Edinburgh Fringe 2003
We have just returned from an exhausting couple of months preparing for and performing at the Edinburgh Fringe, with many thrills and spills along the way! An ever-expanding project it began with us deciding that we wanted to perform James Duncan’s satire ‘Purge’. Fine. We got a cast in place and workshopped it. All good so far. Then we started looking for a suitable venue…(anyone performing recently at the Edinburgh Fringe will be fully aware of the astronomical fees charged for venues. The whole thing has become shamelessly corporate). And discovered our best bet was to return to the Calton Centre which hosted us in 2000 and had proved to be a great little venue. We decided to run the venue but this time do it properly with other shows and serving food and alcohol too. So we advertised for other companies to join us…and promptly received an email from Eliana Tompkins, a Jazz singer who was interested. So now we had music too. All we needed was another company to fill the 5.30-7 slot. And as we rapidly approached the Fringe registration deadline, things were looking bleak. We had a couple of strange offers: a guy who wanted to do stand up comedy. who when we asked if it had political content, he threw his hands up in horror and quickly assured us that his stuff would be ‘ fun for all the family’!!. Think he missed the point. The other was from a guy who wanted to do Bulgarian songs and “a little bit of dancing”. Intriguing but not what we were looking for.
So the day before the registration deadline we decided to throw caution to the wind and write another play. ‘Tea With Mrs Pankhurst ’was born. We just had to write it and cast it and produce it. At several points along the way we despaired that it would ever be finished and we seriously considered renaming it ‘Tea Without Mrs Pankhurst’ so difficult was it to cast the role!
We finished the script the day before rehearsals began. Then it was the difficult job of rehearsing two plays at once. As one of the directors of T with P was also performing in Purge this meant that the T With P cast often were left alone for periods of rehearsal. They coped admirably and it is all credit to them that the piece turned out so well.
Meanwhile in St Abbs on the Berwickshire coast we were rehearsing Purge and up to our eyes in gathering props, costumes, set-building and battling with the seventh member of our cast ‘The Dummy.’ (Trying to create an authentic looking Dummy is no easy task) One of our actors was also involved in a Shakespeare production in Glasgow so we rehearsed in Airdrie too and did a lot of running around. It was no easy process for either play and we also had to consider the actual practicalities of running the venue. It was with great relief when we finally opened on the 3rd of August and received great enthusiasm from our audiences.
Our audiences always gave us good feedback and were extremely positive about the productions. The run of both plays was varied as far as audience numbers were concerned. We had great audiences for Tea With Mrs Pankhurst, yet Purge could be quite full one night and have only one audience member the next. On the night we did only have one it happened to be a bloody critic! And he refused to review us on the basis that there had to be an audience. When we mustered one up he concluded that it was a fake audience and still wouldn’t review us. Strange but true.
The venue and the shows could not have existed without the help and support of so many people who gave up precious time and energy to ensure the smooth running of it all. It is a great credit to everyone involved that that there was never a single complaint about the food, drink, plays, venue, or even the Dummy. And special mention must go the staff of the Calton Centre who were yet again wonderful to us.
The Fringe is without doubt elitist. There are many who would like to perform there but can’t because of cost. There are many people who would like to see theatre but cant because of prices and locations of shows. The actual fringe is now dominated by expensive comedy and the attention is given to a handful of central venues. There is also a quagmire of critics and journalists playing a very pretentious game with the whole affair and it is one that is quite unsettling to witness.
We are unsure as to whether we wish to go back to the Fringe. It is fun and we can test run our shows too… but it is not really in keeping with our aims. We return from the Fringe, tired and yet proud of two productions which will soon be touring to communities around the UK… watch this space…and oh…we did have quite a few hilarious moments during our run. Check out Columbia, The Night of the Pants, and Raising the Alarm.
