Edinburgh Festival Fringe 1948

The 1948 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the second edition of what would become the world's largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was in this year the word "Fringe" is commonly accepted as having first been associated with the event, after it was used by an Edinburgh Evening News critic.[1] The term would come to define the event, and spawn the genre of fringe theatre. It was, however, still several years before it became common parlance in connection with the event or theatre in general, and also some time before any formal organisation of the event took place.

Background

The previous year, eight theatre companies had performed, uninvited, in Edinburgh during the "official" Edinburgh International Festival in August, which had been set up to help the reconciliation and rebuilding process in Europe after the Second World War.[2] They had not had the explicit intention of establishing an actual unofficial event of their own, merely they sought to take advantage of the presence of audiences to showcase their own works, or, in certain cases, such as that of Glasgow Unity Theatre, perhaps make a statement about the elitism of the official festival.[3] They referred to themselves as the "Festival Adjuncts"[4] or elsewhere as the "Semi Official Festival".[1]

Shows had received good reviews and been well-attended, which was a factor in groups returning to do likewise in 1948.[1]

Participants
George Bernard Shaw, author of one of the plays performed at the 1948 Fringe

The participants remained broadly the same. Returning groups included local group the Christine Orr Players, Glasgow Unity Theatre, and the Pilgrim Players from England.[1] However, there were also new companies taking part, including the Glyndebourne Children's Theatre.

Programme

A similar set of venues was used for the 1948 event as had been used in 1947. The YMCA on South St Andrew Street again hosted the Christine Orr Players, while the Gateway Theatre also housed productions. A list (incomplete) of participating productions includes:

Reception

The most historically significant press notice that the event attracted was that of playwright and journalist Robert Kemp in the Edinburgh Evening News on 14 August 1948:

'Round the fringe of official Festival drama, there seems to be more private enterprise than before ... I am afraid some of us are not going to be at home during the evenings!'[5]

This is considered to be the origin of the phrase "fringe" to describe the event, and, by extension, fringe theatre in general.[1]


References
  1. Moffatt 1978, p. 17.
  2. Fisher 2012, p. 11.
  3. Moffatt 1978, p. 15.
  4. "Special Collections: Edinburgh Festival Fringe". University of Glasgow. Archived from the original on 18 March 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  5. Kemp, Robert (14 August 1948). "More that is Fresh in Drama". Edinburgh Evening News.

Bibliography
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