a way of sating your appetite while challenging your expectations.”
- Tickets will be available from 8 July at Edfringe.com or [email protected].
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Programme details
The Trick That Fooled – Kevin Quantum: A magic show inspired by tricks that fooled the smartest and most creative people ever to have lived. Exploring themes of wonder and escapism, the show travels back in time and experience recreating tricks that fooled Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Marie Curie and others. The show culminates with the trick that fooled the Nazis, when British magician Maskeleyne assisted the British forces to fool German commander Rommel during WW2 – apparently conjuring a tank battalion from thin air. 6-8 Aug, 1800; 10-22 Aug (not Mondays), 2015.
Tickbox – Lubna Kerr: A one woman storytelling show about identity from comedian and actress Lubna Kerr. Inspired by her parents journey from Pakistan to Scotland in the late 1960s, when her father came to do a PhD in Chemistry, the show explores Lubna’s mum’s life intertwined with her own growing up in Scotland. 17-22 Aug, 1800.
Tunnels – Further Theatre: A new play about two cousins attempting to tunnel their way to freedom at the height of the Cold War in East Germany. Based on accounts of escape stories from the Eastern Bloc, the play deals with life in a surveillance state. Featuring live music with some performances streamed from Hepburn House’s rifle range. Supported by Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch. 6-22 Aug (not Mondays), 1600.
Punch, with Johnny – The Arts Enigma: The story of two unlikely heroes from the slums of The Gorbals. Two “hard men” – both outcasts, winning the war and losing their freedom in the process … blow, by blow … Benny Lynch, World Flyweight Boxing Champion and “Gentleman” Johnny Ramensky, the infamous safe blower, meet in a prison cell. Benny – drunk and disorderly and detained for breach of the peace. Johnny – detained for burglary and breaking in. Two “Champions of the People” at war in life and love – both in search of victory, vindication and peace of mind when they confront their enemies … themselves. 20-22 Aug, 1400.
Dandelion – Creative Electric: In the centre of a busy city is a garden utopia. A small safe haven from missed connections and digital overload. A place to clear your thoughts, relax your mind and meet with those you’ve missed. The British Army currently have no record of how many forces children there are in the UK. A study found that 98% of forces children could not answer the question “where is home?” Dandelion explores separation anxiety through autonomous sensory meridian response and immersive theatre techniques to ask why in a digitally connected world we are more anxious than ever? 10-15 Aug, 1600 & 1800.
The Mind Is The Frontline – Rosie Kay: A series of conversations hosted by Rosie Kay (founder and artistic director of the Rosie Kay Dance Company) bringing together artists, thinkers, writers and academics along with experts from the military and security as well as young people in cyber security. These events provide a platform to think, talk and question where we are now, what value we place on our so called ‘civilisation’ and where we are going in the future. Following on from her series of podcasts, The Future Proof Artist, these talks are for the curious and the questioning. 10-11 Aug, various times.
Live @ The Drill Hall: A series of variety events hosted by Mark McKenzie, featuring an Army musician house band and a rotating line-up of comedy, theatre and provocation. Taking place across the launch weekend of the festival, Live @ The Drill Hall offers an evening of variety to celebrate the return of live entertainment. 6-7 Aug, 2015.
Notes for editors
About Army@TheFringe
- Army@TheFringe was established to present a diverse programme of performances that tell stories of life in and out of uniform.
- It normally takes place at Hepburn House, an historic Army drill hall in Edinburgh’s New Town, which offers a variety of performance spaces.
- See www.armyatthefringe.org.
Shows from past years
Army@TheFringe has a track record of presenting bold, high quality, independently produced performance art. Highlights last year included:
- Dead Equal: All-female opera performed by three world-class sopranos telling the forgotten true story of Flora Sandes, heroine of the Allied frontline in World War I.
- The Happiness Project: Queer theatre looking at the need for non-sexual physical contact in a digital age.
- Unicorns, Almost: Owen Sheers’ play about the poet Keith Douglas and his Faustian pact with war. Initially as an audio experience and then as a live performance.
The 2018 dance theatre production The Troth, from the Akademi, (★★★★★ Broadway Baby, ★★★★ Herald) won Herald Angel and Lustrum awards with its portrayal of the experiences of South Asian soldiers on the Western Front in World War I.
In 2017 5 Soldiers, from the Rosie Kay Dance Company, achieved huge critical acclaim with a string of ★★★★ and ★★★★★ reviews and went on to enjoy major national and international success.
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Twitter @ArmyatTheFringe
Website: www.Armyatthefringe.org
For media information about Army@TheFringe contact Matthew Shelley at SFPR on 07786704299 or [email protected].