More theatre and generally enjoying the crowds. Place is absolutely packed. There has been a bit of publicity in the news about smaller communities complaining about the volume of tourists being too high and airbnb pricing renters out of the market (plus removing a fair number of places from the long term rental market). This is from places as far afield as Croatia to Spain to the Island of Skye in Scotland. Having been here before the Fringe and seeing the change, I can see what the conundrum is. Tourists bring money but Edinburgh is actually quite small usually - about half a million but during the Festival it must be more than double that. The streets are often conveyor belts of people. Love the Fringe but hard to see how the place could sustain any more people. There are even tourists at our local coffee shop at Leith!! Saw a grumpy Scots wearing a kilt, plaited beard and a black T shirt saying on the front ""Get out of my way"" and on the back ""I live here"". Stephen thought he was being funny. Maybe but I am not so sure he meant it to be completely humorous.
Saw Part 1 of Alan Ayckbourn's new play - The Divide. Was in the Kings Theatre -lovely theatre in the west end with boxes on the side. Seats ridiculously uncomfortable. Spend some time at the gym at the moment uncricking my back - repairing the damage from these and similar seats. Play was very good. See Part 2 on the 16th. 3 hours with interval so was relieved was as good as expecting. Play is a re-telling of a dystopian future after the particular era has ended. The Divide refers to men and women having to live separately although probably also refers to other 'divides' within each community. Background is that women apparently have contracted a deadly disease which kills men if they come into contact with women. The women are carriers only. The women therefore are sinful and have to wear black from the age of 11 onwards. In fact they are completely encased in black including with their hair covered under bonnets. Reminded me of The Crucible type of clothing that women wear. Without overtly saying so, the play-write makes some clever comments about societies/cultures that require women to cover up their bodies and heads. There is also not a lot of fun in the women's community.
By contrast the men get to wear white from 13 (from memory) onwards as they are pure. The men's community sounds more fun - they have alcohol and nightclubs etc. However of course not as simple as that as there are divisions within each community between the ''çonservatives'', "moderates" and "progressives". The staging and use of lighting and multi-media was very effective. One memorable scene for me was very simple but effective. The main female character who is dressed all in black stands on the stage alone and is just bathed in a shimmering purple light after she has seen some colourful dresses. Acting was great. We have seen the lead female in Call the Midwife (the nurse who decides to become a nun) and the lead male was the brother in the TV show The Missing. Play was potentially 15/20 minutes too long but it is premiering here before it goes to London so there may be some changes still to be made. I gather it was even longer originally. Glad saw the slightly shorter version.
Also saw some poets at the Book Festival. Went to see 2 poets with Emma (from upstairs). Imtiaz Dharker and Daljut Nagra. Pakistan/Indian heritage respectively. Imtiaz lives in Glasgow so has a broad Glaswegian accent and she married a Welshman. Daljit is English and from Punjabi heritage. Daljit was a bit like a '"rap"" poet. Not quite that ""shouty"" but similar. He read from his latest book and one was particularly funny about his Indian Uncles demonstrating their love of Scottish words. I loved Imtiaz's poetry in particular and ended up buying her latest collection called ""Over the Moon". She also draws, so a pretty talented lady. She read out some beautiful poetry - some about dreaming about her husband who unfortunately has died. She also had some funny poems including about English/Scottish swear words.
Also went to hear John Boyne speak as just finished reading his latest book - The Heart's Invisible Furies . He was so Irish. He did a reading from the book and it was hilarious. The book came alive with his reading. He read a funny bit about Cecil attending confession and plucking up the courage to tell the priest he was gay. Did not end well as the priest fell out of the confessional in shock and died of a heart attack. This part is set in Ireland in the 1950's. The place was packed and there was an interesting discussion about the themes in the book and his take on topical issues like gay marriage (John Boyne is gay). He spoke about his relief when the Republic of Ireland voted for same sex marriage. Australia did not get mentioned.
The Book Festival is held in Charlotte Square - very elegant square towards the west end that is normally closed to the public. Nicola Sturgeon has her official residence in the square and we saw her in the morning walking across the road to attend the Book Festival. Was nice to see she did not have to be surrounded by bodyguards. That is the second time I have seen her this trip. She must be stalking me.
Lastly, saw another play from the Baxter Theatre Group from South Africa. This one was very different. It was a re-enactment of the university students protests in South Africa (starting in 2015) about the level of discrimination against blacks at the Universities including the small number of black lecturers, the syllabuses which basically ignore their history and also raised other issues of discrimination including the discrimination within the black community itself against women. The impetus was a request for the statue of Cecil Rhodes to be pulled down at Cape Town Uni. The actors were all very young and it was brilliant. Lots of singing and dancing and the script was very tight. Showed what a complicated issue it was and the divisions even within the black and "coloured" communities themselves. The human race can be interesting at times. Reference was made to the selective and biased reporting by the world media which Stephen and I were not surprised about as we do not recall hearing much if anything about this. They got a standing ovation.
Finished the night at a favourite noodle restaurant called Yacoco. Lovely fresh Asian noodle dishes. We do miss the variety of Asian food that we get at home.
Tomorrow we get to see Part 2 of The Divide. Have been doing my stretches at the gym to get in shape for the seats.
No comments:
Post a Comment