Edinburgh's one-person show warning over Fringe costs crisis
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He suggested that performers were 'swapping production values for somewhere to sleep' when it came to deciding what to prioritise their Fringe spending on.
Mr Alderson also warned that there were declining opportunities - on and off stage - for emerging talent to break through at the festival, which will mark its 80th anniversary in 2027.
This year's Fringe line-up is on the track to be the third biggest in the history of the Fringe, which dates back to 1947, in terms of the number of shows in the line-up.
That has gone up from 3317 to 3352 since last year, while are three more venues in the 2025 line-up than in 2024.
However the overall number of performances has dropped from 51,446 to 49,521 in the space of 12 months and is down more than 10,000 on the biggest Fringe to date, in 2019, the year before the pandemic shut down the festival.
Mr Alderson, who was speaking as the biggest Fringe venues launched their annual joint marketing campaign, said it was 'miraculous' that the festival was able to go ahead every year.
He said this was down to artists taking the 'brave' decision to 'risk their time, their money and their heart' to put their work in front of audiences.
He suggested it was wrong to measure the success of the Fringe by the size of its programme, adding: 'What's happening behind the scenes tells a different story.'
He said: 'It has never been more expensive to bring work to the Fringe. Costs have soared -accommodation, travel, marketing, everything. And something has to give. We have to re-examine the model.
"We're seeing more shows, but shorter runs. Smaller casts. Less technical ambition. People are swapping production values for somewhere to sleep.
"We're losing job opportunities for emerging talent, both on and off stage. If we're not careful, we'll become a one-person monologue festival. That's not good for artists. That's not good for audiences. And it's not good for this city.
"And yet - despite it all - artists still come. This year, we'll see work from across the globe. Work that moves us, that surprises us, that makes us laugh, cry, fall in love. That pushes boundaries, challenges assumptions, and reflects who we are and who we want to be.
'This isn't just entertainment. It's cultural identity. And it's getting harder to sustain.
'Not because we lack talent or vision. But because of cost. The cost of being here, of producing work, of reaching audiences. It's becoming unsustainable.
'We may be a small country, but we have enormous potential. Culture is our soft power. If we want to push back against populism and division, the arts are one of our best hopes.
'This festival dares. It provokes. It heals. It makes us see each other more clearly. This isn't something we add on to life—this is life. It's the fabric of a healthy society. Lose that and we lose something essential.'
Mr Alderson suggested the city council was making it harder and more expensive to put on the Fringe and called for local businesses in Edinburgh to show more support for the festival.
He added: "The city's hotels, bars, taxis, and restaurants flourish every August. So let's not take this for granted. Let's invest in the artists who make it all possible. The success of the Fringe is the success of Edinburgh.
"The venues, the Fringe Society, the city council, Edinburgh University - we need to work together. Artists need clarity, simplicity, and support. Not bureaucracy and barriers."
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Spectator
36 minutes ago
- Spectator
Edinburgh Fringe is becoming a Jew-free zone
Is the Edinburgh Fringe a Judenfrei zone now? With just a week to go before the Fringe kicks off, Jewish comedians are being unceremoniously cancelled. One venue has allegedly cited 'safety concerns' from staff, saying the extra muscle to deal with the threats to Jewish acts made them feel more unsafe. So instead of protecting Jews, you ditch them? What a shameful capitulation to the anti-Semitic mob. Numerous Jewish-themed comedy shows have been binned at the Whistlebinkies venue in the city. Rachel Creeger, Britain's only practising Orthodox Jewish comedian, has been told her show Ultimate Jewish Mother is no longer going ahead. Jew-O-Rama was next for the chop. That's a comedy night that features a 'rolling line-up of Jewish and Jew-ish comedians'. It's been running at the Fringe for nine years. Not anymore. Seems funny Jews aren't allowed in 2025. And now the host of Jew-O-Rama, Philip Simon, says his one-man show 'Shall I Compare Thee in a Funny Way?' has been cancelled at the Banshee Labyrinth venue. 