Revisiting a book and opinion

 

Comet In Moominland by Tove Jannson /Translated by Elizabeth Portch (Puffin Books)

Over the weekend I got in to a discussion about the Moomins with some other readers - and they seemed surprised that I find them freaky and scary. Others joined in the conversation and wondered if (like in their partner's case) I was actually thinking of the 1980s cartoon rather than then books.

As I've loved lots of Jansson's other work for adults I did wonder if perhaps it was the cartoon that had scared me so I did go back and read one of the Moomin books.

I can now say that while I also don't like the cartoons I also don't like the books - for some reason they do just give me the bad type of goose bumps when I'm reading.

The plot idea behind Comet in Moominland was really interesting and probably the first brush a lot of readers have with sci-fi  but even that couldn't save it for me. 

It was a quick read, and a good escape from the weekend's bad weather but I won't be reading the rest - however after reading Jansson's Notes from an Island earlier in the autumn I do wholeheartedly recommend that!

Theatre 2015: Review Fourteen

High Society, The Old Vic, London. June 2015.

As a rule Rebecca and I don't see many musicals but this one proved too tempting - a venue we like, at least one actor that we admire and an impressive artistic director - it all added up to a must see.  Added to that very reasonable ticket prices and no planned engineering works/strikes on the trains meant we skipped off to London midweek quite happily.

I certainly wasn't sure what we were going to see - I'd neither seen the film version of High Society nor The Philadelphia Story but that didn't matter as the story telling on stage was very clear from the beginning.  We were in a wealthy American household, somewhere on the East Coast, to celebrate the second marriage of a wealthy woman.  That the groom to be wasn't suitable or liked was obvious.  Thrown into the mix was the ex-husband (much loved by the rest of the family) and a threatened scandal involving a journalist and photographer...

That the plot was so clear was a real plus point as often I found the sound balance to be out meaning that the dialogue was unclear, occasionally inaudible, especially during some of the musical numbers.
The staging also baffled me.  Currently the Old Vic is configured into the round and so the stage space itself felt very cramped, and in some seats the audience had no where to put their feet save on the acting space. This stage design did allow for multiple entrance and exit points which were well used and it was well used in an acting sense - no part of the auditorium felt like it was neglected/unplayed - but for me I thought the production needed the pomp and status that a proscenium arch theatre can give.  As for the number of props needed for each scene and carried on by the ensemble, well I think that they may have had more stage time than the main cast.

Oh dear, this is all sounding terribly negative and while it wasn't the best afternoon at the theatre I've had it was still entertaining and a feast for the eyes.  I think I'd compare it to a Chinese takeaway - at the time you are satisfied but very quickly you realise that you are hungry again!

The highlights for me were certainly the male leads - Dexter, Mike and Uncle Willie plus the little sister Dinah.  They had great roles to perform and fabulous voices to do them justice.  There were some funny lines and witty staging but overall no more than pleasant fluff.  It all felt a little overblown in the wrong way and it really pains me to have to say so,

Theatre 2015: Review Eleven

Shakespeare in Love, Noel Coward Theatre, London. April 2015.

Apologies for the radio silence - April has been an important study month with two essays to research and write.  I've broken the back of them now and so time to catch up on other areas!

Way back at the start of the month a friend and I went to London on a whim to see Shakespeare in Love. For me it was a recommended play/film for my Shakespeare's Legacy course and my friend is also studying Shakespeare currently.

This was a delightful way to spend the afternoon, the play followed the film throughout and now that I have spent a few years studying the Bard I found it a lot funnier than I recall. In fact at a couple of points my friend and I found ourselves laughing at lines that others in the audience didn't...

The set for this play was magnificent and very clever as it moved back and forth to show the different locations in which the action takes place.  Some of my favourite parts were very simple, for instance when Shakespeare is in the row boat cast members dip hands in and out of buckets of water to create the sound effects.  The use of the actors to move the scenery was very well done, and I liked the way that most of them appeared on stage throughout. It did remind me in someways of Elizabethan/Jacobean theatre as staged in the two theatres at the Globe but was still modern. It mixed the styles very well.

Sadly this play closed in the middle of April but I hear rumours that it will be going on tour and if it does then I do recommend trying to see it.  It is a fun romp that leaves you with a smile and sometimes that is just what you want from a play. This is the first film-to-play show that I've seen and I think that it worked very well, I do wonder if a lot of this is due to the fact that Tom Stoppard (renowned playwright) wrote the script to the film.

