In any reflection on a number of student productions, there is the danger it will stylistically resemble my old school’s annual brochure (The Brightonian), packed full of lurid photographs of happy pupils, at one point in which the head of drama asks ‘what is drama?’ and seems to come to the conclusion that it is the spectacle of ugly adolescents drowning badly-fitting costumes singing badly.

A splendid time was had by all at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe festival. Despite the predictably grumpy and unfriendly demeanour of everyone involved, the many evenings spent counter-balancing ungenerous reviews by comparing oneself favourably with the other Cambridge shows cannot have failed to ensure the experience was an enjoyable one rather than simply another failed attempt to attract a West End transfer. Another touching and worthy attempt to realise our creative potential and show the world, before retreating into our shells, assuming a superior expression, twitching our nostrils at the other pompous crustaceans who inhabit the Royal Mile during the month of August.

The first week of this term promises several home-runs, no doubt eagerly anticipated by those who couldn’t be bothered to travel to see their friends’ plays elsewhere. Reprisals of shows already put on at Cambridge saw Rob Icke’s revitalised production of Coat, the careful relocation of the Gently Progressive Behemoth into its natural habitat, and the sustained explosiveness of the Wham Bam! tour, a difficult achievement for a two month-long stint Cleverly reprised shows included The Enchanted Castle, which celebrated the centenary of E. Nesbit’s children’s story and boasted a poster created by Quentin Blake. Also, a privately funded production of Sarah Kane’s Crave cannot quite be labelled a celebration of the play which premiered at the Fringe ten years previously. A more unfortunate choice was that of The Bacchae, which coincided with Alan Cumming’s ultra-camp production of the same name, to the occasional chagrin of a misled tourist, and the amusement of a satirist from The Stage, who saw fit to suggest the financial ramifications of such a ‘coincidence’. Sweeney Todd and Dracula brought Gothic to the Edinburgh stage, the former enjoying impressive reviews and a nomination for a Fringe First.

But what is theatre? The intoxicating buzz of the Edinburgh fringe, healthy competition and friendly rivalry, drama at the cutting edge, a Bacchic frenzy of desperate flyerers, how many cobbled miles a day, aggressive postering, break the fourth wall, break even, the scream of a thousand souls ascending through the smog of stand-up tragedy, sit down, applaud - a sense of true complicity - to Dionysus.