Druid works its magic, but not every show can cast a spell

The fate of a play at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the theatre world’s great leveller, is a bit of a lottery. Druid’s luck keeps on coming, but how are other companies faring?

FOR FOUR FRAZZLED suitors skidding around a drained swimming pool in anxious competition there is only one prize worth winning. In Enda Walsh's new play, given a striking production by Druid Theatre Company, that prize is Penelope, whose elusive affections will not only bring wealth and status but also guarantee the victor's survival. Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, has a prize that can bring similar rewards – and this week Penelopereceived it.

The Fringe Firsts, created by the Scotsmannewspaper in 1973 to celebrate new writing at the festival, do not so much sort the wheat from the chaff as mill precious flour from the wheat already sorted. The festival has 2,500 shows this year, all competing for audiences and all looking for an advantage. Each week a team of judges announces a handful of Fringe First recipients. The plaques themselves are elegantly simple, spelled out in mirrored letters beneath the Scotsman's masthead, but their effects are immediate, lasting and calculated at the box office. "Sales immediately improve," says Sarah Dee of the Traverse Theatre, where both Penelopeand Corn Exchange's Freefallare playing.

Druid and Enda Walsh have won three Fringe Firsts. The Walworth Farcewas honoured in 2007; The New Electric Ballroomreceived one the following year. What difference does it make? "The measure is two things," says Tim Smith, Druid's general manager. "It's both commercial and critical. Commercially, you're competing against hundreds of other shows, so a Fringe First award makes you stand out. That definitely has an impact on sales. I'd say the rest of the performances at the Traverse Theatre will now either sell out or come close to selling out. That stops me from having to go out on Prince's Street to hand out flyers in my Speedos.

"From a critical point of view it helps the future life of the show. Not only does it help sell tickets for New York and London [where Druid is set to tour Penelope], it starts to encourage more international presenters to programme the work as well."

Some might wonder how much more Druid’s Penelope can build on the company’s reputation, the show’s critical response or its awards. An October tour to St Ann’s Warehouse in New York, and dates in March at Hampstead Theatre in London, were secured when the production was still rehearsing for its premiere in Galway last July, for example.

Now comes news that Penelopewill travel to the Studio Theatre in Washington DC in March 2011 – coinciding with America's 250th anniversary of St Patrick's Day – where it will feature in New Ireland: An Enda Walsh Festival. Success breeds success.

That’s how Culture Ireland, which supports the international presentation of Irish art, and this year assisted 12 artists and companies to make appearances at Edinburgh, sees it too. “It doesn’t just lift the company,” says Madeline Boughton, Culture Ireland’s director of projects and promotions. “It lifts the whole Irish presence. There is a sense of ‘Team Ireland’ in Edinburgh, so it’s perceived not just as a win for Druid but as a win for Ireland.”

BUT THE TIDE for Druid doesn’t necessarily lift all boats. The Irish showing at Edinburgh has certainly become more sophisticated in the four years since Culture Ireland began supporting Irish showcases and facilitating international networking, but Edinburgh is still a place where productions can lose a lot of money. This year companies such as Calipo, Landmark Productions and Gare St Lazare Players all have shows at the Assembly Rooms and the Pleasance, venues that are large and recognisable venues but carry neither the critical cachet nor the marketing machine of the Traverse.

Calipo's 10 Dates with Mad Marytook an ingenious route by courting local beauticians and hairdressers in advance, securing early audiences for Yasmine Akram's comedy while waiting for some solid reviews to materialise – a feat in itself. But it also invested time into tramping the Royal Mile to hand flyers to passers-by – a time-honoured Edinburgh tradition, Speedos notwithstanding.

Maria Fleming, Calipo’s Project Manager in Edinburgh, emphasises the value of flyering. “It is really important, unfortunately,” she says. “It can be soul destroying when you’re flyering for a one-person theatre show and someone beside you is flyering for Paul Merton . . . What hope have we got?”

Gare St Lazare Players, which began life 13 years ago with Conor Lovett's performance of Molloyin Edinburgh, had other priorities for its first return. "Our expectations were less to do with getting public attention and more to focus on finding international presenters and trying to sell the work," says director Judy Hegarty Lovett. "The expectation is that it will increase gigs for us in the future."

Landmark's producer Anne Clarke is similarly strategic with her show, Underneath the Lintel, which struggled for audiences despite good reviews. In an effort to drum up business Clarke handed out flyers on the Royal Mile with the rest of the company. She agrees, though, that the show is a loss leader for the company. "Nobody goes to Edinburgh to make money," she says. "Any visit is an investment in the future life of a show, in a company's reputation, or in both. The reason that there are 2,500 shows in Edinburgh is because it is the world's greatest marketplace."

The day after we spoke, Underneath the Lintelreceived a five-star review from the London Times. "Often at the Fringe it's the afterthought, the casual late booking, which blows you away," wrote Libby Purves. It was Landmark's first print review – with only five performances remaining of a four-week run. "I guess that just sums up the Fringe experience in a nutshell," says Clarke. "It is sucha lottery."

Everyone I speak to about Edinburgh this year is positive about the experience, optimistic for the outcome and full of praise for the tireless efforts of both their companies and Culture Ireland, but only Druid has firm reports of future international tours.

Edinburgh is the great leveller of the theatre world and a sobering if exhilarating reminder that no one can depend on finding an audience. Druid began its run at the Traverse with a five-star review from the Sunday Times, but, unlike in previous years, it didn't receive its Fringe First until the second week of the festival, lagging behind other Traverse shows.

“A Fringe First is probably more of a help than a great review,” says Tim Smith. “There are quite a few five-star reviews flying around Edinburgh. But the irony is that you can’t have a Fringe First without getting great reviews.” He sees a long-term bonus from Edinburgh that goes beyond a spike in sales. “The Fringe First will have an impact in New York, an impact in London, an impact in Dún Laoghaire and back in Galway. It reaches quite far and wide.”

Whether you get an award or not, lose money or break even, Edinburgh has become a much longer game for Irish competitors. Druid’s achievement is extraordinary, but, when it comes to building on every success, it is less a question of Fringe Firsts than of how the fringe lasts.

Penelopeis at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, September 9th-12th and the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, September 14th-18th