'I am still processing the concept that in 2025 I can be cancelled just for being Jewish', says Mr Simon. We should all be processing that. We should all be asking how it is possible that at a comedy festival in the 21st century, Jews are being booted off stage. The reasons given by the venues for their blitzing of the Jewish acts are ridiculous. They say it is not because the comedians are Jewish – I guess it is entirely coincidental that every one of the gagged comics is a Jew. No, it's because their bar staff said they would 'feel unsafe' in the presence of such acts and the beefed-up security Jewish performers tragically require in 21st-century Britain. Listen, here's what you do with members of staff who say Jewish performers make them feel unsafe – sack them. Get those people the hell out of your establishments. To prioritise the emotions of pint-pulling Gen Z fainthearts over the artistic liberty of Jews is a grotesque betrayal of the freedom to speak and the equality of Jews. Extra security for Jewish acts should make you feel furious, not 'unsafe'. Furious that a Jew can't even crack a joke these days without requiring an army of heavies. Philip Simon says he was told that his one-man show was scrubbed because his views on 'the humanitarian crisis in Palestine' do not align with those of the venue. What are his scandalous views? Well, he calls himself 'pro-Israel' and he has pleaded for the release of the Israeli hostages. Wanting Jews to be freed from the violent clutches of a neo-fascist militia is a cancellable offence now, it seems. There's a neo-McCarthyite vibe to these venues' erasure of Jews who fail to toe the 'progressive' line on the Israel-Hamas war. Perhaps next year, to save time, the Fringe should check the thinking of every Jew who applies to perform. 'Are you now or have you ever been a sympathiser with the Jews still being held captive by Hamas? Are you now or have you ever been a believer in Israel's right to exist?' Answer carefully, Jew – your livelihood is on the line. It really is that stark: Jewish comics are being robbed of income because Fringe venues are too cowardly to host them. 'We depend on performing for our livelihoods', said Rachel Creeger. And it's not just the Fringe that's rejecting Jewish acts. This is an 'ongoing problem faced by Jewish performers in this country', she says. 'We are being cancelled and often silently boycotted.' These are the awful wages of the Israelophobic frenzy that has swept the cultural establishment these past two years. It's all the rage now to boycott Jews. Last month two shows by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and the musician Dudu Tassa were cancelled after threats were made against them. The problem? Tassa is a Jew from Israel. And we can't have that. Under the left's bigoted regime of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), Israeli performers have been banned or booed and Jewish film festivals have been cancelled. Imagine thinking you're on the right side of history even as you obsessively make your life Israeli-frei; even as you agitate for the shutting down of Jewish film nights and squeal about feeling 'unsafe' because a Jew with a mic is telling a joke. If a huge line-up of black comics were kicked out of the Edinburgh Fringe, we'd call it what it was. So let's say it here, too: it is heinous, intolerant and discriminatory to cancel Jewish acts at the behest of fragile bar staff or potential anti-Jewish mobs. It is the blackest mark against the Fringe that some of its venues would rather shut Jews down than take the necessary measures to let them perform safely and freely. Throwing Jews to the wolves – shame on you, Edinburgh.
The Herald Scotland
6 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Dawn Steele on the 'daunting' prospect of her Fringe debut
She is about to make her debut appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in a play which will also mark her return to the stage for the first time in more than a decade. Read more: The actress says the chance to appear in the play came at 'the right time,' ahead of her 50th birthday later this year, at a time when she was affected by the downturn in Britain's TV drama industry. It will also realise her growing ambitions to become part of the Fringe after attending numerous shows with friends in recent years and a desire to return to the stage. Dawn Steele will be appearing in the Fringe play Skye at Summerhall. (Image: Supplied) Steele is preparing to play a number of characters in Skye, a chilling family mystery, set on the Hebridean island of the same name 30 years ago. She will be taking centre stage in the debut play by award-winning author and Fringe producer Ellie Keel. Dawn Steele has been most recently seen on screen in the crime drama Granite Harbour. (Image: Newsquest) Steele will be starring opposite fellow Glaswegian James Robinson, who played the young William Wallace in Braveheart, in Skye, part of Summerhall's Fringe theatre programme. The play will be Steele's first stage work since she appeared in the comedy thriller A Perfect Murder, an adaptation of the best-selling Peter James novel, in 2014. Previous roles included the John Byrne plays Cuttin' a Rug and Tutti Frutti, the latter with the National Theatre of Scotland and David Harrower. Speaking to The Herald during a break in rehearsals, Steele said: 'I've not done any theatre for quite a long time. 'It's not really been a choice, but is just the way it's worked out. I'd love to do more theatre, but I just don't get asked. 'I was sent this play by my agent as Ellie, the writer, wanted to hear it read out loud before. She has produced a lot of theatre but this is her first play. 