The Sewing Machine

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Readers, this is a bit of a whiney post.  Sorry to whinge but it's only because I missed perhaps the best play of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  Not because I didn't have tickets, mind you, but because I was late....  arrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhh....

Here's how it unfolded.  I received two tickets to the play called 'The Sewing Machine' and I immediately contacted Kristen who blogs over at KristenMakes to see if she wanted to go see it with me.  We set up plans to meet in George Square where the play was taking place at Assembly Three.  Right before we met up, I double checked my email and I see 'George Street' so I google the Assembly Theatres and sure enough the box office is on George Street.  I head over to George Street and stand in line for the box office and they inform me that indeed the Assembly Three tickets are over at the George Square box office (across town). Turns out there are two assembly theatres.  Luckily, Kristen is over at George Square.  I hop in a cab hoping to make it and get there with 5 minutes to spare.  I try to find Kristen in the sea of people and we connect and she has the tickets in hand.  We have a couple of minutes to find the theatre and we stop to ask someone working at the fringe and they inform us venue is nearby, we just need to go up a blue ramp and it's there.  We run around the square and can't see any signs for the theatre or any blue ramps!  When we are half way around the square we ask again and we had passed it!!  double arrrrrggghhh... turns out the blue ramp is hidden by a giant white tent.  The theatre is down some stairs behind a building.  We rush in and hand the lady our tickets only to hear 'I'm sorry we can't let you in because you're 7 minutes late and the show has already started'.  AHHHHHHHHHH

All was not lost. Kristen and I ended up having a great chat over tea at a nearby restaurant.  It was really nice to catch up on everything going on in our lives!  We both knew with the fringe ending that we missed our one chance of seeing the play.  Sigh, so I hope you'll forgive me for whining especially when I read such fabulous reviews...like this one:

In the heart of South African apartheid, Magdaleen champions her treasured femininity far above her white race, seeking a sisterhood that will hold her together. Now, 81 and passing her last years in a retirement home, Magdaleen is to undo the seams of her identity as she sells her best friend, sister and confidante: the trusty sewing machine that had for so long threaded through every aspect of her life and hemmed in the fabric of her family.

The Sewing Machine is a one-woman masterpiece that has already completed more than 400 performances across South Africa, picking up countless awards along the way. Now, as part of collaboration between Wordsmith’s Theatre Factory and Assembly, The Sewing Machinehas come to share its quietly powerfully story with Edinburgh.

A feat of a script that is stunningly performed by Sandra Prinsloo, The Sewing Machine has a simple grace that leaves you tingling. With an understated brilliance, Prinsloo immediately locks the audience into an expectant trance, weaving us through her life experiences forever bound to her beloved sewing machine. Voices from past and present family and friends also intersperse the memories of Magdaleen, ringing out painfully, comfortingly or nostalgically within our protagonist’s moving tale.

Read a collection of reviews here.

Has this ever happened to you?