Strand's Shadow

I saw another excellent lunchtime play at the Traverse: the very ribald, funny and poignant "A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity" by Douglas Maxwell. One of the best bits was the shocked Edinburgh lady's gasp that came somewhere from behind me when the 'c' word was first used (about 20 seconds into the play). It's on tomorrow and Saturday. I recommend it.

I emerged into stark, bleached-out sunshine and was very taken with the shadows of passers by on the pavement outside the Usher Hall. The muddle of lines and shapes and people brought to mind the work of early to mid-20th century American photographer Paul Strand. (I was lucky enough to meet his widow in the 1990s, while working on a TV feature about a retrospective of his at the Edinburgh Portrait Gallery.)