There is also an adorable dog in the play who steals the show entirely in the couple of scenes he appears in - although I'm not sure he deserved the biggest cheer at the end!

Theatre 2015: Review Six

Edward Scissorhands (ballet), Theatre Royal, Norwich. February 2015.

It has been nearly two weeks since I saw this and yet I still find myself at a loss when trying to write about it.  For all the right reasons I hasten to add - it was a piece of perfect theatre.

I'm pretty sure I saw the movie back in the 1990s but again I went to see a Matthew Bourne ballet knowing very little of the plot intricacies and once more it didn't matter - the story just unfolded naturally in front of me.

Often theatre reviewers and critics say that if you notice things like the scenery and the lighting then there is something lacking in the event but in this case absolutely everything was perfect and worked together - you were supposed to notice the lights, the nets etc. At the end I was crying and yet hadn't realised that this was the case.

I came out of the performance gobsmacked that there were empty seats and it is only because I couldn't fit it in that I wasn't back at the Box Office buying tickets to see this again and again.  The one thing I feel bad about it telling my mum that she has to see this only to find that her local theatre isn't showing it.

Theatre 2015: Review One

Miss Saigon, Prince Edward's Theatre, London. January 2015.

Start as you mean to go on I say, and did as my first trip to the theatre in 2015 took place just three days in and involved my husband, mum and dad!

Our Christmas present to each other this past Christmas was tickets to see the revival of Miss Saigon, I'd seen it on tour a few years back. mum and dad had seen the original (with the original cast) and Mr Norfolkbookworm hadn't seen it but was convinced enough by the rest of us that he'd enjoy it.

The story is a reworking of the Puccini opera Madame Butterfly, set during and after the Vietnam War and is a full throttle musical spectacle from curtain up.  It is not for the faint hearted or prudish as some of each act is set in a brothel but it is breath taking and overwhelming in just the right way.

Thanks to my studies into the theatre there were very clever bits of staging and use of lighting that I noticed but that obviously worked as none of my family mentioned them for good or bad afterwards, but I do think that I have been conditioned a little by so many plays at the Globe.  This is a sad story and ends abruptly in someways and I did expect the cast to get up and either dance a jig or sing a final chorus which didn't happen!

A great way to start the New Year of theatre going off and I am pleased that we managed to get good, reasonable seats for this, Mr Norfolkbookworm and I won't be planning another trip to the show but we certainly did enjoy it and came out of the theatre with a real ear-worm which is just what you want from a piece of musical theatre!

Picture of Kim and Chris taken from the Telegraph Review.

We were lucky that we'd decided to see this and not Les Miserables as our treat for on the day we saw the show there was a small fire at Les Mis and the performance was stopped after just 20 minutes!

Theatre 2014: Review Twelve

Cats. Theatre Royal Norwich. April 2014.

Although my love of theatre did start a while ago with musicals (a trip to see Les Miserables at 13 was my first West End experience) it has been a while since I've seen one of the 'big' musicals.

I know a few of the famous songs from the score but apart from knowing that they were adaptations of T S Eliot's poems Old Possums Book of Practical Cats I didn't know how it worked as a narrative stage production.

And to be honest at the end of the first half I still didn't, the opening overture had been great and the end of the act with Memory was wonderful but I had absolutely no clue what was going on.  It didn't help that the theatre was excessively hot and concentrating on a story told in the medium of modern dance was hard work.

A flick through the programme in the interval and a stronger story arc helped in the second act and the staging of Skimbleshank the Railway Cat's story was wonderful and so inventive and by the end I was mostly won over. However I do wonder if this was a musical of its time and that it is only the name that keeps it selling out - a bit like The Mousetrap.

Several thoughts went through my mind during the production:

• how come I can completely suspend disbelief when watching either War Horse or Swan Lake but at no point could I see cats in the people on stage.
• when you notice how clever the set it over the performers then there is something missing.
• how rude the cast were in not acknowledging the orchestra at the end of the performance.
• what an amazing voice the understudy Griselda had - better than some of the cast recordings I've heard with real stars.

I'm pleased we went, and I don't think I've become anti-musical since studying theatre in more depth but this wasn't quite for me.

