An actor who went viral online after she posted a tearful tweet about performing her one-woman show to an audience of one at the Edinburgh festival fringe has played to a sell-out crowd only 24 hours later.
The actor and writer Georgie Grier received messages of support from well-known comedians when she posted on Twitter on Thursday afternoon: “There was one person in my audience today when I performed my one-woman play, ‘Sunsets’ at #edfringe. It’s fine, isn’t it? It’s fine…?”
The Gilded Balloon, where Grier is performing Sunsets, confirmed on Friday afternoon that the show had sold out.
Grier reportedly emerged on stage with the words “Hello Wembley” this lunchtime, before launching into her show, billed as a play about romantic comedies and set during a live podcast recording.
Her plaintive posting, which has so far gained 5m views, elicited a deluge of sympathetic responses.
The Mock the Week host, Dara Ó Briain, replied: “We’ve ALL done it. Soon, you’ll dine out on this anecdote. More than once I had to buy my audience a drink, as a thank you for being the only ones there.
“Best thing though, it’s all stage time, and the show will get better every single time, ready for the big crowds later!”
Fringe veteran Jason Manford responded with a video message, recalling his own Edinburgh agonies handing out flyers in the rain.
Manford told Grier: “It’s absolutely normal … for one person to rock up to your show, especially at the beginning of Edinburgh, and also for you to be a bit upset or annoyed or pissed off about it. That’s totally fine as well.
“I did Edinburgh in 2004-5 and I remember [the] first couple of shows, the first week I think, was just, it was such a slog and I was out in the rain and I was flyering and people weren’t coming.
“I got total impostor syndrome. How much is this costing me? What am I doing here? Look at all these amazing people. How embarrassing that … nobody’s turned up but, you know what, you’re on the path and it’s just the start, that’s all.”
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Even the Tory peer Daniel Finkelstein was moved to respond, saying: “I went to Norwich to give a speech and it took me 4hrs of travel. There were only 2 people there.
“One of them was the person who invited me. I asked the other person to join the cause I was there to support. He said he would, but it might interfere with the terms of his parole.”
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