‘Peace Pigeon’ launches Edinburgh Meeting’s Fringe Festival programme
'Poppy the Peace Pigeon' has kick-started the programme of events at Edinburgh Meeting House during the Fringe Festival
Edinburgh Meeting House has kick-started its programme of performances for the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival with the help of a feathered friend, ‘Poppy the Peace Pigeon’.
The model bird, decorated in peace badges and carrying an olive branch and white poppy, sits in the Meeting house window, surrounded by banners bearing pigeon-based puns: ‘Make Dove Not War!’, ‘No Military Coos!’, and ‘All You Need is Dove!’
Sue Proudlove, joint manager of the Meeting, told the Friend: ‘Being so close to the castle and the Military Tattoo (the queues snake past about fifty metres from our door) we try to think about how we can speak out for peace.
‘This year we have a striking “Quakers for Peace” banner hanging where it can be seen by crowds and military personnel.’
This year Edinburgh Meeting House, which as Venue 40 has been running as a Fringe venue since 1989, hosts nine different theatre companies or solo acts.
Sue Proudlove said: ‘There are also several musical acts (one being our assistant manager Majk Stokes), a group of Tibetan Monks, and a local publisher presenting a programme of talks and discussions. Companies have travelled here from India, the USA and New Zealand, and our team of volunteers includes Friends from Australia and New Zealand, as well as all over the UK.’
Productions scheduled this month include the play Conchies!, Quaker poet Lucy Aphramor’s Raise the Roof and Ian Crawford’s Accident Avoidance Training for Cutlery Users, Level 2.
In addition, the local Quaker art group are running workshops making white poppies, as part of the national Collateral Damage project.
Theatre On The Edge, from Hull, turned the Meeting room into the venue for a fictional wedding reception celebrating a same-sex marriage.
Sue Proudlove said: ‘It’s particularly apt that this production has been hosted here, at the venue for the first religious same-sex marriage in Scotland.’
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