Caitriona Dowden: Dance Like Everyone's Dancing

Thursday 7th August 14.10

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The Edinburgh Fringe can be an expensive week for audience members, especially if you are seeing up to five shows a day. The Fringe is also notoriously expensive for performers so a lot of them choose not to spend thousands of pounds on hiring venues and instead apply for the Free Fringe. Here, the venue is provided for free so all(?) the performer has to pay for is accommodation, food and travel costs. Then, hopefully, the collection at the end of the show will offset some of these expenses. 

It is easy to overlook the Free Fringe but there is a lot of talent here, new and well-known names. So, last year I allocated a day to only see free shows and as that was a success I once again decided to allocate our last full day to only seeing free shows, starting at a new venue to us, Carbon. Caitriona Dowden may not have been known to us but she has been a stand up for three years, reaching the Chortle Stand Up Comedy award final in 2022.

In an intimate venue Caitriona quietly ascends the stage and that is the vibe throughout the show. She quickly explains her love for Medieval history and we are soon immersed in the 16th century, referencing the famous dancing plague in Strasbourg in 1518 and the interesting world  of the anchoresses. To emphasise their devotional duty by walling themselves up she duly produces a suitable prop and as she walls herself up it is left to an audience member to read the remainder of the sketch. Fortunately, she struck gold as the reader performed beautifully, which I hoped he might having seen him reading a Tim Key book beforehand.

This is gentle comedy, performed in a gentle way and frankly, that is a breath of fresh air following the noise, mayhem and chaos from other shows. There weren't a lot of out loud laughs from the audience and I am not sure that Caitriona's delivery of a long pause before her punch-lines helped. Having said that this really an hour of enjoyable alternative comedy which the festival needs and is a great start to the day. One- nil to the Free shows! (DC)

Caitriona Dowden: Dance Like Everyone's Dancing is on daily at Room 2 at PBH's Free Fringe @ Carbon until Sunday 24th August - details here