Is the sofa important?
This is a question I and others have asked about Lost in Wonder. We could probably ask the question, is what we do in the park important? I think some of the answers will be the same but there are also significant differences. I will leave that question for another time.
Back to the sofa.
Sofas are familiar. They are comfortable. They are safe spaces where we curl up and watch TV. Sit on with friends as we drink coffee and talk. We fall asleep on them at the end of a long day. When we see a sofa we recognise it and we understand what it is for. For most of us, we know that a sofa is a good place to be.
What about a sofa out on the street?
That’s an unexpected surprise! We often joke that at the Fringe nothing is surprising. People wander around pushing pianos, dress as sharks or cows or penguins! Why wouldn’t a group of people have a sofa in the middle of the Royal Mile. Yet no one expects to see it as they walk along the road.
It’s familiar, yet it’s surprising.
The sofa is a disruption. It is an anomaly, something different from what we expect to see when walking down the street. Even at the fringe where you expect to see the weird and wonderful, it is still a little odd. When something is unexpected it raises questions.
Why is it here?
What’s it about?
Who is behind it? (Not literally)
We begin to work out if it is a good thing or something to avoid. Is it a good surprise or one we could do without. The disruption causes us to ask questions we wouldn’t ask if the sofa wasn’t there. The sofa invites people to think. It invites them to stop and wonder.
I wonder if the sofa is a thin place.
I wonder if it is an altar in the world.
The sofa seems to do both these things.
It is a place that becomes holy ground. It is a place where God feels close. A sofa is familiar and safe. It reminds us of sitting at home. It reminds us of talking with friends. Yet this sofa, is in a street, it causes to ask questions and then there is an invitation to come and sit and talk, about all the things that make us human. Where people can laugh and cry with others who they have never met before.
The sofa is an unexpected surprise. It is a disruption from the normal. It asks questions of us all and invites us to come and sit and share. It’s presence causes ripples that cause other to stop and ask questions about what is happening here. As they stop and talk, holy ground is formed underneath their feet, even if they do not realise it.
Would this work without the sofa?
Maybe, but I can’t think of anything that could take its place.
We could stand and wait for conversation like the living statues who activate when people come close.
We could cause a scene like the street performers, gathering a crowd with our routine before asking when they were last lost in wonder.
We could had out flyers and bags (we do do this as a fringe part of what we do) and hope someone might stop
We could set up in a venue somewhere in Edinburgh and see if anyone comes.
If there is something that would do what the sofa does then I can’t think of it just now.