I'm in a phonebox, listening to a man telling me about his obsession with prank calls. He adores the noise of the fire engines, he says, and the stomach-churning thrill of making a bogus 999 call. He sounds anxious, frayed. I consider interrupting him – should I tell the police? – but I stay silent.
The phonebox is itself a hoax: one of several that appeared across Edinburgh over the weekend. They are the real thing, but they are pinkish not red, and don't accept coins. When you pick up the receiver, instead of a dialling tone, you hear someone reading a short story. The voice I heard belonged to comedian Mark Watson. Will Self, Paul Muldoon and Julia Donaldson are among other writers who have recorded their work.
The project is the brainchild of Simon Pearce, whose theatre company The Invisible Dot bought four ex-BT kiosks (cost: £7,500), had them kitted out with the right software, then installed them on the streets of Edinburgh."I was sure the council weren't going to agree," says Pearce, "but amazingly they did."
One story, by DBC Pierre, is a mock public announcement about the perils of snakes, while comedian Arthur Smith's purports to be a childhood confession. "It's a nice way of making this stuff available to everyone, not just theatregoers," Pearce says.
The phoneboxes will disappear once the Fringe is over, though Pearce hopes to place them elsewhere, and even tour. "I think I'll be doing some maintenance," he laughs. "I don't mind if they get tatty, but I'm a bit worried I'll spend the festival slopping out piss."