Theatrical Interlude 22

The Color Purple, Chocolate Menier Theatre, London. August 2013.

Every year at the library where I work we run promotions to tie in with Norfolk's Black History Month and the ALA Banned Books Week.  In 2013 we are linking the two promotions and focusing on two books that are important for both - The Color Purple by Alice Walker and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

After the initial planning meeting I was pleasantly surprised to find that my hobby and my job had once more coincided and that in the summer of 2013 both books would be adapted for the London stage.  I didn't manage to see the version of To Kill a Mockingbird at the open air theatre in Regents Park but four of us travelled to London to catch a performance of The Color Purple.

I haven't yet re-read the book ready for our events in October and I could only remember the bare minimum of the plot in advance but I think that this was ideal as I then wasn't suffering from 'adaptation-itis' and wincing at changes from the original. This was echoed by my companions who all agreed that it felt 'right'.

This was a musical version and while very occasionally I found the music a little too loud for the venue and was unable to hear the singing but overall I was swept away from the instant the cast appeared on stage.  The Menier Chocolate Theatre is a pretty small and intimate place and thanks to the staging I felt that I was almost part of the cast - this was helped by actors leaving the stage and shaking hands with the audience in the opening number.

The Color Purple deals with some very heavy issues - rape, racism and abuse to name a few - but the genius of this production is that none of these themes is either over written or dealt with flippantly. As in life there are moments of humour even in the bleakest scenes.  Being a musical the tone so easily could be 'off' and the poignancy of the story lost but that doesn't happen at all. There pretty much wasn't a dry eye in the house as Celie sang the penultimate song 'I'm Here.'

The staging was very simple for the play, a huge thrust stage with chairs hanging on the wall. These chairs were used as seating, as props, for dancing on and for creating height on stage. There were no stagehands and these chairs were moved and used by all of the cast so smoothly that they were almost like another person on the stage. The lack of interruptions for scene shifting kept me thoroughly engaged in the play and constantly marvelling about the talent of the actors.

Apart from the very occasional moment when the orchestra drowned out the singing this was one of the best things I've seen at the theatre all year.  Much of the cast played more than one role but I really have to single out Sophia Nomvete playing Sofia and Cynthia Erivo who played Celie.  Erivo manages to convey a scared, pregnant teenager, downtrodden wife and also a woman of her own means just by changing her posture. Her voice is no less impressive!

I came out of this play wishing I could go straight back in and I am now hoping for a transfer to the West End so that I can see it again and talk everyone I know into coming with me.

The cast towards the end of the play, Celie is in the white blouse and Sofia in the green trousers.

Theatrical Interlude 7 (2013)

Wicked, Apollo Victoria, London. April 2013.

My love of theatre is spreading again - this time my companion was my aunt. In fact this was her long postponed Christmas treat - bad weather and ice thwarted our planned trip in January.

I've seen Wicked before but I often listen to the soundtrack and was pleased to be going again. This time we had seats in the stalls, only a few back from the stage.  I was a little worried that we'd be too close (and a little too much to the side) but in the end I think that we were in almost perfect seats.

I've sat in the stalls at a large scale musical before but never so close and it was a real treat to see just how much performers in a big theatre do still act - being able to see the facial expressions really added to the experience.

It has been quite a while since I've been to a large musical and I'd forgotten just what a feel good spectacle they can be, I was swept away from curtain up and 3 hours haven't passed so fast in ages.

Our day wasn't just the theatre however as we also became ladies that lunch with a two course meal (and champagne) at the nearby Grosvenor Hotel.  Our food here was delicious, the setting stunning and the service attentive and unobtrusive.  If you are ever looking for a reasonably priced but fancy meal in London I heartily recommend the Brasserie here.

The sun shone all day and we had a very nice walk around Belgravia beforehand - although it was a disappointment at the time I am now very pleased we had to reschedule as this was a perfect spring day.

Theatrical Interlude 4 (2013)

The Ladykillers,Theatre Royal, Norwich. March 2013

I was introduced to the Ealing Comedies by Mr Norfolkbookworm not long after we started going out together. There is something timeless about a lot of the films and they are real comfort films that stand rewatching.  

The Ladykillers took London by storm when it opened in late 2011 and went on to be nominated for many awards in the 2012 season. It wasn't one that hugely appealed at the time - I'm always wary of adaptations of well loved films/books as I've written before.  A friend, whose opinions I trust, also wasn't blown away by it when she saw it and so it passed me by.