'When I read it, I did think: 'If they ask me to do this, I'm going to have to say yes.' 'In a way, I was scared. I thought 'I hope they don't ask me to do this. It's very wordy, it's a two-hander and I'll be on stage for a whole hour.' 'But I was just really compelled by the script. It felt quite magical to me.' Skye focuses on the main character of Annie and her siblings after they see a ghostly vision of their father on a beach four years after this death. Steele said: 'The play is about an incident that happened on Skye when the children were young, which changes the course of their lives. Annie retells the story with the help of her brother Brawn. 'I don't want to give too much away, but I would say it's a cross between a ghost story and a thriller. 'It's ultimately about memory, how it plays tricks on you, particularly in a family context, and what people hold onto. 'When I read the script I got a real feeling for it and I really loved the character of Annie. I thought she would be a real challenge to play. 'A big part of the appeal is that it's going to be on at the Fringe, which I've been to a lot with friends over the last few years. 'Everything we saw last year was really good. I do remember thinking: 'I would really like to do something here.' When you see really good theatre you want to be up there.' Keel is bringing Skye to the Fringe after producing a number of previous plays at the festival, including Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz and The Last Show Before We Die. She made her name as an author last year with debut novel The Four, about a group of boarding school students bound by a chilling secret. Steele said: 'It feels daunting doing this play because I've not done theatre for a while, but it's not like I've never done theatre before. I've done a lot. "The last two-hander I did was Blackbird, which was pretty daunting. With anything that is a two-hander or a solo show it is pretty exposing. It was also a very challenging play. I remember thinking: 'Oh my god, I'm never going to get through it.' Before I knew it we were touring it around the country. 'The thought of doing new writing at the festival really appealed to me. It's been really interesting and challenging. We've been changing stuff on a daily basis. It's been a bit like doing stuff with John Byrne. The play has changed quite a lot, but for the better. 'I'm so used to TV, where the script is the script, and that is it. Theatre is much more collaborative than TV. There's more of a process. It's not just a case of turning up and doing your lines. 'It feels like this has come into my life at the right time. I'm going to be 50 later this year. It's going to be a real challenge, but I want to be challenged and I'm really prepared to take this on, because I feel I can do it. I'm jumping in head first. 'Were doing the play in a room with 140 seats. I won't have played in front of such a small crowd since I was in my mum and dad's living room. 'All of those things are quite scary, but it's also why I want to do it. It's getting me back into the rehearsal room and doing what I really loved in the first place about acting before I got into TV. I obviously love working in TV, but it is very different. Theatre and TV are two very different beasts." Steele, who has previously starred in Hoby City, Wild at Heart and River City, has been seen on screen most recently in the crime dramas Shetland and Granite Harbour, with filming due to get underway on the next series of the latter shortly after the Fringe. However Steele admitted she jumped at the chance to return to the stage after her quietest ever spell for TV work recently. Steele said: 'I've worked my whole career. I've not stopped. I know I've been really lucky. 'But it's been really quiet recently. A lot of actors are not working at the moment. It is a bit of a buyer's market. People can pick and choose who they want. 'There is less money around. People are being very picky about what is getting made. There is just less getting made and there is less work. It just filters down. 'I'm not doing the play because I was desperate for work. I'm doing it because I really like the play. 'If there isn't a lot of work on the ground, when something comes along that makes me sit up and think 'this is really good' I'd be stupid not to do it.' To purchase tickets for the Fringe, please click here
Times
11 hours ago
- Times
Cancelling Jewish comedians is capitulation
