Fringe venue Universal Arts makes a Big Issue of its promotion tactics

A FRINGE venue has turned to a novel way of punting its shows — enlisting the help of the vendors of the Big Issue, the magazine sold by the homeless.

Universal Arts, run by the well-known Fringe veteran Tomek Borkowy, handed 40 vouchers for pairs of tickets of their choice to the magazine's distribution office in Edinburgh.

It is partly a goodwill gesture but also intended to plug the venue's productions, staff said.

"Big Issue sellers talk to everyone and we hope they will spread the world about our successful shows," said a spokeswoman.

The magazine's deputy editor, Vicky Davidson, was enthusiastic about the scheme.

"Our vendors have quite broad ranges of interest," she said. "Every week we do a feature called the vendor's view and from speaking to them we have found a lot of them have interests in music, have performed music or done creative writing. A lot of them are quite creative people. This gives them a chance to go and see shows they wouldn't normally take a risk on.

"The thinking behind it was the vendors are out on the streets, selling magazines to people who are going into venues, so Universal Arts are hoping that once the vendors have seen their shows they will be doing a bit of plugging for them as well.

"Vendors do work very hard during the festival, it's a good time for them to make money selling the magazine. If they can get to enjoy shows that are usually out of their price range it's fantastic, I wish all the promoters would do that."

The venue is run from the New Town Theatre, better known outside the festival as Freemason's Hall. Borkowy is on his 21st year on the Fringe, a well-known and often outspoken figure who formerly ran the Hill Street Theatre.

Fringe companies regularly employ flyering teams, but this is a first-time venture, he said.

"The whole world comes to Edinburgh during August and by September they've all moved on. We're an Edinburgh company" that wants to stay involved in the city and Scottish society, he said.

"We like to think we're at the heart of what's good about this festival and the Big Issue sellers are an important part of that - the Festival belongs to all of us."

So far vendors have opted for performances by Miguel Vargas Flamenco Dance Theatre's Rhythms with Soul, 2Landa's productions of White Dalmatian and Desire, Teatr Praga's More Light Please, Something Relevant's Too Good to be Live, and the multi-platform production Era Scheaffera.

Borkowy's work and venue has won awards in past years. Productions at the venue have earned a series of three and four reviews with top shows, including veteran Fringe actor and board member Pip Utton's production of Charles Dickens.