July Round Up

 

Another month gone and we're well over half way through 2026 which doesn't seem possible.

July was a mixed month for reading - the end of our holiday and the post holiday slump hit hard, not helped by the heat and a selection of books for a project that I really struggled with.

Highlights were definitely the days I could get out and about with the camera, especially the day my nephew (Kentishbookboy for long term readers) and I had in London. He is about to start photography A level and had a summer project to work on, so we spent the morning in various buildings and locations around the city looking and light, shape, and form before heading to the beautifully airconditioned National Theatre to see War Horse. When the show was last on stage KBB was too young to see it so I was really pleased to see it back on in London, and on the stage it was initially written for. We were both blown away by it and hopefully this won't be the last day we have in London before he is too grown up to want a day out with his aunt...

Bookwise I got through a fair number of books and visited Greece, Japan, Finland, France (twice), Italy, Saudi Arabia, and Slovakia - the ones that were new to me being Slovakia and Saudi Arabia, I also got to tick off Idaho and Quebec as new States/Provinces.

Our Reading Around the World group met on Bastille Day to (appropriately) look at books in/from France. The choices and discussion was great, not least because several of us picked books by the same author - although all different titles - so we could look at how the writing styles change, common themes, and suggestions of other titles to try if the initial one didn't hit the mark!

I'll be missing the next session and my friend/sometime book group attendee is leading it - they'll be looking at Scottish books and the joke is that A chose this because she doesn't have a passport!

My top reads of the month were Victoria Hislop's The Wine-Dark Sea (not out until Sept so review/thoughts then), Louise Penny's Miss Wolcott's Ghost, and Annie Ernaux's A Man's Place. No real stinkers (that I can talk about) but a very average selection on the whole.

My Read the World Map as of end of July - it doesn't look hugely different as many of the books have been from smaller countries!

Theatre visit

 

Come From Away - Norwich Theatre Royal.

Back before the pandemic I used to go to the theatre an awful lot - which was great from both a cultural point of view and for the train reading time it gave me but not so good on the bank balance.

Post pandemic I think I've been to the cinema far more than I've been to the theatre which is not something I thought I'd say!

In the last month or so however I've been to the Theatre Royal here in Norwich twice - the first time was for an evening with Michael Palin celebrating the publication of his latest volume of diaries. This was a really nice evening - I wish I had half of his energy that's for sure. I've also now read the diaries he was promoting and loved them a lot too.

Then this week I went on a solo outing to see the musical Come From Away - I knew the outline of the plot for this and had heard (and enjoyed two) of the songs but also had a really strong recommendation from a friend that this was a show not to be missed.

(In case you aren't familiar with the show it tells one story from 9/11 - how 7000 passengers from planes caught up in the American airspace closure after the attacks were grounded in a small Canadian town in Newfoundland and how the five days they were there played our, and ultimately affected all involved.)

My friend was absolutely right and from the opening bars of the song I had goose bumps which didn't really vanish throughout the 100 minutes of theatre. It was incredible the way that a cast of just 12 performers managed to tell the story of the people of Gander and the 7000 passengers just by simply putting on (or taking off) hats and coats. I could follow who was who at all times and was emotionally swept away - I'm glad that I took tissues!

I can't remember the last time I was so moved by a piece of theatre, and didn't feel manipulated into the standing ovation at the end (Motive and the Cue I'm looking at you here).

The tour is on for another few months and I am actually in two minds as to whether I want to see it again or not - it was such a perfect afternoon that a repeat viewing might change this.  I can however see the cast recording for this is going to be on hard repeat for a while.

Dipping in and out

My reading has become a little disorganised of late for three main reasons: a lot of my non fiction reservations arrived in one go at the library, I've been doing some more reading & reviewing for various projects and I've lost my fiction mojo.

This all means that I've not had a lot to say about my reading lately, however thanks to a trip to the theatre I've realised that I do have a book theme to talk about!

A little while ago we went to the Chichester Festival Theatre and saw Shadowlands, the play about C.S. Lewis' friendship with, and subsequent marriage to,  Joy Gresham and then her unexpected illness and death.  The play itself was magnificent, and the cast uniformly good. It was incredibly moving by the end, but shot through with humour meaning that it all felt very natural.

