IN THE cultural catch-all that is the Edinburgh Fringe, some art forms inevitably get the short end of the stick. Theatre listings landed a whopping 66 of the 2004 programme’s 224 pages, while comedy grabbed 55. Dance and that nebulous entity called physical theatre make do with a mere six.
The truth is that in a marginal field littered with half-baked uncertainties, silly irrelevancies and just plain junk, not much can claim lasting value.
There are saving graces. For the past few seasons Morag Deyes, artistic director of Dance Base, has balanced a tasty programme of home-grown and global work. But for lovers of international dance and largely text-free theatre the most adventurous Fringe programming, and the venue of choice, is Aurora Nova. Named after the Russian battleship that fired the first shot in the October Revolution, this festival-within-a-festival is located on the edge of New Town in the former St Stephen’s church.
Few knew what to expect when Aurora Nova opened its doors in August 2001. A co-production between the Fabrik company of Potsdam and the Brighton venue Komedia, it has since become as key a Fringe player as the Traverse Theatre, the Pleasance or the Assembly Rooms.
“We see Aurora Nova as colleagues,” says Joseph Seelig, co-director of the London International Mime Festival, “who have made visual theatre desirable, exciting and accessible in a festival overrun by comedians and commercial theatre.”
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Aurora Nova’s revolutionary approach grew from the experiences of its artistic director Wolfgang Hoffmann. “As a Fringe performer,” he says, “I had a hard time accepting the conditions that artists put themselves in. After my second Fringe I had a lot of suggestions to improve things, mainly through the creation of a more efficient, venue-identified co-operative where artists promote each other rather than just themselves.” With Komedia, Hoffmann found the potential for a hugely sympathetic partnership.
Hoffmann describes his aesthetic criteria as “embarrassingly simple. I select work that I enjoy, by which I’m inspired, or which moves me. The hardest, but crucial, bit is to reject companies that don’t convince me.” For those who win Hoffmann’s favour, Aurora Nova functions in a communal spirit of shared risks and pooled resources. Artists find this a welcome antidote to the factory-like operations of bigger, supermarket-like venues.
“The stage is built for dance and physical theatre,” says Chester Mueller, company manager of the cult Russian troupe Derevo. “The whole atmosphere of the place is built by artists for artists.” This year, on its second Aurora Nova outing, Derevo is presenting company member Tanya Khabarova’s visionary late-night solo Reflection. The day I spoke with Mueller he was about to bring a producer to see another much-praised show, the sound-and-movement drama Chronicles — A Lamentation by Poland’s Song of the Goat Theatre.
After some shaky years financially, 2004 seems to mark a turning point in its fortunes. Ticket sales are strong and there are plans to transplant the Aurora Nova model to Brighton, London, even Adelaide and California. Some of its ethos will fly to Dublin, where Hoffmann will soon take on an additional role, as artistic director of that city’s Fringe Festival.
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