Music, comedy, tragedy, incongruity it was like a game of Wordle. Sometimes I loved it sometimes I felt there was a language divide, a generational split, a seismic shifting of societal plates, off message, on message, loud, bright, dark, quiet, burke, hare, old and new Edinburgh.
A Paisley buddy interloper is presented to us, joining the refined masonic establishment.
I knew some of the people the cast were playing. I identified with some and not with others, but this is theatre, it's panto, it's designed to do everything and from a musical perspective all we were missing was Status Quo "Rocking all over the world", Life Support's "the penny drops as the mushroom rises" and Orange juice's "Rip it up."
I can picture the young Fred going along to the Bungalow bar in his late teens watching the punks overspill from Glasgow in 77, then Orange juice, Aztec Camera and so many more. As an introverted wee baddie oops, laddie, I'm sure he had it all growing up and yet it wasn't enough.
It's not well documented just how many bad decisions were made by boards up and down the country. Judging by one old gentleman who left at the interval, they were happy to keep it that way. The faceless wonders who move the pawns around the board have always held fascination for a wee boy like me with a love of torches.
"Shine the light" wasn't one of the songs but there were a lot of songs making this a borderline panto musical.
ROAD TO DAMASCUS
In my mind there was a wee guy with one lie, that he used ruthlessly to climb the tree. When he looked up and saw there were no branches ahead he had a Damascean moment. He went from finding folk with no perceived value and binning them to finding folk who perceived value. It's like the emperor's got no clothes, do you know any emperors like me. Finding me a bunch of naked people. Yep no problem boss.
So a guy who cared only about the bottom line then changed to only caring about what people thought the bottom line meant.
It's true that Gold varies in price. The momentum behind gold makes it look unstoppable but what use is it. It's perceived value and Fred works out it's even easier to show higher profits if you alter perception.
This was used by Carrillion, Maxwell and many others. Higher dividends often signal a business growing so one in freefall can hide among the column inches as it's profits tumble if it keeps putting it's dividend up. They have letters for it and not all are vowels. EBITDAM was popular during the Enron years.
So in short, Fred only had one truth on the way up so he needed a new one.
Had he been worshipping profit or listening to false prophets? We'll never know but he stopped believing in profit and started to believe in the perceived prophecies. This new religion proved the cult it was and by now, he was, of course, the count of Gogarburn.
Not happy with worshipping he decided the worshippers should follow the one true disciple. He was Adam Smith's biggest fan. This was indeed a stalkers sad and tawdry tale.
What makes it sad is not that his God is dead some 200+ years, many religions like to have grave to visit. What makes it sad is that it had become fashionable finance to choose chunks of the wealth of nations in front of people as financial fact, as political economy, an ideolgy.
Hubris is weaved into the narrative at the beginning and the end. Gently placed to remind us where he came from, not where he'll return.
The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.
Fred had neither and he found that out, like Maxwell before him, as Michelle Mone is now. Prophet's of perception. Fred might've demanded the Queen open Gogarburn but I'm sure she would've taken more pride in closing it as i'm sure Charlie's private office will find a way to make it part of his wee portfolio.
Washed up at 50 and clearly confused by what just happened. From my side of the table I could tell him.
The crowd loved seeing Brian Cox play himself. Something about an old grumpy bastard telling it as it is appeals. Some of the lines were so well set up they tripped over them laughing. It was hysterical watching it, befuddling too. You can't keep complex thoughts going when there's such a big joker wearing a clown hat and appearing in a puff of smoke.
When it was sinister it really left me confused. I'm 62 now and had real problems keeping up. I asked afterwards whether I'm just too old and not any good at theatre. Happily I got as mixed a reaction as the audience had displayed.
I'll hopefully find out in the coming weeks if the standing applause was for Brian Cox coming over from his home in LA to give the Dundee Rep a formal and fun time farewell. It certainly will give them a boost. The cast all looked very happy at the encores. They should be, it was a long hard and busy night. I found it mesmerising as the scenery seamlessly slid off the stage with a silvery sleight of hand. I really did like the loolipop gag. I do want to try and understand why we had Franz Ferdinand one minute and Fred singing Mr Blue Sky in Fingers the next. Are we back into taking artistic licence. I really do savour my theatre experiences, with digestion lasting easily a month. It can't just provoke a frivolous thought in the moment for me. I do want more.
I'll also be happy to find out why the gentleman left at the interval. Edinburgh is indeed a village and these stories get out. If they don't, we just make up another, it's Edinburgh.
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."
The first commandment from the prophecy of perceived profitability.
