Huge success that I wish had never happened

Edinburgh blog final day by “Split Second” author and actress, Sarah Nelson
Sitting here on the 4.10 train home from Edinburgh to Manchester, we begin to reflect on our week at the fringe festival.

I have been unanimously nominated to write the final blog so here goes.

When we arrived last Sunday, thrust head first into the chaotic bustle of festival fever, it was both exciting and overwhelming.

I felt out of place, as if we were embarking on an impossible mission, one tiny show among the thousands of others. How would we get noticed, hold our own on this international stage?

Now, a week later, Edinburgh feels like home, festival life normal and our unlikely little “Split Second” family feels like part of the furniture or the Edinburgh landscape.

The experience has been amazing, our hopes for the piece fulfilled, the show a success.

Yes, we’d have liked bigger audiences, more marketing support, but let’s pause for a moment. This time last year, “The Split Second” was little more than an idea, a scribbled first draft at most.

I don’t think any of us could have imagined being here a year later. I have experienced an amazing range of emotions this week. I have laughed until the tears rolled down my face and cried until the tears dried up. I have had my creativity reawakened and been reminded yet again why I do this job and why I am so lucky to do a job I love, a job that matters and sometimes makes a difference.

Forgive the arty, cheesy indulgence but weeks like this are life-changing, they really are.

To re-write a speech from the play; it’s not about where we went. It’s nothing to do with the Edinburgh trip. It’s what it represented.

A really special group of people united in trying to make something matter to people, making people care enough to change.

As we rattle through the Cumbrian countryside every moment closer to home to our adventure being over, I am left with a strange mix of emotions. I wish more than anything that we weren’t here, that none of this had happened, that I was never asked to write this piece. That I never met Becca and Chantel and Charlotte. That young men (and women) didn’t show off in cars and end up killing people, but sadly they do.

My other resounding feeling is an overwhelming sense of pride in a fantastic project. A pride in working with the young people of Oldham, in its amazing youth council and its brilliant Theatre Workshop.

I know I speak on behalf of the whole “Split Second” team when I say how proud we all are to have represented Oldham at the Edinburgh festival, with a piece of work that holds a very special place in all our hearts.