When at the Edinburgh Fringe, time doesn’t seem to flow in the same way as it does back home, at least not for me! It simultaneously flies by and yet so much happens in a day (well, so much needs to be packed in! #flyering #hairstyling #lunch). The roller coaster ride of promoting and performing our own show everyday for a month already seems like enough madness to be dealing with, but add to this the array of hour long emotional journeys we go on with every piece we see- it’s both exhausting and completely invigorating!
This is Superbolt’s third time performing at the Fringe and we have been better prepared than ever before. Each time we come, we learn more about how to make the most of this unusual month. Having a proper team for the first time has really made the difference: Simon, Frode and I are now accompanied by Hannah our brilliant producer, Tid our associate director and social media man, and Ina our lovely technician. And this year we managed to be pretty organised, getting press releases out early and finishing writing the show script before the train ride up to Edinburgh (yes I know, worryingly not always the case! #chaos).
Having our show and the marketing in a solid place has meant that we have had a bit more time to reach out and make friends with fellow companies hitting the fringe, be it through twitter, chats on the royal mile or drinks in a bar. And unsurprisingly we’ve discovered some incredible people trying mad/ beautiful/ bleak/ hilarious/ gross/ brave new work and we want to soak it all up! It has felt a genuine pleasure to be able to exchange tips, tweeting to the #edfringe world “You gotta see X’s show!” because we can’t stop talking about it, or “this sounds insane, someone check it out!” because it sounds like a great idea.
In fact, this would be my top tip for anyone surviving the fringe: Make friends and support other people’s work. It might sound like a perfectly natural and obvious thing to do, but actually it can feel a bit contradictory in this seemingly extremely competitive climate: over 3000 shows fighting for the audiences’ attentions you say? Why on earth would anyone want to shift the spotlight away from themselves and on to someone else!? We’ve got enough work to do on our own show, there aren’t enough hours in the day! But I would encourage companies to play against that way of thinking in every way possible. Celebrating in others’ stories and successes is a wonderfully uplifting and fulfilling experience, one that has made us feel more empowered as theatre makers with a voice of our own here in this colossal festival (and actually has probably made people more interested in our work!). For me, bringing people together is what theatre is all about. As we all know, the Edinburgh Fringe is a rare opportunity to form friendships with some great people and see some remarkable work, so make the most of it! #EnjoyEdfringe
You can tweet us your recommendations and fringe experiences @superboltplays, we’d love to hear from you!
Maria x