Last month, a group of scummy BDSHoles (is there any other kind?) protested against an Israeli show performing at the Edinburgh Fringe.
While they succeeded in having the show’s run at The Fringe cancelled, it looks like they also succeeded in showing more people what a wretched hive of scum and villainy they truly are.
Underbelly director Charlie Wood has said the protest in Edinburgh that forced Israeli show The City to be cancelled was “the worst situation” he had ever dealt with in 20 years of working at the fringe.
Speaking at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society annual general meeting ?on Tuesday (August 19), Wood said the demonstrators “pushed the meaning of ‘peaceful’… screaming at children who were walking past to see another show saying, ‘You’ve got blood on your ticket’.”
The production, by Incubator Theatre, had its entire fringe run cancelled after only one preview, following protests over the company’s partial funding from the Israeli government.
Organisers said the run was unable to continue at its original venue, Underbelly Cowbarn, because the protests were ?“disruptive in the wider area”.
“Nine shows in the Gilded Balloon ?had to be cancelled that day,” said Wood. “We tried very hard to find venues elsewhere, but for several reasons it proved impossible to do so.”
He added that The City’s cancellation had challenged the fringe’s status ?as an open-access festival. “We have to support the fact that anyone should be able to perform, even if someone else says they can’t,” he said. “That is what open access means.”
Also speaking at the AGM, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society chief executive Kath Mainland said: “It is not our job to support, or not, a boycott. It is our job to support a venue or company in whatever decision it takes. It is an open-access ?festival, and that is our job.”
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The events have caused a backlash within the industry after the show became the first Edinburgh Fringe ?production in 67 years to be cancelled ?due to political protest.
John Stalker, the UK producer who helped bring The City to Edinburgh, ?wrote in a letter to The Stage last week that “there should be a collective head-hanging in shame” over the issue.
“Productions can only now come if ?they do not upset protestors of whatever cause happens to be raging in that moment,” he said.
Additional freshly-baked BDS fail goodness: The show was performed elsewhere and received rave reviews.
