ALASDAIR SATCHEL’S WEBLOG

Showing Off

Our gobbble rate of consuming other shows, in the flat, has been rather good of late. I think that between us we might very well have taken in a huge wodge of the festival, both the International and Fringe festivals.

For me the highlight was the Steve Reich Evening at the Festival Theatre. It was amazing. I know I'm starting to sound toadying, again, but it really bowled me over. I've never seen dancers with such personality. Very often when you see a dancer move on stage they are just choreographed individuals, following the line of the choreographer, without any hint of their own personality. That can be really interesting, and I do love the regimented feel of such work, having recently been introduced to the work of Bob Fosse by Messers Hawthorne and Hunter.

The choreographer, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, made her name working with the music of Steve Reich over 25 years ago, and this piece was a retrospective of her work with his music. It was simply awesome, both Mr Captain “Obadiah” Fagan and I were incredibly taken with the work.

Saturday night was a great success at St Bride’s, we had 120 in the audience, and what fun we had with them. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we ended up having a wee ceilidh back at our palace until nearly 6 in the morning! Miss Annie Grace and my friend, the very talented Aly Macrae, provided the cornerstone of the ceilidh. What a talented rotter Aly is. A very fine fiddle player, remarkable songwriter, great actor and thoroughly lovely chap. What a rotter.

Sunday took us out to visit Mark, our director's house, outside Edinburgh. What a lovely situation he lives in. Most of the cast made it along and we consumed barbecued meats and Pims a-plenty, then went for a wee stroll along the beach. It was a lovely, lovely afternoon, and I can't tell you how good it felt to see trees and fields again. I can feel the itch to get out of town soon.

This afternoon sees us going to John Lewis' window to advertise the show... I think we're going to have some silly fun.

© Alasdair Satchel, 2008

Links

• Mull Theatre
• Right Lines