For the first few days of The Fringe I must admit I was feeling slightly LOW, missing home and facing the MOUNTAIN of the two weeks still to go with DREAD. As it turns out, this was all less to do with my sensitivity and more to do with my COLOSSAL EGO.
For LO! Monday's show was a) PACKED with people b) GRATE fun and c) cheered me RIGHT up! We've had lovely audiences all the way but on Monday there were a lot more of them, which it turns out makes a difference, and also nobody came in at the start in a stag do or chatting, so I felt COMFY from the off. It was ENORMOUS fun and then afterwards I found myself fully full of the joys of Fringe. "This IS fun!" I kept thinking "How sad that we're only doing two weeks."
As I say: EGO. Steve and I celebrated with drinks with chums and then a fancy tea, before he went off for SHOWS and I went home for ADMIN and also TIDYING, for we had GUESTS incoming!
Next day I was up bright and early to head into town to see Rhinoceros by Mr H Carr at the ungodly hour of 2pm. Harry was one of the people caught up in the mix-up about the Cowgate Head venue and so his venue had been shifted down the other end of the Royal Mile to the New Waverley Arches. When I arrived they were still putting everything together, with temporary toilets, an incomplete bar and the general air of a building site. It'll be a GRATE venue once it's finished mind you!
I think I ALARMED Harry when I arrived, as it meant he had audience. I nipped out to the loo and found two ladies looking slightly lost. "Will there BE a show if there's only two of us?" they asked. "I'm coming, so there'll be THREE of us!" I replied, so we went in and made sure he did it. It was a good job too as, while he hid behind the curtain for the intro a family of FOUR came in, making us a CROWD.
The first few moments of the show itself were TERRIFYING as I thought "OH NO! He wants us to DO stuff!" but then we all got into the swing and had an EXTREMELY jolly time, running around the room, calling out for our mates and, in the end, playing a board game to decide the fate of Rhinos. SPOILERS: it doesn't necessarily end well.
That done Harry and I nipped for a quick drink, I got a replacement STRING for one I'd broken in all the rock and roll of the day before, and returned to Sneaky Pete's for SHOWTIME. It was another MOST delightful show, with yet another lovely crowd. This time a large portion of the audience was a family ranging from teens to (I think) grandparents, which was ACE as they all laughed at certain parts with different EXPERIENCE, and then laughed again as they appreciated the rest of the family enjoying it too.
It was FAB! We packed up and then I RACED over to the train station to collect The Audience In My Room, who had arrived from That London. I had planned a Sensible Evening of unpacking, regrouping and home dining - clearly I had been away from home too long as what OF COURSE actually happened was that we went to the Albanach and STAYED there DRINKING and eating CHIPS. Our nephew Mr F Wadsworth came along after a while and we finished the evening with WHISKY. Hoorah!
As I type this I find myself actually feeling a bit sad that I'm already a third of the way through - SHOWBIZ!
