The 1947 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the first edition of what would become the world's largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (although at the time the event was not known by that name).
In 1947, in a gesture of reconciliation and co-operation after the end of the Second World War in Europe, it was decided to create an international festival of the arts in Edinburgh - the Edinburgh International Festival. Under the leadership of artistic director, Rudolf Bing, companies including Glyndebourne Opera, the Halle Orchestra and Sadler's Wells Ballet were invited to perform. [1]
However, post-war Scotland had its own thriving community and touring drama scene, with groups who although poorly funded, were enthusiastic and of a good standard. [2] Several of these took it upon themselves to perform in Edinburgh at the same time that the International Festival was taking place.
In total, eight theatre companies (not all Scottish) who had not been invited by Bing decided to perform anyway, holding their own events in venues not used by the International Festival, plus Dunfermline Abbey, across the River Forth to the north of Edinburgh. It is unlikely these groups had any idea of establishing an actual unofficial event of their own, nor is it likely they contacted each other in advance. [3]
At the time, the groups referred to themselves as the "Festival Adjuncts" [4] and it was not until the following year that Robert Kemp, a Scottish playwright and journalist, is considered to have coined the phrase "fringe" to describe the event. [5] However, the word "fringe" was used at least once in conjunction with the 1947 event when one critic remarked about the Dunfermline Abbey show that it was a shame it was so far out "on the fringe of the Festival". [6]
The participating groups consisted of six companies from Scotland and two from England. This balance reflected the strength of amateur drama in Scotland at the time. Indeed, it is said there was a post-War "missionary zeal" in the air among amateur companies, and this zeal fuelled the early growth of what would become known as Fringe theatre. [3]
It is certainly possible that there was a political or protest element behind some of the companies' presence. Glasgow Unity Theatre in particular had left wing political inclinations, and viewed the official festival as bourgeois and removed from the mass public, something they aimed to rectify. [3] Their two shows - Gorky's The Lower Depths, and Rbert MacLellan's The Laird o' Torwatletie were aimed at the working class. [7]
The full programme of events included Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, the medieval morality play Everyman, and a play about notorious Edinburgh criminals Burke and Hare, The Anatomist. [8] [9] The festival opened on 24 August 1947.
Gorky's The Lower Depths had not been staged in Britain since 1912, so drew attention for that reason. [10] Attendances were generally good, and several shows were the subject of positive reviews, especially Everyman in Dunfermline, thereby increasing the likelihood of a repeat "unofficial" festival the following year. [6]
Fife is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire. By custom it is widely held to have been one of the major Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib, and is still commonly known as the Kingdom of Fife within Scotland. A person from Fife is known as a Fifer. In older documents the county was very occasionally known by the anglicisation Fifeshire.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 different shows in 322 venues. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place in Edinburgh every August. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by the Olympics and the World Cup in terms of global ticketed events. As an event it "has done more to place Edinburgh in the forefront of world cities than anything else" according to historian and former chairman of the board, Michael Dale.
The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music and the performing arts are invited to join the festival. Visual art exhibitions, talks and workshops are also hosted.
The Scottish Renaissance was a mainly literary movement of the early to mid-20th century that can be seen as the Scottish version of modernism. It is sometimes referred to as the Scottish literary renaissance, although its influence went beyond literature into music, visual arts, and politics. The writers and artists of the Scottish Renaissance displayed a profound interest in both modern philosophy and technology, as well as incorporating folk influences, and a strong concern for the fate of Scotland's declining languages.
John Duncan Macrae was one of the leading Scottish actors of his generation. He worked mainly as a stage actor and also made five television appearances and seventeen films.
James Bridie was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and physician whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor. He took his pen-name from his paternal grandfather's first name and his grandmother's maiden name.
Robert Kemp (1908–1967) was a Scottish playwright. Along with Tom Fleming and Lennox Milne, he was a founder of the Edinburgh Gateway Company.
Robert McLellan OBE (1907–1985) was a Scottish Renaissance dramatist, writer and poet and a leading figure in the twentieth century movement to recover Scotland’s distinctive theatrical traditions. He found popular success with plays and stories written in his native Scots tongue and is regarded, alongside William Lorimer, as one of the most important modern exponents of fine prose in the language.
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The Glasgow Unity Theatre was a theatre group that was formed in 1941, in Glasgow. The Unity theatre movement developed from workers' drama groups in the 1930s, seeing itself as using theatre to highlight the issues of the working class being produced by and for working-class audiences. Its demands were "for new Scots plays by new Scottish writers to be performed by native actors." The movement had strong links with the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Left Book Club Theatre Guild.
Theatre in Scotland refers to the history of the performing arts in Scotland, or those written, acted and produced by Scots. Scottish theatre generally falls into the Western theatre tradition, although many performances and plays have investigated other cultural areas. The main influences are from North America, England, Ireland and from Continental Europe. Scotland's theatrical arts were generally linked to the broader traditions of Scottish and English-language literature and to British and Irish theatre, American literature and theatrical artists. As a result of mass migration, both to and from Scotland, in the modern period, Scottish literature has been introduced to a global audience, and has also created an increasingly multicultural Scottish theatre.
Literature in modern Scotland is literature written in Scotland, or by Scottish writers, since the beginning of the twentieth century. It includes literature written in English, Scottish Gaelic and Scots in forms including poetry, novels, drama and the short story.
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Assembly is a theatre and comedy promotion company, producer and venue operator. It programmes and promotes entertainment events at venues in Edinburgh, London and Brighton, and is the longest-established of the so-called Big Four promoters at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August. Year-round audience numbers at Assembly events are more than 500,000, and the company's artistic director is William Burdett-Coutts.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society is the organisation that supports the running of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world. The Society was established in 1958 to provide a centralised information and box office service for the Fringe, which had grown in numbers since eight theatre companies had effectively "created" the Fringe by performing uninvited alongside the Edinburgh International Festival in 1947.
The Gateway Theatre was a Category C listed building in Edinburgh, Scotland, situated on Elm Row at the top of Leith Walk.
The 1948 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the second edition of what would become the world's largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was in this year the word "Fringe" is commonly accepted as having first been associated with the event, after it was used by an Edinburgh Evening News critic. The term would come to define the event, and spawn the genre of fringe theatre. It was, however, still several years before it became common parlance in connection with the event or theatre in general, and also some time before any formal organisation of the event took place.
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Christine Grant Millar Orr (1899–1963) was a Scottish novelist, playwright, poet, actor, theatre director and broadcaster. She published eighteen novels over the course of her writing career, although she is best known for her work in broadcasting and in the theatre. Orr was one of the "uninvited eight" instrumental in the founding of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.