PARKIES to Make Edinburgh Fringe Debut

It is the workers who are the real wildlife in America's National Parks. Each year, seasonal workers roll up to run the facilities at the lodges, campsites, shops and restaurants where visitors eat and sleep as they get close to nature in the wild unspoilt landscape. In Parkies, running from 7 to 29 August at TheSpace @ Surgeons' Hall at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, we meet a porn star wannabe, an accountant who has taken a vow of silence, a Croatian gap year student, a gambling evangelist and a drag queen-in-training as they sign up as 'Parkies' for another summer welcoming the guests.

This misfit medley brings humour, mischief and intrigue as greedy corporate America, striving for maximum profits from the park amenities, collides with the National Park Service which aims to preserve the landscape and wildlife for future generations.

Parkies is a drama that throws up as many questions about the workplace and big business as it does about human relationships. When the Parkies find the charred remains of a deer, the focus sharpens on the unsavoury practices of big business. What else will they discover? And who will survive?

Making his Edinburgh Fringe debut, writer and actor Ross Allen found inspiration for his first play in his work as a seasonal worker - a Parkie - at an American National Park in Utah. He draws on his sharp observations of those around him for this insightful comedy.

Ross, who is a long-time theatre fan and a retired accountant, is looking forward to bringing his work to the Fringe. He explains: 'I'm delighted that Parkies will premiere in Edinburgh. I'm a bit of a theatre nerd and I've always wanted to do something like this.

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