The Scotsman theatre critic Joyce McMillan is joined by Miriam Margolyes for week one of the 2024 Fringe First Awards
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00:00Good morning, everybody. It's wonderful to see you all here at the Pleasance Courtyard
00:15today to celebrate our week one Fringe First winners of 2024. They are an absolutely fabulous
00:27bunch as you'll see for yourselves in a moment. And the first thing I have to do always with
00:32the Fringe First Awards ceremonies is to thank the wonderful team here at the Pleasance Courtyard
00:37and Anthony for being such wonderful hosts to us for the Scotsman Fringe First Awards.
00:43So let's have a round of applause for them.
00:52We've also this year got to welcome and thank our fabulous two new sponsors who are working
00:58jointly to sponsor the Fringe First Awards this year. They are Napier University and
01:03Queen Margaret University. Both of them involved in training for acting, writing, drama. So
01:15it's a wonderful combination to have on board with us for the Fringe Firsts this year. I'm
01:21Joyce Macmillan. I'm the theatre critic of the Scotsman. And it's my absolute privilege
01:26and at this time of year, an absolute joy to chair the panel of critics who determine
01:32the Fringe First Awards. They're a great team. And this week, we've had a wonderful first
01:37weekend of the festival and first week. And we're looking forward to presenting these
01:41awards. And of course, as every year, we have a guest star to hand out the awards and help
01:47us congratulate the winners. And today, it is the wonderful and legendary Miriam Margulies.
02:05I don't have to introduce Miriam to most of you. She's had the most wonderful career since
02:12the 1960s across stage, television, radio, a magnificent and award-winning actress. Voice-overs.
02:19Yes, that was my very next line. A magnificent and award-winning radio and voice-over artist.
02:31And of course, she is here on the Fringe this year at the age, I hope you don't mind me
02:35saying, of 83, doing a show at the Pleasance, but over in the Pleasance venue at the EICC
02:45in Morrison Street. Her show's called Margulies and Dickens, The Best Bits. And it's on every
02:53day at four o'clock in the Pentland Theatre at the EICC. So don't miss that. And today,
02:59she's also taking part in the All Talk series at the EICC at 1.30. It's Ian Dale's All Talk,
03:06but Ian's off today, but she'll be there with a different presenter, talking about all things
03:12fringe theatre and the arts that she practices so magnificently. So please welcome Miriam.
03:20Miriam and I are now just going to have a very brief introductory chat, if we can manage that
03:31with the mics. Yes, good. Miriam, just tell us a little bit about what the Fringe means to you.
03:38What are your earliest memories of it from your first times here? Oh, well, of course, when I
03:45first came... Shall I hold that for you, as the actress said to the Bishop? Sorry, Joyce. I first
03:58came to the Fringe in, I think it was 1963. My God, that is a hell of a long time ago. And it
04:09was with the Cambridge University lot that I was with, and I played... I was in the Footlights,
04:16which was the thing that got the most attention. And then there were two other plays, which I can't
04:22remember what they were, but I was very good in both of them. Fringe First didn't exist, did it?
04:30No, it didn't. And then I came much later on, when I joined the Traverse, and I was in the
04:40Oubou Loire that they put on there. You know, the Fringe is very special. It's a kind of heightening
04:48of everybody's experience. And it's a moment of wonderful cross-fertilization, because you can
04:55see all the other performers, if you're not performing yourself at four o'clock, which I am,
05:01which is a bloody nuisance, actually, because I don't get to see all the others. But the Fringe
05:07is so vital for artists to share and learn and enjoy. It's a glorious experience.
05:17It's a great getting together of artists, isn't it? And hopefully we can celebrate
05:21a little bit of that today. So without any more ado, I'm going to move on. I wonder if I can get
05:27my mic stand back. Thank you. I'm not like a rock star. I'm not terribly adept. You are.
05:34You don't have to sing.
05:42Oh, dear, Dusty. If only she was with us now. Right. Okay. Without more ado, let's turn to
05:50the wonderful six shows that we're celebrating today. And the first is a show with a story to
05:59tell in more ways than one. A History of Paper, playing at the Traverse, was co-written by
06:05playwright Oliver Emmanuel and composer Gareth Williams. And it's a wonderful play about love,
06:13about the brutal and abrupt loss of that love, about all the themes of grief and coming to terms,
06:20which are absolutely pervasive on this year's fringe, a huge preoccupation for many of the
06:26artists here this year. And all, of course, born aloft on the tide of Gareth's wonderful
06:34music and song. It's a fantastic piece of work and it gains a huge extra edge of meaning for us
06:42in the Scottish theatre community from the fact that Oliver himself very sadly died last year
06:48at the age of only 43 after a short struggle with illness, leaving behind two young kids,
06:54a partner and all of the things that made his life such a wonderful and rich creative thing.
