Festival Time!

The Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, and Edinburgh International Book Festival are currently running in yes, you've guessed it, Edinburgh! Wow! I haven't been at the festival for ages and here were in the thick of it. The main festival is made up of several performances of varying genres. Brian and I have tickets for two main festival shows. THe Fringe consists of hundreds of shows all over the city, all day, every day during August. There's comedy, opera, dance, children's shows, plays, street theatre, and art showings. Edinburgh is jam packed with visitors here to soak up the festival atmosphere. I have found myself to be unsure as to who I am during the festival. The choices are:
a) a disgruntled local, irritated at how long it takes to get to work on the bus due to the large volume of festival goers who have to ask the bus driver how much it costs and how to get there...

or

b) an excited local, ready to plunge into the festival, taking in as many shows as possible, and sampling as much culture as is humanly possible.

I have been a bit of both! We've seen a few shows already. the first was Rock 'n' Roll Romeo and Juliet. Let's just say, I giggled all the way through, but it wasn't a comedy...! We also saw Beyond the Chariots. This is a one man play by Rich Swingle. He and his wife are staying with us while he performs on the Fringe. This play is about Eric Liddell after the Chariots of Fire story, about when he was a missionary in China. It's a wonderful piece of theatre. :Last night we saw Miracle in Rwanda. This is also a one-person play about a woman who survived the Rwandan Genocide by hiding in a tiny bathroom with seven other women. She deservedly received a standing ovation. Tomorrow night we'll see Impressing the Czar - a ballet about the rise of Western Civilisation. It's billed as being full of interesting choreography, multi media etc... Next week we'll see a production of Orpheus X.

It's all go around here!