Thick Skin

The experience of the Fringe is one that no one can truly describe... not if you haven't lived it.

It's a constant wave, recognised only in the eyes of performers and crews, standing day after day on the streets, desperately trying to attract spectators. You'll see the same faces, enthusiastic one day, torn down by exhaustion, poor audience numbers or a bad review the next.

And amongst those faces, you'll see us. Constantly shifting between joy and desperation, exhaustion. Never wanting to leave in one instance, desperate to go home the next.

And the only way to get through it, to survive people walking out in the middle of your show, to survive the harshness of a critic, tearing down your hard work with his every word, is to unearth the thickest coat of skin, from the depths of your own tolerance.

We know that we came here with a 'love it or hate it' play, and it was simply bad luck that the critics that came fell into the latter category. Audiences, for the most part, have responded extremely positively, some returning to see it a second time, others bringing friends. Many engaged us in long discussions after the show about where the ideas came from.

'Lulu', which premièred on Sunday, was met with great enthusiasm also, and critics were much kinder with this show. But we knew they would be, 'Lulu' has the power to charm anyone. We are very happy to have had high audience numbers for this show so far, and hope that this continues.

So you take the good with the bad, roll with the punches, and just keep going. With four days to go, who knows what could happen? This is the Fringe, after all.