mostly david ephgrave

...and so Ephgrave's Fringe Promo Machine springs into action (with a cough and a splutter, and a quick emergency call to the RAC.)  See below for my answers to a few questions for potential use in a feature about the Fringe for Fest, to hopefully get some publicity for this year's EdFringe solo show, 'Niche'. Easily the most exciting part of writing this was discovering a little technological secret: in all the years I've had a Mac, I never knew I could make it read my work back to me, giving my prose a Matt Berry-like quality; suddenly, answering this Fringe Q&A got interesting. (Beneath the article you find a link to listen to my answer to the first question, with Berry intonations; I know it's essentially just Siri, but it still amused me.) David Ephgrave: Fest Q&A. Q: What are some of the past practices that the festivals have nothing to be proud about? The obvious way the Fringe continues to let itself down is by exploit...

Tonight, I went to see Letters Live at the Freemasons’ Hall for the second year running ; an experience that was as moving, amusing and enriching as it was last time around (by which I mean it was ). It was great to hear correspondence from people from so many walks of life, and to once again be reminded of how we’re all much the same beneath the surface. Like last year’s show, it was the actors of the company that brought the readings to life the most; breathing truth and sincerity into the thoughts locked behind the words on the page. Yet again, it was an impressive line-up, including Jude Law, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Bremner, Juliet Stevenson, Timothy Carlton, Matt Berry and more. The audience were clearly impressed by the celebrity-heavy cast, yet this didn’t steal the thunder from the real stars of the evening: the writers whose lives we took a privileged peek into tonight. The most impressive star - turn of the night for me was the person providing the off-stage ...

Tonight's performance of Letters Live hammered home my deficiencies as a writer.  This may sound negative, but it isn't. Watching the show was a beautifully enriching experience. It served to remind me how powerful, emotive and evocative a letter can be. It can act like a direct channel to the thoughts and feelings of people of the past; more than a list of dates or statistics in a history book will ever do.  It made me mourn the near loss of the medium as a form of communication. You could argue that the email has replaced it - but there's something sterile and emotionless about an existenceless collection of characters on a computer screen, when compared to sheet after sheet of hand-or-typewritten correspondence. It's less tangible, and somehow less valuable for it. It helped that the letters were beautifully read. A whole of host of familiar faces stepped up to the lectern (their bodies were there too), including Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliet Stevenson, T...