High octane

Down to town in pouring rain for an early show…Godspell by RCS Musical theatre Masters students. Haven’t seen that in years, and my goodness they put a lot of energy into their performances! Good ensemble piece as they all got their chance to shine and I found myself following individual performers and wondering about their back stories (probably because one of their families was sitting in front of us!).
From there we went over to St James’ Quarter for a wander and browse amongst perfumes and clothes but didn’t buy anything, then back via some shoe shops and S got some trainers. Thank goodness the rain had finished after we’d come out of Godspell, despite it having been forecast for all day, but the town was still much quieter than last week. We decided to get lunch in Contini’s (which I still call Centotre) and it was delicious…simple but very tasty. Practised my Italian on the menu and with the soundtrack of a language lesson that I’d forgotten plays on a loop in the loos!
From there up to the Traverse for a show called This is Paradise. Had had very good reviews but it was an odd and complex story interweaving Good Friday agreement with a woman’s revisiting of a bad relationship, threatened miscarriage, and disjointed memories of her other relationships. The actor was really strong but I’m afraid it just didn’t grip me (think I may have nodded off!)….couldn’t get interested in it or care about the character. Oh well, there’s always one you don’t like in the festival, and we did at least admire her craft.
Chatted in the bar for a while checking out the programme for this evening then picked up some tasty dumplings to share at a little Chinese place in Tollcross before seeing the Rite of Spring in the Usher Hall. We really enjoyed it, and although it was a shame that from our seats we couldn’t see the whole orchestra we could hear and almost feel the frenzy from the whole stage full of players, with the conductor literally jumping and dancing around so much he looked like he might fall off his podium! So despite this afternoon’s dip, it was an energetic performance day!
Home (quite chilly!) and watched some different interpretations of the Rite of Spring ballet on YouTube which was interesting….