Between booking our tickets and seeing the play I had also read a new novel Becoming Mrs Lewis by Patti Callahan thanks to Net Galley and Harper Collins.  This told the more or less the same story as Shadowlands but from Joy's perspective, it of course is also fiction inspired by fact and I very much enjoyed seeing the dual perspective.  For a full rounding out of the story I am now waiting for Lewis' own version of the story Surprised by Joy to arrive at the library.

In the meantime I am reading Inklings, the biography of the writing group that Lewis started, along with Tolkien, in the late 1930s.  I've always been a fan of C.S. Lewis' work and still own the Chronicles of Narnia book set that I was given for Christmas when I was 7 or 8, but I only read Tolkien as an adult, and to be honest his tales never captivated me in the same way.

However reading Inklings I think that I would have preferred to be in Tolkien's company more than Lewis - like me they greatly enjoyed being out in the countryside walking. Lewis was a serious walker - far more about the distance covered and the conversations had while walking whereas Tolkien much preferred a walk with plenty of time to look at nature and the views rather than covering the miles!
It is all a moot point however as women were not included in either the meetings of the Inklings or on the walks!

I definitely recommend Shadowlands and if you like novels imagining real people then Becoming Mrs Lewis is a good read.

What a year!

So that was 2018!

What a year it has been, I ended 2017 in pretty bad health and by the end of January discovered that this was because in December 2017 I had in fact suffered a brain heamorrhage.

The first quarter of the year is pretty much a blur to me, I was incredibly tired and had the mother of all headaches (in fact nearly 13 months on there hasn’t yet been a day when I haven’t had headpain/headache which is pretty tiring). For me the worst thing was that I’d lost (temporarily thankfully) the ability to read - and as this is usually my way of self medicating when unwell it felt really awful, possibly worse even than the headache.

Slowly my concentration has returned and I can again (mostly) follow the plot of longer, more complicated books but I have a new found respect and love for short stories, essays and the wonderful Quick Reads scheme. Epistolary novels and those told in diaries are still the easiest for me to read and follow, especially when tired but I console myself that books rarely vanish completely and so all the great books I’ve not managed this year will still be there in years to come.

Sadly the same can’t be said for theatre and I know I’ve missed some cracking plays this year (whether due to illness or weather) but in the scheme of things I am just grateful I got to see the things I did, and that I enjoyed (most) of them.

At work it has been even more of a roller coaster. With great support from my colleagues I managed to return to work on limited hours & duties. I managed to deliver my 1918-2018 Armistice project and also got to work (as a volunteer) on creating the Armistice: The Legacy of the Great War on Norfolk exhibition - two things that at the start of the year seemed impossible to consider. However my current job, and those of many colleagues, has been deleted and I am currently trying to work out what will happen next...

There will be no top 10s from this year, but I do really recommend Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngsen, The Skylark’s War by Hilary McKay and To Obama, with Love, Joy, Hate and Despair by Jeanne Marie Laskas as these are the three books that have stuck with me longest and given me hope that my problems with memory/concentration/reading will continue to improve.

Who knows what 2019 will bring, certainly changes in my work life but as I’ve learned life is a very precious thing and work is by no means the most important thing in it,

What I've been doing this summer instead of reading...

What I did in the summer of 2018

Inspired by my nephew writing all about his summer holiday at school I thought it would be interesting to keep a note of all the things I've been doing this summer instead of crazy theatre going and binge reading.

To be truthful there has been some theatre going, since May I've seen:

• Two Noble Kinsmen (the Globe)
• The Chalk Garden (Chichester Festival Theatre)
• Othello (the Globe)
• Me and My Girl (Chichester Festival Theatre)
• Pressure (the Ambassadors Theatre)
• Emilia (the Globe)
• Love's Labour's Lost (the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse)

When listed like this it seems a lot but in the same time frame last year I saw 13 plays (often in double bill days) so this is a reduction.

