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The Fringe Blog - Sort Of! (4)Dateline: 21st August, 2005It's been an odd sort of day. Up at six, of course, to catch a train at eight - which, given the fact that I normally live on theatre time (i.e. late to bed, late to rise) is odd in itself - and I was in Edinburgh by 10.30, in my digs by 10.45 and at the Fringe Press Office just after eleven. There I bumped into Catherine Lamm, one of our New York reviewers, who arrived a couple of days ago. She was chatting to another New Yorker, Carol Tambor of the Carol Tambor Edinburgh to New York Award which began last year. We had a brief chat, then Catherine and I headed off in different directions, having made arrangements to meet for dinner. Got to the Gilded Balloon to pick up some tickets and to see my first show of my second foray to the Fringe. I suddenly realised I was starving - well, after all, breakfast had been before seven and it was now midday - so I grabbed a bite to eat and went to see my first show. I emerged an hour later, much exhilarated by the excellent Immaculate, to discover I was hungry yet again. So I headed off to the Pleasance Dome where my next show was - a walk of approximately thirty seconds - and had yet another snack. And then came the most amazing coincidence. I was hanging around waiting for the show when someone spoke to me. It was a young girl whose face seemed familiar and I ran through all the actresses I knew but couldn't place her. Then it hit: she was the best friend of the daughter of a couple of friends whom I had last seen just after she'd left school about five years ago. She and her boyfriend were touring Scotland, having just returned from a year teaching in Zimbabue, and were in Edinburgh for just one day to catch a couple of shows. Given the number of people in Edinburgh for the Fringe and the number of venues and the number of shows at different tims of the day, what are the odds against us meeting like that? Perhaps not quite in the winning the Lottery bracket but definitely in the pretty huge category. But then it got better: we soon discovered that we were going to see the same show! The odds against that must be truly astronomical. There are 26,995 performances of 1799 shows in almost 300 venues and there must be at least half a million visitors in Edinburgh at any one time during the Fringe, so work that out if you are mathematically inclined! What makes the coincidence even more odd (I said this was an odd day!) is that the play is set in our part of the world, although Jo hadn't realised it. Anyway, we saw and enjoyed the play (In Limbo) and went our separate ways, me heading back to the Gilded Balloon where - you guessed it! - I felt hungry yet again and treated myself to a banana and chocolate crêpe. Sinful! But the oddness of the day had not yet finished. After the show, at about 5.30, I was standing outside the venue reading the reviews pasted on the boards, when I heard my name. I turned and there was another old friend, actress Zoë Lambert who'd worked with me on a play I directed last year. It turned out that she's in Edinburgh for the full three weeks playing in a show at the Assembly Rooms. Not so much of a coincidence as meeting Jo, obviously, but to have three such unexpected meetings in the course of seven hours is pretty mind-boggling. It stopped at number three and the day proceeded more normally from then on: another show, dinner with Catherine (salmon at Creelers: delightful!), a final show which finished at midnight, and then back to the digs to unpack because my room wasn't ready when I arrived thirteen hours before! I must admit that I did sleep well! >> Day 5
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