thoughts on a train leaving edinburgh

We are starting to reflect on the crazy but amazing experience that is Fringe and will be doing so on the blog and on our social media platforms!

Here is our first reflection from Colette, How Not to Fund a Honeymoon's wonderful director. She was not able to stay with us for the full run of the fringe so her thoughts come to you as her train was pulling away from Scotland.

---

Last week we all traveled to Edinburgh from London — bags filled with props, scripts and costumes — ready to take on the Fringe!

The rehearsal process has been a whirlwind. Two weeks of jam-packed rehearsals, developing, staging and learning this play. It was a highly collaborative process and I couldn’t have asked for a better company of actors to have done this show. 

We all arrived in Edinburgh early last week and got to work flyering, finishing props and getting ready for our tech. Our tech slot was a swift 1.5 hours, which — for those not familiar with the Fringe — is basically speed dating with your lighting designer and trying to bust through sound cues as quickly as possible.

As prepared as we were, there were of course snags and obstacles - including having to make last minute builds and changes surrounding one of our set pieces (shoutout to our board operator/stage manager Josh!). But we came together as a company and made it happen. 

Director Peter Brooke famously said “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.” That idea — the simplicity and immediacy of live performance — has always stuck with me since I began directing. At the end of the day, it’s the actors and the text that do the heavy lifting. The tech and set are just the sprinkles on top. 

Watching Steph, Ausette, and Claire work has been so exciting. They’re absolute powerhouses, and what they bring to this piece is what makes it special.

It was such a thrill to get this show in front of an audience!