Over the summer you may have heard the phrase ‘I’m just nipping up to Edinburgh,’ broadcast over social media or even from the mouth of a real life person. I was one of these people who smugly played down the never-ending journey to the Scottish capital which ultimately can only be likened to that of Frodo and Sam’s. Stepping off the train however made every weary second worth it. Edinburgh as a city is beautiful with gardens and twisting buildings all overlooked by a majestic castle on the hill.
From blank script to cluttered stage and from Facebook acquaintances to family, it’s been like no other show or place I’ve been in before.
With the Fringe festival beginning, the city was painted with posters for shows and street performers heckling the passersby. These numbers grew throughout the month until there was little space left on walls of the city without the faces of every performer at the fringe grinning down at you promoting themselves and their show. And with such a wide variety of shows for people to see it becomes a competition for each show to sell theirs to the the masses. Never would I have imagined myself in a rap battle-esque stand off with a cast of nuns before this summer and now the memory haunts me.
Anyone who has ever been involved in a production, be that at university, school or even before will understand the buzz you get from somehow managing to pull off a show in front of an audience. And we did that every day for a month after battling the barren University campus to rehearse for a month before that.
Irrespective of nun stand offs, the four weeks spent in Edinburgh made my Summer incredible. The sheer number of shows that were so varied made every day unpredictable and never was there a single second where we weren’t running around the city. From ’50 Shades of Grey: The Musical’ to ‘Shakespeare’s Avengers Assembleth’ and the ‘Hot Dub Time Machine’, the shows and people are testimony to the huge audiences The Fringe attracts every year and why, to use a ridiculous cliche, there really is something for everyone to love. Plus Haggis. That’s great too.
From blank script to cluttered stage and from Facebook acquaintances to family, it’s been like no other show or place I’ve been in before.
Madeleine Hardy
