Writer, editor, critic
MARK FISHER performed in a student-written play called Shubunkin at the YWCA in Randolph Place, Edinburgh in 1983. Tickets cost £1.75 and the start time was 4.15pm. The play has not been heard of since, but the reviewer for the Scotsman said it wove a ‘Coronation Street idiom on a Miltonian frame’ which helped attract a few people to see the last of its four performances.
In the summer of 1986, Mark returned to Edinburgh to work in the Fringe Office and has not missed a festival since. He is a theatre critic, editor, feature writer and freelance journalist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has written about theatre in Scotland since the late-1980s, contributing theatre reviews, interviews, arts features and travel articles to newspapers and magazines in Scotland and all over the world.
He is a theatre critic for the Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a frequent contributor to the Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday and many magazines, newspapers and websites.
As an editor, he has worked for the Edinburgh International Festival and Raploch Urban Regeneration Company.
He is the co-editor of Made in Scotland, an anthology of plays, The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide: How to Make Your Show a Success published in February 2012 and How to Write About Theatre published in 2015.
He is a judge for the Theatre Awards UK, the Scotsman Fringe First awards and the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland, an advisor for the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award. He has also been on the panel for the Herald Angels and the Amnesty Fringe awards.
He is also responsible for the theatreSCOTLAND website.
“Fisher is the perfect host, and what shines through is his experience in theatre and depth of knowledge.”
Three Weeks, 2011
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