EDINBURGH FESTIVAL 97 REVIEWS

FRINGE BENEFITS

97

We're glad to see thespian hearts beat beneath the pin-stripe suits at the Royal Bank of Scotland, who are sponsoring this year's International Festival production of The Cocktail Party (reviewed left).

"The fact that TS Eliot was once gainfully employed as a banker is an extra bonus!" gushes the RBS's chairman in his programme note. "Banker- writers are rare - although last year the Royal Bank sponsored a stage version of Wind in the Willows by a former secretary of the Bank of England and we can even boast Hugh Miller and Robert W Service as former employees. But banker-dramatists, like this production, are something special."

Now that's what we call a bank statement.