The cost of bunking down in an Edinburgh August overtook our family resources a few years back, so not for me the exhilarating Fringe ordeal: six shows a day and falling asleep in the small hours with haggis-pizza in hair and keyboard. But exiled fans like to learn by proxy about occasional brilliance, embarrassing idiocies and streaks of perilous bravery. So far, though, the most downheartening news is about cowardice. Two Jewish comedians were taken off the Fringe listings and told by the Whistlebinkies venue, at two weeks' notice, that they were not performing there. Apparently its staff might feel 'unsafe', though the risk of antisemitic demonstration was recognised and security discussed. Seemingly there had been regular 'Free Palestine' graffiti left on toilet doors, needing to be cleaned. Obviously, it can't be worth standing by freedom and equality if it might cause inconvenience, can it? • Doctor who called for abolition of Israel allowed to keep her job Neither show was about Gaza, Israel or war. Rachel Creeger's 'Ultimate Jewish Mother' is, she says, a 'warm hug' about all mums. Philip Simon was to host a 'Jew-o-Rama' of comedic talents (and it is worth remembering how much poorer all showbiz would be without the Jewish contribution, comic or otherwise). His other show has been cancelled too. Creeger, incidentally, observed that she doesn't find 'Free Palestine' slogans a threat and mildly says, 'It's a common thing to see in places. It's people's political statement.' But as Simon says, 'We are cancelled and often silently boycotted. This would not happen to any other ethnic minority; there would be absolute outrage.' Shocked and destabilised, both say it's hard to sleep, and not only because of the financial and professional blow. Simon notes a change in the past year: 'I think people have perhaps got braver in what they feel they can say.' Indeed: last year Jewish audience members were booed for objecting to a Reginald D Hunter joke, and this did not cause the rest of his audience to walk out in contempt. A similar insult from the stage to Jews in the audience at the Soho Theatre did at least get that perpetrator banned. Routine antisemitism is getting easier, less shocking. Public entertainment is a canary in the cultural coalmine, but this is not just about fringe comedy. It is about the visible creep of raw, uncivilised, general contempt for Jews, notably in a generation too young either to feel disgraced by such attitudes or to bother studying the hideous complications of the Middle East. • Pro-Palestinian protesters are threatening me, says MP It is notably within higher education that this easy hate has increased four times faster than anywhere else: students and academics are more likely to commit verbal or physical attacks than the general populace. It is about the easy fashionability of flinging on a keffiyeh to denote that you are one of the good guys, lining up unthinkingly with Hamas's clear mission to destroy the state of Israel and all Jews everywhere. It is in tearing down pictures of hostages, and the laughable idiocy of waving banners saying 'QUEERS FOR PALESTINE'. As if the priority of a Hamas-led regime would be to facilitate Pride marches and transgenderism, rather than execute the lot of them. After the murders and kidnaps of October 7, attacks on Jews in the UK doubled extraordinarily fast: businesses and synagogues have been damaged, Jewish schoolchildren minding their own business have been threatened. Big organised demonstrations week after week are manipulated by leaders keener on ruckus than discussion. Hysterical, deluded individualism erupts, as in that young Irishwoman all over social media screaming 'I am a Palestinian and I am being silenced', when neither is the case. Or the one who last week trashed a table outside Reuben's Café in Baker Street (she was, at least, arrested). When one of the kosher diners, Yael, protested that the group didn't support the Israeli government's action the woman 'said she didn't care and that I was Jewish, so that's all that mattered to her'. • Does Israel's concession on Gaza aid bring a ceasefire any closer? Britain cannot be complacent about this. Warped, childish and moronic though much of it is, antisemitism is too ancient and toxic a rash to be allowed even a millimetre's spread. It is enraging that our government should be contemplating some probably ill-written and illiberal blasphemy law against 'Islamophobia' rather than spending its energy instructing public forces to give no quarter to routine insults against British Jews. One might even cynically point out one difference: extreme Islamist calls for sharia law are commonplace and shruggingly tolerated, while Judaism does not proselytise or demand public concessions but rather the opposite: traditionally resisting converts with care and questioning doubt. As the gentle rabbi Lord Sacks once said to me, 'Over centuries in many lands Jews have learnt to harmonise in a minor key', while the centuries-newer faith has yet to achieve that. It is right — inevitable — to care about the people of Gaza. Inevitable to wince and weep at the immense scale of torment and starvation of its people, near-unbearable to hear daily about innocents caught between Hamas ruthlessness and Binyamin Netanyahu's remorselessness. It is increasingly hard to look away, and reasonable to beg western governments forcibly to relieve the suffering at any cost. Right also to insist, as many Israeli citizens do and its candid friends have done in these pages, that Israel must bend to mercy and reconciliation. But it is not tolerable to convert your shock into cheap, enjoyable, hysterical hatred. No civilised democracy can delude itself that attacking Jews for Jewishness, or pigeon-heartedly discriminating, is forgivable. Or should go unpunished.
