A new model for the Edinburgh Fringe
(and a watch with a mind of its own...)
Yesterday I was utterly mortified and embarrassed…. by my wristwatch…
Something that seems to happen as you get older is that you tend to get a bit wobbly sometimes and liable to fall.
I thought it would never happen to me, as you do, but it has.
As it does…
And because I live alone, I thought it would be an idea to get a clever watch that would help me call for assistance if ever I needed it.
As it happened I did not need help just as I was beginning to speak at an event called “The Future of Showcasing” in the Fringe Central Spiegeltent…
…But that was exactly when my watch decided I’d just taken a heavy fall, started to sound its alarm, and threatened to call for an ambulance.
All of which it did, for some reason, and I guess its excuse might be that it was picking up on my agitation at having to share a platform with 3 very distinguished and experienced and thoughtful arts administrators when I had the nasty feeling that what I had to say was maybe not so considered or thoughtful or serious after all.
Or perhaps it was also responding to the fact that the Fringe, like the theatre industry as a whole, has just taken a nasty hit from Covid, and is about to take another, and maybe even fatal, hit from the cost of living crisis and the catastrophic rise in energy prices…
Whatever it was, after I had finally managed to convince it there was no need to call an ambulance, what I said was:
How much I’ve loved the encounters I’ve had with international practitioners in this festival.
With Manuela Valdiri from the National Theatre of Colombia in Bogota, where theatre is crucial in the process of healing the wounds of their civil war. Where they’ve been inviting a collective of trans women onto the stage to tell their stories…
With Dayna Ash of the Beirut Haven for Artists in Lebanon where all overt LGBTI expression or identity is forbidden and where art is meeting activism with astonishing creativity and courage…
With Kristen Smyth, the Australian Queen Jesus, and Natalia Mallo, the Brazilian translator and director of Queen Jesus, and all of us from Queen Jesus Productions on the steps of the high altar of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral the day before…
And how all these astonishing and beautiful encounters could only happen in Edinburgh at this festival time and how much they were accord with its original intentions to be a beacon of peace and hope in a war-torn world…
And then I spoke about how much I hated, as an artist, to be a commodity in a trade fair and how much I hated the cruelty and exploitation of an event in which most artists work for nothing and create wealth for other people…
And how much I hate being in competition with all my fellow artists for our audience…
And I spoke about catching the bus from Leith, where I live, to the centre of town, and how I could buy a day pass that enabled me to catch any bus I want…
And how I would like to come to a Fringe where I didn’t buy tickets to individual shows, but could buy a Fringe Pass instead.
And that it would be valid for one show, maybe, or 5 or 10 or however many I wanted. Or maybe for 24 hours, or maybe 3 days, or maybe a week or a fortnight or for the whole Festival.
Something I could buy at any box office and that would get me in to every venue.
Something whose revenue would go into a central pot and which could be distributed equally to every company participating in the Fringe.
So that every artist bringing their work to Edinburgh could earn a basic minimum wage…
And I like that vision, and maybe, dear watch, your intervention helped people listen to it….
And what I also did was distribute a few flyers to the Not So Ugly Duckling. Only two shows left… Thursday 25th and Saturday 27th at 4.45 in the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
Tickets from https://scottishstorytellingcentre.online.red61.co.uk/event/913:4336/