So apart from a lot of resting, and poppy sorting (more on this soon), what have I been up to?

Spending time with family has featured highly this summer and thanks to the lovely weather we've been able to get out and about a lot too. We've been to cricket matches, family meals and also Legoland but there are two huge highlights.

The GoGoHares trail here in Norfolk - family came to stay with us for this and we spent several days out and about in the city and county looking for the beautiful sculptures.

Then while the good weather lasted we returned the visit to family and spent a glorious Saturday in Ashford following the Snowdog trail.

These trails are wonderful, we spent hours out in the fresh air, walking miles and at the same time soaking up the happy feeling of both locations. In addition to this we were supporting two wonderful charities - Break and the Pilgrim's Hospice.

We've done lots of other things too but the joy we had discovering beautiful sculptures and new areas of both locations will be hard to beat - and the fun and laughter we shared was brilliant. Here's hoping that the auctioning of the sculptures later in the year raises loads of money for each charity. Huge thanks to everyone who has made these two events so great.

Stretching myself

Oooops - another long gap in posts to the blog, but again for good reasons I think...

We've been visiting family over the summer weekends and generally having a good time relaxing, I've been to a couple of cricket matches and I've started going to the theatre more often - all good things and an indication that I am getting better. I don't think I'm up to the "three shows and an exhibition weekends" that I was doing before but I am picking what I see with more care and enjoying my outings a lot.

I still haven't returned to my previous levels of reading, nor even the heights I reached on holiday but I am restarting some of my former reading projects which feels promising.

Currently I have six very varied books supplied by the Reading Agency to get through before the end of the month, I feel proud of myself as I have already read 3 cover to cover, and 100 pages of a fourth (the historical errors just kept throwing me out of the book) and am about to start the fifth.  As ever these generally aren't books I'd have chosen myself so making progress with them is certainly encouraging.

I did abandon these books yesterday as I was approved for a Net Galley proof of book I've been longing to read over the weekend and for the first time since the start of December I did spend an entire day just reading and finished the book in one go. More about this soon but I know it is going to feature highly in my top books of the year in a few months...

It is important to keep reminding myself of these gains as I am still definitely suffering the after effects of the brain hemorrhage every day and it is easy to forget the progress I'm making.

Theatre of the Year

2017 At the Theatre

I was hoping to be trying to pick my favourite shows from a list of 36, but due to unexpected illness I had to miss the last three plays I had booked for the year. Annoyingly one of these has already finished and the other will come to an end before I am recovered enough to go. Oh well, health is more important.

So this year the Norfolkbookworm has written 33 reviews and also seen another 4 comedy shows which are just too hard to review, the improvised one for sure was something you had to be there for to find it all funny.

Right my top 8 plays for the year, and these are just the top plays - they are in no other order than the dates in which I saw them:

• All the Angels - Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
• The Red Shoes - Theatre Royal Norwich
• Hamlet - The Almeida
• Love in Idleness - Menier Chocolate Factory
• Nell Gwynn - Globe Theatre
• The Ferryman - Royal Court
• Ink - Almeida
• Young Marx - The Bridge Theatre

Even in a year where I was really disappointed with the Globe's offering two of their productions are still in my top 8 but it has to be said that I am looking forward to seeing where the new AD takes the theatre.

Theatre 2017: Review Thirty-three: Young Marx

Young Marx, The Bridge Theatre, London. November 2017.

After a busy week away for me, and a nightmare journey for Rebecca, we were both hoping for a huge amount from Young Marx. We'd also convinced Mr. Norfolkbookworm that this was going to be good and worth a trip to London...

The Bridge Theatre is brand new and it felt lovely walking through the doors on a cold and wet November afternoon. It was bright, warm and spacious with friendly staff.

Due to booking at different times we weren't all sat together, Rebecca and I were in the side of the gallery and Mr. Bookworm was in the back row of the same gallery, square on to the stage.  The side seats were very clever as they were angled to face the stage - no awkward leaning needed.  Our seats did seem a little hemmed in as there was a low black ceiling almost in our eye line - it looked like a plane's bulkhead - but once the play started we didn't notice it at all.  Mr. Bookworm said he found the sound muffled from his seats but as he has some hearing problems (and we didn't test the seats) we can't say if that was him or the acoustics.

