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ED2015 News
Latest venue innovations on the Fringe: theSpaceUK
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 4 August 2015
Each day this week we’re looking at some of the venue innovations that are occurring at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, with the focus today on theSpaceUK.
There are already a multitude of theSpaceUK venues operating around the Festival, but this year there will be even more, with the addition of new spaces in existing buildings, and the arrival of a whole new complex going by the name SpaceTriplex.
“Completed in February after a £10million refurb, SpaceTriplex is a state of the art building over three floors located on Hill Place” says Space chief Charles Pamment, “right next to our existing venues theSpace @ Surgeons Hall and theSpace @ Symposium Hall. This gives us a fabulous hub of seven theatres right at the centre of the modern Fringe. In SpaceTriplex we have two performance spaces, one an intimate 60 seat studio, the other a quite unique ‘open space’ which can cater for lots of different theatre designs”.
As for the other developments within this venue empire, Pamment goes on: “Our other new theatres include a second at theSpace on Niddry St, a fabulous ‘in the round’ 100 seater, and a third at theSpace on the Mile. These new additions at our Royal Mile venues creates another hub of seven theatres. Plus we have theSpaceUK pop-up pub-on-wheels, which will be located on the cobbles outside theSpace on Niddry Street”.
We’ve noted before that one of Space’s USPs amongst the big venue operators is that it actively welcomes those companies looking to do a shorter run of shows, maybe performing for one week instead of all three. “We do have about 60 shows running for three weeks this year and many for two, but the one week show is just as important” Pamment declares.
“In fact, most short-run shows really reflect the ethos of the Fringe as a platform for new work; many are young, developing companies new to the Festival who can’t afford a longer run. Experience tells us that these producers, directors and performers are quite probably the future of the arts in the UK, so where better to give them a platform to begin that journey? We are proud we do that. It’s also worth mentioning that one week shows do win awards too. In 2014, winners of the NSDF best show and a Bobby Award were one week shows under theSpaceUK banner”.
LINKS: thespaceuk.com
