Got back about five hours ago from the Edinburgh Fringe. I'm both physically knackered yet more inspired than ever before. Our two-day run has been a fairly low-key affair, in fringe terms it was organised pretty late on - so late that it didn't even make the brochure. Having performed it in May/June here in Cambridge, and then had a shocking (seriously shocking) dress rehearsal two days before travelling up, there may have been a few doubts in the team about how well this would fair. For starters, it's generally considered that if you're not in the fringe programme, you don't have a show. The terrible dress rehearsal seemed to be bugging us a little too. That though, was to be the least of our problems...
Travelling up with Izzy (actress) and Vaughan (one of my regular actors, this time joining us at the last minute though as an extra helping hand for flyering/organising/drinking beer), we pulled into our regular 'half way house' at Scotch Corner to pick up a call from our mate Emily. She was calling on behalf of Kate (actress), to tell us that Kate's boyfriend had been involved in an accident. I won't go into details here as that wouldn't be right, but in short there was suddenly doubts that Kate - who played my on-stage girlfriend, Tessa, would actually be able to make it to the fringe as she obviously needed to be at her partner's bedside in a hospital in London. We plotted a plan b just in case for the rest of the journey up, meeting up with Kev (actor), Alan (soundman) and Elisa (Kev's girlfriend/show helper) at our lovely accommodation just down the road from the Royal Mile. We couldn't get to look at our venue that evening as it was locked which made us all feel a bit more uncertain, but that's nothing that a beer and good food in Edinburgh - the most beautiful city in the whole world - couldn't fix. Later that evening I spoke to Kate on the phone and she was determined to join us, even if that meant leaving London at a very early time on Saturday to make it in time for the first performance. Among her many other qualities, Kate is a wonderful professional and was keen not to let us down. But I was also keen for her to be okay - Chris (her boyfriend) was on the mend, but after such a stressful day I was concerned about energy levels and above all else - her well being, so I made the tricky decision to tell her that it's best that she gets some rest and we work out another option instead. It was a great shame, I've been enjoying working with Kate, but sometimes there's more to life than these projects, as a friend we just wanted her to be okay. Having already lost our brilliant director Michelle a week before the run due to a very saddening family bereavement, losing Kate could have made us even more uncomfortable. But you know - we're a good little team (getting smaller by the day, it felt) and it wasn't long before plan B was put into action - Izzy taking Kate's role on stage (meaning she was playing all 5 female characters, but that didn't seem to bother her because Izzy Nicolson is a brilliant actress) and Elisa doing all the other things Kate did for the production off stage - the set changes, the fake fire scene etc. On top of that, Vaughan was to host the show and explain the change of cast, I don't think he expected to be on stage when he text me on Thursday asking if there was room in the car/floor space in our rented flat, but such is the nature of these wonderful people I have the pleasure of being associated with he didn't even question it and did us proud.
On Saturday we got into our venue and we were relieved to see that it was actually rather lovely, a disused shop that had suddenly found itself being a theatre space in true fringe fashion, the PA was suitable, as were the lights, there was plenty of performance space and it was in a good location. But we still weren't in the programme, which means that people probably didn't know about the show unless we gave them one of our lovely flyers - but we didn't have much time to flyer because we were getting used to the space. Remarkably, 23 people still turned up to it (and that's including 20 strangers, my mates Chris and Alison made it, and one of Izzy's friends) and seemed to even enjoy it. My own performance was nervy and uncomfortable, but Kev is a really consistent actor who I relied upon a lot to hold things together on stage, Izzy took to playing an additional role like a duck to water, Elisa didn't miss a trick and the many scene changes were flawless, Vaughan warmed the audience up for us nicely and Alan - well, Alan never makes a mistake.
Sunday's second and final performance was pretty much the same, although my own performance was better I think, I relaxed more into the space and didn't have Red Bull before going on stage which probably helped a bit. A couple less people in the audience but this bunch were louder with their laughter, possibly helped by the fact we had more friends in the crowd. This was certainly one of my better performances on stage, and I reckon that if it was a longer run I would grow with it. Okay, so a professional actor would be able to jump straight in, but I've never claimed to be an actor, but I was starting to get a strange buzz out of this...
The rest of the time off stage was spent enjoying the greatest arts festival in the world. There isn't a place anywhere that matches the atmosphere of The Royal Mile - it's a magical, inspiring stretch of road packed with hope, optimism, fear, creativity...I want to be back there, right now, I am a better person when I am at the Edinburgh Fringe; I'm alive, I'm a writer/producer, I am not some guy who stares at a spreadsheet all day in an office and has a snack machine routine. It was fantastic to catch up with friends - Chris, Alison, Paul, Nat, Steve, Carl, it was lovely to hang out with Kev, Elisa, Izzy, Vaughan, Alan - I can't stress how much I enjoyed being in all of their company. I saw some great shows; Tom Rosenthal is one of the most accomplished and hilarious comedians I've ever seen, I sat five seats away from David Mitchell and got embarrassingly star struck by this, I read reviews of other comedy shows and analysed with friends over seemingly endless beers in the Pleasence Courtyard why some shows work and why others don't. I was a writer/producer/performer. I am a writer/producer/performer, it's just sometimes, in a certain city on a certain month, I just happen to believe in myself a bit more.
It's normal routine for me to return from the fringe saying 'that was the last time I do that' and then six months later I've got a venue booked to do it all again. This time it's different - the long 8 hour car drive home (five of us crammed into my little Fiesta) didn't dampen the spirits - in fact if anything it just confirmed how strong this team is, we bantered our way through the day, being diplomatic on what we listen to and generally just talking, and finding out more about each other. Yet constantly at the forefront of my mind the whole time was next year's Edinburgh Fringe show. I have absolutely no doubt at all - doing a short two day run may have been pathetic compared to a lot of my peers who will go and do the whole three and a half weeks, but it's made me hungry for it again. It's who I am and next year, if things work out, I will do the full run. Of course we had problems with this show, and of course it could be argued that I really am a very limited actor, but it's all starting to grow on me...I just know how good things can be. Time to start writing the 2012 show then: 'There's Absolutely Nothing Wrong With Oscar Pike'.
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