As the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe marks their respective 70th anniversaries, Bruce Cannon looks back at the role of the Church of Scotland in their history.

IN all the celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the Edinburgh Festival and the Fringe, the contribution of the Kirk and other churches in Scotland towards the growth of this astonishing explosion of artistic and musical talent, should not be overlooked or underestimated.

In these early post-war years, the Festival was promoted as an attempt to recover some of the cultural heritage and influences that had been lost in the Second World War. While many people shared the enthusiasm and vision of the founders, there were many others who were highly critical of the venture which they saw as an untried experiment completely inappropriate at a time when rationing was still in place and there was a continuing shortage of consumer goods.

However, undeterred by these critics, the Festival went ahead with the support of Edinburgh Town Council. In a wonderfully sunny August in 1947, an international assembly of world-class musicians, singers and actors descended on the city. Under the direction of Rudolf Bing, managing director of Glyndebourne Opera, the Festival was launched on Sunday, August 24 with an inaugural service at St Giles’ Cathedral and, surprising for the time, an opening concert in the Usher Hall on Sunday evening.

I was a schoolboy in Edinburgh at the time and can remember the excitement surrounding this new venture. Suddenly Edinburgh came alive and welcomed the artists eager to see and hear the performances. In continuing support of the Festival, the Town Council organised decorations for Princes Street and even the trams joined in by flying pennants from the poles that connected the trams to the overhead power lines.

At this point there was no Fringe, but several amateur and semi-professional companies realised that this concentration of theatrical and musical talent was an opportunity to join in the Festival fun. Although they were not invited to the official Festival, eight theatre companies, six Scottish and two English, arrived independently in Edinburgh to present their plays. Known inelegantly as “adjuncts” they were the forerunners of the Fringe. It was a couple of years before that term was applied to the companies appearing on the “fringe” of the official Festival. The original eight companies performed in just five venues. This year’s Fringe has 2000 companies using 300 venues.

Finding somewhere to perform was a challenge for the adjuncts because the official Festival had claimed Edinburgh’s main theatres. One of the alternative options was the Gateway Theatre, owned and run by the Kirk – a unique combination of Church and Theatre. Formerly a cinema, the Gateway was gifted to the Kirk in 1944 by an anonymous donor who wished it to be used in a constructive way. To its great credit, the Church ran the theatre very successfully and professionally under the firm management of the redoubtable Sadie Aitken, a personality respected in the theatre and church alike.

At that first Festival the Gateway hosted the Pilgrim Players from Birmingham. Six of the other companies used the studio theatre in Edinburgh YMCA and the Pleasance Little Theatre. Perhaps typical of the range of strange and wonderful venues discovered by future Fringe companies, was the contribution of the Manchester Marionettes, a small company who presented afternoon puppet shows in the restaurant of the New Victoria (now Odeon) cinema. The eighth company performed the morality play “Everyman” in Dunfermline Abbey sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation.

Once the idea of putting on a show at the Festival caught on, churches and church halls were suddenly in demand as venues. Fortunately, the capital’s churches were well suited for this purpose as amateur dramatics was a very popular activity in Scotland in the 1940s. Many congregations had well-equipped halls and were familiar with the needs of performers and producers. Posters and banners were soon in evidence as the companies vied for audiences. One church even allowed an American company to convert a hall into a Wild West saloon as the set for “Kiss me Kate”. The cast of this show included a young Robin Williams at the beginning of his acting career.

Inevitably there were differences of opinion about the suitability of plays to be presented in church halls. Producers were known to haggle with the owners over dubious words or phrases. I later suspected that some of these arguments were overplayed to allow the producer to get media attention by claiming alleged “censorship”.

It is probably true to say that the Festival gained considerably from the Church’s reappraisal of its buildings. Many redundant churches have since been converted into permanent theatres or concert halls. For example the Queen’s Hall, Church Hill Theatre and Festival Hub were all churches. The Filmhouse in Lothian Road, home of the Edinburgh International Film Festival is a converted church. The Film Festival is now the longest running film festival in the world. Originally, it ran in tandem with the Festival of Music and Drama, but has now moved to new dates in June.

Perhaps the Kirk’s largest and continuing Festival contribution is the Assembly Hall on the Mound. It became the unlikely setting at the second Festival for Tyrone Guthrie’s stunning production of “The Thrie Estates”, a satirical view of the pre- Reformation church and state written by Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, first performed in 1540. The Scottish writer Robert Kemp adapted the play for modern usage but retained a lot of the old Scots tongue.

Guthrie’s use of the old layout of the Hall with rows of benches on three sides of the central podium from which Assembly business was conducted, was unique. He created the “apron stage” projecting into the auditorium, an imaginative concept that was subsequently adopted by many other theatres. In the years that followed, the Hall was used for equally spectacular Shakespearean and other plays. When the premises were re-designed as the temporary home of the Scottish Parliament, the Hall changed in character but is still in demand at Festival time.

But the Kirk’s involvement with the Fringe is more than just providing performance space, some congregations present their own programmes. A glance at this year’s Fringe programme lists at least ten central city churches holding virtually “mini-festivals” with a mixture of visiting artists and their own performers.

“Many redundant churches have since been converted into permanent theatres or concert halls. For example the Queen’s Hall, Church Hill Theatre and Festival Hub were all churches.

Another significant venue provided by the Church today is the studio theatre in the Scottish Storytelling Centre in the Royal Mile next to John Knox House. Owned by the Church of Scotland and supported by a large number of sponsors, the centre provides a focus and permanent location for many theatrical, artistic and community projects. It is a busy place throughout the year but during the Festival it goes into overdrive with its programme of shows. I am particularly pleased that one of the acts this year is my son Andy who will be performing his one-act play on the story of Macbeth for children.

From that modest beginning in 1947, the Fringe has blossomed into this amazing, expanding celebration of human creativity surrounding the International Festival. The Fringe is fussy, it’s untidy, it’s uncontrolled but long may it continue to excite, educate, entertain and challenge. The show must go on…and on…