Fringe

The word has had many meanings over the years of course, and its cultural and social meanings are also quite diverse.

Dictionary definition

For instance, the word is defined as follows in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

An ornamental border of threads left loose or formed into tassels or twists, used to edge clothing or material; The front part of someone’s hair, cut so as to hang over the forehead; A natural border of hair or fibres in an animal or plant; the "fringe" (or often "the fringes") are the outer, marginal, or extreme part(s) of an area, group, or sphere of activity.

The social/cultural meaning of the term fringe

Based on the last mentioned interpretation, the socio-cultural derivatives are the notion of something not part of the mainstream, or main event, e.g. Fringe culture (another name for counterculture), fringe festival, etc.

Theatrical use of the term Fringe

In terms of theatre the concept of the Fringe has been used two ways in South African theatre.

As the name of a set of events at a festival

Deriving from the concept of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and later the Adelaide Fringe Festival, where "fringe" events have in some ways gradually assumed the status of independent venues or festivals, we find the same usage in South Africa. Starting with the Grahamstown Festival's there have been a number of "fringe" events at South African festivals, and later the Cape Town Fringe.

As a theatrical venue

The Fringe at the Joburg Theatre Complex

Sources

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Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre. Fringe is the term used to describe alternative art and theater that defies the mainstream and ventures into avant-garde subject matter and content.

According to the Oxford Companion to Theatre:

Fringe Theatre in Britain offers a platform for productions that because of their political content, experimental nature, or unfamiliarity are unlikely to succeed in more conventional surroundings. The term dates from the late 1960s and derives from the activities on the ‘fringe’ of the Edinburgh Festival. There are around 70 Fringe theatres in London, mostly away from the centre where rents are lower. They are usually small, their seating ranging from 40 to 200, and few were built as theatres: mostly they are found in converted warehouses or factories, in basements, or in rooms in public houses. Fringe theatres are less formal, less expensive, and usually less comfortable than ordinary theatres, and their audiences tend to be younger and more anti-Establishment. Being short of money and often housed in temporary accommodation, they tend to be transitory. The better established ones include the King's Head at Islington, the Orange Tree at Richmond (where many of James Saunders's plays were presented), the Bush at Shepherds Bush, West London, and the Gate, Notting Hill, which specializes in rarely performed classics. Outside London Fringe theatre is housed in the studio theatres attached to many civic theatres, the multi-purpose arts centres opened in the 1970s and 1980s, and sometimes in more makeshift quarters.

Numerous fringe groups tour these locations, among the most important being Shared Experience (founded 1975), best known for its adaptations of novels, such as Zola's Germinal; Cheek By Jowl (1981), which presents lively productions of classical plays with minimal scenery, including British premières such as Corneille's The Cid and Ostrovsky's It's All in the Family; Joint Stock (1974) (, GASKILL, and HARE, DAVID), Paines Plough (1975), and the feminist Monstrous Regiment (1975), all committed to new work. Joint Stock works by Collective Creation, and other fringe groups use it at times. (.)

The celebration of art and theater known as a fringe festival originated in Edinburgh, Scotland, shortly after World War II. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe began as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival and takes place annually during three weeks of August. It has grown into the largest arts festival in the world and ignited a fringe movement across the globe with fringe festivals occurring each year in most major metropolitan areas.

The early days of the Festival Fringe in Scotland exuded a bohemian atmosphere that nurtured the innovative spirit of the art, drew participants and attendees and stoked the fire of a movement that eventually spread to international cities.

The Adelaide Fringe Festival, estimated to be the second-largest in the world, took form in 1960. Canada is home to the most significant event in North America. "Canada has more Fringe Festivals per capita than any other country in the world," asserts the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals. "The first and largest Fringe in Canada is the Edmonton Fringe Festival (established in 1982)." The Orlando version of a Fringe Festival is largest and Fringe in the U.S.

Fringe theatre in South Africa

The term s=was first used by the Grahamstown Festival, in immitation of the Edinburgh Festival

The Grahamstown Fringe

See Grahamstown Festival

Fringe, Cape Town - the name of a company

An experimental theatre company founded in Cape Town by in 1977 by Dawie Malan, Chris Galloway, Bill Curry and others. Productions include Exit the King, Deathwatch, Die Van Aardes van Grootoor (1977-79), Info Scandals, The Haunted Host and **. They played at the Space Theatre and a number of these also played at the Market Theatre

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