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Frozen dead guy

Pauline McLean | 18:02 UK time, Tuesday, 10 August 2010

The Edinburgh Fringe always manages to conjure up some bizarre stories.

And none more so than The Not So Fatal Death of Grandpa Fredo.

A madcap comedy, with silly songs and even sillier dialogue, it tells the tale of a man who uses his own crude cryonics to preserve his Norwegian grandfather in a shed in Colorado.

A story, made even more bizarre by the fact it's based on the true story of Grandpa Bredo.

Bredo died of a heart attack in 1989 and his grandson Trygve Bauge brought him to the US, where he preserved his body in dry ice in a wood shed.

His longterm plan to set up a cryogenics institute, was thwarted when he was deported in 1994 - and the body was discovered in the woodshed (along with that of his one paying customer.)

And while Trygve may have failed in his attempts to immortalise his grandfather - experts say even if the technology becomes available, Grandpa Bredo, who has defrosted several times, wouldn't be a good candidate - he has earned a certain notoriety in the town of Nederland, Colorado, which has now set up its own Frozen Dead Guy day.

There, you can indulge in coffin sledging, enter an Ice Queen Beauty Contest or take the Polar Plunge.

The organisers have now approached Vox Motus - the Glasgow-based company behind the stage show - to talk about performing it in Colorado next year.

Are they anxious about whether their satrical, country song rich stage play, which sends up the locals as well as Trygve - will be appreciated on home turf?

Artistic co-director Candice Edmunds says they have no qualms.

"I'm from a small mountain community like that - that's part of the reason the story appealed to me.

"And people who live in those sorts of communities have a real sense of the stories they tell and are proud of they way the world sits up and notices so I don't think they'll be offended. It's a really exciting opportunity."

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Being of Scottish extraction, I am following this story with some interest. I wish there was some way to show this play to people at the 10th annual festival coming up next March...I hear its hilarious as well as well done.
    Keep up the good work and I hope to see more of the play itself, even if only stills...

    Bo the Iceman
    Caretaker of the Real Grandpa Bredo

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