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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2000 Diary (2)Sunday 6th August, 2000 Anyway, I didn't have a show till after one, so I wrote my Donkey Show review and headed off to High Street to collect my tickets from the Press Office. Martin told me he hadn't had time to do all my tickets, so he'd just done today's and I could collect the rest tomorrow. Fair enough: a Fringe press officer's life is a very busy one. So I collected my envelope and headed off to the first two shows (1.45 and 3.15) at the South Bridge Resource Centre. When I opened the envelope I discovered I didn't have tickets for these shows. I discovered a minute later, when I spoke to the people in the box office, that this wasn't surprising as they don't start till tmorrow! Normally I spend weeks browsing through the Fringe programme again and again, sorting out what I want to see and checking times and dates carefully, but this year I'd been so busy that I'd done it in a hurry and, behold, here was my first mistake. I hope it will be the last! Anyway, I sorted out tickets for another date and wandered off again. My next show - my first show, I should say - was at 6.10 so I had over four hours to kill. So I went back to High Street which by now had assumed its usual Fringe persona, watched the street entertainment and tried out the new digital camera. It was warm so I had quite a pleasant afternoon. It wasn't until later that I realised how much walking I'd done and how tired it was to make me! The first show (Graft by Steven Berkoff) was at Southside, a fifteen minute slowish walk, and when I came out at 7.25 my stomach told me I'd missed lunch and it was going to do nasty things to me if I didn't take immediate steps to feed it. So I corssed the road and went to the Ayutthaya, a favourite Thai restaurant. They weren't too busy, so I was able to get a table. As my mother-in-law used to say, me eyes were bigger than me belly and I couldn't finish the meal, but, feeling pleasantly replete, I set off the my next venue, C. For all the years I've been coming to the ringe, C has been in Over-seas House in Princes Street, but this year it's moved into what used to be the Famous Grouse House in Chambers Street. The Over-seas House is now a jazz venue and the company that used to run the Famous Grouse venue has now moved to Dynamic Earth, near Holyrood Park. There are two other C venues: C Too is in Johnston Terrace near the Castle and C Underbelly (great name!) is in Victoria Terrace. I came out from Molly Bloom: A Musical Dream at about 10.30 and suddenly realised I was absolutely exhausted - and I had another show at midnight which went on till 1.15 in the morning. I sat in the C cafe for a few minutes and felt myself dropping off to sleep, so in the end I was forced to abandon the idea of the last show and grabbed a taxi back to the digs where I fell into bed almost as soon as I walked through the door. I couldn't even be bothered to make a cup of tea! Next - - Fringe Coverage Index |
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