Hail the Sunshine

These past two days have been glorious: the sunshine has been belting out over Edinburgh; I sat for hours in the meadows, just chatting with my friends or reading; I even got slightly burnt, which was not something I ever thought I'd be happy about. It's continuing today, but of course one can't just sit in the meadows all the time when there's revision to be done. Although, one might well try anyway- Poppy is making a valiant effort to actually accomplish things in the meadows, and if she manages to break any kind of ground, perhaps I'll join her.

On Friday, there was a script reading day at a theatre called Discovery 21- I submitted a new script I'd just finished called Wrapped in an Enigma. There were seven scripts read in total and the overall standard was extremely high- somehow, though, mine was selected to be performed in May. This may sound like crocodile modesty or worse that I am fishing for compliments, but honestly I genuinely didn't expect mine to be chosen: I was very much expecting to have pull a Helen Mirren.

But instead I literally did a double take as my script was announced to be one of three being produced. It's going on the 3rd May for one night- this is splendid because it gives me something to look forward to in the middle of my exams, and also, since it will be produced before my exams finished, it means that I'll reach my 50 productions before I graduate, and it's always nice to achieve goals, no matter how completely arbitrary.

While at the reading day I received what I think might have been the nicest review of my life- and remember, I 've been compared to Robbie Coltrane. Twice.
For some reason, one of the actors at the reading day had brought his two children with him, the younger of whom looked to be eight or nine. I was a bit perturbed by this, since my script contained a lot of sexual references and bad language, but their father said it was fine, so they sat through my script and five more after that. I have to admit that they behaved themselves very well throughout the evening- much better than I ever did when my parents took me to cultural events at their age; afterwards, the younger one walked up to me and pronounced 'I thought you wrote a very interesting piece'. I was very tempted to ask him if he'd understood what my script had been about but my mother taught me to just take compliments, so I decided not to question his dramaturgical qualifications. I tried to think of something to say other than 'thank you' and so asked him if the actor who'd bought him was his father- he replied 'yes, he's very funny: he talks to cupboards.' I had no reply to this.
This conversation reiterated a point that has become clear to me over the past few years: I have no idea how to talk to children. I can talk to babies and toddlers, because they can only respond rudimentarily, but when they can actually contribute to the discussion, I become lost about what to talk about with them. I'm reminded of when I met one of my neighbours' grandsons and said, in quite a patronising tone, 'you've got nice hair, haven't you?' He said 'yes, I do' and I couldn't help but feel that he'd won- he was evidently more conversationally adept than I was, in addition to possessing a self-confidence beyond his years and nice hair. My inability to converse with children will of course become more of an obstacle as Travis grows older. He starts school next week (and, trust me, that makes me feel old) and the last time I saw him, he was able to pull off some pretty neat conversational tricks- including telling jokes at Mel's expense- so it may soon be that I will be at a loss as to what to talk about with him, and this just as he finally learns who I am and what my name is.