07:00Oliver was very famous as a playwright, not only for the work that he did himself,
07:04particularly in writing for children, but also as a mentor and encourager of other writers.
07:10So it's a particular joy to be able to celebrate this play today. It's a wonderful love story
07:17and it's directed beautifully by Andrew Panton of Dundee Rep. It's co-produced by Dundee Rep
07:25with the Traverse Theatre and it's wonderfully performed by Christopher Jordan Marshall
07:31and Emma Muller. So please welcome the team from A History of Paper to receive their award.
07:48How wonderful. So this is for you. This is for you. There.
07:57Pass it down so they can all see.
08:06Yeah, come up, come up. This is Gareth who wrote the music and co-wrote many other shows
08:11with Oliver Emanuel as well. This is Andrew Panton, the director. Hello. And behind them,
08:17yes, Lee Kent, who was the dramaturg, the beautiful cast just there. And Gavin Whitworth,
08:23who's the musical director. Come into the light.
08:28Fantastic, fantastic team behind a really beautiful show which has had an exceptional response.
08:35Will I speak into the mic? Yes.
08:41Thank you so much. I need some notes on my phone, which is very off-brand for the show.
08:47Needs must. But thank you so much. To say I'm chuffed is an understatement and it means an awful
08:53lot. And I know Ollie would be delighted, really utterly delighted. We talked about making this
08:58show for years and we happily worked our way at it. I wish there'd been more time with him,
09:04but we're all really proud and honoured to finish it for him. We started the rehearsal period with
09:10a touch of sadness in the room because our writer wasn't with us, but it quickly became
09:16a process and a place of love and warmth and joy. And that's thanks to Andrew and Lou and his team.
09:24I last spoke to Ollie in December and he told me I had to try and have fun
09:30with the show. And I did. And we have. It's all thanks to him and his beautiful,
09:35simple, clever writing and his eminently singable words, which comes in handy.
09:41Yeah, we miss him very much. So, Andrew.
09:53Our show was a wonderful collaboration with the brilliant Traverse team.
09:58It was a second year work and it was really fabulous. And also with the best creative team
10:02you could possibly ever ask to wish for. And I want to give a special thanks to Lou for being
10:07in lots of ways Ollie's voice in the room, which was fantastic and an amazing cast as well.
10:13These collaborations take resource and behind the scenes, there is a huge number of people
10:18that have worked on this piece who don't really get seen or get credited. But that resource is
10:23incredibly important. The average number of years it takes to develop a new musical is seven. This
10:27one took six. That means sustained, consistent and safe resource to do it. Lots of conversations
10:34around at the moment about funding decisions, but what we can't lose in any of these funding decisions
10:38are creating creative and safe spaces for our very best artists to create
10:43brilliant work. So let's not let that slip in all these decisions. Thank you.
10:56I wasn't going to speak, but the only thing for me to say is it's been for me as a friend of Ollie
11:03and a long-term collaborator, the most beautiful thing to be a part of because what I feared might
11:09be very hard was incredibly joyful. And it sort of reminded me of what people in collaboration can do
11:19and that all of Ollie's themes are about new beginnings out of losses and this feels like that.
11:26So thank you very much.
11:32Wonderful. Thank you so much.
11:37What a fantastic show. And just for those of you that haven't seen it yet, what this
11:41show does that is so clever is to filter this in a way familiar story of love and then loss
11:49through the history of paper itself. And that and all the things that we keep,
11:54all the little mementos, the notes, the postcards, and that theme of the paper links that personal
12:01story of love and loss to much wider stories about the history of our civilisation and the trends
12:08that it's now experiencing, perhaps away from the age of paper altogether. So it's a wonderful show
12:14and I hope that all of you get a chance to see it during this festival. But onward there's also
12:20a theme to do with bereavement. In the next show we're going to celebrate, which is a new play by
12:26leading Scottish playwright Douglas Maxwell, winner I should say of this year's Cat's Award for best
12:32new play at the Play Pie and Pint season in Glasgow, a brilliant duologue called The Sheriff
12:37of Kalamaki. But this new play is called So Young and it's a brilliantly funny domestic comedy of
12:47the kind that, you know, you come into the theatre, you see a sofa, but then you know the sofa's been
12:52put there by legendary Scottish designer Kenny Miller, so you know it's going to be there for
12:57more than one reason. And around this domestic environment the most fabulous, tightly written,
13:06really kind of single movement, one act, 80-minute drama emerges about what happens when a middle-aged
13:13middle-class Glasgow couple, whose best friend has recently been widowed, are invited round to his
13:20place and it's only three months, you know, the funeral baked meats and all that, it's only three
13:24months since his wife died and she was the woman of the couple's very best friend. They arrive
13:30and they discover that he has a new partner who is so young, half his age or less, and
13:38this of course, particularly in the woman, just completely unleashes a torrent of anger and grief
13:46and rage about the loss of her friend and this apparent, instant replacement of her. And I
13:51honestly can't ever recall seeing a comedy so brilliantly, so perceptively, so tightly written
13:59that people were applauding individual lines that this woman was saying. There were women in the
14:05audience going, yeah, right on, rounds of applause at the ends of her speeches. So it's not only a
14:12brilliantly written play by Douglas Maxwell but it's just beautifully directed by Gareth Nicholls
14:18of The Traverse and it contains an absolutely amazing star performance by Lucianne McAvoy,
14:26well known to audiences of this fringe of course, a star of shows like Ulster American, but in this
14:31show she is absolutely magnificent, taking us on this journey through rage and grief and
14:38feminist anger and the whole history, recent history of feminism and the relationship between
14:42the older generation and the younger generation and so on. And it's absolutely fantastic but she's also
14:48just superbly supported by the wonderful Andy Clark as her husband, by Nicholas Karimi as the friend
14:54and by Yana Harris as the young woman who has caused all of this fantastic eruption of pain
15:01and drama and laughter because it is an incredibly funny play. Please come up and accept your award.
