international rescue The world's most inspired performers flock to

The Fringe has only just started, but already the carping is well under way. Venue prices too high, cry promoters. It's all just too commercial, say venue managers. And this from indiv-iduals trying to make money out of that traditionally bankable commodity - the stand- up comedian. Well, they may have a point, but dammit, isn't this a festival? Can't we look forward to the art and entertainment first and complain about the prices later?

In a more positive corner of Edinburgh, a German venue organiser and performer by the name of Wolfgang Hoffmann smiles and declares he is "looking forward very much to the festival". Although he performs with the German theatre company fabrik, today he's speaking in his capacity as programmer of Aurora Nova at St Stephens. He sits drinking a morning coffee, clutching not a roster of comedians off the telly but a list of companies presenting that traditionally unpalatable product, international physical theatre.

It may be the best of its kind in the world, but Hoffman's optimism isn't based on hopes of financial success. He brings 14 acts funded by a scrap of British Arts Council money, some timely sponsorship and a profit-sharing system which has the terrifying odour of fairness about it. Yet neither are his goals completely altruistic. Although the fabrik theatre he co-founded in Potsdam began life as a squat and blossomed in the hothouse of optimism that followed the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Hoffman has his own agenda, albeit an artistic one.

He was first drawn here as a performer in 1999 after hearing that friends from the clown/ theatre company Derevo had picked up bookings in Korea and Mexico. He is here primarily because "Edinburgh is the big market place for international theatre".

Whatever his personal reasons, he and his backers - the Brighton- based arts venue and promoters Komedia - are providing a healthy tonic. The irrepressible Richard Demarco, who has long championed international theatre at the Fringe, describes Hoffman as "the amazing German" and his programme as "the healthiest thing that has happened on the Fringe in ages".

But Hoffman's memory of performing at Demarco's venue in 1998 is far from rosy. "We were shocked when we arrived," he says. "Here was a venue with no technicians - just smiling volunteers who didn't know how to work a lighting rig. I don't want to complain too much because it worked out okay in the end, but it was pretty much unacceptable to be invited to a place and then be left to fend for ourselves. There were a few lights, but anything else was our problem. The venue programme arrived after we left and we never made it into the Fringe programme either."

Richard Demarco's priority has always been to get the artists here at all costs. He was told he'd be cutting his own throat when he brought Jasper Johns to the Fringe in 1964. He mortgaged his house to bring the Polish theatrical practitioner Tadeusz Kantor to Edinburgh some years later. Let's just say that occasionally he's not been able to communicate clearly to visiting companies exactly what they are letting themselves in for.

Hoffmann is not bitter. He knows that it is largely through Demarco's often solitary efforts that the Fringe gained its international reputation. "We only performed six times the first year and we still got invitations from England and America," he points out.

His decision to set up Aurora Nova came when a number of companies who had performed at fabrik's own venue in Potsdam asked for his advice. "There was nowhere I could recommend them to go to. Even in their second year, they still felt their venue treated them as a commodity to be disposed of as soon after they'd finished their show as possible."

Harnessing Komedia's front-of-house expertise, Hoffman created last year's St Stephens programme, which he assembled unpaid over six months. It won two of the three venue awards on offer, a bag of Fringe Firsts and a couple of Herald Angels. A slow start, with some technical difficulties, gave way to a hail of critical praise and some reassuring audience figures.

This year the programme is even better, Hoffmann claims, and they will build on their "uncompromising profile". He is reluctant to praise any of his shows to the exclusion of others, but refers to the Brazilian show Such Stuff That We Are Made Of as "a revelation" and the Spanish company Nats Nus as "inspirational".

Richard Demarco vows to keep putting on Fringe shows "until I drop". He strikes a note of caution, however, borne out by years of experience. "The Fringe might have occurred spontaneously amongst local people and English students, but from the early 1960s it has had a strong international flavour. That has to be protected, and apart from young men like Mr Hoffman and old men like myself, it is not being cherished. Edinburgh could turn into a parochial festival as quickly as it became an international one."

Hoffman prepares to cycle off to his punishing schedule of administration and performance. He refuses to look too far into the future. "It's nice to be appreciated, but on the other hand, the financial situation is still very difficult," he admits. "After the first year I wanted to do less work and the venue to become more profitable and that hasn't happened. I still have to think - is it worth it?"

Aurora Nova is at St Stephens, 0131-558 3853 and Theatre Workshop, 0131-226 5426. Programmes run until August 26

Copyright 2002
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