Wednesday 5th August 2009 The Pleasance Times Pg 4

THE TIMESYOUR FREE DAILY GUIDE TO THE BIGGEST AND BEST VENUE ON THE FRINGE

What’s Inside

Competition!Win tickets to see stand by your van!Plus interview with Director Paul Bourne.

Tommy And The Weeks wonder what the World would be like if there were no cups...

Extra show listings

Word Search Puzzle!

Wednesday 5th August

Games Corner

EXTRA SHOW LISTINGSPLEASANCE LIVE

25 GALA!!

FULL LINE UP

RHOD GILBERT(full run sold out-last chance to see

Rhod perform!)

Sarah MillicanPappy’s Fun Club

Pippa EvansAndrew Lawrence

BOOK NOW!!

Tim Key

Upstairs

15,18,25 August

19.15-20.10

£8.00 to £10.50

Paul Meron’s Impro Chums!

The Grand

23rd August

12 pm- 13 pm

£14.50 (£13.00)

The Penny Dreadfuls

Pleasance Two

14, 16, 21, 23, 28, 29 August

23.00-23.55

£11.50 (£10.00)

WELCOME!!

DAILY CROSSWORD!!

See if you can conquer our daily wordsearch puzzles and find names of our venues acts and shows within the grid.

B M P I A Y T N L R H I N A S N AE A L N S A V A E N C I I G I O TL G A N L L Y P V L N R C L O I EC S Y B I M T Y N N U O K D D T IG E O N I A D D O S W G D I C A AO C N U T E R N S B D A O D T U UA T W A A I A E N S T T O N A T SS R O P L R L O G G S K D A R I YY T R E B L I G D O H R Y R A S IS S D O K B B E F N T I T G S E GR R S A E N K A S A L S O E O V RT S N L T B N A H C Y G R H T A LS E T A M T S E B S N I A T I R BP L E A S A N C E N D O G B T G PK O N A N O I H I O S S I S R A OI U B K R G N I V S L D E T D T FM I I N O A L R R S S R D G P N S

A Grave SituationBritains Best MatesIdiots Of AntsNick DoodyPlay On WordsPleasanceRhod GilbertRussell KaneThe Grand

Itʼs the fi rst week of the Fringe 2009 and our 25th year! Whether itʼs your fi rst trip to the Pleas-ance or you are an old friend, let us thank you for joining us and invite you to celebrate our an-niversary with our phe-nomenal range of acts and entertainment. We have the big-gest venue on the Fringe, jam packed with 230 spec-tacular acts from theatre, comedy and music. We have been working for months to make sure that we have the most variety and the best acts on the Fringe.

We boast a range of entertainment super-stars from Rhod Gilbert, Stephen K Amos, Al Mur-ray, Daniel OʼDoherty and Lucy Porter. We have awe-in-spiring theatre productions in the shape of Stand By Your Van, Beachy Head and A British Subject. We truly believe that this year we are the only venue to visit when it comes to sketch groups. We are delighted that Idiots of Ants, Pappyʼs Fun club, Tommy And The Weeks, The Penny Dreadfuls, Clever Peter and Anna and Katy will all

be calling the Pleasance home this year. We are incredibly excited to have a fantastic array of inconceivably tal-ented new acts like Kevin Bridges, Daniel Sloss, and of course, The Young Pleasance performing in A Grave Situation. Please contact our friendly Box Offi ce team for tickets and enquiries. Pick up your copy of the Pleasance Times every day to make sure you know where to fi nd the hottest acts this year. You can also fi nd it online at www.pleasance.co.uk/edinburgh.

Daily Word Search!!

Wednesday 5th August 2009 The Pleasance Times Pg 2 Wednesday 5th August 2009 The Pleasance Times Pg 3

ACTS!PRODUCERS!DIRECTORS!

DO YOU WANT FREE

PUBLICITY FOR YOUR SHOW

IN THE P L E A S A N C E

TIMES??

CONTACT LISA IN THE PRESS OFFICE FOR

MORE INFO.

ALL WELCOME!!!

The Pleasance Times is a free daily newsletter available to available to all visitors. You can pick it up at any of our venues and it can also be accessed online at www.pleasance.co.uk/edinburgh. Please help us to protect the environment by throwing away your copy in one of our many recycling bins. Thanks!

