Tales from Edinburgh Fringe

Year 13 student Max reflects on his experience with our theatre company Bear Pit at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, where he was part of the cast for Tales of Xenia.

“Being part of the Edinburgh Fringe trip with Bear Pit Theatre was an experience I will keep forever. Creating and developing a piece of verbatim theatre from scratch and presenting your work to the public at one of the biggest drama festivals is truly an unparalleled feeling. Having done the Fringe for nine days I can certainly say it was not the easiest experience but a very rewarding one.

The time management you must do to ensure you are at certain venues, rehearsals and, indeed, the correct Nando’s at the right time was something I initially found challenging. The Fringe taught me to organise and maximise the time I had to create a good balance between performing, flyering and watching great, unique theatre. I found the flyering of my show, Tales of Xenia, to be the biggest struggle. Interacting with the public and putting yourself out there is never easy. This experience has given me confidence in myself and really strengthened my relationship with my fellow actors, who always had my and each other’s backs. By the end, all of us were handing out flyer after flyer and really connected as a whole group. In turn, I found this enhanced our performance as our show progressed. By our final show, we had all come to trust and look out for one another more so than before and were able to push ourselves and each other’s acting further than it had ever gone before.

During the Fringe, you have the freedom to go off in groups of three or more and see shows of your own choosing during the downtime of the trip. This was absolutely the highlight. It gives you great insight into what University life is like and allows you to create new and unforgettable moments with your friends. A highlight of mine was seeing the two-handed play Hungry. It led to an hour-long discussion in our shared kitchen over what the meaning of the play was and made for a hilarious yet intelligent conversation that I will always treasure. Honestly, if you enjoy drama (the acting, lighting, directing or anything in between) this trip is unmissable and will give you life skills that will be priceless later in life.”