We've been away to Amsterdam for a few days recently, and Alice is itching to finish editing her photos. As I have pointed out before, she's an out-and-out perfectionist, so that will take just ages. There are an awful lot of them too, including, of course, some of me and Ba enjoying the visit. [Don't forget you can click to see them larger.]
Oh dear, I wish I'd never said "out-and-out", as although the meaning is obvious, Alice has just wasted fifteen minutes or more Googling away trying to find the origin of the phrase, with no luck. Stop!
Right. I've insisted she has to catch up here first, after promising in our last post to come up with more about the visit of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards to Scotland during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
It all happened at Summerhall, where I also went last year, before Ba felt confident enough to attend such public events.But this time she was more adventurous, and admitted she enjoyed the courtyard space, especially the many flowers and plants.
As you can see here. And here too.
We also came across two most unexpected figures.
Look what we found in the Ladies' Loo of the Royal Dick bar! Buddha of the toilet? Alice was praying no-one would come in and wonder what on earth she was doing with us and a camera. [Do click!]
Summerhall used to be known as the Dick Vet, the University's Veterinary College, before they moved elsewhere: it was founded by Willian Dick. We found this huge turquoise gorilla extremely friendly. And there's a nice little tea and coffee outdoor cafe behind us.
But to get to the shows... The queue would gather here for the performances in the Upper Church Gallery. It was the Workcenter's first visit to the UK, and Alice says we were privileged to be able to see them here for nine days. It was quite an experience: it blew my socks off, as they say. (Why socks? Have a look at Quora and the video there.)
Open this one on a new page or tab to see it larger and take in the extent of the programme. We went to all of it, apart from the workshop, as it clashed with Amsterdam, and was rather expensive.
When the queue were eventually allowed to move inside, we had a few flights of stairs to climb. Because we were actually at the top of this old building, apparently round the corner from the main Summerahll complex, but now part of the organisation.
Hope Park Church Galleries once had a religious purpose, being the former Hope Park and Buccleuch Congregational Church, built in 1876 and designed to seat 730 worshippers. See the history of Summerhall here.
This is the original door. Rather attractive, don't you think? But it wasn't open during the Fringe.
Here is a corner of the topmost space, with sofas, rugs, stools and chairs for us in the audience. We were given tea, coffee, juice or water to drink, and little cakes or sandwiches, to make us feel at home in this "in the round" (really in a square) Living Room setting.There's a video on YouTube showing selected parts of the piece, from a previous performance elsewhere. Do have a look at the informative blurb that goes with it.
There's an interesting interview with Thomas Richards, and a review of The Living Room in the Herald Scotland.
The most amazing part of the performance (and the others we witnessed) was the fantastic singing which broke out every now and again. Apparently they were mainly Afro-Caribbean songs. You could tell they were singing with the whole of their bodies. It was awesome. The sheer power of the reverberations made me tingle right down to the tip of my tail! Alice said she felt it deep in her belly. Ba was slightly scared, having heard nothing like it before, but cheered up when reassured no-one meant her any harm.
There's lots more could be said about the Workcenter, and Grotowski's heritage: try this video for starters (it is in English). But you'll have to research any more for yourselves as Alice needs her sleep now.
