Who needs foreign travel when the sun shines in Edinburgh?  The question I asked myself as I lunched al fresco in George Street on the eve of my departure for the Dolomite ski slopes.

I'd made the humdrum trip into town to buy socks to keep my skiing feet toasty but was seduced by the warm Spring sunshine into taking a table at Browns.  They served me the nicest fishcake I've eaten in years followed by some tasty lamb sausages and quite whetted my appetite for embarking on a summer project to lunch in all the pavement eateries in George Street.  I also spied a place called Veeno in Rose Street that offers a multitude of Italian wines and a few snacks that I've pencilled in for a visit sometime.

On my way along Rose Street I discovered work going on to transform the former Charlotte Baptist Chapel into a theatre.  News to me, and exciting news too but old news to Google.  Planning permission for the project was given to the Danish ballet director Peter Schaufuss a year ago.  But as the Scotsman article pointed out at the time there is a deal of difference between permission and completion.  Luckily it looks as though it's well on its way.  With the new hall to be built for the SCO at the back of St Andrew Sq. and a concert hall in the former Royal High when St Mary's Music School takes it over (assuming the overblown and unwanted hotel project for the building is quashed) there will be oodles of places for culture vultures to wallow in.

The high spot of my recent cultural wallowing was undoubtedly Northern Ballet's Casanova.   It was a tremendous show.  Staging, costumes, lighting, music, choreography were all superb and the athleticism of the dancers quite staggering.  You can see bits of it on Northen Ballet's site and read a review here.  It's on tour till May and is a must see for dance fans, but make sure you read the story line before you go to fully enjoy the work.

The story line of Le Malade Imaginaire is well known and Les Escogriffes, who it turns out are alive and kicking after all, impart it well enough but their production was less than riveting in comparison with how the Italian students had presented their Goldoni piece.  They were also a little unwise in not binning the interlude ballet bits that no doubt thrilled the 17th century theatre goer but do nothing for modern tastes.  So I could have been better entertained but it was quite a fun evening all the same and I couldn't fault the company for effort.

It was going to see Arkle's production of Da that alerted me to Le Malade Imaginaire because it was taking place in the  same building and still had a night to run. Da has been described as a bitter-sweet father and son drama.  The curtain rises on a expatriate Irish writer who has returned home for his adoptive father's funeral sitting in the old family home and on the brink of leaving. The play follows his reflections on his relationship with his parents and the events of his youth.  The twist is that his father, mother, younger self and other characters from the past all take part in the action.  It's a clever device and is neatly employed but there is not a lot in the piece that is not present in other works of reminiscence.

It was nicely staged and on the whole I thought the cast worked well.  I have to declare a personal interest in as much as I should have auditioned for the part of the father had I known about it in time.  I thought Charlie made quite a good fist of the part but... Being critical I think the production let itself down when sound effects that should have come from the back of the audience came from the back of the stage.

Family relationships of quite a different stripe are the subject matter of Noel Coward's comedy Hay Fever.  Mark Fisher's review in The Guardian is the most interesting I've seen and having read it I can certainly see the connections with Shakespeare and Albee but didn't join the dots when I was at the show.