The Camden Fringe 1st – 28th August 2011
The Camden Fringe is a performing arts festival which takes place in Camden during August. Anyone and everyone is welcome to apply. Last year’s shows included new writing, classical theatre, musicals, stand-up, sketch comedy, dance, children’s shows, magic and even a quiz.
2011 marks the 6th year of the Camden Fringe which will be taking place from the 1st - 28th of August 2011 across the borough of Camden. Whilst the total number of acts taking part is going up all the time, the current total is over 140 different shows being performed under the Camden Fringe umbrella
This years festival is an exciting mix of familiar names and new faces performing everything to classic theatre to comedy, to cabaret and mind –reading (Reality Vaccine with Dr Ian Souch). There is even a bit of opera going up in classy Highgate with Verdi’s Il Trovatore. Other shows to look out for include two very different versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Killing Swine, which is a play about a student group putting on a version of Macbeth.
There are comedy shows from old Camden Fringe favourites including Hal Cruttenden, The Trap, Scott Capurro, Iszi Lawrence, In the Meantime and Matt Kirshen, plus new favourites we’re looking forward to including Bec Hill, Kent Valentine and Leads & Stern.
A performance with local interest is Whoosh, which is a musical revue about the HS2 rail link. There is also the chance for audiences to listen again to shows: Screen 3: The Movie Podcast will be doing a live recording during the festival and the Wireless Theatre Company will be doing one of their award winning audio recordings, this time of Sherlock Holmes Strikes Back. Find out how entertaining cardboard can be with comedy from the UK's leading satirical shadow puppet show in The Great Puppet Horn.
The Camden Fringe has been running since 2006 when 57 performances were hosted by the Etcetera Theatre. Happily the festival has been growing steadily each year since then. In 2007 the Camden Head (then known as Liberties) was bought in as a 2nd venue and these original two spaces on Camden High Street still host the bulk of shows. Last summers Fringe included over 650 different performances and saw 13,800 paying customers come through the doors - up 30% on the previous year.
Changing the way the festival is organised means that we have shows happening at more venues than ever – the current total is 17. As well as the familiar Camden People’s Theatre, New Diorama, Etcetera Theatre, Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Camden Head, Sheephaven Bay and Roundhouse Studio there are new spaces taking part hosting multiple shows. These include The Pirate Castle, Shaw Theatre and The GBS Theatre and The John Geilgud Theatre at RADA. Performers have also been looking for their own individual performance spaces so shows will also taking place at Theatro Technis, Black Heart and Camden Eye. There is even a show taking place at the Lomax Car Park on Pratt Street.
The full programme was announced on 1st of June when tickets went on sale via the Camden Fringe website www.camdenfringe.org
