Moaning and Waiting

I am taking stock. Every other Fringe, I fall seriously ill. In 2011, I was hit by a van - and ended up with shingles. This year, a knee injury (for no apparent reason - I wish I could describe at least a drunken tumble) segued into an abscess and  I am sitting, very uncomfortably, in a chair staring into space and counting my heart-rate by the pulses of pain shooting up my right flank. I present my wounds as evidence of my dedication to Theatre.

However, that dedication is not always translated into action - the blog has three major projects lurking in the draft box. The only work getting through is bad tempered opinion pieces, that mostly dissolve my rage before they are completed. And there is one project, one that sets my entire critical process in context, that is loitering...

Spinning around Scotland for three weeks took me away from the theatre, into the landscape... I made some efforts to slip back into performance (spending hours in Peebles' venue and reading the posters), even breaking off for a weekend to camp at the NFYT in Fife. But for a brief period of time, my attention was directed not at premeditated activity but the actual world, unrehearsed.

I was hoping that this journey would reveal some truth about the politics of Scotland (it didn't, except to make me realise that the central belt is not the only place to define Scottish identity). Instead, it provoked a series of meditation about place. Rather than pondering whether an abandoned railway station would make a good location for a site-specific happening, I saw in within a community. A community I was passing through, admittedly, and I could only glance towards while speeding  past...

I am taking stock. The Fringe does not help - it places theatre in the context of more theatre. But chasing for Giants reminded me that theatre has a bigger context. Possibly, so do I (that might be the point here). The thrill I am seeking in theatre is all about the peak experience... but life isn't just about the peak (or the troughs). It is about tracing the contours....