15:15I'm going to give it to you, this is Douglas, well done. I'm not going to shake hands with you
15:22but you can put your hand on my breast if you like.
15:28The director. Can I do the speaking? Do I need the microphone?
15:32Yeah but you do because of recording and stuff. Oh I do because of the bootlegs.
15:42Thank you very much, thank you so much for that wonderful introduction, so nice to meet you.
15:46I find it so great to be here, it's very unfamiliar to me. My first Fringe was 2000
15:53and the play I had on there, which is made by Gridiron who are in the room,
15:57it won a Fringe first but I didn't go to the ceremony. I'd been away and when I came back
16:01to my flat there was a note scrawled on the fridge by my flatmate that said
16:06congratulations, someone phoned, you've won a Fridge.
16:16And my mind was filled with questions, what capacity is the Fridge, does it have a piece of sexual quality, I couldn't believe it.
16:36Spoilers, it wasn't a Fringe, it was one of these. And that was kind of the end for me for awards, I didn't get another award until this year.
16:46It'll be another 25 years until I get one but I just want to thank you, thank you so much for this, I really appreciate it.
16:52I want to thank Dominic Hill at The Sips who commissioned it and Francis Poet who developed
16:57the script with me as dramaturg, amazing. And Dominic had the generosity when The Sips was
17:04closed for a further session to find a home for this play, he believed in it so much and he went
17:09to Gareth and who's done such an incredible job creating this wonderful production. He brought on
17:15raw materials who are going to be doing a tour with Hope and have helped develop the play along
17:19the way and they brought it to the historic Traverse Theatre which for a Scottish playwright
17:24having a play on in the main stage of the Traverse, playing the pyramid stage of Glasgow,
17:29do not take it lightly. It's something that I'm incredibly honoured to make such an amazing
17:35production with such an amazing creative team and a terrific cast. So I just want to say thank you
17:41so much to everyone involved and it's nice to be in this room if it's all celebrating isn't it?
17:47It's nice to be in the fringe. Gareth would you like to say something? Very quickly I just want
17:54to echo Andrew's words, like new writing is really, it's hard work and we have some of the best talent
18:00in Scotland, in the world, we've got some of the best creative teams, the hardest working buildings
18:05and companies so events like this supporting new writing are really essential so I just want to
18:10thank everyone, thank yourself and let's keep supporting new work.
18:28And I think I could see the two women from that cast over there, we really need to hear from them
18:32but perhaps later as it were, but anyway that's a fantastic play which I hope all of you will
18:41have the chance to see, but onwards because if themes of gender appear very strongly in that
18:48play and the sort of clash between a woman of a certain older feminist generation and a younger
18:54one, there's also a huge kind of coming together of the themes of gender, of death and threat and
19:04also of much wider political themes to do with our world today, to do with our freedom, our basic
19:12freedoms here in the west, whether we take them for granted, how we fight for them and that is a
19:17wonderful play being presented at the Pleasance EICC but in a kind of tented pavilion at the back,
19:24a kind of rough tented pavilion that the winds blow through in a very dramatic way. There are
19:32three shows there being presented by the Grotowski Institute and two by the wonderful studio run by
19:38Monika Vakovic and Jaroslav Fret and one of those shows is a show called The Border which is
19:46conceived as a tribute to a Ukrainian performance artist and theatre maker called Antonina Romanova
19:56who is a non-binary person mainly identifying as a woman who was living very peacefully with her
20:03partner, her partner who's also a theatre worker, in Kiev at the moment of the Russian invasion
20:10of Ukraine and after one night in a bomb shelter the couple said well, Antonina had already had
20:17to flee from Crimea when the Russians moved in there in 2014 and they said are we going to flee
20:24again? Are we going to live underground like this in bomb shelters or shall we sign up and fight?
