See Lance Armstrong at the Edinburgh Fringe – or a play about him at any rate + video

A play about Lance Armstrong and Marco Pantani will run at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, reports The Scotsman. Ventoux will focus on the rivalry between the two riders at the 2000 Tour de France as well as their respective downfalls.

The play, which will feature two actors cycling on road bikes along with video accompaniment, will be performed by the Nottinghamshire theatre company 2Magpies. They were formed five years ago by Tom Barnes and Matt Wilks to create theatre works based on true-life stories.

Barnes explained: “It will look at the completely contrasting lives of Armstrong and Pantani, which came together at the Tour de France, flashing back and forwards in time. It’s not just for cycling fans. There’s a really human element in there.”

Ventoux- 2Magpies Theatre Trailer from Mad Adam on Vimeo.

It’s not really entering ‘spoiler alert’ territory to say that the 2000 Tour saw Pantani’s final professional victory and the second of Armstrong’s seven overall victories of which he has since been stripped.

Clearly with Pantani’s death of acute cocaine poisoning in 2004 and Armstrong’s spectacular fall from grace, there is rich subject matter there to work with. Expect ‘a syringe full of hindsight’ says the promotional material.

Tickets are priced at £10 and the hour-long performance will run from August 13-30 at Summerhall, which was formerly the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. As Barnes says: “It’s all about physiology and the effect of drugs on the body, so it’ll be a wonderful setting for it.”

2Magpies will also be performing The Litvinenko Project during the Fringe, which will relive the day the former spy was poisoned after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium.