Elaine Liner's SWEATER CURSE: A YARN ABOUT LOVE Set for Edinburgh Fringe Fest, 8/1-25

After reviewing more than 3,000 plays over a dozen years, Dallas, Texas, theater critic Elaine Liner wrote one she wanted to see. Her one-woman comedy Sweater Curse: A Yarn about Love debuts at this summer's Edinburgh Festival Fringe at 1:15 p.m. daily, August 1-26, at Sweet/Grassmarket International 4 (Venue 18).

In the play, Liner interweaves stories about her loves of knitting, great literature (that mentions knitting), old movies (in which Bette Davis knits) and men worth knitting for (or not). TheaterJones.com says, "Elaine Liner's witty `purls' will have you in stitches."

"There's a knitting term - tink, which is `knit' backwards - that means un-knitting your work to fix mistakes," says Liner. "Well, I've had to tink back my love life a few times."

Inspired by the writing of Nora Ephron, Dorothy Parker and British writer-actor David Mitchell, Elaine Liner finished her one-act in early 2012 with the goal of producing and performing it in the 2013 Fringe. She then spent a year rehearsing and designing the show with Texas-based director Tim Hedgepeth.

"It's not that I always dreamed of being onstage," Liner says. "But I'm a storyteller and this is my story. These days journalism is a tough profession. I knit to relax between deadlines. Also, I knit so that I do not kill."

Liner earned her degree in theater from Trinity University, with a master's from Southern Methodist University. She has been a professional journalist, specializing in arts and media criticism, for nearly 30 years. She is the theater critic at Dallas Observer, the city's alternative weekly newspaper, and has written for The New York Times, Village Voice and dozens of other publications. She was the James Thurber Playwright-in-Residence at Ohio State University and was a critic fellow at the Eugene O'Neill Institute.

"As a critic-turned-playwright, at least I know how to respond to criticism, good or bad," says Liner. "You just say `thank you for coming' and know that whether it's a rave or a pan, it's never personal. I know only too well that sometimes a bad review just means the critic is tired and hungry."

Follow Elaine Liner's road to the Edinburgh Festival on her play's Tumblr page or on Twitter at @TheSweaterPlay.

Tickets for Sweater Curse: A Yarn about Love are ?8 (discounts available) at the door or in advance here.

Photo by Mark Oristano

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