However curiosity (and priority booking/discounts) got the better of me, when it was announced that the touring version would come to Norwich I booked the hubby and I seats.

I'm glad we saw it, the acting was very good and I think that the set is the best I've ever seen in Norwich - it was so intricate and clever. It has been a while since I last saw the film but the story felt fresh and yet at the same time also managed to feel like a 1950s Ealing comedy - no mean feat.

Ultimately it was a nice evening. Mr Norfolkbookworm isn't a great theatre person or a fan of London  so seeing a play together is always a treat but (and didn't you just know this was coming!) for me the play just lacked a little something. 

I laughed and I was amused but I wasn't swept away at any point. 

I do wonder if the pacing had anything to do with it - perhaps making the play 10 minutes shorter and doing away with an interval would have made an entertaining play into a great one?

I'm glad we saw it but I'm glad we didn't pay top whack for the seats and travel to London for the experience.

Theatre at the Pictures

Timon of Athens, National Theatre Live, Cinema City, Norwich. November 2012

Thank heavens for whoever had the wonderful idea of broadcasting London productions into cinemas around the country (and indeed around the world).

This is the only play from season of National Theatre Live that I've seen at the cinema - one play I'd seen at the National and the other I missed due to having the lurgy.  I'm glad that I went out on a cold, wet Thursday night for this production, which was in fact was the very last performance of the play's run.

I've established over the last year that I prefer my Shakespeare performed as at the Globe so I was a little concerned about this version as it was totally up-to-date and had a definite setting of 2011/2012, however the draw for me was Simon Russell Beale. Everything I've seen him in has been great!

The play is all about money and how fickle people are - when Timon appears rich and lavishes gifts on his friends and entertains extravagantly everyone loves him, as soon as they realise he is bankrupt they all desert him.  The second half is all about Timon's life as a destitute person, and what I saw as his descent into controlled madness.

This is very much a play of two halves, and I preferred the first, but the acting was incredible and all credit to the National Theatre and the actors for making me see that Shakespeare can work in an updated form in a traditional theatre.

This is one of the plays that Shakespeare wrote with another author and Nicholas Hytner, the director, did say in the interval film that they had to alter/add to some scenes just t make the play make sense. Not having read the original I think that they did a good job, from start to finish I could follow the story and no lines stood out as being 'modern' despite the updating. Several people in the audience were unsure of making some roles female (the steward for example) but for me that was the only way that the play could have stayed realistic with the modern setting. 

Seeing this at the cinema was ideal, the expense of a trip to London for this would have been okay but the convenience of trying something I was unsure of close to home was just right.

Coming late to the party

Mr Norfolkbookworm and I have just had a week away where we did nothing more strenuous than stroll from our apartment to a restaurant. It was heaven having nothing to do except read, chat and relax. Perhaps reading 18 books in 8 days was a little excessive however.

There were a few turkeys among the books but on the whole they were all pretty good. One stood out however:

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.

This was a big book when it was first released and I know that I did have a copy at some point but that I never got beyond the first few pages. I can't remember if it was the font used in the book, the style or the hype that put me off.

This year two close friends have been really encouraging me to give the book another go and I am so pleased that I listened to them because the book really blew me away. I knew the basic premise - Kevin commits a Columbine style crime, his mother isn't that surprised as he's been trouble since birth.
However the subtle nuances, the ambiguity and the tension were masterful and I'd managed to create an entirely different scenario in my head than the one that played out due to this skill. I was thus astounded by the end of the book.

I'm not going to see the new film though, as I don't think the pictures in my mind can be surpassed.

I also read the novel version of another film - The Descendants - and again I won't be watching the film. In this case because I thought the book was dreadful and can't see how the movie can be any different, even if George Clooney is the star!

The dawn of cinema

2012 New Year Resolution

In my round up of 2011 I stated that I wanted to see more films this year. Last year I only saw 4 films at the cinema - already this year I've seen half that many so I am on track to keep this resolution.

The two films I've seen so far this year seem to be diametrically opposed at first glance - Martin Scorsese's Hugo and Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist. One is a special effects laden film based on a children's book and the other a homage to the silent movies of the 1920s.

However when you look deeper they are actually both about one thing - a love of early cinema.

