Theatre News

Stage Manager Jules Richardson Battles on Through the Rain

When faced with the task of writing a blog about Edinburgh, as I did last year, I wasn’t sure what to say. Write another report on how to survive Edinburgh? Well, the answer is, just get on with it.

As my time in London grew closer to the big departure, I anticipated the festival with a sense of excitement. I looked forward to working on some great shows and working with great people. And yet coming back to Edinburgh, where summer is officially over and I’m constantly walking in wet Converse, I think to myself, what is it that is so special about this festival?

Last night as I was walking along Princes Street after having seen my first show, an hour of stand-up, I thought about how lucky I am that the festival is something which, I hate to say, I almost take for granted now. It is a normal part of my job and my existence. It is an experience that can only be known and understood first-hand. It’s impossible to describe it to anyone ‘on the outside’.

My first festival was in 1998, and this year is my sixth. I came up first as a naïve 18 year old, wide-eyed and star-struck. Now I’m a jaded cynic much of the time (everyone seems so young these days), and yet, I feel that the festival is so much a part of me. My Edinburgh life and my normal life run in parallel. They pick up exactly where they left off the last time. And it really is a bubble, the outside world seems a meaningless and unfathomable concept. What’s the big news? Oh so-and-so got a 5-star review in the Scotsman. Ground-breaking.

It’s early days. We haven’t even been running the shows a week, and yet it feels like we have all been here for months. At the moment things are still changing – I’m making lighting edits, Qlab edits, furniture edits, replacing cables. Once it gets settled in, then the festival really comes into its own – the routine, the days punctuated by cigarettes and seeing the occasional show. It’s like nothing else in the world and it’s an honour to be a part of it… If only my feet could stay dry for a day or so.

Somewhere Beneath It All, A Small Fire Burns Still
Gilded Balloon Dining Room
3-29 August (not 16)
12:00 (60 mins)

Lights, Camera, Walkies
Gilded Balloon Billiard Room
3-29 August (not 10, 17, 18)
14:00 (60 mins)

An Instinct For Kindness
Pleasance Jack Dome
3-29 August (not 10, 17)
16:10 (70 mins)

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical
Gilded Balloon Debating Hall
5-28 August (not 17)
22:50 (70 mins) – plus Tuesday matinees 15:20