So I'm on my way out of Edinburgh after doing 9 shows of Bleach at the fringe.
It's been a great trip and I've made some awesome friends and contacts as well as seeing some brilliant theatre. But I'm so glad I decided not to do the whole month. I've done longer runs of Bleach before but for some reason performing it in Edinburgh was so much harder than anywhere else. This may have been because our venue really wasn't ideal for the show or just because people are under tighter time constraints because they're seeing so many shows. This doesn't affect the show directly but you always feel like you have to work extra hard to keep their attention, especially on the Free Festival where they're not financially invested in seeing your show. This made Edinburgh an exhausting experience and performing alone really was a constant drain.
I'm glad it's over and if I was ever going to do a one man show on the free festival again I would have to really think about what sort of show it was how it may need to be adapted for this environment. Theatre on the free festival has always been a challenge that we like to embrace but maybe it's just too much for one person. It might be time to move to the paid festival but, like all things, this is money dependant so it's going to be a lot of research and number crunching before that can happen.
Lots to consider for next year and probably not enough time to sort it all before applications open all over again. It's just a never ending cycle of work and stress. But we love it.
Dan x