Bingo looks to bring the house down

IF you find yourself accosted by a barefoot, oddly dressed stranger quoting Hamlet in a voice resembling a cross between Yoda and Braveheart don't panic - they're probably playing Edinburgh Festival Bingo.

A blogger and wannabe-comedienne has designed a bingo card that challenges revellers to carry out dares during the course of the festival.

The dares include ideas like "walk around barefoot", "wear completely irrelevant fancy dress", "recite Hamlet's 'to be, or not to be' soliloquy to the first person you see", "speak like Yoda" or "speak in a bad Scottish accent".

However, some challenges could land you in trouble with the authorities, or leave you with a sore face if you approach the wrong person.

For example, Fringe organisers might take exception to festivalgoers trying to "camp out on the Royal Mile".

Meanwhile, some performers may take offence at players ticking the box marked "heckle a comedian", while it would take a brave person to "ask people to vote Conservative".

The card was designed by 19-year-old student Lolly Adefope, an aspiring comedienne who is hoping to come to the Edinburgh Festival for the first time this year.

She said: "Me and a group of friends were trying to get a theatre troupe together for this year's Festival but it didn't quite come together, but I still wanted to do something.

"I thought it would be a brilliant idea to design something that would allow festivalgoers to engage with the Festival more closely.

"My friends and I had a brainstorming session to come up with some of the dares we could ask people to do and the bingo card was the result.

Miss Adefope, who is originally from Surrey and studies English, has published her card online in her Lols On Comedy section on A Younger Theatre, an arts blog.

A Younger Theatre editor Jake Orr, 22, said: "I think a lot of the dares are supposed to be tongue in cheek. Lolly doesn't actually want people to vote Conservative. The dare contains a bit of irony as it's a reaction to the looming cuts in arts funding.

"There's also a disclaimer at the bottom of the card which advises players that heckling should not be malicious."

The disclaimer goes on to suggest forms of benign heckling such as "random standing up and sitting down, or oinking". A further advisory provides tips on how to "organise a flashmob", a random act of madness carried out in unison by a group of people, with suggestions including the Cha Cha Slide or the Macarena.

Mr Orr added: "There's no overall prize for winning so it will be up to individual groups to decide on prizes, and make up the rest of the rules as they go along."