Edinburgh Festival Fringe Kicks Off 'Hibrow Hour' at Summerhall Today

In a first for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a new daily, series of hour long performances, called Hibrow Hour, will stream each show LIVE and uninterrupted online from the magnificent Summerhall venue.

The show will feature a variety of work ranging from new drama presented by the next generation of writers, directors and actors to work from more established artists including Alison Jackson, Steven Berkoff, Peter Howson OBE.

Hibrow is a digital arts broadcast production enterprise, generously supported by Arts Council England, that commissions, produces and distributes high quality films about the arts. Every film is transmitted and available via www.hibrow.tv

Every day this August at 15:40, throughout the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the Dissection Room at the magnificent Summerhall venue, a polycephalic body of work will be presented to a live venue audience, physically at the festival, and television, cinema and online audiences around the world. Each show will be broadcast live and will be available for years to come as part of www.hibrow.tv's ever-growing archive of artistic, cultural and educational content.

In addition to the daily online broadcast via the www.hibrow.tv website, certain Hibrow Hour performances and events will be transmitted via BBC Arts (broadcasting on television and online) and to selected Odeon Cinema outlets across the country.

More details of when these special broadcasts will take place and which cinemas will be announced shortly.

Hibrow Hour will include:

- MAKA: A series of brand new theatre productions from some of the UK's most promising young dramaturges, actors and directors;

- Hibrow In-Conversations featuring world-class names from theatre, music, dance, film and literature;

- Hibrow Comedy Hour from Hibrow Curators JV Productions;

- Berkoff the Inimitable, an extraordinary one-man performance from Steven Berkoff, who will simultaneously be painted live by one of Britain's foremost painters, Peter Howson OBE;

- War! An exhibition of Peter Howson's work as Britain's official war artist during the Bosnian War alongside fresh new work,

- A very special and topical production from the inimitable palette of Alison Jackson to be revealed closer to the festival.

MAKA is made up of three brand new plays from emerging writer/directors in their twenties, all of whom have trained at the most prestigious academic institutions and theatres in the country:

- The Dispute chronicles a bold scientific experiment in which four babies are raised in isolation for eighteen years before being released to discover a world of seduction, deception and the dark, labyrinthine recesses of human nature. This new incarnation of Marivaux's La Dispute is directed by National Theatre Staff Director and former RSC assistant director Emily Kempson

- The Man Who Almost Killed Himself is an arresting account of a Ugandan man in the grip of HIV/AIDs whose attempts, in flagrant disregard of the country's draconian laws, to take his own life are constantly unsuccessful. Based on a true story, the play is an adaptation of the writings of anthropologist Andrew Irving, has been developed by Josh Azouz and will be an interactive, multimedia experience featuring live music from BAFTA-nominated African fusion band The Ganda Boys. Azouz trained at Birkbeck and the École Philippe Gaulier and has worked with the Library Theatre, Tricycle Theatre as well as being an associate artist for Muslim-Jewish theatre company MUJU.

- Sleight & Hand, the debut full-length piece from Marieke Audsley, tells the tale of an illusionist and a pickpocket who form an unlikely crime-fighting duo in Victorian London. Audsley studied at the University of Cambridge before training as a director at Birkbeck College and then assistant directing at such revered theatre companies as The Royal Shakespeare Company and The Crucible. Most recently she has assisted Sean Foley on the RSC's production of A Mad World My Masters and I Can't Sing in the West End.

Arts aficionados will also be given a glimpse behind the curtain through Hibrow In-Conversations, which will see two surprise guests drop in each week to share reminiscences with one of Hibrow's hosts, themselves leading artists and cultural commentators, about life, the arts, the Festival and everything else.

One big name from the arts world who will be taking to the stage in a performance capacity will be Steven Berkoff, in Berkoff the Inimitable, which will see the legendary actor deliver one of his exhilarating one-man shows while being painted simultaneously by one of the UK's greatest painters, Peter Howson OBE.

Peter Howson will then take centre stage for War! - an exhibition that forms part of the Edinburgh Arts Festival as well as the Festival Fringe and which showcases the pre-eminent painter's work as Britain's official war artist during the Bosnian War as well as more recent work and brand new paintings.

The Hibrow Comedy Hour, curated by Jilly Burnet and Van Keeling, who together form JV Productions, will see some of the Fringe's greatest comedians storm Summerhall each Wednesday for an afternoon of witty foolery and foolish wit.

Later in the festival, Hibrow will present a satirical feast from the wickedly funny imagination of renowned artist and photographer Alison Jackson. Details about this project are currently under wraps and will be announced before the festival opens.

Every Hibrow performance will be streamed LIVE using cutting edge, multi-camera production technology, which will also be used to provide an exclusive look behind the scenes at rehearsals, read-throughs and interviews with cast and crew. Each production will also benefit from professional, high-quality post-production and editing that will allow these shows to transcend the mediums of live performance and broadcast.

Hibrow's integration of top quality live performance with cutting edge broadcasting technology will help the Edinburgh Festival Fringe expand further than ever before beyond the wonderful physical space of Summerhall and into the digital sphere.

DETAILS:

HIBROW HOUR

Dates: TODAY 30 July - Saturday 25 August 2014

Venue 300: Summerhall, 1 Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL

Start and end times: 15.40 - 16.40 (60mins)

Prices range from £5 - £15

Category: Theatre/ Comedy/ Visual Art

Box Office Enquiries: 0131 560 1581/ www.summerhall.co.uk