Question: What do you do when you get to 65 and still want to do politics, but differently?
Answer: You take to the boards and try your hand at a bit of comedy.Making a Holy Show of Myself: an Abortion Monologue with Anne Rossiter was an entertaining hour. Ms Rossiter wholly showed that this crucial part of women's lives, whether as folks who've had one or hoped never to have one or supported friends and family through one, can also be a source of stand up at the fringe. It also gets more awareness raised about the inequality for N. Irish women who are excluded from the rest of the UK legislation.
However, I also discovered that it is not possible for a woman living in Scotland to get a legal abortion over 20 weeks, she has to go to London for this. This is shrinking our rights by stealth and really needs to be campaigned on. Quite frankly, if you do not have a womb this is not your business. Obviously I am not including those who no longer have a womb - duh!
Friday, and a change of pace; I discovered the dance festival and immediately scooted along to the one show I could get to. Not What I Had in Mind by Robin Dingemans was marvellous. I loved it and was getting really into the intense atmospheric mood created by this dancer and the percussionist, when it was very nearly ruined.
The type of parent who brings out in me all the stereotypes I try not to buy into such as earth mother, pushy parent, finger-painting, always putting the child first, mumsnet, piss off everyone else who can only do their best etc etc, brought her pre-verbal toddler into the show. The child, a sweet little creature happily and loudly gurgled and burbled away and jumped up and down, without any signs from aforementioned pain of a parent taking responsibility to shush the kid. Imagine how the atmosphere was wrecked and I cannot praise the dancer highly enough in the way he managed to maintain focus through the ensuing fuss that went on.
Eventually the parent and child removed themselves. Naturally, she had the brass neck to demand her money back and complain that she'd checked that it would be ok to take the child into the performance. It was Friday evening, the child should have been in bed. I know Edinburgh is not a child-friendly city and I'd happily support measures to change that, but there is a time and a place for kids and this was not it.
Most of the rest of the audience were incandescent, I was merely furious. There is no way to go back and see this again and I feel aggrieved at this lost opportunity to experience an emotional and exciting modern dance as perfectly as it was intended.
There seems to be a pattern emerging this festival - I keep going to shows where some annoying audience member disturbs the flow of the act in some way or other. Or am I just being intolerant?
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