A Trip Down Royal Mile Memory Lane

Walking the flyer gauntlet of the Royal Mile, with fresh-faced students shoving flyers and review quotes in my face in an attempt to sell their shows, always prompts some very vivid memories.

I’ve been to Edinburgh in several guises – as an actor, a director, a producer, and most recently as a critic. All have brought their different challenges.

As an actor in a children’s production of Grimm Tales in 2002, the challenge was staying cheerful whilst flyering in full costume in the burning sun (or the pouring rain) every morning, usually with a stinking hangover. Our producer was Sunita Pandya, now at the BAC, who’s one of the most hard-working people I’ve ever come across and would take sadistic delight in kicking me out of bed every morning to do my Mile shift before our early afternoon show.

As a director three years later, the challenge was how to compete with the noise generated by the start of the military tattoo on the doorstep of our venue (Roman Eagle Lodge). It was during this visit that I had one of my most bizarre fringe experiences, when one of our company discovered five bottles of urine which someone from another show had been storing up in a corner of the dressing room. In a surreal twist, this moment was also witnessed by the actor Pip Utton, dressed in full Führer garb for his one-man show Adolf. It’s an image that will remain with me for a very long time to come.

These days, as a critic, the challenge is seeing up to four shows in quick succession and then writing coherent, succinct reviews of each of them. As I scamper between venues and coffee shops seeking out illusive free wi-fi to post my 250 word bulletins, it can often feel as close to war correspondency as a theatre critic is ever likely to get.

But for all the challenges, my over-riding memories of the Edinburgh Fringe are joyous ones, and I look forward to many more in the years to come. I only hope someone has dealt with those bottles…

– Theo Bosanquet