While Hugo is an adventure story, and a 3D one at that, the under current is the discovery by the children that Papa George is actually Georges Melies - the innovative early film maker. The last half of Hugo was all about how he made his films and then the chance to see some of them on a big screen.
The film was a fun watch, the acting good and the story lovely but I expected the latter as Hugo is based on the wonderful book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. As ever with an adaptation I did find the book better but it was faithful to the book and the only thing making me wince was the 3D. Watching 3D films when you already wear glasses is not the best experience in my opinion.

The Artist was a true delight. Starting in 1927, when the silent movie was at its height, we meet the heart throb of the moment George Valentin and also wannabe actress Peppy Miller. Through the rest of the film we see one star wane as the other rises as the talkie takes over from the wonderful silent movie.
The Artist isn't entirely silent, every so often there are sound effects and voices and, as they are meant to, these really leap out at the viewer and for me broke the spell a little. It was also filmed in colour and converted to black and white and as a photographer who sometimes uses this technique I could see this occasionally and again it pulled me out of the movie for a moment.

I am pleased that I went and saw both of these films on the big screen but I think, surprisingly, that it was The Artist that is the film which worked best for me. Silent movies, with their beautiful sound track and text boards explaining the plot, make for an immersive experience and I think that watching this at home on a smaller screen, with the distractions of the house, just wouldn't be the same. Hugo, while enjoyable on the big screen in 3D, will be just fine as a 2D DVD!

Last night saw the Golden Globes being announces and both of these films won awards. Best Director went to Scorsese/Hugo and then Best Motion Picture (comedy or drama), Best Actor (comedy or drama) and Best Original Score went to the Artist.



Now if only my other resolution (to actually read the books set for book group) was going so well!

Theatrical Interlude 20

Roald Dahl's Matilda, Cambridge Theatre London, December 2011

This is another performance that I'd been looking forward to for a while, and indeed I'd booked tickets shortly after the box office opened way back in the summer.

Now nearly a week after seeing Matilda I am still not entirely sure what I thought of it. There was lots to enjoy.

The acting was amazing, the child actors were very good especially the girl playing Matilda. Miss Trunchbull (played by Bertie Carvel) was outstanding and it was very hard to believe that it was a man playing the role.

I quite liked the set, it was clever and eye catching but at times it was distracting, all too often I found myself trying to spot words formed by the letters. The way the props appeared from being set into the stage was very clever and I did like the way that you saw how the staging was working.

However, for me, there was lots that made this an outing that was merely 'meh' rather than 'wow':

• there were no catchy tunes that I came out humming, in fact each act seemed to only have one song that was reworded...
• the plot had been changed. Matilda the novel isn't an overly complex book and in changing the story I felt that you really lost just how exceptional the child Matilda was.
• The book is all about championing books and stories and I felt this was lost totally, especially in the scenes just after the interval where audience members were mocked for reading (and for taking part in the audience participation!)
• at times I really couldn't hear when the adults were singing
• what was the point of the extra story lines when Dahl had created a perfect book in the first place?!
• I couldn't take Mr Wormwood seriously as he just reminded me of David Tenant's Doctor Who and I was expecting to hear the TimeLord every time the character appeared on the stage.
  

Oh dear, this is becoming a totally damning write up and I don't think that it was truly that bad there were just so many niggles (and that is before I even think about the behaviour of the audience).

I suppose that in a way it is my own fault, this was after all an adaptation of a favourite book and we all know how much I squirm through films made from favourite books!

On the whole I had a good time, just from the reviews I expected to be blown away and I wasn't. For me I felt that Matilda didn't know if it was a play, a musical or a pantomime, if it had only been just one of these things it would have been so much better.

I think that Matilda will go on to win lots of theatre prizes and I think that those awarded to the actors are fully deserving I am just not sure of those awarded to the piece as a whole.

I'm off to re-read the book now...

Theatrical Interlude 19

Driving Miss Daisy, Wyndhams Theatre London, November 2011

This trip came about almost by accident. My normal theatre going companions and I saw a poster for this on one of our other trips to London and all of us instantly said "I love that film". To think is to act and we quickly booked tickets to the first matinee that all three of us could make.

Using Lastminute.com our seats were allocated on arrival and while we were quite high up in the theatre we had centre seats and a fabulous view - well once the vertigo had vanished the view was good!

