New Writing Top Five

After all the hilarity of my idiosyncratic top fives, I have decided to try and play it straight. I have finally seen Caesarian Sections and currently feel chastened. This will express itself in a later post: for the moment, I want to calm myself by following a simple path. A new writing at the Fringe top five is sufficiently predictable, although the pieces I intend to choose are full of idiosyncratic vitality.

My first choice is easy: Kieran Hurley's Beats is on at the Traverse, following from its short run as one of The Arches' Platform 18 award winners. Hurley is one of a rising wave of young Scottish artists who are establishing themselves, with a cosmopolitan and intelligent approach to theatre making. Writer and performer, he is backed by DJ Johnny Whoop and visuals from Jamie Wardrop: he goes back to the late rave scene of the 1990s, and uses his charismatic on-stage presence and lively idea for a metaphor to relate a story of hope, disappointment and rebellion.

Hurley's skills are evident in his original use of music - the DJ is not mere add on but an integral part of the show, putting down the tunes to accompany Hurley's moving stories - and the easy manner in which he charms the audience and shows compassion to all of his characters, even the cynical copper. His own idealism, previously revealed in Hitch is tempered by a sharp intelligence and a winning manner: Beats is at once cerebral and emotional.

The Traverse, 14- 26 August

Up from Manchester for a short run comes A Sky Burial. Having been described as "ambitious... visceral and violent" by Amanda Dalton of The Royal Exchange (a theatre that has a generous policy on access for young authors), it has a more conventional script-based approach than Beats, and has been described as an episode of Casualty at the end of the world. Preoccupied with the uncertainty of the post-modern condition, and juxtaposing the screams of the sick on a ward and the roars of the streets beyond, it centres around a blind date that might offer redemption in the hour of chaos.

Author Joe McKie honed his skills as a curator of a comedy night, and his director Sophie Taylor has recently come from a successful Titus Andronicus - a Shakespeare number so brutal that a hardcore punk took their name from it. The combination of the author and director's interests sets the tone for this dark comedy that retains a belief in the power of human relationships.

theSpace on North Bridge, various dates until the 24 August

New writing isn't always my enthusiasm - I tend towards the physical theatre but there is a wave of Scottish writers - who often perform their own words - like Hurley and Gary McNair who have reminded that the script is far from moribund. Every time I head into the Underbelly, the huge poster for The Old Vic's New Voices chimes in by insisting that it isn't just about Scotland.

My pick - although all five of the shows are getting positive critiques - is for Sabrina Mahfouz's One Hour Only. Her entry to 2011's Fringe was a searing portrait (in couplets) of the life of a lap dancer had her nominated for The Stage's Best Solo performance: this year, she has a two-hander that pitches the naivety of both john and prostitute against the seriousness of the situation that they are both caught inside. AJ and Marley might have been brought together by his mates and her profession, but Mahfouz draws an intimate portrait of a meeting of minds in an unlikely location.

Underbelly, 3- 26 August 

It's a little tentative as a connection, but both Kieran Hurley and my next pick, Dancing Brick, have appeared at The Arches: Perle is not just a new work, it is creating a new genre. It's a live action comic book, based on the oldest poem in English, a one person show that grapples with grief and a young father's journey to reclaim his dead daughter.

Serge Seidlitz was called in on illustration duties, and this new writing is not about the words: the performance is all mime, contemporary clown style, with the text scrolling across the illustrated screen. Like Beats, it has the same writer and performer: Thomas Eccleshare approached the script as if it were a comic book.

Assembly Roxy, 2- 26 August

It is my last choice, and I have not even managed to scrape the surface of the diversity within new writing: of course, that's the top five format all over. The British approach to theatre has always privileged the script - when I am in dance mood, I can't stop complaining about it. But the five here ought to remind even Criticulous that the script is not played out and the way that authors approach writing for the stage is much more sophisticated than slapping the words down and leaving the director to fix it.


The Damsels Most Daring are on the Free Fringe, and I feel that I haven't given enough love to it this year. I admire the spirit of the companies that have stepped outside the relative safety of the paid programme, and who are clear in their intention to value art over money. The Bravery of Miss Anne and Other Tales of Splendorous Adventure has all sorts of different antics going on: they call it comedic, musical storytelling theatre. Their interests are obviously broad, and the live piano that accompanies their tales is typical of the way that the modern play integrates words and other theatrical aspects.

Miss Anne has hysteria, gun fights and grave-robbing, all in nineteenth century style: the author is on the stage again and the anarchic spirit of the press release made me consider that here is a work  that might reflect the anarchic state of current playwriting, where everything is up for grabs and talented new voices can mix and match and not be bothered by the demarcations of critics or academics.

French Quarter, The Voodoo Rooms 21-25 August