Theatre space

As I awoke this morning I tuned in as usual to BBC R4 and heard the introduction to the Sunday Service which today was from Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh. I've just come home from a few days up there at the Festival and it grows larger and larger every year. So I was frankly surprised that there were any church buildings left which, for the month of August anyway, were still being used for their original purpose and not turned over to yet another Fringe venue. One of the best performances I saw at the Festival this past week was Alan Cummings in his cabaret show at The Hub which itself is a former church building and which becomes the Edinburgh International Festival Box Office and prime venue, just under the Castle on the Royal Mile. I remember seeing Alan Cummings nearly 10 years ago at the Festival, in 'The Bacchae' albeit at the 'proper' King's Theatre and it remains one of the most powerful performances I have ever seen.
Also this week I saw a couple of shows at one of Edinburgh's newest venues which isn't a church building for a change but rather another type of theatre - a 'demonstration' theatre. This intimate, steeply tiered and seated, cold and bleak space was formerly the 'operating theatre' at what was the Veterinary School at Summerhall in Edinburgh. It makes for a rather chilling performance space and perfectly suited to shows with little or no props or staging including the brilliant staged reading of  Judith Kampfner's  'Henry Darger Is'. And on that note of brilliant 'stripped down' performances, last night back here in London, I saw the American Fiasco Theatre Company (or Theater Company, as they would say) production of  Sondheim's 'Into the Woods' which was equally simple in staging and props but also wonderfully evocative - less distraction and so more concentration on the actors and the text which I love.