I spent the afternoon at a top class production of “A Christmas Carol”. It was a clever adaptation of the classic Dickens tale, performed in the spacious Birmingham Rep with all the magic that modern theatre can bring to the stage. Sound, lighting, costume, scenery, musicians and actors all seamlessly fashioned into a highly polished show.
Driving back down Broad Street through the wet night, I was taken by the colourful Christmas lights. The top corners of the minibus’ windscreen where the wipers didn’t reach blurred the bright lighting on the Birmingham "Eye", which is a huge, contemporary ferris wheel. As we crawled through commuter traffic, I was reminded of similar nights long ago, when as a small boy I could lay full length across the back seat of my father's first tiny car, counting street lamps as they came and went, seemingly endlessly, on long journeys home from even longer days out.
