Four New York performers who are bringing solo shows to this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe explained the tangled, often chance, encounters that connected them long before they ever booked a trip to Scotland. The pair were wearing near-identical jogging suits, in different colours, and only realised months later that they were both bringing shows to the Fringe. Agni said it was Coleman who pushed her to apply for New York City Fringe, where EMOJI went on to sell out its run, describing a chain of coincidences. Coleman said the city’s crowded subways had a way of “yanking you out of solitude” whether people liked it or not. All four shows are running at this year’s Fringe, offering Edinburgh audiences a cross-section of New York life – legal, spiritual, digital and deeply personal – shaped by a circle of friends and collaborators who found each other first at home.