The Stage

Underbelly and Assembly unveil venue changes for Fringe 2011

Published Wednesday 4 May 2011 at 18:14 by Thom Dibdin

Major changes have been announced to the line up of venues at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with one of the event’s largest halls ruled out, while Assembly has released further details of its move into George Square.

The McEwan Hall, used as regular venue at the fringe for the first time in 2010, will not be available this year as its owner, Edinburgh University, is refurbishing its organ. The 1,000-seat venue is second largest only to the EICC on the fringe and was used by Underbelly to stage shows such as Five Guys Named Mo and comedian John Bishop.

Underbelly co-director Charlie Wood told The Stage: “We have known for quite a long time that the McEwan Hall organ needed to be refurbished. They decided to do it this year and next but we are hoping that they will be finished in good time for 2012.”

Underbelly will be using all of its established venues, both in the Cowgate and around Bristo Square. While keeping the bar area around the Reid Hall, it will be adding two small scale venues - a 120 capacity room in the McEwan Hall building and a venue in the Reid Hall courtyard with a capacity of 60.

Commenting on the availability of fringe shows large enough to fill a 1,000 capacity hall, Wood said that “they don’t grow on trees but they are there. We are very confident we will have a great programme for 2012 when we will return to the McEwan Hall.”

Meanwhile, further details of Assembly Theatres’ creation of a new hub in George Square, reported in The Stage in January, have also been revealed. Having been forced to leave its George Street home of 30 years due to the two-year refurbishment of the Assembly Rooms, the producer will now operate seven spaces in and around the Square.

William Burdett-Coutts, director of Assembly, told The Stage: “The space is obviously very different, but in terms of capacity we are around the same level. In total we add up to roughly the same number of seats, obviously the kind of rooms are different and the nature of the environment is completely different as it is much more of an outdoor space.”

The key loss to Assembly’s operation is the 630 capacity Music Hall. Its largest venue will now be the 520 capacity George Square Theatre. Three further indoor venues will have capacities of 275, 160 and 122, while there will three outdoor Spiegeltents in the George Square Gardens - the Bosco Tent with a capacity of 180, the Dans Palais, holding 250 to 275 and the Teatro spiegeltent holding up to 400.

Burdett-Coutts added: “The way we are planning it, the whole quarter around the east side of George Square will become one environment, so both within and without the gardens will be part of the same set-up. It should hopefully create an environment where the public can hang around and enjoy being outside and in.”

While the existing arrangements for the Assembly Hall on the Mound will remain the same, two final parts of the Assembly operation have still to be finalised, according to Burdett-Coutts.

The Assembly Rooms Club Bar, a meeting point for industry professionals, has yet to be replicated, while its operations in Princes Street Gardens will scaled down.

Burdett-Coutts said: “A key bit of what we did was the whole club bar bit of it, so we are trying to find a way of doing that. We haven’t found the answer yet but we are looking at a number of options.”

With the deadline for inclusion in the Fringe Programme long past, he was less upbeat about Princes Street Gardens venue. He added: “We are still working on sponsorship as to whether we can afford to do it or not. It wouldn’t be the set up that it was last year - it was a massive cost setting it up like that and with the new arrangement we just can’t afford to take that on.”