Edinburgh: Day 2 (or, Some Questions I Have About Stuff)
When will theatre involving iPads stop being all OOOH LOOK AN IPAD, DOESN’T IT LOOK LOVELY, LET ME TOUCH IT, and start being just theatre?
Did I like Futureproof more than the woman who I followed out of the auditorium because I actually liked the play more, or because all the pretty things and Terry Gilliam cast-offs made it easier for me to ignore the writing?
As a single woman with no children, should I give a shit when under 5s watch shadow puppets fisting? What are my responsibilities towards my fellow audience members and their wellbeing? When I was 5, would shadow puppet fisting have shocked me, caused me to ask uncomfortable questions, or simply pass me by?
Is Bryony Kimmings really like that in real life or, as I suspect is the case with Caitlin Moran, is it all just a big act? Does Bryony Kimmings meet new female friends when pissed and immediately drag them into a toilet cubicle to pee together? (I bet she does.) Has Bryony Kimmings ever gone to buy a pint of milk in her slippers?
Does Bryony Kimmings actually make better art when pissed (as her scientific study supposedly proved) or is she just sillier and therefore more entertaining? Was she asking her test audiences the right questions? Did she want to make good art or did she want to be funny? Are the two mutually exclusive and, if not, how do you judge whether something is one or both?
Are spooky promenade things in interesting buildings (like the Grid Iron thing in the uni anatomy dept) just using all the same paint-by-numbers tricks as Bryony Kimmings is with her daft outfits and balloon-popping and glitter? Am I judging Bryony Kimmings more harshly than Grid Iron because I am a misogynist in woman’s clothing? Am I just jealous because she’s thinner and more confident than I am? Why did I prefer getting into a sleeping bag on the orders of a mad butchering pianist to being asked to slow-dance with a stranger? Was I simply more comfortable, or was it because the rest of the Grid Iron audience were older than me so I didn’t feel the need to impress anyone? Why do I feel the need to impress people based upon their age? Is it my ovaries talking?
What makes the Welsh accent so bloody lovely?
(Today I saw: Alma Mater by Fish and Game, Futureproof by the Traverse and Dundee Rep, Little Sparrow by With A Smile and Millfield, The Dark Philosophers by NTW and Told By An Idiot, 7 Day Drunk by Bryony Kimmings, and What Remains by Grid Iron and the Traverse. I also saw that old dude off the telly who looks like Michael Gambon but isn’t.)
