Fantasy Fringe

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Fantasy Fringe 〰️

We’re excited about the Edinburgh Fringe, but it’s clear it needs to change. A lot of people have a lot of ideas, but nothing has really happened yet. So we decided to ask the comedians themselves: in your fantasy, what would the Fringe look like? It might have been a mistake.

Elf and Duffy are bringing their show Heist to the Fringe. A physical show with Visual Vernacular, the show is conducted in British Sign Language and some very violent live sound foley. Duffy signs, Elf doesn’t. Elf speaks, Duffy doesn’t. In this piece, Duffy imagines what the Fringe would be like if everyone mimed.

Imagine entering into the territory of Edinburgh Fringe where speaking is embargoed. By that I mean oral communication - ceasing the use of your vocal chords, giving your throat a rest and getting them ligaments in your fingers and arms into gear. Move past the Britishness of having a seemingly emotionless face by pumping your thoughts onto your profile.

Imagine letting go of worrying about saying the right words. The basis of communication basically transmitting from your thought to the thought of another person, right?

It is my belief that Britain suffers from what I call gesture illiteracy. Ever since I was a kid I’d go into a local shop and point at something I needed, let it be candy cigarettes or liquorice flavoured rolling papers I’d spent ages saying “Left, left, no, right, up, up, down”. I mean, let’s face it, being a deaf person, I have pointing accuracy far superior than Harrison Ford’s.

I understand it’s due to British politeness, it’s considered rude to point but in my community it’s the most important point. You refer to a person, you indicate which person. You talk about a thing, you signal at it. When you wish to express that you’re thinking, you put your index finger to your temple. With my people, we’re always to the point until we engage with outsiders…

Anyway, back to the gesture literacy, I strongly believe if we adopt this communication method for a short period of time, after this Fantasy Fringe, you will be open to new possibilities.

Imagine Fringe shows entirely in mime and gesture only, with restaurants and bars to follow this stipulation too. Follow me, and dare to face the unknown, and ponder the question: what if?

What if you go see The Tragedie of Cymbeline, Shakespeare’s most complex play and you finally understand it?

What if you perform a show without uttering a single word, you attract non-English speaking tourists in Edinburgh, including the Scots and… well, let’s be frank you won’t have deaf people asking for free tickets (as we are wont to do whenever we see an inaccessible performance but we won’t get into that today). Imagine a Japanese person, Englishman and a Scot (let’s say this person is deaf); they’ll experience the show the same way and will be able to thumb up at each other with optional facial expressions as a means to comment on what they thought about what they’ve seen. On top of that, the audience can instagram or tweet their facial expression/gesture as a review. A GIF is worth a thousand words, surely?

What if ballet shows are gestured… Just envisage an Italian ballet company visiting Fringe. As fierce or graceful their feet can be, it is only right to allow their customary hand gestures. That's a niche right there. You’re welcome.

This has real world usage of course… What if you order your ticket at box office, say, for example seeing a mime show ELF LYONS & DUFFY: HEIST you point at it on your Edinburgh Fantasy Fringe brochure, or on the app, or point at the wall behind the employer if you’re feeling adventurous with your pointing accuracy. If you wanna impress your date who’s next to you when you’re purchasing tickets, you can mime heist. Gun. Bandit mask. Money. You get the picture.

What if you’re in the bar — in this example we’ll use Monkey Barrel — and you don’t want to leave your table to order drinks and food? If QR is so covid, you wanna order in a way that feels liberating? I’ll show you how it’s done.

Step 1: Grab attention of Monkey Barrel employee’s attention by waving. Remember to maintain eye contact.

Step 2: Gesture drink or food or both. Wait for the staff’s nod.

Step 3: State your table number, point at the table, and put up five-and-two with your fingers, so they resemble roman number seven. Gesturing food tip - If you’re after a juicy beef burger, just gesture ‘cow’ with each index finger to your temple. Everyone should be aware where their meat came from. Gesturing drink tip - if you’re after rum with Coke… well that should be simple enough for anyone, just don’t gesture it around the police.

Step 4: The staff will gesture these back to you to double check and then you thumb up or facepalm if they got it wrong and repeat steps. Easy.

Step 5: You pay.

What if you’ve had enough with your friend who’s a walking thesaurus… and you will have a day or two of silence strolling the meadows, sauntering the Royal Mile, moseying along Prince Street or wandering into Monkey Barrel to see ELF LYONS & DUFFY: HEIST.

There you go. What if the Fringe enforced, uh, I mean encouraged all shows to be mimed and gestured.

Elf & Duffy: Heist runs at Monkey Barrel from August 2-15th, 8:40pm. Tickets here