Performance number 4. I think the show went well today, but I’m realising that as always it depends on the participants.
Today there were lots of literary people and I added more literary stories because of that.
But what I really love about this concept is that it ends up with lots of disparate people talking to each other and having a great time. Which is what usually happens on our Literary Pub Crawls in London – and now here.
I’m still feeling more tired than I have for any Edinburgh fringe before this, and I wonder if I’ve started this show at the wrong time – 3pm rather than the London 5pm. Having finished at 6 pm I wasn’t quite sure what to do next. So I went and got some halal food (I am a Brummie after all) and headed to the Pleasance Courtyard.
In spite of the fatigue, I’m aware that I am at the fringe! And although I have a Media Pass, as a performer there are shows at the Pleasance I can go and see for nothing, if they’ve not sold out. So why haven’t I? I decide I should go to the Pleasance Courtyard and just look for something I’d like to see, and forget my current fatigue and prepossession with my show.
Brilliantly and remarkably, as I’m looking at the screen in the courtyard a voice shouts out “Nick Hennegan!” And it’s only Anthony Alderson. Mr Pleasance himself! He became director of the Pleasance Trust when founder Christopher Richardson retired in 2005.
I really like Anthony. He’s kinda posh, but not. And a bit like I’ve tried to do with the Maverick Theatre Company, we’re both concerned with creating opportunities for new talent. (Notice I don’t say ‘young’ talent. That’s SO last century!)
But I’m about to see a show and he’s waiting for a cab.
“It doesn’t look like this cab’s arriving anytime soon,” says Anthony, checking his phone. “Fancy a quick drink?”
“Well okay,” I respond. “I suppose we could have a quick one.”
Four hours later and having met some truly lovely and inspiring creatives, artists and technicians who gravitated and were attracted to our table in the courtyard by Anthony, he staggers off to get the last bus and I stagger down the hill to my digs.
Fatigue? What fatigue! I bloody love the Edinburgh Fringe – and the Pleasance even more having seen Anthony in his natural environment again!
Join us… http://bit.ly/4cSeSd8
Discover more from Nick Hennegan's Bohemian Britain
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
