ALASDAIR SATCHEL’S WEBLOG

Soldiering On

14 August 2008

To be honest, playing and selling a show at the Fringe is a hard thing to do. We're trying lots of ploys, but it just takes time.

We've been flyering for the show on the Royal Mile every day, but that's really quite tricky, as every other show in the world's largest arts festival is out there trying to sell themselves too.

People can be very odd to you on that street. It's a bit like hawking your wares... Perhaps I just need to dig out my old bloomers and see what happens – actually, no, with this moustache, that's not a good idea.

“Good afternoon officer. Me? Oh, well... erm... nothing... RUN!”

What's lovely about this time in Edinburgh is that although our audiences are small, they seem to be very happy. The best way to judge this is by the number of people who get up to dance, and we've had nights where everyone has been on the floor – so much so that it leaves me without a partner sometimes. So I just stand in the corner and throw shapes silently up to the technicians box, like a white-gloved dancer at a 90's rave party, occasionally emitting a “heuch!” for good measure.

After seeing Bert Jansch on stage last Sunday, I got a chance to meet him backstage a couple of times, and was really chuffed to enter in to a casual acquaintance with him. It was great to be backstage, changing and hear his sets. I wish I'd gone along on one of the other nights instead of the Sunday now. But, oh well.

Mr Hawthorne, Ed, George and I all went to see On The Waterfront yesterday afternoon. Oh dear me. What a lot of self-important twaddle. I've been a huge fan of Steven Berkoff, the director, for many years, but oh goodness, was this dull. The poor man has been churning out the same thing year after year for over 30 years now.

I think this, sadly, was the last step for me. His signature directing style just killed the piece totally. What a real shame. Surely you should be confident enough as a director with so many years of experience under your belt to try something new and different once in a while?

George has been whiling away his afternoons in the company of the new Battlestar Galactica series. He's getting very excited about it as he comes towards the end of the second series... Who are the final six cylons? I know, but I'm sure not going to tell him.

Last night some of the boys got together around here to watch the film In Bruges by Martin McDonagh. What a movie, it really is something else. A few years ago, long before I joined the company, Mull Theatre did McDonagh's Leenane trilogy. It's such a good film, I really want to go back in time and see how Mull Theatre went about performing them on the island. If you get a chance to watch it, please do, but be warned, if you're easily offended, perhaps you should give it a miss.

Well, more late nights of revelry and mid-days of sore heads await us in the coming days, I'm sure.

© Alasdair Satchel, 2008

Links

• Mull Theatre
• Right Lines