Edward Scissorhands

I'm one of those very lucky people who manages to get all of their celebrations over with in one chunk, leaving the rest of the year free for the peace and quiet of normality. As such, I have Christmas, then New Year, then my birthday in a great big swathe of festivity over the course of a few weeks.

I had a fantastic birthday this year. There were pancakes for breakfast, there were presents, there was lunch in my favourite local pub and in the evening I went to Sadler's Wells in London to see Matthew Bourne's "Edward Scissorhands". Last year I went to see his famous "Swan Lake" with the all-male corps of swans and it was amazing. I'd never been to see a ballet before and I was surprised that the narrative structure of the piece was so clear. I've since learned that this is one of the hallmarks of Bourne's choreography, and as I loved the film of "Edward Scissorhands" I was keen to see his adaptation. It was really good - it can genuinely be described as magical. It even had dancing topiary. Not many shows on in London at the moment can boast that.

Somehow I think that it's good for us to turn off the verbal bits of our brain sometimes and follow stories told through other means. This rings especially true if you're particularly verbose like me! So much can be conveyed through music and movement and you have the ability to lose yourself in the narrative far more when tales are told like this.

"Edward Scissorhands" is on until February 4th at Sadler's Wells, after which I think it's touring round the country. It's definitely well worth going to see.

http://www.edwardscissorhands.co.uk/
http://www.sadlerswells.com/

'Tis no longer the season to be jolly

The "festive" season is over for another twelve months. Woo hoo!

Possibly the most Christmassy thing I managed to do was go along to the Barbican in London for the "Make the Yuletide Gay" concert by the London Gay Men's Chorus. This is fast becoming an annual event for me. It's full of energy, there's a bit of audience participation, there's always a good crowd and it's a bit of festive fun for those of us who don't usually feel particularly festive. Having once made my home in the halls of residence of a 1960s concrete university, the architecture of the Barbican also feels comfortingly familiar.

Proceedings this year had an extra frisson of celebratory significance as Civil Partnerships had been legalised only a few days earlier. It felt good to share in the sense of liberation that was clearly in the air. Make no mistake, the government was absolutely right to pass the Civil Partnerships Act. From my point of view it makes complete sense and I'm not even gay. My boyfriend and I have been together for almost eight years. On the rare occasions when he gets very sick, or accidentally hurts himself, I worry. If he goes to hospital and they're wondering whether to pull the plug on him or not, I can't help them make that decision. I'm not his next of kin. Technically they don't even have to keep me informed of his condition. We could easily change all of that by getting married (we aren't likely to, but that's another story). It isn't fair that same sex couples haven't had that choice until now, alongside all the other multitude of things that frankly weren't fair and that Civil Partnerships will go some way towards sorting out.

Politics aside, the London Gay Men's Chorus are great. "Well worth coming out for" indeed.