20:30So the show opens with a kind of self-tape of Antonina on the front line in the battlefield,
20:37in the battle fatigues, fighting alongside men but recognised by the people that she's fighting
20:43alongside as a trans person who identifies as non-binary and mainly as female and there's
20:50just this self-tape of this wonderful person with a beautiful peaceful face talking about the
20:56experience of having to stand up and fight for those freedoms and then there follows Monika
21:02Vachovic in a beautiful ritual of kind of lament and mourning for the pain of war, the sort of
21:10unfurling of the barbed wires that form the borders, little rituals of remembrance and of
21:17lighting candles for those who are dead, wine glasses that hold the dust of destroyed buildings
21:23rather than the wine that they should hold and images that are going to burn themselves onto
21:28your memory for life if you're fortunate enough to see this show. So please everyone from the
21:34studio, Vachovic, Fret, come up and accept your award for the wonderful show The Void.
22:05Do you want to come up here and speak? There's a little stairs at the side here.
22:08No, we're fine here. No, but we need to, okay, yeah. So we are very, very moved. The light is very strong.
22:22We're so happy, so, so happy to be recognised and to give the recognition for the team and for Antonina
22:31herself. The story starts, actually Monika can tell more, because it starts
22:38about two years ago when they wanted her to be with us in Wrocław, but attack, Russian attack,
22:44destroy our plans. What is even more important that Monika and Antonina, they met here in Edelburg
22:53eight years ago, six years ago, here, making a show, a production, yeah, and since that time they are in a relationship.
23:04When we met first time, Antonina was Anton, so the life changed for him, her, and now she is Antonina.
23:16And so we're in almost every day contact with her. This day will be very special.
23:23You can talk about some online connection.
23:27And there's another very strong aspect and material inside the performances. Her performance,
23:38in which she wrote with her own blood many, many pages. This is not my war. This is not my blood.
23:49I didn't kill her. And in the other pages, this is my war. I killed her.
23:58So, every day from today at, what time? 6.30. 6.30. You're welcome at the Cube. This is a small, small substitution of our Cube.
24:10In this very moment, I want to express my deepest thanks to Antoni, I think he's there.
24:20The pleasure of having us open his arm and we are able to create probably the newest venue,
24:28subvenue at the Fringe, which is an entire concept connected with three shows we are presenting there.
24:35With us is Jarek Szejkowski. I would like to introduce Jarek as well, because he's part of the team.
24:41And it's Jarek who decided at the last moment we have to, let's say, propose to the Minister of Culture
24:47what we are bringing here. The border will be with us. We had different, little different plans,
24:52much richer, but much harder to realize maybe in the future. Thank you, Jarek.
24:59So, Monika.
25:07Good morning. I would like to thank you for the people, for the beautiful woman who was in the border and it was your experience.
25:19Thank you that we can play the border at another show in this festival.
25:26Sorry, my English is not perfect. I still practice, but everything is slowly. My life is slowly. I prefer slowly.
25:38Thank you. Yes, I would like to thank Antonina. I can show you her photo.
25:50This is Antonina.
25:56I believe that she will be very, very happy. And she still fights. She fights for the world, for the life, for everything.
26:10So, thank you, thank you so much. Please, tell something.
26:19I would like to say I'm very happy that the show is recognized here.
26:23And especially because for me, when I saw this show as a project, when it started, I saw the importance of giving the voice,
26:31giving the place, giving the presence to people who cannot be with us on place.
26:37We are facing this many times in that moment, but it was very, very special.
26:43And I feel, yes, this is a kind of presence you made on stage of the person who could not be here with us in person.
26:51And it's very important, especially in those times, which we are divided by the borders more and more and more.
26:58So, that's my question.
27:06As I asked the host, we believe in theater which not only represents, but makes presence.
27:12I think this is something which, this oscillation is coming from the tradition of Gotowski.
27:18We have only tools and only means to represent, but is it possible?
27:25Open question. I don't know the answer.
27:27Is it possible to as well create peace which make presence of those who are not with us?
27:35And that is why the border we created.
27:39Thank you so much.
27:41Congratulations.
27:45Thank you for coming.
27:48Absolutely beautiful, unforgettable story and unforgettable imagery.
27:54Now, this year's fabulous program at the Traverse draws in so many other producers.
28:00And that's why it has so much creative strength behind it.
28:04We just heard from Dundee Rep, who have been working with the Traverse on history of paper, raw material,
28:10and the citizens, how they worked with the Traverse on So Young.
28:15And in this show, the next show we award, they're working with a company or a person or a human,
28:21an artist, a creator from Australia, called Quiet Riot.
28:25This is the wonderful Leah Shelton.
28:27And Leah's show, Bat Shit, is a terrific show about women and celebrating where we are
28:35in the struggle for women's freedom and women's understanding of themselves.