Now for the play, well for me it was just the tonic I needed. It explained a lot of Marx and Engels' ideas in a way that I finally understood but it had me smiling and laughing from the very beginning. At times it bordered on descending in to farce, which would have snapped me out of the mood, but it always stayed just the right side of that comedy line.

The play was full of killer lines, which I am still chuckling over. I also loved the scene in the library, some might think that it is over the top and could never happen in such and august place but I know better.  The character sketches of patrons behaviour was spot on throughout, the end of this scene did have me doing a double take and wondering if the interval gin and tonic had gone to my head more than I anticipated!

There was some darkness to the play, and it did have some pertinent points to make but they weren't rammed home and I just thoroughly enjoyed this lighthearted comedy and can't wait to make a return visit to the theatre.

Theatre 2017: Review Thirty-three - Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard, Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham. November 2017.

During some recent time in Birmingham (more on this soon) I discovered that the new touring version of Sunset Boulevard was playing during my stay. I was most surprised that there were good, cheap, seats still available so it seemed fate that I should go!

I knew a couple of the songs from this show but I had no real idea what it was about - as seems to be the way when I go to the theatre at present.  This was a lavish affair with a huge cast, live orchestra and a lavish set. In fact the set could almost be called fussy, it needed changing so often that I'm sure a lot of the run time of the show was due to scene changes!

The show itself took a long time to grow on me, by the interval I admired the voices but wasn't fully involved with the story at all, however the second half was better. The sub plots were far more interesting to me in all honestly and some of the reveals really did move me.  Oh and the ending itself - I didn't expect that!

Now for the confession - I was so convinced by the projections used as back drop I assumed that Norma Desmond was a real person and that this was a biopic, I think Mr Norfolkbookworm has stopped laughing at me now...! 

I have now watched the film that the show is based on and I'm glad that I saw it afterwards, it is darker and some of the reveals are shown earlier. You like the main two characters even less in the film too, where as the musical did give them some warmth. I was struck with how much dialogue in the show came directly from the film too.  My advice - if you are planning on seeing this and haven't seen the film then see the show first; if you've seen the film then the show doesn't really add anything to the story (but has some amazing singing). Always nice to see a new show, in a new theatre but this one won't be making my top of the year lists.

Theatre 2017: Review Thirty-one - Fantasia Live

Fantasia Live in Concert, The Royal Albert Hall, London. October 2017.

Delayed gratification appears to be a thing in our family as this was actually my nephew's birthday present and he's waited patiently since June for this to come around!

My sister and I saw a previous version of this back in 2012 and so knew we were in for a treat and it didn't disappoint.  Wonderful music and scenes from these beautiful films - what more can you ask for.

Once more the responses from the audience added to the magic and I think pretty much the whole Albert Hall jumped at the volcano in the scene set to Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.  It wasn't until afterwards that we realised how different to before this show was - with over half the programme coming from the newer Fantasia 2000 film.

My personal favourites were all included and so I was very happy, and from the applause I think that my nephew, sister & husband felt the same!  For me there really is something special about live music and live music in the splendour of the Royal Albert Hall is even more special!

Our only small quibble with the experience is that there was no programme and we do all really like one of these as a souvenir.

Theatre 2017: Review Twenty - The Play that Goes Wrong

The Play that Goes Wrong, Theatre Royal Norwich, June 2017.

I never really thought that farce was for me, slapstick films don't really hold my attention after the first few gags but yet this is my fourth play in the genre...

I watched, and was reasonably entertained by, Peter Pan Goes Wrong when it was shown on the TV at Christmas so cheap tickets to the original Goes Wrong play seemed too good to miss.

For some reason it just didn't quite hit the spot, it was reasonably funny and the actors had a great sense of timing. The set was incredible too - you really did never know what was going to fail next or how the cast would deal with the malfunctions was the real highlight.

