Rubber Ducky

Expect the unexpected is the mantra of many EIF staff and thankfully so, after the stage sprinklers went off at The Festival Theatre before a performance of the Steve Reich Evening recently. After the crowd had been ushered outside and then back in again, the stage appeared to have been dried off. As below stage leakages, electrics and other factors were given the all clear the dancers returned but they were not taking any chances. Reports say many bounded on, towels in hand, and did a bit of precautionary mopping during the show which demonstrates another of our ingrained mantras: the show must go on. Spare a thought for the stage crew however whose faces must have been a picture as water rained down on the very stage they had painstakingly worked to perfect. A scurillous rumour - yet to be confirmed but nonethless spreading quickly through festival circles - is that the stage crew of The Edinburgh Playhouse, upon hearing of the sprinkler dilemma, sent a rubber duck in a taxi to their (slightly damp) comrades at the Festival Theatre!
Response from a nameless EIF lass: 'I wish we had a taxi budget like theirs', to which came the reply, 'Any more taxi budgies and they wont have a taxi budget'.