It’s Raining Festivals…

The biblical rain is still falling here in Edinburgh from time to time, but the city is full of compensations for occasional – actually, frequent, if I’m honest – soakings now that the multiplicity of festivals are well underway.

As usual, a major problem is how on earth to decide what to see/hear. The Fringe programme is now so large and heavy that reading it qualifies as aerobic exercise, but the Book Festival programme is more manageable but still stuffed with goodies.

So far, I’ve been to Wagner in the main festival (wonderful, even on the unpadded wooden seats of the Usher Hall organ gallery) and Manual Cinema in the Fringe. Manual Cinema produce enormously atmospheric performances using puppets, silhouettes, and live music to tell stories, in the complete absence of dialogue. That somehow makes it sound ghastly… but it is extraordinary in an entirely positive way. Go and see this year’s production, ‘Lula del Ray’ and find out for yourself.

I was lucky enough to hear Sebastian Barry talking about my favourite book of 2017 – Days Without End – today at the Book Festival. He was lyrical and funny and fierce and passionate, and the book is breath-catchingly good.   Read. It. Now.

 

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