The downsides were the plot and the delivery of the lines. The plot did just peter out and I do think that if you've seen one Play that... you've seen them all. In addition to this all too often the lines were lost in the mayhem - especially in the final scene, I hadn't even realised that the play was over it was so muddled.

On the whole it was a fun night and I did laugh a little but being a fan of the Blakeney Players and the Maddermarket theatre with the shows they put on I was a bit uncomfortable at the mocking of these great local theatre groups - this just wasn't quite affectionate enough.

Theatre 2017: Review Seventeen - The Ferryman

The Ferryman, Royal Court, London. May 2017.

A few year's ago Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem was the big 'thing' in London theatre and for some reason Rebecca and I missed this. We saw his Mojo on opening night and could see that it would be a good play when it settled down into the run so when The Ferryman was announced we pounced on tickets.

Apart from seeing that it garnered dozens of five star reviews and that it was a family drama set in Ireland I knew nothing about this play and I think that this was the right way to approach it - which means I am going to write nothing about the plot here.

This was a clever piece of theatre as it drip fed information to the viewer and I made assumptions and guesses as to how the story was going to go and every time I was wrong - but what we got was better. At the end I felt stunned, it was such a powerful piece of theatre. Both Rebecca and I were on our feet for a standing ovation, whilst wiping the tears from our faces.

It feels wrong to have such a short review for such a fantastic 3 1/4 hours in the theatre but even now a few days on all I can say is 'wow!'

This is transferring to the West End next month and I am hoping to convince Mr Norfolkbookworm to see this. If this isn't in my top 3 plays by the end of the year then I will be surprised and so happy that 2017 has been a fantastic year of theatre!

Theatre 2017: Review Sixteen - Nell Gwynn

Nell Gwynn, Shakespeare's Globe, London. May 2016.

I am so pleased that this has come back to the Globe. In 2015, when it first played, I also didn't see it when in came to Cambridge in the hopes that it would return to the Globe like the rumours had suggested. When the day of the play came around it has to be said that my heart wasn't in it entirely - the lovely warm weather of April had morphed into some really cold, unseasonable, weather in Norfolk and the idea of sitting in an open air theatre wasn't appealing.

I am so glad that we went (this will be Mr Norfolkbookworm's only trip to the Globe this season). From the moment the play started I had a happy smile on my face and this just didn't slip for the entire performance.  The story is slight in many ways but it has a lot to say about the Nell's time and our own - Swale seems to be the mistress of making history speak to us without over doing it, while at the same time knowing that you can write with a broad brush for performances at the Globe.  The lines about how important the arts are and Brexit were utterly played to the audience but yet some of the quieter lines making similar points resonated just as well.

It is hard to write about a piece of theatre that I loved so much, I wanted to watch it again instantly and I am worried that if I write too much about it I will lose the magic. This was the ultimate in a feel good show and has set the bar high for the rest of the Globe's Summer of Love season.

Theatre 2016: Review Thirty-Four

The Wipers Times, New Wolsley Theatre, Ipswich. November 2016

Getting to and from Ipswich proved nearly as time consuming and awkward as getting to London but the journey was totally worth it.

This new World War One play from satirists Hislop and Newman could so easily have been over played and the jokes too contemporary, or overly sentimental but the duo managed to pull off the near impossible - a comedy about World War One that was balanced.

The original Wipers Times was a newspaper written and published by soldiers serving in the Trenches and was devised as an antidote to the inaccuracies and propaganda stories published in the mainstream media - and it is this where it would have been so easy to pepper the play with modern references.

The play tells the story of the men behind the paper as well as bringing to life some of the sketches from the paper in a clever way using Vaudeville, projections and a lot of very quick costume changes. Some of the jokes were terrible but on looking at my facsimile copy of the Wipers Times I see that they were all lifted from the original. The few comments about media inaccuracies also came straight from the original!

I enjoyed this greatly but my one criticism was that I found the set / scenery to be too fussy. The scene changes were well done and incorporated more original material from the newspapers but there were just too many of them and too much furniture moved each time for my taste.

