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Quick Quiz: Shôn Dale-Jones

By | Published on Friday 4 August 2017

This August the Edinburgh Festival celebrates its 70th anniversary. To mark the occasion, we have asked a plethora of performers about their personal Fringe experiences. Today former ThreeWeeks Editors’ Award winner Shôn Dale-Jones.

TW: What was you first ever experience of the Edinburgh Fringe?
SDJ: I first went to the Edinburgh Fringe as a 21 year old, acting in a student production of ‘The Nerd’ at the Theatre West End on Princes Street in 1989. I used an American accent which sounded more Welsh than my own Welsh accent. You know what, I think it went OK!

TW: What’s the best thing you’ve ever seen performed at the Fringe?
SDJ: ‘The World Of Les And Robert’. 1989. The line, “I bloody love chicken I do,” has still stuck.’The World Of Les And Robert’ was a very warm-hearted, intimate comedy about two middle-aged men who found themselves living together back in their home town after years away. I watched it in 1989, aged 21, in the Edinburgh Suite at the Assembly Rooms – I left knowing that I’d love to do what they did one day.

TW: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen performed at the Fringe – so bad it was good?
SDJ: I saw a man do a show on his own because his dance partner had very recently put her foot in a hot pan of oil. He was upset and angry about how difficult it was doing the show alone and so desperate for us to know how good the show would have been if she was with him. It was hard to know if what we were watching was the show or not. But it really wasn’t the show – the show really was supposed to be him and a dancer!

TW: Which of the Fringe shows you performed in do you most fondly remember – and why?
SDJ: ‘Story Of A Rabbit’. It was a show I made about my experience of losing my Dad. I had no idea how much the audience would care about the story. I was really moved by the audience’s generosity. It made me very glad I’d decided to share such an intimate feeling.

TW: Name a Fringe performer – past or present – who you’d like to join on stage?
SDJ: Daniel Kitson. Come on Daniel. Come on. Please. Just once.

TW: Other than performing and seeing shows, what is your favourite thing to do in Edinburgh during August?
SDJ: Walking along the Water Of Leith Walkway to the National Galleries Of Modern Art.

Shôn Dale-Jones performed ‘Me And Robin Hood’ at Pleasance Dome and ‘The Duke’ at Pleasance Courtyard at Edinburgh Festival 2017.



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