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The Fringe Blog - Sort Of! (2)Today an actress sat on me! It was during Ubu at the Baby Belly: she plonked herself down on my knee and played a scene from there. You do get close to the action in Fringe venues! I accused the director Martin Danziger of setting me up but he denied it. "She just has an instinct about who to sit on," he laughed. Hmm... And I was a good way back, too, although I suppose you always run that risk when you sit in a seat on the aisle. Perhaps it was solidarity between performers: just before seeing Ubu I was close to the front in Pip Utton's Bacon and he told me afterwards he was conscious of my sitting there throughout the performance. I know my face wouldn't launch even one ship, but still.... The day began very pleasantly. Philip, David Chadderton (our chief NW reviewer) and I met up in the Pleasance press office and were joined briefly by Rachel Lynn Brody, our Edinburgh reviewer. I meet Philip whenever I go to London, but it's about 14 months since David and I met (for the first time) when I had a show in Manchester, and it's a year since Philip, Rachel and I got together at last year's Fringe. Jackie Fletcher had hoped to join us but unfortunately couldn't make it. Isn't the Internet wonderful! Here is a group of people who live far apart and meet very infrequently and yet through email we have come to know each other well. I find it hard to remember how we got by without the Web and email, which is ridiculous really, as I am of the generation that remembers no central heating (coal fires, which also heated the water), no fitted carpets (a square of carpet in the middle of the room, with the floorboards around stained black), no TV but very definitely outside toilets. We've come a long way! David was extolling the vitues of his new(ish) Mac laptop and I must admit I'm sold, but the idea of replacing all my programs with Mac equivalents scares me financially - and I can't see it appealing to my bank manager either! - so it looks as though I'm stuck with Windows for the foreseeable future. And then the real business of the day began. A gentle walk down to the Pleasance Courtyard and in to see Bacon, followed by Ubu, not too far away at the Baby Belly. Both are, in their own very different ways, the sort of show that the majority of us who live outside London and one or two of the larger cities rarely get a chance to see. There are some small venues which are prepared to take the chance of booking a one-man play about a modern painter or a satirical schlockfest guaranteed to offend the majority, but they are not common. All power to the Fringe, say I! Yesterday I'd been talking to my landlady about the fact that the majority of the people of Edinburgh don't connect with the Fringe in any way but this evening I was heartened by something that happened after the performance of Elephant at the George Square Theatre. I was talking to the show's director Ozzie Riley when a lad (oh dear, I'm showing my age!) of about twenty or so came to speak to us, pint of lager in hand. He was local and had had a flyer thrust into his hand by one of the company during the day. He said he'd come if he could have a free ticket, so the company member gave him one. His verdict? "It was f***ing marvellous!" Not only that, he was going to make sure all his family and mates came to see it. Very pleasing - and particularly pleasing for Ozzie and his company - but it really is a drop in the ocean. In 2001 the population of Edinburgh was just over 449,000: I wonder what percentage of that come into contact with any of the festivals in any real sense. It rained today. Not a lot - certainly much, much less than last year - but my heart sank. Fortunately it was just fairly brief and comparatively light showers. Let's hope it gets no worse! >> Day 3
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