Trips and Visits

Sixth form theatre trip

The King's Theatre Edinburgh presented John Buchan's "The 39 Steps" adapted by Patrick Barlow, a play which has won the Best New Comedy, the Laurence Olivier Award and the whatsonstage.com award.

This was the first night in Edinburgh for this very slickly produced spoof and the entire audience were in stitches almost from the very beginning. Akin to French farce, but not quite like that genre, a cast of merely four were able, for example, to appear as if they were six by various costume stratagems so prestidigitatious that it was almost impossible for the eye to track exactly what was happening on stage. Sleight of hand, trompe l'oeuil, false cues, portable window frames; all were present!

The group from Coll returned in good spirits having been entertained to within an inch of their laughter max-out! Readers should book now if they can fit it into their social diaries: the show closes Saturday March 22^nd.

Second Lent leave-out

Usually a shopping trip heads south to Edinburgh or south west to Glasgow. Not this time, though; Aberdeen was the destination with a small detour for a spot of culture tourism thrown in. Dunnottar Castle near Stonehaven, just south of Aberdeen, host variously to St Ninian, William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots and the Marquis of Montrose.

This enormous flat-topped rock with sheer cliffs on three sides, jutting out into the North Sea, is occupied by a castle which famously held out against Cromwell's army for eight months, thereby saving the Scottish Crown jewels, "The Honours of Scotland", from destruction.

The shopping completed, the party returned to Pizza Express in Perth for an excellent meal and a cinema visit. Those who saw "Untraceable" emerged somewhat sombrely for the trip back to Coll!

 

Lent Panto

This should have been re-named "Cinderella, The Riot" as the cast produced a truly riotous show! Whilst the 6th form enjoyed Burns Night and the Junior School karaoked the night away, the 5th form were booing, cheering and singing "500 Miles" with tremendous enthusiasm (even those who had originally expressed a reluctance to see a pantomime!)