UPDaTES from our artists in Edinburgh

Marina Buston and Anton deGroot in Edinburgh, August 2023.

Ghost River Theatre’s Tomorrow’s Child is running until August 28th at Edinburgh Fringe.

From Anton deGroot, Technical Director, Tomorrow’s Child

So I’m two weeks in from landing here in Edinburgh. Jetlag has been defeated, the inner city fully explored, and of course: Tomorrow’s Child has been set up, installed, and has been running here at the largest Fringe Festival in the world.

Now when I say largest, I’m not exaggerating. As I understand, there are 639 venues (yes VENUES) housing 3613 individual shows. Ours, venue #322, is called Assembly Checkpoint and is located about a 6-minute stroll south of the Royal Mile. It’s a rickety old church-turned-theatre complete with decommissioned pipe organ and ad-hoc trusses for rigging the sound, lighting, and scenery for all eight shows running in rep this month. The performance space is up a grand curved staircase and a punk-rock burger join where beers are cheap and Korn and Limp Bizkit are played loud and unironically on the daily.

Bird’s eye view of Tomorrow’s Child set up in Assembly Checkpoint.

We start our day at 11:00am for our 11:40am show, by setting up speakers, scenery, and seating and making sure all the lighting and sound equipment is running smoothly. For this version of Tomorrow’s Child, we have done our best to get the show running with the single press of a button – the first lighting cue automatically running 42 minutes and 17 seconds after the start of the show. For those of you who’ve experienced Tomorrow’s Child: you know what I’m talking about. For those of you who haven’t, come see for yourselves! I’ve seen the show with an audience four times as of this writing and the look on peoples’ faces when their masks are finally removed is… well, that look reminds me why I choose to make plays for a living.

Audience members being seated before Tomorrow’s Child in Edinburgh.

I can’t say enough about the venue staff here at Checkpoint. Our first day technicians Elissa, Ciara, Jodi, Will, and Jamie got us set up, fine-tuned, and running in less than 8 hours. And alternating shifts during the run are stage managers Bethany and Ellie, sound techs Smurf and Louise, and light techs Jacob and Magnus – each of them extraordinary professionals who have run Fringe before. Without them I can’t imagine how we’d be getting along.

Led by house managers Rosie and Orlah is our team of adventurous ushers who didn’t bat an eyelash at being dressed up in labcoats and dickies to lead each blindfolded audience member by the hand into the theatre. We are supported beyond belief, and so grateful for their hard work.

Marina (centre) with Assembly Checkpoint ushers before our show.

Playing here at the Fringe are artists from all over the world who have brought their best work, their strangest work, their most challenging work, their experimental work, and – just like us – work grounded in where they come from. Big name artists are here as well including RuPaul’s Drag Race UK stars Baga Chipz, Victoria Scone, and winner of season 2 Lawrence Chaney, as well as the breakout star of HBO’s Hacks Megan Stalter promising messy mayhem with her show called… well called Messy Mayhem. Phoebe Waller-Bridge of the hit series Fleabag (adapted from her 2013 Edinburgh Fringe hit of the same name) has been spotted taking in shows around the city. For theatre lovers there is the Belgian experimental company Ontroerend Goed presenting their show Funeral, National Changgeuk Company of Korea’s epic adaptation of The Trojan Women, and my personal pick (so far): Dark Noon from co-creators Tue Biering (Denmark) and Nhlanhla Mahlangu (South Africa): brutal reimagining of the history of America as told by seven South African actors. It was a stunning production that I’ll be thinking about for years to come.

Anton.



From Marina Buston, Company Manager, Tomorrow’s Child

Hello GRT Community!

Bringing Tomorrow's Child to Edinburgh Fringe has been thrilling. Very pleased to report that audiences have been feeling very connected to the show and excited by the experience. One audience member asked me after the show if there had been a "scent component" to the experience, which there isn't! She said she could have sworn she smelled something sweet in the air while the baby was being fed. Isn't the human imagination incredible? 

In my time off I have seen some spectacular theatre, and felt so grateful to be in a place where live theatre is a cultural staple in everyone's lives. A product of having a much older theatre tradition than we have in Canada, I suppose. During festival season in Edinburgh it feels like everyone flocks to the theatres to take in as much as they possibly can, and I can't help but hope for our community to harness some of that hunger for live performance too! 

See you soon, friends!

Cheers,
Marina