ED2014 News ED2014 Theatre

Trav shows dominate in first Fringe First batch

By Chris Cooke | Published on Sunday 10 August 2014

And so we’re off with the Festival awards train. The Scotsman presented its first batch of Fringe First gongs on Friday, the awards that celebrate the best productions of brand new theatre at the Festival.

And, as is seemingly written into the Fringe First constitution, the first round of winners is dominated by shows at the Traverse, with Mark Thomas’s ‘Cuckooed’ (pictured), Chris Goode’s ‘Men In The Cities’ and John McCann’s ‘Spoiling’ all getting some Fringe First love.

Away from the Trav, there were prizes for Chris Thorpe’s ‘Confirmation’ being performed at Northern Stage’s new venue at King’s Hall, plus Henry Naylor’s ‘The Collector’ at Gilded Balloon and Sabrina Mahfouz’s play ‘Chef’ at Underbelly.

Commenting on that little lot, a rep for The Scotsman said: “Last year we celebrated the awards’ 40th anniversary, but their purpose is the same as it was when our late Arts Editor Allen Wright founded them four decades ago: to recognise – and support – outstanding new writing premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe. We highly recommend you see these six shows”.

So there you go. The Scotsman will hand out another two sets of Fringe First prizes before the end of the month. Meanwhile fellow broadsheet The Herald will present its Festival award, The Angels, on 16 and 23 Aug this year.