|
|
|
|
||
|
Articles
|
||
|
Articles |
The Fringe Blog - Sort Of! (6)Dateline: 21st August, 2005After yesterday's débacle I was looking forward to a normal day - or as normal as any day at the Fringe can be. I only had four shows but one was part of the International Festival and so ran for two hours, twice the length of the average Fringe show, so it's the equivalent of five. I always feel as though I am slacking if I don't do five or six shows in a day in Edinburgh. It's stupid, I know, but in the back of my mind there's always the feeling that the show I don't do may be just the one that a site visitor wants to read about. That's why usually - although, I have to confess, not this year - I have sometimes squeezed seven shows into a day. Another of our reviewers, Wayne, arrived yesterday so I met up with him and his girlfriend at the Assembly Rooms at 10.30 this morning and we chatted about what he was going to see, my impressions of this year's Fringe and so on. Usually I try to arrange shows so that I stay in one venue for as mcuh of the day as I can, or, if that isn't possible, I at least try to arrange shows in venues which are close to each other. Generally that works very well, but not today. My first show was at the Assembly Rooms. It finished at 1.00, giving me two hours to get across to C in Chambers Street (a goodly walk) for the next show (and a chance to call in at Piemaker for my lunch!). It finished at four, leaving me an hour to get to - you guessed it! - back to the Assembly Rooms. I'd arranged to meet Philip for dinner at a Chinese Buffet in Elm Row but he was waiting for me as I left the venue and, as he knows that area of the city far better than I, took me by a few short cuts, for which I was thankful. Mind you, I used to think I walked quickly until I met him! Suddenly it was after seven and I had to be at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall in Dalmeny Street at half past, so off we went, Philip still having some time before his next show. That walk seemed to go on for ever: I felt sure that any minute we'd be in Leith and I'd be walking into the sea! But we got there and, with ten minutes to spare, I went in to see Nuts CocoNuts. At the 2002 Fringe I saw a show called Michelle and the Landlady, which I really liked (four star review) and by sheer chance met the company of two a day or two later. Actress Helen Gould and I became friends and have kept in touch since (by email: we've only met once since). She is in Nuts so we grabbed the opportunity for a quick chat before she had to go off for notes on tonight's performance - it was the first night so no doubt the director would have much to say! - and to reset the stage for tomorrow's show. By then it was about ten. Dalmeny Street is in the north east of Edinburgh and my digs are in the south west, so I had little choice but to get on the bus and head back, pausing only at Tesco's to buy chocolate (I'm a chocoholic) and soft drinks and fizzy water before the ten minute walk back to the digs. I was in bed by 11.30: the only other time I've ever done that was that awful year 2003 when I was ill for three days and had to go home early. The claim that you need less sleep as you get older is a lie! Only a few years ago I got by on six hours or even less a night: now eight is the least I can handle. However I no longer sit down with a cup of tea about five o'clock to find it cold beside me when I wake up a couple of hours later! >> Day 7
|
|
|
|