28:42And it's a show that focuses on the life story of her grandmother,
28:48who back in the 1960s was diagnosed as having mental health problems
28:54because basically she was extremely unhappy in her marriage, wanted to escape from it.
29:00And that was seen in the context that they were in a very conservative Australian community at that time
29:06as an act of obvious madness.
29:09So being diagnosed as mad for being unhappy and wanting a different life from that of a conventional married woman
29:21was sadly something that happened to many women at that time.
29:25And this is a very short show by Leah, but within this short span of 50 minutes
29:31of intense kind of reportage about her grandmother's life,
29:35visual theatre, which she performs with a fantastic, terrific physical performer,
29:39as those of you who have seen her work will know.
29:43And superb visual imagery, just ranging from that kind of 1960s sort of frilly fashion
29:51through to her own persona as the person she is today.
29:55She conjures up this story and the pain that lies behind it.
29:59And the progress that has been made, but painfully slowly, in stopping diagnosing women as mad
30:07because they want a different thing from that very conventional life.
30:11So please, Leah, come up and accept your award for that show.
30:15That show.
30:21Wow.
30:23Well done.
30:25Good on you.
30:35Do come up, do come up. Do you want to take the mic?
30:37Yeah, I'll...
30:39Ooh.
30:41Great.
30:43Thank you. Thank you so much.
30:47Firstly, I want to acknowledge that Batship was made on the lands of the Yuggera
30:51and Turrbal people in Meandjin, also known as Brisbane, Australia,
30:55where sovereignty was never ceded.
30:57Batship, as you beautifully spoke about, takes an act to the lives we're told about women's mental health.
31:05And it's also a requiem for my dear grandmother, Gwen.
31:09I'm so proud of this work.
31:11It's the first time I have made something deeply personal,
31:15bringing my dear mum into the creative process, who ended up writing parts of the show with me.
31:21She had said it was Devon therapy, so there you go.
31:25Of course, there are so many people to thank in making any work,
31:30and this work I would like to thank director Ursula Martinez.
31:34Woo!
31:36She loves and takes a huge attention to detail moment, as much as I do.
31:42My dear mum, Christine Shelton.
31:44The incomparable Freddie Comp right here,
31:47basically responsible for live feed, projection, captions, system designer,
31:53production manager, co-set designer, basically doer of all the things.
31:57Woo!
32:03My sound designer, Kenneth Lyons.
32:05Lighting designer, Jason Glenwright.
32:07Video content creator, Grace Uther.
32:09Lisa Falafy, who you may know of Hot Brown Honey, acclaimed.
32:12My no bullshit truth teller, Art Wife, who has supported me since forever.
32:17Funding bodies, Arts Queensland and Australia Council.
32:19Publicist, storytelling, PR.
32:21Linda and Jenny at the Traverse for believing in this work.
32:26It's amazing.
32:28Thank you for all the running around and doing all the things in this crazy festival.
32:32The many people whose voices and faces are part of the work,
32:36and the absolutely incredible Linda Catalano.
32:40Without whom I would definitely not be here standing on this stage today.
32:45Woo!
32:52The fact that this show resonates with so many people
32:55makes it clear that the pathologising of women's mental health
32:58is an important topic as relevant now as it ever has been
33:02and one we need to keep talking about.
33:06Finally, while I'm up here and have this platform,
33:09I just wanted to shout out the many artists who for some reason or another
33:13have been forgotten or dismissed or ignored by systems of power
33:18and to advocate for collective liberation, decolonisation and a free Palestine.
33:23Woo!
33:24Yes.
33:25We need to go up and make a change.
33:29And here's to my grandmother.
33:32Cheers.
33:33Bravo, bravo.
33:34Thank you so much.
33:36Bravo.
33:39I just want to take a quick moment.
33:41Artists like Leah Shelton don't come across,
33:43you don't come across them very often.
33:45It's a privilege to work with a person who is a co-producer,
33:50a creator, a maker and passionate about feminism
33:54and women's rights and telling those stories.
33:56So I want to say thank you to Leah and to her grandmother Gwen
33:59for the gift of the show.
34:01And other people have mentioned how important this platform is.
34:05In Australia, if you produce a work like this independently,
34:09without the support of a subsidised ink company,
34:11there's never any guarantee that it will be staged
34:14in the way that you hope it will be staged.
34:16And so to have this platform within the fringe
34:19is a privilege and I'm so proud of Leah and her work.
34:23So for Leah, thank you.
34:25Well done.
34:27Great.
34:33Oh, fantastic.
34:35And we're in Australia again and celebrating a wonderful feminist
34:40piece of art for our next show, which is Virginia Gay's fabulous
34:46gender-flipped version of Cyrano de Bergerac.
34:50Cyrano, it's simply called.
