In a break from blah blah theatre obsession, 

(well, not really a break actually but you might be fooled)

I've just run a lovely workshop for The Wee Review to try and get to the bottom of what the brand stands for.

It was fascinating for putting faces to names I've previously only read.

Fascinating for being such an engaging interesting group of people.

A nice dabble in my old world.

And what a topic. Reviewing the world of the arts.

It was great fun.

If you happen to be a small arts organisation reading this and tussling with how exactly to present your wares to the world, do shout. 

People are starting to email me asking about auditions which is ridiculously exciting. 

Many people have been kind enough to share the audition notice through social channels now that my rudimentary website is up if not running.

The Wee Review have been kind enough to write about it and included a very fetching photo of the Mary of Guise which makes me all sorts of nostalgic for The Tempest. Funny to think that there are still a handful of us going about Edinburgh who will always superimpose Chris and Helen and the bitches (which would make sense if you saw it) onto its top deck. 

So it seems it's possibly an actual thing that people are interested in. Who knew? 

In a weekend of perfect contrasts, I saw Dolittle on Saturday. As Peter Bradshaw says, "the family movie we didn't know we needed. Because we really didn't." The film is truly fascinating though for boasting such an all star cast and such a terrible script. I can only surmise that they all signed up for the pay check rather than the artistic opportunity. 

Parasite, on the other hand, is perfect. Perfectly formed. Perfectly filmed. Funny. Dark as you like. Tarantino-esque if the man had a proper heart. Bong Joon-ho clearly does. 

More Manipulate at the end of last week. I shall share when the reviews are live.

I've been for a chat with the wonderful David Calder who turned it superfast into a podcast episode for his Porty Podcast. 

I've been tinkering around with this. Realising now that contact details might be helpful so I feebly linked it to the Twitter account but it's a start. 

Of course what I haven't done is got anywhere near a script rewrite. Details. 

Surge Scotland's Pitch Event was also awesome. Clearly, I'm a great fan of artists being supported to develop new work...

I never ever like my sub copy lines but I was quite pleased with this one. And the show was sweet too.

A lovely day and a half. You know, I love seeing stuff. Shows and the like. And I love words. So really, it's hard to beat spending a day and a bit watching stuff and writing about it.

Manipulate started yesterday. 

I kicked it off with this which was funny, repeat back the lines afterwards because they make you chortle / you can't quite believe they could get away with saying such things. And at the same time, I think back and admire how they whisked you in a heartbeat from guffawing to holding your breath at the pathos of it. I want to do what you've done, Caitlin Skinner and Melanie Jordan. 

I saw a couple of things this afternoon - you'll have to wait in suspense to find out about them as they're not published yet.

And topped it off with an incredible thing called Sketches. Dance. Bach's Violin Concerto (in A Minor) played live by a string quintet. And a live DJ. At Summerhall. Aside from some fankling around with sightlines and trying to see as we were all on the flat and all left roaming, it was magic. Joyce and Mark Fisher were both in so I'm looking forward to finding out what it meant. But I don't know that I care too much as it was gorgeous. 

I think Manipulate has found its spiritual home. 

A message to Europe, this morning on the White Cliffs of Dover. Sound on. pic.twitter.com/E3VY8BaGjK

— Led By Donkeys (@ByDonkeys) January 31, 2020