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| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinemaExhibitor News |
Jonny & the Baptists. Photograph: The Guardian
Fans of the fringe will be able to enjoy a selection of shows from this year’s Edinburgh festival from the comfort of their cinema seat, with the digital arts company, Hibrow, beaming eight August festival performances on the same day into ODEON cinemas.
Jonny & the Baptists, above, is one of the acts that will appear at cinemas a few hours after performing at Edinburgh.
Don Boyd, the creator and artistic director of Hibrow, told The Guardian newspaper that the project stemmed from an experiment four years ago, when script-in-hand readings of five plays at the Traverse theatre were beamed live to Picturehouse cinemas.
"I vowed then that I would extend that with a much more ambitious programme of work because the technology has made this all so much easier to do than it ever was," he said. "We learnt a lot of lessons and we got a good reception – we even made a little bit of money, which at that time was extraordinary. This programme is very much more ambitious."
The plan is to broadcast eight shows from 4 August starting with The Dispute, a new version of the 18th century Marivaux comedy, which tells the story of four babies raised in isolation for 18 years before being released in to the world. Shows that follow include a set by the satirical rockers Jonny & The Baptists; a one man show called Berkoff the Inimitable; and comedy from the sketch quartet Four Screws Loose.
The shows are all being performed as part of the Hibrow Hour at Edinburgh's Summerhall venue in the afternoon and will be shown in cinemas in the evening.
Boyd, a former film producer with credits that include Scum, and The Last of England, said the success of live opera, theatre and art exhibitions at cinemas showed how much appetite there was for such events.