34:52And it is a fabulously funny and beautiful version of the story
34:57that we all know of Rostand Cyrano de Bergerac,
35:00the man with the great big nose who can't believe that the woman
35:03he loves could possibly love him and therefore makes love to her
35:07verbally through a proxy, a very handsome soldier
35:11that she at the time fancies.
35:15Could Cyrano be a woman?
35:17Yes.
35:18Convinced that Roxane cannot love her, not only because of her big nose,
35:22which doesn't really appear in this production,
35:24but in a much more powerful metaphor in a sense, because of her gender,
35:27because Roxane appears in every way to be heterosexually in love
35:31with this slightly dim soldier.
35:37Pointless good looks, in case of.
35:42Out of this, Virginia Gay completely rewrites Cyrano's work
35:46for the 21st century and turns it into a fabulous story,
35:50which, like the history of paper, celebrates romance in what could be
35:54quite a conventional way, you know, the true love that Cyrano has
35:57for Roxane and the love that she has for him without really,
36:01or her in this case, without really recognising it for what it is,
36:05while at the same time being incredibly sharp and witty
36:09and accurate about all the stupidities of our culture,
36:12which is beautifully carried by the chorus of three thespians.
36:15Rostand's play begins in a theatre and this one carries that motif
36:19right through with these three kind of very contrasting theatre artists
36:24commenting on and getting drawn into the story as it evolves.
36:28So it ends in the most marvellous way, with a real challenge
36:32to the kind of lugubrious quality of the, and kind of slightly self-pitying
36:36quality of the ending that Rostand gives us, where, of course,
36:40Roxane and Cyrano never manage to get together.
36:43But along the way, it is incredibly funny, beautifully fast-paced,
36:48often moving and, of course, lit up by a fantastic central performance
36:54from Virginia Gay herself as Cyrano.
36:57So please, the team from Cyrano, come up and accept your award.
37:00APPLAUSE
37:09There they are.
37:10What a star you are, my dear.
37:12Thank you, wonderful.
37:14Well done, girl.
37:15Thank you so much.
37:17No kisses.
37:18No other reason.
37:24Oh, my goodness.
37:25Oh, can you...
37:26Hello, hello, thank you so much.
37:28This is so much.
37:30I am just a little Australian and this is so much.
37:34I can't even tell you.
37:36I would like to say a huge, huge thanks to the Scotsman
37:39and to this award.
37:40I agree, I would like to echo everything that all of the other writers,
37:43particularly, have said about how hard it is to get new work on
37:46and how thrilling it is that there is such a focus on new work
37:50here through the Scotsman and through the Fringe Fest Award.
37:53I would like to thank the Travis.
37:55We are so lucky to be here.
37:57We feel so incredibly looked after.
37:59The team is so spectacular.
38:01Thank you for taking a risk on this previously mentioned little Australian.
38:04I would love to thank our incredible producers, Roast,
38:09who took such a massive risk on this show and brought me out here
38:13and spent tens of thousands of pounds with all of this happening
38:18and just landing it so beautifully.
38:21And a huge, huge shout-out to our brilliant director, Claire Watson,
38:25who is in Adelaide right now.
38:27I think there is a live stream anywhere.
38:29We love you so much.
38:30We are so grateful for you.
38:31Thank you so much.
38:33When you write a piece of new work, particularly a comedy,
38:37you are entirely dependent on the talent and the charisma
38:42and the front-footed, open-hearted capacity
38:46to throw themselves into a new work of your cast.
38:52Cyrano might feel like a show about a very arrogant and controlling central figure,
38:57but actually it is.
38:59An ensemble piece.
39:01It's an ensemble piece.
39:03And this cast, it is such a joy to walk out on stage with them
39:07every day on our floating schedule.
39:10Sometimes at 10 o'clock in the morning,
39:12which is the perfect time for a queer rom-com.
39:15I'm sure about that.
39:18To experience the joy and, as I said, the enthusiasm
39:22and the pure, utter charisma of watching them
39:25knock this out of the park every single day.
39:28I am so deeply thrilled.
39:30I never dreamt this big in my life.
39:33This is so extraordinary to me.
39:35Thank you so much.
39:37Bravo!
39:38Bravo!
39:41Just pause for a moment.
39:44I just want to name-check the rest of that fabulous cast
39:47because they are all completely terrific.
39:49Terrific, terrific.
39:50This is Jessica Whitehurst.
39:54This is David Parkhunter.
39:58Over there is Brandon Grace,
40:00the playful, handsome soldier.
40:03And in the middle somewhere is Tessa Wong,
40:05who's a missionary.
40:07And finally, Tanvi Vermani,
40:12who is the junior chorus member and dog's beddy.
40:15Have I missed anyone?
40:16I hope not.
40:17And, of course, the fantastic back-up team,
40:19members of which are over there where I can hardly see them.
40:22Thanks for the great visibility.
