The Carpeted McAugust Monthly

Shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and lying on some carpet in the Highlands.

This month I was mostly relaxing (with family in Greece) and then performing (with friends in Scotland).

At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, I did six improv shows.

Two of the thousand postcards and flyers we handed out every day on the street to attract an audience.

Fire truck.

No idea.

But more importantly, I saw 16 shows! On my last day, I took the festival program and carefully cut out the icons for each one I saw.

There are thousands and thousands of shows at the Fringe and they’re happening all the time, everywhere. It’s pretty overwhelming and I managed to see some fantastic things (a Tony-nominated play called The Sound Inside, a sketch duo made up of 6’7” identical twins called Pear) and some terrible things ([redacted]). I went alone to most shows and enjoyed slipping into the singular seat available in the front row. 

During one solo show I sat next to the performer’s boyfriend. The show was largely about how he’s got a drinking problem and how devastating it is when they break up and he inevitably has sex with younger women. At one point she stopped the show to ask if he felt the last scene– an imagined dialogue in couples therapy– was unfair. “Yes,” he said. I was coiled up like a spring, barely breathing with the tension. It was incredible.

On my flight from Crete to Edinburgh I bought a bottle of water. Annoyed at the expense, I pledged to use the bottle many times over. I ended up pouring boiling hot coffee, fresh from the Aeropress in my dorm kitchen, into the bottle and trotting to shows with it every morning. 0/5 stars. Burnt fingers, microplastics in my blood.

This was a mistake.

After the our last show, my friends and I drove to the Highlands and stayed in a massive hunting lodge which was completely carpeted, even the bathrooms. The carpeting was green and the water was brown. Drinkable! But brown like tea. We walked around and played cards and ate chips. We got a flat tire and were bitten to pieces by midges when we went for a swim in the loch

“brown bath”

I’m writing this from my cousins’ house in London. Today I bought a thermos at the Moomin store in Covent Garden, so my life is improving.

I’m off to Albania for a week, then home for autumn. That’s where in the world I am.

Love,

Claire