If it's August, this must be Edinburgh

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on August 7th, 2006

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is going on now. The Fringe was inspired by the invitation-only Edinburgh International Festival, a high brow affair that is now dwarfed by all the other August fests– book, film and Fringe. AP says that last year 1.3 million tickets were sold for Fringe shows.

This year, dozens of shows tackle religious themes and fault lines: from “The Black Jew Dialogues” to “Jesus: The Guantanamo Years” to Danish-Egyptian comedian Omar Marzouk’s standup routine about the Prophet Muhammad cartoon controversy.

Did they say “dozens” of shows? Attacking religion: It’s the new hack!

There’s also a play in which “the American flag is ripped apart onstage each night.” Attacking America– It’s the new hack! (The play’s director, Richard Franklin, defended tearing apart Old Glory on foreign soil as a comment on freedom of speech. We take the view that burning the flag is so… brutish. Why burn a flag when you can hold up clearly lettered signs that read “DEATH TO CARTER DOG!”)

And in a play about Winston Churchill, Scottish authorities are proving to be just a oppressive (if not moreso) than those busybody American legislators that Mr. Franklin is squeaking about: They’ve threatened to shut down the production if the faux Churchill lights up his stogie! Scotland has outlawed smoking in enclosed public spaces!

Says TV honcho William Burdett-Coutts, who runs the Assembly Rooms where the play is being staged, said:

“I think it’s absurd. In the context of an international festival like this, it’s crazy. It’s integral to the part of Churchill and it doesn’t affect other people — it’s just absurd.”

Absurd, indeed! While Mr. Franklin is fretting about flag-burning legislation that will never pass, the Scots have outlawed cigar smoking on a theater stage! You can burn a flag, but you can’t light a cigar! And you can’t burn a flag with a lit cigar!

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