40:23Bravo!
40:24Fantastic.
40:25Thank you so much.
40:26Captain Bright!
40:27Wonderful.
40:29Bright!
40:32Thanks.
40:33Well, women, eh?
40:35And our final show...
40:37Tell me about it.
40:39Our final show is about a relationship,
40:44a kind of love affair, a deep connection
40:47between an actress and singer
40:50and wonderful theatre artist here in Scotland,
40:53living through lockdown,
40:56living in a Glasgow high-rise,
40:58two little kids,
41:00and thinking about the life of a woman
41:04about whom she had always been curious
41:06since she started singing in a Johnny Cash tribute band.
41:11The life of a woman called June Carter Cash.
41:15And the name tells the whole story about June Carter,
41:19about the fact that in her later life
41:21she became so much recognised
41:23only as Johnny Cash's wife and fellow artist,
41:26often appearing with him on stage
41:28all over the United States and elsewhere.
41:31And Charlene Boyd,
41:35the actress who has made and created this show,
41:38was drawn to this story
41:40because she began to learn
41:42through research that she did during that quiet time,
41:44lockdown for a lot of people involved in theatre,
41:48that June Carter Cash
41:50had been a star in her own right
41:52from the age of 10
41:54for 30 years
41:56before she married Johnny Cash.
41:58She had built an independent career
42:00in the very patriarchal country music scene.
42:04She had had two marriages, two daughters,
42:06two divorces,
42:08a situation that was widely disapproved of.
42:11And she was almost 40 before she finally settled
42:14with Johnny Cash
42:16and became known primarily as his partner.
42:19So when they first met in 1956
42:21at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville,
42:23she was the big, big star
42:25and he was the bold beginner
42:27who walked up to her and said,
42:29I'm going to marry you one day.
42:31And she replied, I can't wait.
42:33Ironically.
42:35The story of June Carter Cash
42:37is therefore a fascinating story
42:39and reflects so much
42:41about so many women's lives.
42:43About the lives, the guilt and the tensions
42:46of the lives of single mothers,
42:48about the guilt and the tensions of women
42:50who have family commitments
42:52but also a huge creative drive
42:54about creating their own independent careers.
42:57And it has been superbly brought to life
42:59in June Carter Cash,
43:01The Woman, Her Music and Me,
43:03which is playing at Summer Hall
43:05in the big dissection room done up like a cabaret.
43:08In that show, Charlene plays both herself
43:11and June Carter Cash
43:13as she reflects on this story
43:15of what it means for women today,
43:17of the music, the wonderful music
43:19that drove June's life.
43:21There's a fantastic three-piece band on stage.
43:24The colours and atmosphere of the production
43:27are absolutely amazing,
43:29ranging from kind of hillbilly frills
43:31to, you know, sort of hiking gear
43:33for going into the mountains,
43:35the Appalachians today.
43:37And all of it has been beautifully pulled together
43:40by a superb team of women artists,
43:42led by Charlene as writer and performer
43:45but director Cora Bissett,
43:47designer Shona Repe,
43:49music coordinator and director Pippa Murphy.
43:53So a wonderful team of women artists,
43:56all co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland
43:59and the mighty Gridiron Theatre Company.
44:02So everyone, but above all Charlene,
44:04from the wonderful team of June Carter Cash,
44:06The Woman, Her Music and Me,
44:08please come up to accept your award.
44:10CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
44:17Well done.
44:21Hey, congratulations.
44:23What a triumph.
44:25Bravo.
44:29Just a fabulous show.
44:31Charlene, thank you so much.
44:33Right, here we go.
44:35Thank you so much.
44:38Joyce, the Scotsman,
44:41everyone who is on the panel
44:43for awarding the Fringe Firsts,
44:45this is my first play.
44:47I've never written before.
44:49It's huge.
44:51I feel so grateful to be here
44:54and to have Gridiron and NTS supporting me
44:57from the very beginning.
44:59My two kids are here.
45:01CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
45:04It's just amazing to have them here
45:08and to be reminding me every day
45:10of the challenges of being a working woman in the arts.
45:13And that's what this play's all about.
45:15And, you know, going over to Nashville
45:17and meeting June's kids
45:19and just everything,
45:21the whole entire journey
45:23has been life-changing for me
45:25and I'm just incredibly grateful.
45:29CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
45:35I'm going to take an opportunity
45:37that I've wanted to have for 30 years
45:39and pretend to be Cora Bissett.
45:41LAUGHTER
45:43I will enjoy more than she will.
45:45Cora, like a lot of Scottish parents,
45:47has taken the opportunity this morning to leave...
45:49Come into the light.
45:51Thank God.
45:53..to leave for her family holiday
45:55before everybody goes back to school.
45:57So, Charlene, we are so proud of you.
46:00I speak for NTS and for Gridiron.