What struck me the most was how much Oh! What a Lovely War and Blackadder Goes Forth owed to the papers - the humour in both of these, seen as edgy and challenging, came straight from the Wipers Times. There were moment of poignancy and sadness, and the gas attack was breath taking (pun intended) and I found this a balanced and enjoyable play. It isn't in the same league as Journey's End but I do hope that this gets a transfer or longer run somewhere as I think that the play is much better than the previous television documentary.

Theatre 2015: Review Three

Taken at Midnight. Theatre Royal Haymarket, London. January 2015.

It has been a little while since I saw this, the review is late because I saw a preview of the show and also because I was unwell the week after seeing it.

There is also another reason - the old adage if you can't say something nice,don't say anything at all rings horribly true with my feelings on the play.

We had good seats, the actors spoke well and the scenery and use of stage was good. The original story - that of lawyer Hans Litton -  is incredible.  This is a man who put Hitler on trial before he came to power and was then, inevitably, imprisoned once Hitler was legitimately elected to power.

So what went wrong?  For me there was just too much narration and not enough acting, I think in fact that the cast spent more time carrying props on and off the stage than they did interacting with them, or each other. There were two stand out performances that of John Light as Dr Konrad the SS Officer and Martin Hutson as Hans.  The role of Hans' mother, played by Penelope Wilton, should have been a tour de force but sadly was one note and flat throughout.

In the final two scenes I finally became emotionally involved, and the final scene before the interval was shocking but on the whole this made a great radio play but not very inspiring theatre.

Top Ten Theatre of 2014

That Time of the Year Again

In a year where I have seen 36 pieces of theatre live and 4 broadcast as live plays narrowing down to just five was impossible and even now I think that my frequent companion, Rebecca, will disagree with my rankings at the very least.

I have had several outings to the theatre with my nephew and while all of the productions we saw together were magical this year they haven't made the top 10 but rest assured theatre aimed at the under 10s is excellent and I had a lot of fun watching them and sharing my love of live theatre with him.

So with no further ado my top 10 are:

1. Lord of the Flies
2. Red Velvet
3. 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
4. To Kill a Mockingbird
5. My Night With Reg
6. The Scottsboro Boys
7. Oh! What a Lovely War
8. Another Country
9. A Bunch of Amateurs
10. Pitcairn

A real mixture of genres here and it was very hard to narrow it down to just 10, so many plays nearly made the grade.  I shan't list my least favourite plays - I think the reviews speak for themselves!

As I already have my first trip of 2015 planned for January 3rd I think it is fair to say that 2015 will also be theatre filled!

Theatre 2014: Review Twenty-Two

The King's Peach, The Blakeney Players, Blakeney. July 2014.

As ever this review comes with the caveat that it cannot be impartial as I know one of the cast.

It was the hottest day of the year so far when we left the city for our bi-annual trip to the Norfolk coast for an evening of fun with the Blakeney Players and for once the traffic played ball and we made good time so had a lovely pub supper and then there was even time for a walk on the beautiful marsh before settling in for some laughs.

How to describe this one... erm... apart from the over use of superlatives it is quite hard...
 
Imagine The King's Speech mixed with a little bit of Roald Dahl, Strictly Come Dancing, Celebrity Bake Off, Agatha Christie and Sherlock with a dash of Hitch Hiker's Guide to Galaxy and a large slug of political quips and a soupcon of local humour.

It was a wonderful evening and I'm not sure I will ever recover from seeing Prince George making a toad in the hole whilst waltzing and then singing a re-write to the song YMCA. The special effects were wonderful as well.

(cast photo sneaked during the curtain call)

We actually saw the first show in the run - there are tickets available for the remaining four shows and I do highly recommend it as a showcase of just what amateur dramatics should be about. Oh and with views like the one below just 5 minutes from the theatre how can you refuse?

Blakeney Harbour in the evening light.

Theatre 2014: Review 9

The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London. March 2014.

The last play of the weekend was at the beautiful Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and this time I had a much more comfortable seat - they've improved the cushions and there seems to be more space in general in the lower gallery.

