Stirling Stuff

Ballet West will dance Romeo and Juliet at the Macrobert Centre in Stirling tonight and tomorrow and with any luck  I will be in the audience tomorrow night to cheer them.  I enjoyed their Swan Lake and  The Nutcracker very much and I have high hopes of this production.

The company has already performed at The Corran Halls in Oban and by all accounts they did very well. The following message appeared on their Facebook page:

"Congratulations to the entire cast of Romeo & Juliet!! Each and every one of you were outstanding! A special well done to the outreach students, you were brilliant! Thank you also to the artistic and admin staff, chaperones, technical crew and wardrobe! Hope you're all ready for tonight's performance!!"

These shows are the only time I get to see Jonathan and Sara-Maria Barton who are accomplished performers as well as teachers at the school. I was very impressed with both of them in Odette's seduction scene last year.

Stirling is in one of our finest cities. Although it has fewer than 50,000 inhabitants it has the feel of a metropolis. It was for a time the capital of Scotland. Like Edinburgh it has an ancient castle built on a volcanic mound and the splendid Church of the Holy Rude where King James VI of Scotland and I of England was crowned. For the last 50 years Stirling has been a university town with a fine research university with the science park and Macrobert Centre.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is discouraging with high winds and driving snow threatened for both sides of the border but Ballet West, like a Michelin restaurant vaut le voyage.