46:03And we are so proud of the entire team
46:05behind this show,
46:07so proud of June
46:09and so proud of everyone who struggles to make work
46:12in increasingly dark and gloomy times.
46:15And at a time in Scotland where, across all art forms,
46:18most of us are waiting to find out
46:20if we will survive beyond October,
46:22it's just really important we thank a Scotsman
46:24for taking this opportunity
46:26to let us celebrate one another
46:28and hold each other in the love and respect
46:30that we all deserve.
46:32So, well done to everybody.
46:34CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
46:38APPLAUSE
46:48Go on, just start. Ring of fire. Go on.
46:50This show ends...
46:52This show ends very iconically.
46:54Get up here to the mic with me.
46:56I don't have any fans!
46:58No, but you've got me.
47:00And Miriam.
47:02Listen, Charlene's show ends
47:04with a very affirming chorus
47:06of Ring of Fire.
47:08Yes.
47:10A song that June wrote
47:12when she was very young
47:14in the hope of earning enough money from it
47:16to buy a new couch for her slightly
47:18shabby home.
47:20And it really is a very rousing thing,
47:22partly because, yes, there is a three-piece band
47:24and, yes, Charlene sings it beautifully,
47:26but the whole audience instantly
47:28joins in, so this means you.
47:30Shall we give it a go? OK.
47:32I'll sing the intro,
47:34you start singing. OK.
47:36Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh
47:38LAUGHTER
47:40APPLAUSE
47:42LAUGHTER
47:44Love
47:46is a burning thing
47:48Money makes
47:50a fiery ring
47:54Vow, vow
47:56of desire
47:58I fell into
48:00a burning ring of fire
48:02Ready?
48:04I fell into a burning
48:06ring of fire
48:08And went down, down, down
48:10And the flames grew higher
48:12They went down, down, down
48:14That ring of fire
48:16That ring
48:18of fire
48:20CHEERING
48:22Oh, boy!
48:24Bravo!
48:26Thank you so much!
48:28APPLAUSE
48:32Oh, dear me!
48:34Right.
48:36Well.
48:38How wonderful. Wonderful.
48:40And that is it.
48:42Those are our Fringe Firsts for the very first week.
48:44And that's just the first week,
48:46folks. I can promise you
48:48there is loads of stuff, just as thrilling
48:50as that, coming up over the next
48:52two weeks. We'll be back
48:54here at the Pleasance Courtyard in the
48:56Cabaret Bar next week at the same
48:58time, celebrating our week two Fringe Firsts
49:00and then in the bigger space
49:02at Pleasance Grand
49:04with our Scotsman Fringe Awards
49:062024 in two
49:08weeks' time. But first of all
49:10we have to say thank you to Miriam.
49:12Miriam, how was that for you?
49:14Oh, it was f***ing marvellous!
49:16It was marvellous!
49:18APPLAUSE
49:20Oh, my God!
49:22I'm
49:24so impressed and so
49:26in awe of these brilliant
49:28young, talented people.
49:30And two from
49:32Australia!
49:34My other nation! Oh, my goodness.
49:36What a joy.
49:38What a privilege
49:40to be here. I'm just
49:42bitter that I can't see
49:44all of the shows.
49:46I mean, it's thrilling.
49:48And I
49:50just think this is what the Fringe is
49:52for. This enthusiasm.
49:54This chance.
49:56This possibility.
49:58And the knowledge
50:00that people are going to come and applaud
50:02them and enjoy it and learn
50:04from it. It's such a spur
50:06for an encouragement
50:08for the future.
50:10And that's what the Fringe is all about.
50:12And that's what Joyce has spent her
50:14life doing.
50:16You know, people think that critics are
50:18c***. They're not.
50:20They're not.
50:30They are not. They are.
50:32If they can get to be
50:34as warm and as appreciative
50:36as Joyce, people who
50:38make art happen.
50:40And arts, the arts
50:42are the soul of a nation.
50:44They are our soul,
50:46which is being crushed and stamped on
50:48by pollies who don't give
50:50the arts enough money.
50:52So bless you,
50:54Joyce. Bless the Scotsman for
50:56throwing light on this and for making
50:58those Fringe first possible.
51:00And thank you, all of you,
51:02for being part of it, for making it
51:04happen, for coming to see the shows,
51:06for making the shows,
51:08and keeping that
51:10spark, that moment of joy
51:12when we think that
51:14maybe things are going to
51:16get better. Thank you.
51:18Thank you very much.
51:34Can't improve on that. So thank
51:36you all for being here.
51:38Thank you again to everyone at the Pleasance.
51:40Thank you to our wonderful sponsors.
51:42Thank you to the Scotsman team for making
51:44all this possible. And above
51:46all, thank you to our fantastic
51:48winners today. What artists.
51:50What joy. And
51:52let's look forward to next week when we'll be back
51:54here.