The ghosts in question were the traces of slavery haunting Glasgow's Merchant City. In something like a promenade performance a downloaded app on your phone would lead you through the streets listening to the story of slavery and with the wonders of augmented reality transforming the city on your screen.
Naturally I jumped at it and set off to Glasgow. Andrew came up from Ayr. We lunched in a restaurant for the first time since "eat out to help out" then launched into the promised land of augmented reality. It turned out to be the dampest of damp squibs. At location 1 nothing appeared on my screen. At location 2 a few squiggly yellow lines which I interpreted as the bow of a ship, wrongly as I learnt later. At location 3 nothing. At location 4 some lapping waves at the bottom of the screen and pinpricks of white light that might have been meant to be stars. At location 5 some of those squiggly yellow lines appeared on the Museum of Modern Art's pillars and we cried "hold, enough!" The building should have crumbled into dust before my eyes as I discovered when I watched one of the online performances intended for those with hearing and vision problems. I wasn't terribly excited by the audio either which Mark Fisher in The Guardian described as poetic rather than dramatic.
Casting that disappointment aside we set off in search of a drink. That was harder than you might imagine. Glasgow was en fête. The streets were awash with outdoor drinking facilities all of which were crammed full but eventually we got into a marquee in Buchanan Street, navigating our way through opening accounts and scanning QR codes en route.
That's been the big excitement of the last few weeks - outdoor drinking. I've done a fair bit in various spots in Edinburgh, some I confess where it may have been officially discouraged.
Nothing in the way of theatres, concert halls or cinemas has yet been open so I've had to fall back on the internet like everyone else. Some good stuff some bad.
Tennis Elbow is I believe painful and the play of that name in the Lyceum's Soundstage series was just that.
A Splinter of Ice about a meeting between Graham Greene and Kim Philby in Moscow some years after the latter's defection was quietly engaging to someone who vividly remembers the headlines in the newspapers he was delivering when Burgess and Maclean took flight.
Pink Mist about the post conflict stresses on men deployed to Afghanistan (and their families) was very good and had echos of Black Watch about it.
Phèdre had a set that I really liked and I liked the play as much as I like all the old Greek stuff, that is not a lot try as I might.
Hymn was a bromance worth seeing. This review tells it all.
All My Sons and Private Lives had the excellent productions that their status as classics entitles them to and Into The Woods which is surely on its way to being a modern classic had the most wonderful staging in the open air theatre in Regent's Park backed up by first-class performances.
Iphigenia in Splott was a tour de force of a one woman show in which the protagonist suffers more slings and arrows than your average punter but will not be defeated. The connection to the old Greek stuff it was explained to me lies in the meaning of the name Iphigenia. Look it up.
I was delighted to catch the film Colette which I missed in the cinema. It stars one of my faves Keira Knightley who deserves the Guardian's plaudits.
I suppose heartwarming is the description that we should give to Queen of Katwe a film based on the true story of a young Ugandan girl from a poor background who turns out to be an ace chess player. It was a very enjoyable film, well produced and well acted as you might expect from Disney.
I've had my second Covid jag and an eyetest after a two year lag though it seems my eyes haven't suffered much and life has gone on.
I enjoyed the Masters golf though I've already forgotten who won itt
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