Edinburgh #1: Arrival

Kia ora friends and foes. This is the first in what I hope to be regular blogs about my time in Edinburgh. There is one coming which details all of the preparation we put into getting here, but it’s not quite ready yet and there’s so much to cover, so our blogging journey begins right here from my student hostel bedroom in Edinburgh City. 

Let me start by saying that these blogs will have three main purposes. The first is to keep everyone I care about up to date in a forum I can easily share. I can no longer just post something to Facebook or Instagram and know everyone will see it. With the way our online interaction has fragmented in recent years, this seems the easiest option now and a good way of finally putting this website to good use. 

Secondly, it’s to keep a record for future me of all the stuff I saw and learned, people I met and how I felt about things as they happened. I hope it will help keep these memories as close to their reality as possible for years to come. 

Finally, my inner altruist hopes that some future Edinburgh Fringe artists might find some use in these musings which will help them make it here too and realise their dreams. Just to be here is a bucket list item regardless of anything that happens over the next 3.5 weeks, but I’m keen to share the learnings along the way. 

DAY ZERO
So we begin at 3:30am Tuesday morning in Wellington, New Zealand. The Alarm goes and Nina and I groggily stumble out of bed and into an uber. We make it to the airport in good time and wait in line at the check-in counter. Here, just 30mins into the journey- our first major hurdle. They won’t let Nina on the plane. 

Without getting into specifics, Nina provided some details when booking her ticket which didn’t match other existing documentation. Because the two didn’t match, they couldn’t legally let her on the plane and 2 hours of phone calls back and forth with British Airways and Webjet were to no avail. 

So I headed off alone onto the first of four flights, and Nina went back to bed having booked a new set of flights for the following day. 

From there I spend nearly 40 hours in transit through Sydney, Singapore, London and eventually arrive in Edinburgh at about 8:30am BST on Wednesday 30 July. I’ve managed a total of five hours sleep across the flights, and my butt feels like I’ve done the Otago Rail Trail. Note British Airways, you seriously need to upgrade your A350 interior. I reckon those seats were almost as old as me.

A quick note on customs in the UK…are there any? This was so speedy. I booped my passport twice and that was it. No one asked me why I’m here or asked to see a visa or anything. In New Zealand they open every bag inspecting for fruit and won’t let you in if you have mud on your shoes (true story). 

DAY ONE
First stop was off to my accommodation to work out where I am, and ditch my bags. To my delight, my room was ready and I was able to check-in straight away, ditch my gear and have the single most satisfying shower of my life. 

With a little bit of energy restored after a freshen up, I met up with my pal Laura who is a massive comedy fan, and is working for one of the big venues at the fringe this year, to have lunch and catch up. She introduces me to the wonder of the Tesco meal deal and I am truly in love! Chicken salad sandwich, pickled onion monster munch (for kiwis, they’re chips- kinda like burger rings but pickle onion flavoured), and Irn Bru to get me in the Scottish mood- all for just four pounds! This is a city where I’ve quickly discovered a bowl of noodles can cost twenty quid ($45 NZD!!!), so Tesco and I are going to become good friends I suspect. 

We then went to my first show of the fringe, The Insider. I won’t be writing up big reflections on all the shows I see over the fest, but here are some thoughts on this one because it was a really interesting way to start. (if you don’t care about the shows skip forward a few paragraphs)

It’s a solo show, in which the performer is separated from us in a glass box. The audience all have headphones through which we hear his voice, as well as the voices of other characters and non-diegetic sound design. This form is fascinating and creates an instant tension between the intimacy of hearing everything so close, against watching the performer with a physical fourth wall. 

The story is around a tax lawyer working for a big firm who ends up caught in the middle of the now famous “CUMEX fraud scandal”. The scheme was essentially set up because several European countries had tax rebates on dividends paid to shareholders. Multiple traders set up a network where just before rebate season, they would transfer the shares to one another so that they could all claim the rebates, even though only one of them had ever paid the tax. The scheme is estimated to have cost governments more than 60 billion Euros, making it the largest Fraud scheme in the history of the world. 

So yeah…pretty fascinating and high-stakes fodder. And I have to say the subject matter is dealt with deftly. It never talks down to us, but keeps things simple and clear. Performer CHRISTOFFER HVIDBERG RØNJE is absolutely sublime as the overambitious young lawyer trying to justify his actions. The design is fabulous, and the different angles and images the design team manages to get out of a simple perspex box is seriously smart work. 

I’m left impressed but also wondering to myself about the definition of “immersive” theatre. That’s how this show describes itself, and I note a trend of 3d audio works branding themselves this way (notable Darkfield, who are currently touring their works around Aotearoa). The audio experience is intimate for sure. At its best, it feels as though you’re inside the characters head, or watching yourself like an out-of-body experience. But the audience has no clear role in the piece. 

Sometimes we are surrogates for the man we see on stage, but sometimes he also addresses us directly. This lack of clarity works against any form of “immersion” and reminds us that we are an audience in a theatre. I think that’s a shame, and it might mean the work is not actually immersive at all. I suppose, advertising yourself as “intimate” is just a bit more problematic. 