Box Office0131 556 6550

Reception (Courtyard)0131 556 1513

Press Office0131 556 6557

Email: festival@pleasance.co.uk

THE BEST VALUE PLAY ON THE FRINGE!

COMPETI-TION!How would you like to WIN two

tickets to see Stand By Your Van?

For your chance to grab two free

tickets to Friday night’s perform-ance, just send your name and a mobile number/email address to times@pleasance.

co.uk.Entries to be received by 12 pm Thursday

Twelve Contest-ants. One Truck. One hysterical, joyful, tortur-ous and painful journey to victory. When you buy a ticket to Stand By Your Van you are get-ting the bargain deal of an eighty-hour journey within an eighty-minute show. Director Paul Bourne told us more. Stand By Your Van is the most recent offering from leading independent theatre company Menag-erie, and is being produced by the Pleasance. Based on true stories twelve contestants from all walks of life battle it out to be the last one standing and win a £25,000 pick-up truck. All they have to do is keep touching the truck.“It sounds really easy, but in fact it is incredibly hard,” explains director Paul Bourne. “People may assume there is no skill

involved, but you need a tremendous amount of endurance and determina-tion to take part in these contests.” Characters range from the age of seventeen to seventy, and the diver-sity of their backgrounds ensures an explosive fi nale. Which, by the way, changes every night of the performance. “The beauty of the play is that you simply donʼt know who will walk away with the truck. We have numerous endings, and the good guy doesnʼt always win.” Stand By Your Van subverts the audienceʼs expectations by present-ing characters that are not desperate for fame. A lot of the characters really need the money for fairly noble reasons, whether to support their families or for charity. They become

deeply engaging and en-dearing. Narrator Darren Strange explains “TV has been stolen by twenty somethings degrading themselves for their fi ve minutes of fame. This play takes a very voyeur-istic approach, looking at twelve people with very different backgrounds and reasons for being in the competition.” Director Paul added, “The play highlights our desperation to win, whether we are playing a card game or entering a competition to win a pick-up truck.” The play promises to tug at the heartstrings as often as it has you roar-ing with laughter.Stand By Your Van Pleasance Grand5-31 August (not 25)Tickets: £10.00 (£5.00 preview)

TOMMY AND THE WEEKS!

Wonderbang is the fantastic third Fringe show from Tommy And The Weeks. Itʼs a bit like a buddy movie sketch show. “We do have proper fi ghts on stage. The audience seem to love it. It can get a bit much sometimes though. Recently Tom an-nounced on stage that my Dad doesnʼt really love me. That was really quite up-setting. Especially because it is kind of true.” Ed and Tom have been working together for years and they have cre-ated a mutually benefi cial relationship. “I write the material” explains indie waif Tom, “and my Dad pays for it,” adds brash Tory boy Ed. The show can be

quite whimsical. One of the sketches explores what the World would be like if there were no cups. “If you feel like you have just sicked up a little bit of rainbow, that will be my work” Tom apologised. Ed has howev-er promised to keep things ticking over by ʻbursting in with rock power balladsʼ. The sketches are refreshingly broken up by stand up. “I think it helps to break up our sketches, which are quite fast paced.” Says Ed. In truth the show is instantly accessible for all. Ed and Tom observe that it would actually be quite kid friendly – if it wasnʼt for all the swearing. “We really do care about whether or not the audience likes us. We constantly keep the

audience involved, mak-ing sure there is plenty of laughter.” They are both pleased to be back at the Pleasance. “For us the Pleasance is the fringe. Itʼs a bit of a home for us really. We love that around every corner is someone you think is amazing.” They both love the buzz of the courtyard, conveniently situated right next to the venue. Aside from the legendary paninis (“Some-times you just need a re-ally spectacular sandwich. Do you think we will get free paninis?”) the boys are also looking forward to appearing in Frank Skin-nerʼs cabaret show and BBC comedy presents. “Weʼre really eager

to get involved in every-thing we can. “ And with a fi ve star review from The Scotsman, they are likely to get plenty of invites. Tommy and the Weeks will also be appearing in Sketchatron later on in the month. The show will fea-ture the best sketch acts from this years Fringe. Keep picking up your free copy of the Pleasance Times for more details. Tom and Ed will be blogging throughout the festival at www.tommy-andtheweeks.co.uk. Tommy And The WeeksIn WonderbangPleasance Courtyard, Beside5-31 August (not 18)17.10 (18.10)