The Cape Society
- Wed 30 Jul 2025
- Cultural Crawl: The Eazy Club
- It's been five years since the last Cultural Crawl (a visit to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and would be a lot longer were it not for bugs squashing any 2020 Modern Mega Manor. Anyhow, the Cultural Crawl returns in 2025 and will feature a visit to the briefly resurrected Easy Club which during the Scottish Enlightenment was a meeting place for artists, poets and other Auld Reikie residents of the day; much like the Cape!
-
Meet in
The Ensign Ewart
between 15.00 and 15.30 for pre-debate libation. The show is at venue 'c alto'
in the Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace
and starts at 16.15. There are more details on the
edfringe website.
*** If you plan to come to the show, please buy your own ticket. ***
- Report
-
Colin, Phil, Martin and Steve met in the Ensign Ewart and were soon joined by guest, Kris,
who had contacted The Cape using the email address given on the web site and expressed an
interest in coming along on this Manor.
After a few introductions, when Kris mentioned he initially came to live in Edinburgh as a
result of the Fringe where he entertained punters wandering the Royal Mile with his
East German typewriter, writing improvised poetry to order, everyone headed for Venue 40: C alto,
one of the C ARTS set of venues.
In typical Cultural Crawl fashion things started badly and went down hill from there. It was clear the four Knights and guests would be the only audience members and that there was something afoot in the shadows as the show was over 15 minutes late in starting (in a manor of speaking). The lady at the make-shift ticket desk very vaguely assured the assembled audience that, "things would be sorted out soon".
Reading between the lines, it seemed neither of the two 'facilitators' (can't use the word 'performers' as that turned out to be our role) was in the building. So, what we ended up with was the five of us sitting around a coffee table, along with Matt, the theatre manager, Simon, an Australian cameraman with family connections to Rosyth (who, it seemed, had been dragged in at the last minute because he was in the neighbourhood and had Fringe experience), and one of the female performers from another show in the same venue, Romiet (by Gazelle Theatre). There followed some odd questioning from Simon who asked what we expected from the show (hence the earlier comment of we being the performers). We eventually spent a bit time explaining the Cape Society, talking of the impact of bugs on the arts and particularly the Fringe, the Adelaide Fringe (which is apparentlly rubbish) and finished off with a story of a Fringe performer so depressed with his 'falling to non-existant audience', killed himself. Time to call it a day on this show. All of this while a young woman periodically walked in and out of the room dressed in a wierd yellow and gold, tight-fitting body suit. Simon knocked everything on the head by declaring he had somewhere else to be. No one put up any protest.
The experience was dissected and, as usual, mocked and laughed about over a couple of drinks across the road in The Bow Bar where Harry Potter also had fun poked at him with plenty spell, wand, broomstick and Quidditch jokes. The idea of taking a look in the Royal Oak was mooted and the conviviality continued there. Steve left after a wee while and the remainder of the crew benefitted from an entertaining guitarist; so not a complete waste of the 'pay what you can' cost of the Eazy Club ticket! Just as well the least generous option was selected.
Mobile-friendly picture gallery.
Thanks to all Knights who came along for the day and especially Kris for bringing a new face to the convivial company. Good luck with your Sheep's Heid haunting Kris.
