Ali Curran has a halo of strawberry-blonde hair and legs which are at least 10 feet long. These she folds under the table of Bewley's, as she smokes determinedly and sips her double espresso. You couldn't have got a better director of the Fringe, at a superficial level, if you have gone to Central Casting.
The more profound levels are taken care of as well, however. From Belfast, Curran (27) has a background in acting - she worked with Conor Grimes's repertory company, Gauntlet ("We were half-brilliant and half appalling.") She reckoned that what they were lacking at the time was a strong business sense, and so she did a marketing diploma. Then she spent 18 months "travelling around the world, as you do." The Fringe job was advertised on Good Friday, her birthday, and it was all meant to be. She has had the job for 15 months, so this year's festival is the first fully mature fruit she has borne of a year's work, trawling through festivals like Edinburgh and Avignon, reading reviews and talking to people-who-know. The budget of the Festival has leapt from £34,000 (1996) to £68,000 (1997) to £120,000 this year, there are 72 shows, and "about 1,000 little beavers" are at present, well, beavering away on the Fringe. The event can't keep growing at this pace, and Curran is aware that she has to find the right point at which it should level off.
Among the factors in the success of the event has been that there are, in Dublin, so many young people with disposable income: "The main audience is between 21 and 31, but there's a heavy pocket of people in the 40s and 50s, these lovely older people who might go to a one-hour lunch-time or a six o'clock show before going on to the Abbey or the Gate," says Curran. "But there are also some people who are around 16 or 17." She says some people are still uncomfortable with the whole idea of a Fringe, but others are all too happy: "We get people coming in dressed in PLO scarves saying, `I'm in a band, I have my cymbals and my harmonica, can I play in your club' - which is sweet. We got offered a belly-dancer." The club, in Keating's of Jervis Street (11.30 p.m.-2 a.m.) will double-job as the main festival club as well next week - all the fun was always to be had at the Fringe club anyway. Get your membership at the Fringe office.
She was amazed to discover, however, that Guy Masterson, the performer in A Soldier's Song, which was the Fringe's launch show, has anything but a fringey pedigree: "He's Richard Burton's nephew! He was talking about Uncle Richard and Auntie Liz, and I'm thinking, `Am I supposed to know who your aunt and uncle are...?"
Weekend Fringe Openings
Opening tonight: Otis Lee Crenshaw (alias Rich Hall, U.S.), Andrews Lane Theatre, 10.30 p.m.;Yet I Rise, Little Winner (UK), Temple Bar Gallery, 7 p.m.; Laughing Til I Die (Maeve Coogan, Ireland), Temple Bar Gallery, 9 p.m. Opening Friday: Bob (Siti, USA), 8 p.m., Saturday matinee, 3 p.m.) Opening Saturday: inhale exhale (Brian Connolly, Alistair Mac Lennan, Brian Kennedy, Ireland), Temple Bar Gallery, all day).
On Sunday: One Night Stand (Cindy Cummings and Tommy Hayes, Ireland), Arthouse, 8 p.m. Recommended: The Derry Boat, written and performed by Little John Nee and directed by Paraic Breathnach, tells the story of three generations emigration from Donegal to Scotland, 6.30 p.m., until Saturday.
