The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the world, with nearly 3,500 shows. This year, Playbill is in Edinburgh for the entire month in August for the festival and we’re taking you with us. Follow along as we cover every single aspect of the Fringe, aka our real-life Brigadoon!

With nearly 3,500 shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, it can be hard to make yourself stand out. Performers have performed to a room of single-digit audience members. Some performers have even performed to an audience of one. That happened to actor Georgie Grier, who is currently starring in a one-woman show she wrote, Sunsets. 

At her August 3 performance, Grier came out onstage and saw....just one person in the audience. Ever the professional, she performed the show, and then afterwards, she posted the following on Twitter: "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…?" She included a photo of herself crying.

Immediately the post when viral. As of press time, more than 50,000 people have liked Grier's tweet. And notable comedians have chimed in with messages of support. Irish comedian Dara Ó Briain responded, "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!" 

Ben Stiller even commented, saying, "We have all been there. I’ve done entire movies where nobody came to the theatre the opening weekend. Keeping going in the face of that can be really really hard. But please do. It has nothing to do with where you are headed. The fact you are doing it is what it’s all about."

Speaking after a performance of Sunsets, Grier tells Playbill that she was completely surprised how many people found her tweet relatable. "I genuinely just thought I might have a few other messages of support from other performers who have experienced the same and maybe some messages of encouragement there as well. I didn't expect that this level of reaction."

Despite people online claiming she was acting because she posted about a similar occurrence last year, Grier says she tweeted not to get attention or go viral (last year's tweet only gained 29 likes). She just wanted to find other people at the Fringe who have been in similar situations. "I just thought maybe we could boost each other a little bit." 

But after her tweet went viral and media outlets picked it up, Grier was surprised even further when she found out that her subsequent shows started to sell out. And a representative from Gilded Balloon, the venue where Sunsets is playing, told Playbill that it was one of the company's best-selling shows. To Grier, who have received responses from Fringe artists past and present, it just shows the power of the Fringe community.

"It's such a supportive community. I find that it's a great place to be in August," she says of Edinburgh (this is her second Fringe). "You're surrounded by other performers, or the industry members, people, or the public that you can get your show across to. It's such a great platform for people to be able to share their material."

Despite the upwards trending ticket sales, Grier is not taking anything for granted. She explains that after the interview, she was going out to hand out fliers for her show to strangers. Because she is self-producing her show, Grier fliers for a couple hours a day. She also personally says goodbye to each member of the audience as they leave the show. "We'll keep working and just be grateful for anyone that comes along," Grier says.

Sunsets is about a woman who is trying to live life like it is a romantic comedy. And finding out that life's messiness, it's boring parts, those "normal non-endings," aren't always present on the screen. And it's also about one woman's relationship with her mother. 

"I think there's a lot of pressure, still, on people finding their happily ever afters," she explains. "I was basically trying to do a bit of a love letter to film and television. But I really wanted to query that idea of happily ever after. And the different formats that it can take."

So what's Grier's happily ever after? "I'm still discovering," she says smiling. But for now, through being in the Fringe, she hopes that it will lead to further opportunities to work. "Being an actor is really hard. And I would love to act to keep acting where I can. And I'd love to do more work on screen and just keep plugging away."