Forcing house for young talent or graveyard of reputations? Risking money on a showcase in Edinburgh is something very few RFO’s would do today. 89 shows are listed in the ‘Children’s Shows’ pages of the 2008 Fringe brochure. Apart from locally based Puppet State, with the superbly entertaining The Man Who Planted Trees, there are a few well-established companies, like Widdershins or Tall Stories, with their much loved Gruffalo, which have such a sound reputation that they can be assured of both a strong following and – one assumes – reasonable financial returns.
