A young actor, Georgie Grier, recently took to social media to post a teary message after her Edinburgh Festival play, Sunsets, only had one attendee in the audience. Comedians including Dara O’ Briain and Jason Manford reached out to reassure her that one day it would be funny and that it’ll get easier.
They’re absolutely right. I once saw a brilliant student production of Macbeth which took a Bouffon approach and had wonderful music a la Tom Waits. There were more people on the stage than in the audience. Or the time Romesh Ranganathan and John Robins, among others, performed to me, my pal and about three others. And the material was great.
Similarly, shows at Summerhall that were absolutely packed halfway through August and seriously hyped , just didn’t work for me. Of course it’s all subjective, and the Fringe is one big corporate circus these days, so many factors can contribute to the way the shows can be received. What time slot do performers have? Are the audience hungover? Do they seem like the right demographic?
I saw a brilliant show called Dollywould by Sh!t Theatre a few years ago, a postmodern look at Dolly Parton, cloning and the ephemeral nature of everything. It went down beautifully with the intelligent, performance art loving crowd. As we filtered out though, two perplexed young women who I think were expecting a linear, singalong tribute to Ms Parton, turned to each other with faces like thunder. One said to her pal, ” Next time, let me pick, okay? “
Don’t worry, Georgie Grier. It’ll get better with time. In the inimitable words of Bernadette from Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, “Let it toughen you up”.
Hit The North 