"Do it again with an air of paradox" is a line delivered to the actor portraying Adam Smith giving a lecture at Glasgow University way back in 17whatever in Adam Smith, Le Grand Tour at The French Institute.

Two actors romp their way against a filmed background on a tour of Adam Smith's life and work.  They jump in and out of the film which includes vox pop interviews with tourists and locals beside his statue in the High Street and culminates in the laying of flowers on his grave in the Canongate Kirk.  While very entertaining and quite humorous it's an intellectual play (as befits one written by a professor of economics) and in trying to get to know Smith the paradox they explore is his appropriation to the position of great God of the free market obscuring his stature as a moral philosopher and arguably against the balance of his thinking. 

How To Be A Modern Marvel, also at The French Institute, struck me as a bit of a paradox.  It's nicely done in an informal staging that simulates being in someone's living room.  We are presented with the induction of someone into a sales sorority and when the product is revealed to us it's tupperware type plastic goods. This is an exploration of the way in which women were able to move from housewifery to employment in the 50s and 60s without putting in jeopardy their ability to get the kids to school and have their husbands tea on the table at the right time. 

Now I know that one of the things that British retirees living in France extol is how close to the golden days of British yore is the French way of life.  The play is satirical but surely even in France in this day and age it's purely a historical satire.  For the sake of French girls I hope so.

Yvonne Guilbert was a belle epoque caberet artiste who had that Je Ne Sais Quoi and the show of  that name, again at The French Institute, is a delightful medley of many of her songs.

Those three shows are in English by the way and even the songs, necessarily sung in French, have super titles.

Last but certainly not least yesterday was The Scottish Saxophone Ensemble and Guests at Summerhall.  This was a one off concert so however good it was, and it was very good, you've missed it.