The New York Times: “Fringe” implies decoration happening out on a margin, threads on the hem of a larger garment. But if you have ever elbowed your way down a crammed Edinburgh sidewalk in August, past hundreds of posters for stand-up shows and circus spectaculars, accepting promotional fliers from, say, a woman wearing a disco ball on her head — you might wonder what garment could possibly be larger than this.
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There's a quote from the film "Asteroid City" that's stuck with me ever since I first saw it in a comically long movie theatre in suburban Kansas City. It's an obscure (as in a smidge incomprehensible) film with several layers of plot, but all you need to know is that an actor is playing a character in a theatrical production of real life events (the events that the rest of the movie is about) and asks his director
“I still don’t understand the play.”
To which the director replied
“Doesn't matter. Just keep telling the story.”
And that’s the whole point of Edinburgh Fringe, isn’t it? To be taken on a wild ride, experience everything good and bad about art and try to make something of it – but to keep living in the moment. This doesn’t mean that you should just let everything wash over you – and this writer certainly doesn’t, in a way I might appreciate as someone who enjoys reading about plays as much as I like watching them myself – but you should live in the moment as much as possible. Thinking about which shows will make it out of Fringe, while fun in the same way betting on horse races is, is equally hollow (in my opinion). Just keep watching the story.
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