Time to party

On being lucky enough to get an invitation to go the dress rehearsal of Jules Horne's new play, 'Thread', which is being put on by Nutshell Theatre as their piece for the Edinburgh Fringe this year, Mountain Man and I tore ourselves away from the Olympics late yesterday afternoon and drove off to the city.

We started off with a Thai meal at Spirit of Thai, just opposite The Usher Hall and very near to the location for the production. I've been there quite a few times before, though a few years ago, and luckily it hasn't really changed. I seemed to have forgotten about the portion sizes and we ordered far too much food and found ourselves with a doggy bag to drag to the theatre with us. It was a lovely meal though and we finished in good time.

When we were invited, we were asked to bring a piece of 'Troc' with us and for me it was hard to choose what I would take. My mother has the habit of buying us pretty awful souvenirs when she travels, which she does about 3 times a year. What I do is put the piece to one side and then after a couple of years I take it to the Charity shop. Out of the three pieces that immediately came to hand I chose a rather distasteful ashtray made from a tin can that had been cut and pared down to make it look "pretty", which I'm sure my mother bought somewhere in North Africa, but I can't be sure ... there's really no accounting for taste, but I'm sure someone somewhere will have thought this was a delightful gift! Anyway, Kate, the Director was suitably grateful.

Last year at the Festival I saw Jules's last play, also put on by Nutshell, called Allotment, which went on to win a prize. I loved it and wrote a tiny bit about it on this blog (which if you're interested you can read here). Both that play and this make the audience feel part of the play itself, as though we are integral and the action almost couldn't take place without us, which is an interesting theatrical device and works well.

Thread starts with a Beetle Drive and we, the audience, were split into teams to play. MM and I were paired with two, lovely young girls, both rather on the theatrical side (!), and surprise, surprise one of them was also called Vee! Anyway, we won. I was thrilled we didn't win back the hideous tin ashtray my mother had given us, and instead were given a Teddy, which the other Vee immediately decided was her's and to which the rest of us were quite happy to relinquish any claim.

I'm not going to tell you too much about the play in case you decide to go yourself, but suffice it to say although it begins with much hilarity, we get drawn into the complexity of the three characters interwoven lives and it is very poignant, to the extent I was almost brought to tears in places. It's on at Venue 175 in case you're wondering.

At the end, Young Vee came up and gave me an invite to a party on Sunday night. The company she's working for are putting something on at the Fringe, but they're having a 'do' to celebrate the start. A 'theatrical' party... oh yes!

And now it's time to hit the road. Mountain Man and I are off to Drumnadrochit, near Inverness, for a ceilidh party tonight. We were asked to wear a bit of tartan and it just so happens that while I was out in Edinburgh the other day I spotted a pair of very cheap, purple tartan trews, which I do realise are more than a 'bit of tartan' but I've never been one to hold back! At least they should be comfortable to swing around in and I'm sure you'll agree are very fetching. My only worry is that people will think I've gone in my pj's!

My new purple tartan trews