Exposures

More Fringe activity yesterday.. We went into town to take part in Exposures, a sort of photographic treasure hunt around the streets of Temple Bar..

It started at 1.30 at the Box Office where we were given an orange envelope and told to go around the corner where we'd receive more information. When we got there we were met by a woman dressed in old clothes and covered in sparkling, silver body paint. She spoke to Helen for a moment about the old days and the crazy things they got up to in the past. It seemed that we were playing a character who used to rule Dublin but had been chased out of the city. We were given a bunch of photographs with writing on them and a disposable camera and we were told we'd 2 hours to complete the task. Our job was to go around the city taking photographs to match the words on the pictures. So one picture said something like:'Tonight's the night, let's take a walk on the wild side'. Another said: 'Be careful - he's in disguise. He could be anyone'. So we had to imagine things around town that we could photograph which might match up to the text. And all of it is some attempt to put together the pieces of who we were in a former life.

I know it all sounds a bit odd but it was terrific. Once you accepted that there was no right or wrong answer and the whole thing was really just an excuse to take some pictures and get creative, it all fell made more sense. Part of the instructions were written on letterheads and business cards. The idea was you'd go to a business where someone would give yo a clue as to what your past was. So for instance, there was a card for a barbers shop that said we had to go there to meet Terrence. We got there and the barber sat Helen sat in the chair and went off to find Terrence. Suddenly a guy who was sitting in the salon reading a newspaper jumped up, ran over to us and told us that we needed to go before they found us. He gave us a clue (which said 'show us where you hid the body') and ran us out of the shop. All of this happened while other punters sat there waiting to have their hair cut. So then we had to go and take a picture of where we might have hid a body in Temple Bar. Ridiculous and a bit strange but, again, if you let yourself fall into it, it was a great laugh. They're were more instructions like that. We went into the ifi where a girl came over to us, told su we shouldn't have come and led us out through a back door. She stuck another piece of paper in our hand that said 'Show us a childhood memory' so off we went to take a picture of some kind of imagined memory from the city.

I don't know if I'm making Exposures sound good or not. But it was. I should say that the reason we were taking photos is that lots of people will be doing the same thing and at the end of the Festival there'll be an exhibition of all the photographs. So basically, there'll be lots of different versions of the same story. Dozens of photographic interpretations of instructions like 'We're at the point of no return' and 'show us where you lost your mind'.

When we finished the task, we brought our camera to another silvery chap in Meeting House Square. He told us to open our orange envelope which contained a jigsaw piece with writing on it and to take it to local pub where everything would become clear. So off we went to the pub where we found a bunch of people with the jigsaw on the table. We added our piece to the puzzle and read what we could of all the pieces but of course, none of it made sense. It was more stuff about how 'once we ruled the streets but after that fateful night we were chased through the park and nobody could tell if the sounds we made were screams or laughter'.

Now I know it all sounds a bit arty and a bit amateur drama and, I suppose in a sense, it was. But as I've said before, it's the Fringe Festival. It's where people with a bit of an idea and some silver paint can get out on the street and make something happen. You might think it's a bit strange and it certainly isn't theatre as we know it but everyday, normal punters are getting out on the streets, being shouted at in hair salons and cinema foyers, imagining a different world and taking pictures of what they've seen. And if that isn't theatre or art I don't know what is.

The exhibition is next weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has done. Maybe we'll find out what it all means but I'm guessing that's not going to happen.