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Black Dingo's David MacFarlane

Black Dingo Productions is a not-for-profit community with a DIY ethic. It supports Edinburgh’s emerging talent in theatre and brings affordable theatre to audiences year round.

It works as an umbrella under which established theatre professionals can work together with others looking to become more established, and create work for the benefit of all.

It was founded by David McFarlane in 2012. The name comes from one of the first characters David ever played.

The benefits of working together sparked an idea: if two people collaborating make things this much easier, imagine what could be done with more people all working to the same end.

And from there the community grew.

Can you tell me a little about the evolution of the company?
The company started out as me cobbling together shows that I liked with amateur groups. I was then lucky enough to meet Jen McGregor of Tightlaced Theatre we were talking about the problem with funding and generally how to set the theatre world to rights. From those conversation the basics of Black Dingo Productions were established and eventually it progressed to the point we now co own a theatre space called Discover 21. The overriding goal is to find way to do good theatre make it affordable and make it accessible.

How do you keep going during 'the rest of the year'?
We run most of our small scale performance at Discover 21 which we own which helps to keep down costs. We are helped by St Margarets house who own the building Discover 21 is in. Black Dingo was designed to be a non profit company, we try to get our shows to break even then the money can be used to fund the next show and if shows make a loss we look for funding either from business or individuals (most commonly our own bank balances)

This is an ambitious line up: is there any particular 'curation' of the companies that Black Dingo work with?
We work with companies through out the year and they tend to be who we look to at Fringe time. As we grow we are looking at finding ways to increase our support of local theatre companies doing good work. We are looking for a certain quality threshold with the intention of making the Black Dingo seal of approval a guarantee of a certain amount of ticket sales.

Is the Fringe a good place for BD to put work out? Are there any issues with the size or nature of it?
Are intention is to produce fringe style theatre all year round so the fringe should be our natural home, obviously the problem is there are 4000 other people who also believe it is their natural home. We are lucky to have strong ties with the Just festival and this year with the Scottish storytelling centre which means we have tow organisation willing us to succeed which helps a lot. Hope fully our ambition will be rewarded and we will have a great Fringe which will allow us to work with the Edinburgh grassroots all year round.

Three More Coming Soon

The critic's life isn't all cutting edge action. Sometimes it is good to go back to the classic plays, to be reminded of past times or the moments that made theatre popular in the first place. I've only seen Abigail’s Party on film or in amateur productions in the past, but the King's Edinburgh has a touring production that stars Laura Beale out of Eastenders.

For fans of kitsch, Abigail's Party has everything: aspiring 1970s couples, Demis Roussos, an erotic painting that would probably be in the bargain bin at Oxfam these days, faux-sophiticated, an unhappy marriage, teenage kicks (off-stage) and a final moment of tragedy. Mike Leigh scripted his characters pretty close to the edge in terms of making them unpleasant - is it still possible to feel pain when the victim is a socially vulgar bore?


Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh 

Presented by Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Menier Chocolate factory Productions

Mon 25 February to Sat 2 March 2013
King's Theatre
Evenings 7.30pm | Matinees Wed & Sat 2.30pm

Inky Fingers ought not to be on my important list because they are in Edinburgh and they promote Spoken Word (one's too far away, the other's not usually seen as theatre). And yet, they are dynamic, and have free events - as well as supporting all sorts of interesting workshops through their newsletter. Their open mic is coming up at the end of the month and they have an admirable inclusive policy. 

"We want to hear from everybody. We want your poems, your rants, your ballads, your short stories, your diaries, your experimental texts, your heart, your mind, your body. We want the essay on your summer holidays you wrote when you were four, your adolescent haiku, and extracts from your eventually-to-be-completed epic fantasy quadrilogy. We want to hear your best new work as well. And we want people to care about the way words are performed."

Assuming I don't succumb to the temptation to dress up as Robocritic and give the audience some of my Prime Directives, they have a strong headliner in Ghostboy. He won the Performance Poetry World Cup in 2005, does cabaret routines with Golden Virtues and is known for his punk aesthetic and rough salmming style. He's also got a name that sounds a bit hip-hop.

INKY FINGERS OPEN MIC
8 – 11pm, Tuesday 26th February
The Forest Café, 141 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh
FREE

At the risk of losing my roots in Glasgow, my third inbox surprise is happening in Leith. Since I spent a week at manipulate, I am started to become confused for an East Coast native. Having the English accent doesn't hurt in that...

I am not sure whether Gagarin Way will make an interesting alternative Valentine's date. It is the sort of thing that I'd choose, and my tgrack record speaks for itself. However, it's still Gregory Burke's most popular play that doesn't involve soldiers. A look at how socialism is dying out in Scotland, it is regularly restaged, usually during the Fringe.

Interestingly, this study of the death of socialism is being produced by Black Dingo, part of a DIY not-for-profit organisation that aims to make sure that there are fringe style performances (not in one of the big theatres) outside of August. So the choice of play is quite appropriate: political theatre by a political company.

Of course, the decay of socialism from a utopian vision to the nasty cult it has become in Scotland is one of the great tragedies of the last century: perhaps thanks to its basic misunderstanding of human nature (thinking there is such a thing is a problem), it has turned into the sort of manipulative tyranny that it once decried in other ideologies - replacing the Catholic Church's promise of heaven with the workers' state. Burke focusses on how, on certain areas, it was socialism that made communities: its absence leaves only desperation and idiotic schemes.

It is a comedy, but Black Dingo won't leave it there. They've added a bonus show - comedian Keara Murphy doing a work in progress of her solo show Of Mice and Men. So: an unfamiliar venue, a company dedicated to DIY, a little bit of politics, some quirky comedy. Theatre growing despite the times, anyone?


The Loft at The Granary, The Shore, Leith
13,14,15 February 2013 7pm (1.5hrs)