My birthday falls on the 5th of November. Here in the United Kingdom, that’s a special occasion known as Guy Fawkes’ Night (or sometimes just Bonfire Night). If you’ve ever seen V for Vendetta, you’ll know more or less what I’m on about: basically in 1605 this Guy Fawkes character led an assault on the then-English Parliament, with the intention of blowing up the House of Lords and assassinating the King. The attempt failed, Fawkes and his fellow conspirators were hanged, drawn and quartered, and to this day we still celebrate that the treason never took place. Yes, even here in Scotland where we don’t feel particularly warmly or fuzzily about the Crown or the House of Lords or the London Parliament or any of that stuff. But hey, a party’s a party, and where I’m from, the 5th of November is definitely a party.

A beautiful introduction to the show: a great deal of fire performers and some slow-motion fireworks.