Greetings, gentle reader! This is the time of the year when, if you subscribe to my blog, you get bombarded with several emails a day alerting you to the fact that we’ve seen yet another show at the Edinburgh Fringe – and I apologise for the inconvenience in advance. This is our fourth visit to the Edinburgh Fringe, and it’s now an annual pilgrimage that I can’t bear the thought of missing. In 2014 (just a weekend visit) we aimed to see 20 shows and managed 19; in 2015, we planned on 52 shows and hit 50; last year we set our sights slightly lower, planning to see 47 events, and managing 45. This year I’ve gone ambitious again and we’re aiming for 51!

As in previous years, I’m proposing to prepare a preview-type blog post in advance for each show we’re seeing and then add my instant reactions in the few minutes I have afterwards, between shows. I think it’s worked well enough in the past – because it would be impossible to write a full post about each show, there just wouldn’t be time! I’ll try to make it so that there’s always one preview blog on the go at any one time, so you always know what we’re seeing next

So to kick off our Edinburgh week, our first show is Commons, produced by The Mermaids Performing Arts at the Argyle Theatre at the Space on North Bridge at 17:10 on Saturday 19th. Here’s the official promotional blurb: “One hotel room. One impossible scandal. Two men who don’t know what they want. Through the story of Marcus and Sam, watch the machinations of both a complex political satire and an emotionally fraught love story. This highly original piece of new writing portrays the romance of a middle-aged MP and the rent boy he employs. Watch the power dynamic shift between the two in this darkly comic analogy of the UK’s road to Brexit. Set in one claustrophobic hotel room, snapshots of Marcus and Sam’s failed romance play out in reverse chronology. Thought-provoking, biting and at times hilarious.”

I love a bit of reverse chronology – like in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal. As someone still coming to terms with the horrors of Brexit, I’m looking forward to seeing how it gets tied in with a scandalous affair. Check back after 6.00 pm to see how it went, and by then the next preview blog should be available to read too.

And if you’re up in Edinburgh, have a brilliant Fringe!

And it’s a fairly good start. An interesting play, well constructed, concerning an MP who screws up both his country and his home life. Maybe the acting was a little under-delivered? But all in all, quite thought provoking and with a few unexpected laughs.