Edinburgh Fringe shows left homeless as Understairs Arts goes under

Published Tuesday 24 July 2007 at 16:00 by Thom Dibdin

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First-time Edinburgh Festival Fringe venue managers Understairs Arts has gone into voluntary liquidation, leaving more than 35 shows without theatres only a fortnight before the start of the Fringe.

An argument over inappropriate material being used at one of its sites - the Edinburgh Apostolic Church - saw the church cancel their agreement on July 5, leaving 29 shows homeless. At the time, Understairs Arts had shows in two remaining venues, Euroscot and the Royal Scot Club. However, these are also now in doubt.

The two venues are still willing to go ahead with this year’s festival, according to the Fringe office, who had already succeeded in finding venues for most of the Apostolic shows. Trevor Alexander, director of production company Seven Dwarves which was due to stage two productions with Understairs, is now looking for ways to take over the two venues and run them on behalf of the other shows.

Jon Morgan, director of the Festival Fringe Society, said :”I was sad to learn the news that Understairs Arts had to take the decision to go into voluntary liquidation. The Fringe Society does not directly contract artists or venues, but we do offer advice and support. We are in contact with the companies affected to give them as much help as we can so that as many as is possible are still able to perform.”

Problems first arose in June when the Apostolic Church saw scripts for seven of the shows that Understairs had booked into the venue. The company had agreed that the church could veto plays which would potentially “offend or question the moral, social and religious beliefs of the Church’s community”.

Four of the seven were deemed unacceptable and while Understairs immediately withdrew one of them, featuring the execution of a hooded Iraqi boy, they stood by the other three. This included Double Dutch, in which a a character tries to initiate an orgy but is rejected.

The Church subsequently lost confidence in Understairs to manage the venue and, in the absence of a written agreement, withdrew on July 5.

Speaking before the announcement of voluntary liquidation, Understairs’ project manager Thom Joanson, was adamant that they have not done anything wrong.

He told The Stage: “We concurred with everything the Church asked for. We were under the impression that we were still negotiating then they sent a solicitors letter pulling the plug - despite the fact that we had pulled the shows they were not happy about.”

Understairs Arts were not available for further comment as The Stage went to press.