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From the Welsh Proms to The 39 Steps July 30th, 2013

On the weekend Lisa and I were in Cardiff, Wales, to visit my friend and occasional songwriting collaborator Grahame Davies, the Welsh poet, novelist, and historian.  Grahame and his family took us to see the Last Night of the Welsh Proms, where we enjoyed a rousing performance of classical and folk music by the Welsh National Opera Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes at St David’s Hall.  From Cardiff, we journeyed to London, where, after spending a day in the warrens of the Camden Town Market, we attended the Criterion Theatre’s hilarious send-up of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (very loosely based on John Buchan’s novel The Thirty-Nine Steps).  If you’re a serious Buchan fan and dislike radical adaptations of his work, don’t go see this play, but if you love to laugh and have a good time, it’s well worth the price of admission.