Drama group bids to avoid Fringe costs

Vittoria's Italian restaurant on Leith Walk will host Wonderland Productions' dinner theatre show La Locandiera for three weeks from August 4, but the theatre company will face an £849 bill for a temporary theatre licence for the venue.

It has now written to the city council and pleaded for it to drop the charge.

In the letter, the company said: "We generally work on guarantees from venues and, being inexperienced outside Ireland, we sought the assistance of a co-producer on this project. This company was to do all of the ground work. Unfortunately, the company have let us down and dropped our account in favour of another show.

"This has left us in the unenviable position of being thrown in the deep end very late in the day.

"The cost of a licence was not something that the company informed us about and at this stage in the budget it is proving to be a prohibitory cost in our coming to the Festival."

Councillors on the regulatory committee will decide next week whether to waive the charge.