The Knight of the Burning Pestle  was a contrast to all that we'd seen previously and as different from The Duchess of Malfi as can be imagined.  It is a play within a play and then some.

Players are trying to stage their melodrama but a 'citizen' in the audience is not entirely happy about this and insists that his apprentice should have a role. Once poor Ralph has a part the citizen and his wife spend the rest of the play trying to make his role bigger and thus subvert the normal play.

It could be a total mess, and to be honest by the end I'd given up trying to follow what plot there was, but for me it didn't matter as it was so funny, and well acted, that I'd have gone along with anything. Occasionally the ad libs and interactions with the audience felt more 21st century than early 17th but that aside it was fun. Pantomime for grown ups in the best sense and a nice way to finish the weekend.

Three plays, a visit to the British Library, a visit to the British Museum, nice food and a glorious walk along the sunny South Bank was a lot to cram into just over 36 hours but so worth it.  Time to start planning the next mad weekend I think...

Theatre 2014: Review 8

Red Velvet, The Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn, London. March 2014.

With surprising ease we managed to cross London, find our hotel and then find this gem of a theatre. In fact it was the last step that was almost the hardest as the Tricycle Theatre is situated right on Kilburn High Road but hidden in plain sight. Once we'd collected our tickets there was time for a lovely cup of tea and slice of cake in the cafe-bar.  We did decide to have the Victoria sponge rather than the Red Velvet however - that just felt a step too far!

Now for the play.

Wow - what a powerful piece of the theatre. Put simply it is a play about one of the first black actors to make it to the big time in the 1800s. On a smaller level it is about acting styles, the importance of the audience, the power of the media and racism.

With so many themes you'd think that the play would be stodgy, but it is anything but and while that is mostly down to the fantastic Adrian Lester credit must go to the whole cast as there wasn't a weak link in the thing.

Once more this play linked in to my studies of performance through the ages and it was great to see various, now archaic, styles come to life in front of my eyes. It was also interesting to see Lester play Othello in this style having seen him in the same role last year at the National Theatre.

This was a straight drama but I don't think I have been so impressed by the actors in a long time. Lester convincingly turned himself from a young man just about to reach the heights of fame into an old, tired man in the time it took him to turn around.  Oliver Ryan, playing Charles Kean, terrified me.

I am so pleased that we had the chance to see this before it transfers to New York, it will stay with me for a long time.

For those of you wondering Rebecca was wonderfully patient with me as I got excited about seeing history come to life and listened as I regurgitated what I've learned this term.  She then took me to see the Picasso prints recently acquired by the British Museum and gave me a fascinating run through of how they were made.

Theatre 2014: Review 7

Oh What A Lovely War, Stratford East, London. March 2014.

March - the month of madness, well it was this past weekend as Rebecca and I decided to see three plays and an exhibition in just a weekend.  To make it even more awkward none of the plays were in the West End and the one tube line that made the schedule easy was shut...

It didn't matter in the slightest and the weekend started in East London with the revival of Oh What A Lovely War. Neither of us knew much about the show except that it was in the form of review, about World War One and the first 'anti-war' pieces.

Summing the afternoon up is still impossible, I was swept away by the show in many ways. It was very funny, incredibly well acted and sung and yet at the same time it did manage to portray the horror of war and immense casualty lists without seeming didactic.

However in the light of all of the books, television shows and films that have come since OWALW broke the ground it did feel dated and old fashioned and not shocking in the way it must have been in 1963.

And that is where my review founders because I had a great afternoon in the theatre, but even without knowing much about the show I went in with different expectations and feel disappointed that they weren't met. This feels very unfair to the show for it was engaging and fun, just not quite what I'd expected.

On another level it was very interesting as my studies in to the history of performance have just covered Brecht and I could see all of the theory I'd recently read acted in front of me - something that became a bit of a theme during the weekend.
My other thought was what a lot War Horse owes to OWALW, not just in theme but in staging choices, despite being such different takes on World War One.

I feel that I've damned Oh What a Lovely War with faint praise.  It was great fun, and moving, but perhaps just not quite so shocking now that the horrors of the First World War are so widely known, studied and written about.