The 9th Camden Fringe is Coming Soon!
By: Courtnie Mele Jun. 23, 2014
The 9th Camden Fringe is Coming Soon!
The Camden Fringe returns this summer for a 9th consecutive year, and the 2014 festival will be the biggest yet with over 200 different productions taking part.
This record breaking number of shows has been made possible by an increase in the number of venues taking part across the borough of Camden, and beyond. This year stalwart performance spaces like the Etcetera Theatre, Camden People's Theatre, The Camden Head and Upstairs at the Gatehouse are joined by The Moors Bar Theatre in Crouch End, The Hen and Chickens on Highbury Corner, Lov'edu Gallery in the Stables Market and The Poor School on Pentonville Road in hosting multiple shows. Acts will also be found in pubs the Dublin Castle, The Grafton, Sir Richard Steele and The Grafton.
Fringe is all about innovation and experimentation, and this year there are a couple of unusual outdoor shows, with Broken Glass Theatre Company using the beautiful St George's Gardens for their brand new fairytale Glass Mountain (25th - 30th July) and experienced street performer Paolo Ferrari taking over a patch of Camden High Street for his stand-up show Urban Buffoon (1st - 24th August.)
One of the most groundbreaking performances at this years festival is set to be Lili (Etcetera Theatre, 28 July - 2 August) which tells the story of Lili Elbe, the first known trans woman to undergo full gender realignment surgery. Based on Elbe's 1930 diaries, this play has been devised, and is performed, by a company that all identify themselves as trans, brought together by the Islington based Theatre Writers Workshop.
In the year of Shakespeare's 450th birthday it seemed fitting for the Camden Fringe's pigeon mascot to have a Shakespearean flavour. It's also appropriate that 4 of the bard's works have been adapted years fringe. Lazarus Theatre Company, have paired 2 of Shakespeare's most embattled works - Troilus and Cressida and Coriolanus to be performed as a mini-season they call Our World At War at the Tristan Bates Theatre (18th - 23rd August). Joining the company for these shows is Eggheads' multi-talented CJ de Mooi. The Camden Fringe's most dedicated company - Get Over It Productions - return for an 8th year running and this time they'll be turning their all female hands to Twelfth Night (Etcetera Theatre, 15th - 17th August.) Erratic Dramatics produce Othello, with the action transferred 1980s Cyprus. Appropriately enough this is performed at The Moors Bar (7th - 10th August.) Additionally A Midsummer Night's Dream provides the inspiration for a new piece Demetrius Unchained by Gulliver Bell (a theatre company, not a person with a really odd name) which speculates on where Demetrius might be 1 year on from Shakespeare's text and still under the influence of a magical spell. (Etcetera Theatre, 21st - 24th August.)
But don't panic, it's not all long dead male playwrights. Ladylogue! is here to save the day (Tristan Bates Theatre, 12 - 16 August.) An evening of hilarious, heart-warming, and often agonising, short one-woman plays by some of the UK's finest emerging female playwrights, including Katie McCullough, Maud Dromgoole, Serena Haywood and Guleraana Mir. The Camden Fringe also provides a supportive platform for female comedy performers, with shows this years line-up of funny ladies including Juliet Meyers, Helen Arney, Gerardine Coyne, Improv Noir, Laura Lexx, Burgis & Mann, Joy Carter and Kim Hope among many, many others.
In the file marked 'other' (being neither comedy or theatre) you'll find:
Sean Smith presents Mind What You Read (Phoenix Artist Club, 29th - 31st July) Sean Smith is a mindreader, a magician & a hypnotist who will reveal what the things we read say about us (and he'll "read" you if you bring your favourite book along to the show).
& Reality Abuse performed by S1l3NC3 (Dublin Castle, Saturday & Sundays 2nd - 23rd August) Previously seen at the Camden Fringe in 2009 and 2010, this intimate new show is the culmination of 3 years of collaborative effort, working with psychologists, medical professionals, hypnotists, monks, magicians and musicians in an attempt to explore the possibilities of artificially creating hallucinations. Exciting!
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