THE screenwriter Budd Schulberg made his name in 1941 with his first novel, What Makes Sammy Run? The story of a venal Hollywood screenwriter, it was named best first novel of the year by US critics, but Schulberg later said that he quit the Communist Party after local bosses tried to direct his writing. "I could only write it if I let the head of the Hollywood party, John Lawson, supervise it, and I felt very strongly that you could not write a novel that way," he says.
Schulberg, 94, a piece of living Hollywood history, is heading to the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time this year to see his celebrated screenplay, On The Waterfront, adapted for the stage by Steven Berkoff. He still travels widely, and has heard a
bout Edinburgh for a long time, he says.
The classic 1954 film made Marlon Brando a star with the role of the former boxer Terry Malloy, reluctantly confronting corruption and mob violence on the docks.
"I think the character is an indicator of human conscience, he's kind of an American Hamlet, you might say," says Schulberg, who will sit in on final rehearsals at the Pleasance Grand. "Even though Brando's was a singular performance, at the same time the character really seems to take over. Regardless of who is playing the role, the character comes through."
Night owlsTHE press release announcing Schulberg's welcome visit was one of a Fringe flood, and the senders clearly keep late hours. On Tuesday, the first to hit the inbox was at 1:09am, for How's Your Father, at Rocket @ Roxburghe Hotel, promising to "show you love, life, sex and death through a man's eyes". The last, of about 25 that day, landed at 11:38pm, for Strippers & Gentlemen, "a new, immersive theatre experience", at C SoCo.
Lederhosen-free zoneTHE Bavarian Traditional Show is one that catches the eye. "Vroni Holzmann and her Bavarian friends bring you, direct from Bavaria, the best of ancient Bavarian Traditions, from pigsong to authentic cultural activities like getting up and sitting down again," promises the Laughing Horse Free Festival show. "There will be no Lederhosen. We prefer dirndl dresses and ample cleavages to leather shorts and thigh-slapping. Some stereotypes are better left at home when discussing Bavaria's rich cultural heritage."
Travelling folkTHE Gypsy Arts Festival looks promising – a short celebration of the Gypsy and Scottish traveller communities. It includes UK and European bands playing gypsy music at the Famous Spiegeltent, including "the legendary Hungarian Roma band Parno Graszt".
Royalty-in-waitingON THE exotic foreign dance troupe front, Nigeria's legendary Obong Akwa Cross River Dance Company is making its Edinburgh debut at the Udderbelly. The dances include: ceremonial; fertility; courtship; initiation; food-gathering; funeral; valour; war and cautionary tales warning men of the dangers of excesses. "Obong" means "king", and the company have been threatening to bring their local Obong with them on a royal visit.
Dinner is served"THIS is a bit unusual and weird," says an e-mail from The Puppet Lab. It is, though as a child of the 70s, I confess to a fondness for Swiss cheese fondue. "We are looking for four volunteers each day, Wednesday-Sunday of the Fringe, two male, two female," begins the message from the producers of Supper, at Assembly, by award-winning writers Judith Adams and John Harvey.
"They will be required to spend between 2:30pm and 3pm eating a Swiss cheese fondue and drinking a glass of wine. During the performance up to 40 audience members will be wearing headphones and watching them eat whilst listening to a recorded soundtrack that purports to be the thoughts of two of the diners."
