The view of Edinburgh's skyline from in front of Inverleith House has always been one of my favourites and Monday morning's mist lent it an extra je ne sais quoi.  The mist was soon replaced by glorious blue skies and warm Spring sunshine that was no doubt further encouragement to the rhododendrons and other plants in the Botanics whose buds can scarcely contain their impatient flowers.

After my stroll around the gardens I spent a little while watching the controlled mayhem taking place in Inverleith park under a banner reading EPSSA, which I hazard to guess stands for Edinburgh Primary Schools Sports Association.  Countless kids were milling about being marshalled by loudhailing adults into appropriate groups to run around the park.  I don't know if prizes were being awarded but I hope if they were there were a few to spare for the teachers whose task looked to me a lot harder than that of the runners.

I suppose it's a hard task to turn a popular novel and even more popular film into a stage play.  Get Carter at the Citizens was such a play.  I knew nothing about either the book or the film so was judging the work purely on what I saw and heard.  The staging was super; a vast mountain of bricks behind a foreground space that served as laying out parlour, casino, bar and numerous other spaces with the adroit addition or removal of key bits and pieces.  A drum kit sat down left and was played from time to time by the main protagonist's dead brother.

The first half worked well for me.  Little shafts of light were shed on the plot, characters were drawn, tension built up and I went out at the interval full of expectation for an interesting second act.  Unfortunately it all got a bit convoluted and silly. Multiple deaths occurred, revelations tumbled over one another and it all seemed a waste of an afternoon.