EDINBURGH 2016 - Guest Blog: Kasia Lech of BUBBLE REVOLUTION

'When you wish upon a star' or my first week at the Fringe...

My first week of the Fringe has passed. It is literally my first week as it is my first Fringe - my first week in Scotland, first week in Edinburgh... From the Royal Mile, which looks like a group has just decided to beat the world record in one-street people density, through the November weather when my suitcase is full of summer clothes, to the super fast get-ins and get-outs that leave no room for mistakes, it has been quite overwhelming and exciting experience so far.

I also learned new terms: Fringe Flu and Fringe Diet. The former apparently catches everyone (if only it could carry the flyers) and the latter allows you to lose up to one stone in a month! Atkins, Dukan and Paleo eat your hearts out! I also learned that being a performer at the Fringe is a full-time job, especially if you are part of a small team.

I brought my one-women show Bubble Revolution, written by Polish playwright Julia Holewiska, to the Fringe accompanied only by my technician Josh How. We simply couldn't afford a larger team and John Currivan, the director, is on his honeymoon in Asia anyway.

That means Josh and I are performing multiple roles, including flyering. We started doing it from Monday before the Fringe, a day after our arrival. For the first few days we walked around town, flyering at the Royal Mile, visiting Wojtek the Bear, Leith and all its Polish shops, trying to spread a word about the show. According to my GPS app, we walked 110km in our first week in Edinburgh (c. 22,000 steps a day).

When the show started we focused on flyering before the performance. We quickly abandoned the Royal Mile - it's a great place to meet people from other shows, but it wasn't working for us at all. In fact, the frequency of people showing us the Star Wars Force Gesture (known as keep your dirty flyers away from me) was too much for me to handle.

I wasn't just giving the flyers, I was genuinely interested in talking to people about Bubble Revolution, and also about them. I wanted to know where they were from, what football team they supported, and whether they knew much about Poland and Polish people. So this Star Wars Force Gesture was too hurtful for me to continue.

We moved to Rose Street and it has been much better. People actually stop and talk to us. Of course, the occasional Force Gestures appear, but they are balanced by positive encounters. In general, I have been lucky so far in terms of spectators sending a lot of good energy our way.

So if you are one of the wonderful people we spoke to before and/or after the show and/or you came to see Bubble Revolution, let me say a big thank you. Your energy send towards me during the shows was so powerful! You have been very generous, kind, and so attentive. And it was fun talking to you.

I also noticed that everyone keeps saying 'Pace yourself', 'It's a marathon', 'You don't want to burn out'. But then they quickly add, 'It's very important to attend this/that'. On the day of the Meet the Media event, I had breakfast in the morning and the next meal was at 8pm after I got back. The queue was impressive, by the way. It reminded me of queues for toilet paper in communist Poland, both in terms of the length and the urgency...

And, of course, there was also a day when everything went wrong - two reviewers in the house and the projector didn't work. Our videos, slides, pictures just did not appear. I realised it straightaway, so I just performed as it they were never there.

Some text needed to be added, some taken away. It was an awful experience, but at the same time an amazing one. We have approximately 50 images and videos, so I never had to think so quickly in my entire life.

After the show I was upset, because I'd rather the reviewers saw the full production, but then I thought about it as the opportunity. Because when everything goes wrong and you need to improvise, people you know always reassure you that you did great. But I will actually get a reviewer perspective on how well Josh and I dealt or didn't deal with this technological failure.

And after all, the Fringe was always supposed to be about meeting the audience and about challenging myself. So, in a twisted way, my wish came true...

Bubble Revolution is at New Town Theatre until 28 August.

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