Columbia
Picture the scene. Two actresses after their show go out for a drink to relax. They are in a crowded bar in Leith and the beer is flowing freely. Then enter two Columbian tattooists who convince our two heroines that henna tattoos are in order. Nicki V isn’t too impressed by what ends up on her leg. It looks remarkably like a smiley face. The other tattooist hastily repairs it into some kind of squiggly pattern. Meanwhile Lori asks if they would tattoo a Columbian socialist slogan on to her leg. He sets to the task and the women chat on not really paying much attention to the tattooist’s work…
The following day our Mrs Pankhurst (played by Lori) comes into the theatre with a rather sore looking leg. It looks like it has been scrubbed until the skin is red raw, yet still there, unmistakably in big black letters, is the word ‘COLUMBIA (a truly socialist message!). ‘I tried bleach’ says Lori.
And that would have been the end of that tale had the whole event not impinged upon Nicki’s brain. We had all forgotten about it. The performance was going along nicely when quite out of the blue Selina Cooper (Nicki V) suddenly informs us that the suffragettes attended a bi-election in… Columbia! It was in fact meant to be Cumbria but there was nothing for it but to carry on. In fact as soon as she said it, several of the audience muttered to each other in surprised tones ‘ Ooh, I never knew the suffragettes were in Columbia’. Whoops. It was fortunate we didn’t have any history experts watching that night! Or if we did, they kept very quiet about New Strides rewriting it!
The Night of The Pants
It was getting to the third week of our run of Purge. Tiran, playing Francisco had the challenge of playing someone descending into madness. Part of this involved him wearing nothing but a hospital gown, pants and socks and struggling with his mistress who is attempting to redress him – at one point a sock flies out over the screen and onto the stage…Anyhow, James the director had given a note to Tiran the previous night saying that he wasn’t quite being mad enough. Tiran had obviously taken this on board. This became apparent when, waiting in the wings to begin our performance, Tiran announced to the rest of the cast ‘I just want to apologise to you all in advance.’ (Always an ominous sign).
The play set off at a great pace and was going really well. All the usual changes were happening…until those of us back stage noticed that Tiran was rather more undressed than usual…he seemed to be lacking in pants. Grinning from ear to ear at us, he launched himself onstage. His pantless state was a tremendous shock to the actors out there and also to the audience (although it has to be said some of them kept coming back, night after night following this incident…?)
Meanwhile the other crafty actors back stage decided to turn the tables, and his pants were hastily concealed in the cleaner’s basket. All efforts were made not to laugh as Tiran desperately searched for them every time he came offstage…then, when it got to the point where a sock is thrown onstage… his pants appeared instead! Poor Nicki W had to change the line from ‘Where’s his sock?’ to ‘Where’s his pants?’!
There may be people in our industry who may think that this sort of behaviour is unprofessional…but it has to be said that the energy that these antics provided meant that this was one of our best performances.
Tiran rather shot himself in the foot (or bottom?) however as the pants gag got left in permanently!
Raising the Alarm
Another performance of Purge. Another night going well and the audience (including critic) seemed to be enjoying it. Suddenly, twenty minutes from the end a dreadful wailing siren assaulted everybody’s ears. The fire alarm had gone off. The actors carried on the performance, shouting their lines above the racket and having hasty discussions backstage about whether to stop…just as the plug on the show was about to be pulled, the noise stopped. The show continued and apart from little hiccoughs of alarm sound, peace was restored.
It was only after the bows had been taken that the actors realise what had actually happened. Kids had run in and smashed the fire alarm, setting it off and James and Nicki V who were amongst the audience were running around like mad trying to get it turned off. Unable to find the switch, Nicki heroically shoved her thumb on the button inside the little red fire alarm box…and then had to stay there for the rest of the performance! The poor girl suffered severe thumb cramp in her efforts to save the day.
Afterwards, the critic (from the Metro newspaper) said how impressed he was that the actors continued despite the racket…and then swept out past Nicki who was still stuck to the fire alarm! We did eventually find the big switch, clearly marked ‘fire alarm’ and turned it off so that Nicki could have a rest.
We were most disappointed that the critic didn’t mention the incident in his review.
