Surprise Hit SWEATER CURSE Returns to Edinburgh Fringe 2014, Aug 1-24

With five-star reviews from critics in the US and UK, Texas playwright-performer Elaine Liner returns to Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014 for a second run of her hit comedy Sweater Curse: A Yarn about Love.

The 60-minute one-act play, a surprise success in its world premiere in Edinburgh Fringe last summer, will be performed at 14:00 daily (except Wednesdays), 1-24 August at the 30-seat Sweet Grassmarket International 4 Theatre (Venue 18).

Critics and audiences have warmed to the fuzzy, funny play, which uses knitting as a metaphor for unravelled romances and invites knitters to bring their projects and keep stitching during performances.

The show explains the old wives' tale that says any sweater knitted for a lover will be "cursed" and he'll leave you before you finish it. ("I have a lot of lumpy wads of unfinished knitting. All symbols of lumpy, finished relationships", says Liner.) There are detours into great literature's famous knitters, including Penelope and her shroud, Madame DeFarge and her busy needles, and the many references to knitting in Shakespeare. Liner also tosses in real-life news items about knitters, including a "scandal" about a knitting club in Northumberland and the story of an Aussie performance artist who inserts balls of yarn in her nether regions and then knits half-naked. ("I just have to trust that no one in my audience will be doing that", says Liner.)

Playing to enthusiastic knit-friendly crowds -- as well as to theatergoers who know nothing about knitting but who like a good yarn -- Liner's show has gone on to play the historic Granbury Opera House in Texas and was the most-attended production at the recent first-ever Dallas Solo Festival.

Liner displays some of her collection of less-than-artful acrylic jumpers (the prized ugliest jumper is from Primark) during the play. She also provides a "travelling scarf" to which patrons can add rows of stitches.

After three decades as a professional arts journalist, the last 13 as a theater critic in Dallas, Texas, Elaine Liner, 60, found that the dwindling print media biz left her more time for woolgathering, whether making sweaters or playwriting. "I've always knitted to relax between deadlines", she says. "Also, I knit so that I do not kill".

She wrote her play in 2012 with the goal of taking it to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013. It turned into an audience and critical fave, earning five-star reviews and sold-out houses; thus the return to Sweet Venues Grassmarket for the 2014 Fringe.

Edinburgh yarn shop Ginger Twist Studio joined with Sweater Curse last summer for cross-promotions and will do so again this August. Liner also likes to drop in on the many pub and cafe knitting nights around the capital city. "I'd much rather knit and eat cake with knitters who might come to my show than stand on the Royal Mile handing out fliers. Because cake!" says Liner.

Time and place: Sweater Curse: A Yarn about Love runs at 14:00 daily (except Wednesdays), 1-24 August, Sweet Grassmarket International 4 Theatre (Venue 18), Edinburgh. The venue is air-conditioned and wheelchair-accessible.

Tickets for Sweater Curse: A Yarn about Love are $8 (discounts available) at the door or in advance at https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/theatre/sweater-curse-a-yarn-about-love.

Follow Elaine Liner's road to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on her play's Facebook page (Facebook.com/TheSweaterPlay) or on Twitter at @TheSweaterPlay.

Photo Credit: Chuck Marcelo

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