This is a cleverly staged play. As we took our seats the stage was dominated by a large staircase in the middle with assorted items of furniture dotted about, and as the play continues this remains the only staging. However all of these items are on runners and move in and out of the centre stage as the scenes change. Small props are used and it is up to the actors to move them on and off set as needed - it is a very stark play in this way.

The 'car' is a park bench and two dining chairs all set on a revolving part of the stage and as movement is needed for the plot the stage moves and a projection plays in the background. Writing it down makes it sound a little tacky but in fact it worked splendidly as a visual effect - even from the height we were sitting.
The use of projection throughout the play also highlighted the passage of time and managed to give the impression that there was a larger cast.

There are only three actors in the whole play - Vanessa Redgrave, James Earl Jones and Boyd Gaines and all three were superb the day we saw them. It took just a little while for me to get my ear attuned to the deep south accent but very quickly I was swept away and found myself totally immersed into the story, and by the end totally moved.

The play is set in the deep south of America from the late 1940s through until the 1970s and at times the racism and the language used made me uncomfortable but obviously was totally in keeping with the setting. I don't remember it being quite so overt in the film but it has been well over a decade since I last saw the film so this may just be a false memory.

It was a lovely day out and I am very pleased that I got to see this play during the limited London run. It won many awards in New York and I hope that it wins something at the London theatre awards.

The Play's the Thing

As has become clear from my blog entries in 2011 I have started going to the theatre a lot more, and this has changed my reading habits somewhat too.

In some ways I am reading more as a lot of the plays I've seen have been in London and so I get about 4 hours of reading time on the train, well except when I go the roundabout route so I can travel with friends - then not so much reading gets done!

In a more profound way going to the theatre is changing my reading habits because I am reading a lot of the plays in advance of seeing them. Some of them I am reading because I have no previous idea of the plot and I like to be a little aware in advance and in other cases it is because I have read one thing by the playwright and just have to read more.

I don't quite understand why I am enjoying reading the plays so much as well as seeing them.

It is totally counter to how feel about books v film after all. I am wondering if it is perhaps because in a play you do tend to just get the dialogue and no background and it takes the actual performance to fill that in, where as with a novel my brain creates the whole world for me and then the adaptation never lives up to this.

I only studied English to GSCE level and we did read two plays then - An Inspector Calls and Romeo and Juliet - I don't recall what I really thought of them at the time, but as we only had the scripts in class and read them communally I am sure that the experience was probably a little excruciating. We also watched the film versions of the plays and again neither did anything for me as I remember. It probably didn't help that due to lesson lengths the films were split into 3 or 4 parts to fit the timetable!

The first play that really touched me was the one we studied for German A-Level - Max Frisch's Andorra. I think that we read it in the original German but I do know that it was being performed somewhere in London at the time and we went to see it. Googling has not helped in this case but thinking back on it now I do recall the whole thing coming to life so vividly. It was the first time I had seen a live play and not a musical and certainly the first time I'd see a play that I had read. I know that the two complemented each other perfectly.

Last autumn I had a similar experience when I saw Aeschylus's Agamemnon in Cambridge. I had read the play in translation a few years ago but seeing this version in the original language (which I don't speak) was amazing. I knew the story and that was enough to get the idea of the play, the language just flowed over me and although possibly not something I will do regularly (not least because the Greek Play season only happens every three years!) I was swept away in the story. Something I wouldn't have been if I hadn't read it before.

The more I think about why I like reading and seeing plays the more ideas are coming to me. Live theatre holds my attention far more than a film does. At home I rarely give my whole attention to a film, I'll flit about and read as well as watching. In the cinema I rarely relax into the experience, and if the film is 3D I am even worse as the glasses have to sit over my own and peering through 2 pairs (or the 3D visuals) always gives me a headache.

In a theatre however there are real life people just a few metres from me giving their all. Each performance has to be slightly different as actors are humans and not pre-programmed robots and usually there are other details, such as set and lighting, to take in as well as the words.
There is something very special and personal about the whole proceeding.

At the moment I have just finished reading Emperor and Galilean in advance of seeing it at the National Theatre later in the year and have Lady in the Van, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Much Ado About Nothing (version at the Globe), Twelfth Night and the Tempest lined up. I've also snuck in a reading of Flare Path as I'd love to see that if I can fit it in!

Thank heavens I work in the library and can get my books for free and spend my money on tickets!