Anyway, a thoroughly enthralling and thought-provoking piece of theatre was a great way to start. Next up was heading over to my venue to meet some of the team and sort our tech on my lonesome. Our Venue Tech, Abby is an absolute delight and we whipped through everything in about half an hour. We made a show intentionally as simple to tour as possible, and we really have nailed that brief. 

I then popped over to the Greenside office to say hello and pick up our flyers. It was a great to meet Darren and Alfie who were super welcoming, and I was interested to hear the word “outrageous” used several times to describe our show. It was a good reminder how cheeky we are as kiwis to come and have a crack at Coronation Street, so I hope the punters take it in the jest with which we intend it. We will soon find out!

On my way home, I stopped to enjoy some street performers of varying skills and quality before hunkering in for an early night. 

It was a truly strange experience, but to cap off my day I watched the virtual stream of my Grandma’s funeral. She had a stroke last Friday, and eventually passed away on Sunday afternoon. I was fortunate to be able to spend time with her and all of the family in the hospital over those couple of days- which are some memories I will always treasure. I was also there when she passed. It was peaceful, quiet, and without pain or struggle. The phrase “at peace” has never made as much sense to me as it did at that moment. 

It was genuinely devastating not to be present for the funeral, but I’m grateful for modern technology which allowed me to still witness some of the celebration of 80 years well-lived. Without making this a grief blog, I’ll share some of the words which my brother graciously and bravely read for me at the service. 

“Grandma was a wonderful storyteller with a wicked sense of humour. I have the courage to do things like this thanks to her encouragement and the knowledge that if I can spin a yarn half as well as Grandma, things will go ok. Grandma, wherever you are, save a cracker-biscuit and a box-wine & soda for me. I'll meet you there at 4pm sharp...one day.”

DAY TWO
After a solid 8 hours of sleep I woke up at 5:45am. Not quite exactly into local time, but pretty darn close for night one. I was able to clear my inbox, do some social media and get groceries all by 9am. The early bird gets the jaffa cakes it would seem. 

After sorting out life admin bits, I headed off to an info session run by our venue (Greenside) and hosted by Editor of FringeReview, Paul Levy. 

Paul was totally charming and gave some excellent on-the-ground tips, mainly focused around connecting with audiences. Key gems are summarised below and I’ll reflect on whether they hold true in a future blog:

• When flyering, ask a question or pose an invitation rather than spouting “a great show about X” repeatedly.
• Flyers should really clearly tell you what the show is (I reckon we’ve aced this bit. Shot Nina!)
• Share the backstory about you and the journey of the show. Personal connection is much more effective than fake hype and marketing spin. 
• He also said that 5 star ratings and awards don’t count for much these days because they are so ubiquitous. I’ve had this feeling from seeing the marketing around town and online. I don’t even look at stars and pull quotes on posters anymore, I just tune them out. It was affirming to have an experienced pro echo this sentiment. 
• QR codes are back. Use them to help people engage with your story. And it’s never too late. You can have QR codes on your phone ready for people to scan (great tip, and one we will employ). 
• Be picky about your reviewers. Paul really encouraged us to research any reviewers assigned to our show and make sure they enjoy work in our genre and style. Don’t be afraid to turn them down. 
  
  

Lots of good nuggets in there. Huge thanks to Paul and to Greenside for putting on a valuable event which got the juices flowing. 

Then I headed back to the airport because…NINA WAS FINALLY ARRIVING! She made it safe and sound, with all her luggage in tow and I got bonus extra treat because our mate Hoani was on the same flight. Fantastic vibes all round, and so relieved to have all made it here in one piece. 

We got Nina settled in our accommodation and caught up on the last couple of days before heading off for an evening of shows…and what an evening it was!

Different Party was a physical, absurd, slapstick comedy but none of those adjectives really do it justice. What it was, was bloody brilliant. Trygve Wakenshaw and Barnie Duncan are a couple of kiwis who won the Fred Award with this show last year. I’m delighted to finally get to see it, and it was worth the wait. I genuinely don’t know if I’ve laughed that hard at a show in the last five years. Certainly not in 2025, and I’ve seen some funny stuff this year. 

We followed it up with Tape Face 20- a celebration of twenty years of shows. Sam Wills has been performing much longer than that, but “The Boy with Tape on his Face” was born in 2005. I saw him at the World Buskers Festival in 2015. At that stage he was a moderately big deal in NZ and Australia but it would be a year later that he would make the finals of America’s Got Talent and go global. 

Pretty soon after he picked up a contract performing in Vegas and has played to thousands of people a week ever since. At one stage he had two “alternate” Tape Face performers trained so that he could do residencies in Vegas, Tokyo and tour simultaneously. It’s a great reminder that it takes many years of hard graft to become an overnight success. He was, of course, completely brilliant. 

So, with that I’ll sign off for tonight. Tomorrow we open Corrie at the Edinburgh Fringe. We do the actual thing. I’m incredibly excited. We’ve got 5 people booked and that’s all we need! I’ll be back in a few days to let you know how we go. 

Arohanui,
Austin