Theatre 2014: Review Seventeen

Another Country, The Trafalgar Studios, London. May 2014.

It has been an incredible little while for me in May and I've packed a lot into a few weeks. This means that some of the events that happened towards the start of the month are starting to be a little fuzzy around the edges when it comes to details. However as I blog for pleasure and to create a memory for me I'm not too worried about this.

Rebecca and I had another one of our mammoth London weekends recently, and although this time we packed in slightly less than usual due to a mini heatwave we still saw three plays.

The first was the sublime Another Country with a cast of young actors - many of them only just out of college.  You'd never have guessed this and it was a shame that the theatre was over half empty for the matinee, this worked in our favour though as we were upgraded from seats at the back of the auditorium to the third row!

The entire play takes place in a boarding school and has many themes, the main one being that the old boy network rules completely and that to be different in anyway works against you. The school has been rocked by a suicide and there is a lot of soul searching taking place as well as a lot of hypocrisy.  Another plot thread is that one of the character is Julian Mitchell's idea of the Cambridge Spy Guy Bennett and how his experiences at school led him along the path he took.

This last plot strand is often the one focused on most by critics but I feel that in this revival it is a smaller part - mainly because the scandal of the Cambridge Spies is now so far away that many of the younger audience may not have heard of it, and because unlike The History Boys there is no epilogue stating where the boys go after leaving school. The friendships and the hypocrisy are what I drew.

I loved the play, and while I will look out for the film version it is going to have to be amazing to be better than the play I saw.

World Book Night Challenge 8/25

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre

This is one from the list that I had been looking forward to reading. Thrillers and spies are not usually my subject matter of choice but since reading Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre last year the whole concept of espionage has been intriguing me. The Cold War setting was also an added bonus.

I don't think that I've read any le Carre (sorry I really can't work out how to get the accents) before, although Mr Bookworm and I did watch the Alec Guinness version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy a couple of years ago.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, the twists and turns kept me hooked from page one and I while I hoped that Leamas was a 'good' guy (and lets face it in the world of spies that is very much a relative term!) I was never 100% sure.

I found this is a perfectly formed novel, it had good pace and story and the wasn't so convoluted or full of so many characters that I got muddled reading it.

I was 13 when the Berlin Wall fell and while I realise that the Cold War was pretty 'cold' in my life time I found it easy to imagine the world created in the novel.
There is one problem with the book - I've discovered that there is a sort of prequel and also as Smiley is a peripheral character in this one I now want to read more about him. I might also have to bump Agent ZigZag towards the top of the challenge pile.

My to be read pile just grew again!