Edinburgh Moment: After Hours Confession

The Ducks addresses the problem of youth unemployment and what happens when you leave two

young men to their own devices. Producer Francesca Moody reminisces about her Fringe debut

memories.

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I often feel guilty when I remember my first ever year at the Edinburgh Festival. Whilst I know it should

be categorized by one naive 17 year old’s plunge into a hedonistic world of theatre, comedy, cabaret,

music, there are really only three things that truly stick in my mind. So here goes:

1) Russell Brand asked me out on a date and sent me two texts – and that is genuinely my greatest claim

to fame – the best part being that I turned him down.
2) I watched a naked woman, painted entirely gold pull a balloon from her behind, blow it up, pop it and

watch as the glitter from inside covered us and the stage.
3) I snuck into The Perrier Awards and spent the evening munching on free noodles, quaffing champagne

and making full use of the karaoke station.

It isgenuinely embarrassing for me to admit as a self-confessed theatre snob, actress and producer that

my first memories of Edinburgh are based on a celebrity, nudity and gate crashing, but, that is the nature

of the fringe. We are thrown so fully into the culturally saturated world that exists within August that it

is ultimately those moments which would only ever happen at the fringe which stick in our minds. I will

never deny that we are privileged to witness some amazing work, and in subsequent years it is that,

which has stuck with me, but 2006 I remember Russell Brand, Naked Gold Lady, Karaoke and meeting a

very good friend for the first time as I flyered him in the Pleasance Courtyard. As it turns out I’m now

producing a show with him, in the very same place we met. The Ducks, I hope, turns out to be the

memory that sticks in your mind this year in Edinburgh.

The Ducks runs from 6-29 August (excl 17) at the Pleasance Courtyard at 15.25.,/b>