Life of a Lunatic - Edinburgh Fringe 2012

Life of a Lunatic - Edinburgh Fringe 2012

Music, Words and P.A.R.T.Y.

Its taken almost three whole weeks to piece together everything that makes up the Edinburgh Fringe and turn it into coherent words. It's not quite like any other experience I've ever had and I have the feeling that it would never be quite like this year ever again either. As a Fringe Virgin, descending into the colourful, crazy furore of the city was a little bit like living in the mind of a video game designer strung out on amphetamines whilst watching One Day and listening to the Trainspotting soundtrack. There are so many adjectives that could be applied to this hotchpotch month but I have the feeling that relating all the performances and shows and street acts and flyerers and all the rest would likely be rendered meaningless. Instead, there are certain moments that stand out, nights and days whirled round and remembered in retrospective nostalgic delight. 

Just a warning. This is kind of long. 

This was the Awesome Space on Niddry Street 

The story actually begins weeks before August, with job applications and interviews, but you can read about that in my Summer Summary. I could then tell you about introductions and inductions and training days but those aren't all that interesting. The only thing that genuinely is important at this point is this: this is where I worked, The Space on the Mile  / @ Niddry Street. 

Everyone loved Niddry. It was a chilly, single venue that sat an audience of 102 and took up the back of the Raddison Hotel. It had no space to queue arriving ticket-holders, except outside (as you see in the rain) and we had one man who saw one of our longest lines, decided it must be a night club and ambled in to see a musical called The Last Five Years. Admittedly, our beloved space did sit opposite 'alternative' nightclub Hive, but still we had a giggle or two at his bewildered expense. The most important part of all this though, was the team. 

This summer, between the bus across America and working in London and now the Fringe, has been a summer of new friends. The difference is that when turning up to hop on the bus, you're meeting the people you're going to be spending the next 28 days with, there's a part of you that automatically wants to make nice with everyone. Similarly, on a predominantly male bus, it's best to muck in, there's an element of convenience and underneath that convenience is where you find the genuine people. Sure, you end up closer to one set of people than another - I don't think that Jon or Liam could ever be replaced and if there's anyone as cool as Janice (shiny or otherwise), I'd love to meet them. But in Edinburgh, you don't have to play with the kids that break your toys or only want to beat you at monopoly. There are so many eccentric, wonderful and bizarre and brilliant people that if you don't like someone, you don't have to pretend that you do. For me, the people you meet during the Fringe are the people you always dreamt of meeting but always assumed belonged in books and films. 

This is probably epitomised by TEAM NID-RAD-2012. 

We worked together. We had your mum lines. We ate late-cake and we told in-jokes that mostly rode on Chris's 'banter bus'. We had late nights. We had early mornings. We lay on the floor after the last show went in and listened to Power Ballads. We went to parties and danced like idiots and sang until our voices were lost.We ate together and drank together and very nearly died together. 

I don't think there's anyone that I don't think of fondly. 

Rhiannon

There was Rhiannon, our lovely manager and one of the sweetest, funniest people I've met. She has a squinting eye for the idiots who come into our box office and a quip or two up her sleeve for when her team acts like morons. And there was supervisory special agent Stella who might be one of the weirdest people on the planet. She's quirkier than the word quirky and has phenomenally bad taste. With a wicked sense of humour and a severe haircut, I'm wondering if I can persuade her to move in next month. She also pulls off a wonderful one-eyed panda. 

Jenny, Rosalind, Leyla, Stella & HC
(left to right)

Then there's Jenny. One of the two sparkling characters that came to live with me throughout the Fringe (the other is the effervescent  Leyla who is named after the song and is a definite Berrocca addict). Jenny's probably the girl you want to go to for recommendations on what to see at the Fringe, nothing she chose to see seemed to be anything less than fantastic and her obsessive radio loveage meant some awesome conversations. Hunter Claire, resident American and artiste makes the yin to Stella's yang with her deadpan jokes and enviable telephone manner. Clare, a bouncy Durham student and Zoe, the token Scot, make up the rest before you have the TECHIES. 

The Niddry Team was three: Chris, Jim and Pavel. If there are three other men with a dirtier, more deviant jokes in their repertoire, I don't want to meet them. These three do quite nicely. 

But do you know what made the team even more awesome and amazing? In fact, more awesome than the Awesome Show (possibly the worst show I've ever seen. Ever.) It was the ease of everything. We worked on caffeine and we lived on laughter. So that's very nice. And then we had shows that really were awesome at our venue too and there are even more people that I think I need to mention.

Let's start with one of the groups that we housed during the Fringe. The Fourth Monkey were one of my highlights during the festival. With six shows, some original, some interpretations, some straight performances, they had a dark, magical repertoire behind them. 

4.48 Psychosis

They had Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis (that I reviewed here) and Elephant Man (a play that was nominated for the Freedom of Speech Prize by Amnesty International). The company is run by a fellow called Steven Green, one of the most interesting men I met. His team is brilliant and his troupe are supremely talented actors and actresses. If you ever have the chance to see them I would highly recommend that you do. 

The other group (I don't think any account of the Fringe would be complete without them) is the Blueswater Collective. With the charismatic Felipe centre stage and the twelve-piece band completing the sound, they're well worth a listen, if not £8 for their fish-eyed, professionally produced and mastered CD. Of course, by this point, I'm an avid fan and so if you follow that link you'll end up in soundcloud and you can listen to a selection of their live performances and judge them for yourself. 

Blueswater Collective - Review Coming Soon

Two of them, Luc (trumpet) and Charlie (lead guitar) came to stay at the Magical Flat 82 in the last weeks of the festival, having been turfed out of the place they'd been squatting in. Complete with bag (yes, singular) and trumpet, the two made a nest out of our living room which was rather fun.  They're both uniquely talented in the sense that they carry themselves with that particular level of ingenuity that lends itself to their performance. I don't know if that makes sense. Charlie's late-night pop songs were epic - I still miss my rustlers every time I walk/trot/scamper past scotmid - and Luc's pretty good at giving us a twirl in the kitchen to make us feel special. The two of them are incredibly similar and totally different at the same time and quite unlike anyone I've known from home or school or the US or anywhere really and as with Team Raddry, I'm so unbelievably glad that I know them. Actually, both of the boys are trying to move to Edinburgh (which would be amazing musically and generally) so fingers-crossed on that one and if any of you readers see any staff wanted signs....?

But I think this is the end of this post.

An Empty Niddry two days after the Fringe Ended

We've gone through people, we've touched on the shows... there's just too much to cram into this kind of medium and I don't know what to say next or what not to say next. There were parties. There were tears. There were unstoppable giggles and stupid mistakes. There were miscounted coins and misread signals. There were late night conversations that made my heart skip because it's been so long since I've wanted to talk or listen that long. There were yellow submarines. There were bags of food hung from trees, tantalisingly out of reach. There were glowing, incandescent, marvellous people - too many to illustrate here.

And that was the Fringe for me - all the people, all the life and vitality and possibility and inspiration and everything, everything just seeming so exciting that you could burst. The desperate tiredness at the end is forgotten behind effulgent days that stretch out, burning and wondrous. 

Je serai poète et toi poésie, 
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