Williams T

As a result of a chance pit-stop at the Rose at Kingston, some weeks ago now, attendance at a matinée performance of the Tennessee Williams hit play 'The Glass Menagerie'. Which we now know rounds off our exposure to the core of his oeuvre. Exposure which has been spread over many years if search of recent volumes of the blog is anything to go by. For the results of which see references 1 and 2.

I drove, one result of which was lots of wheel bumps on the ramps of the Rose car park, both up and down. Out of practise, I suppose.

Water in the Hogsmill reasonably clear, but we only managed the one fish. An unusually small number. Perhaps they will be back in force for our next visit.

Rather than picnic for lunch beforehand, we thought we would try the food stalls in Kingston market, with vague thoughts in my mind of the elusive biryani, the biryani which failed to materialise on the expedition noticed at reference 3.

BH was happy enough with the vegetable and rice she got. I was not so happy with the (so-called) naan and lamb that I got - lamb which turned up in curry form rather than skewer form. Plus dabs of various salad stuff. Not bad, but not what I wanted, and certainly a long way from a biryani. Perhaps we need more practise at this street food lark.

Entertained while we ate by a young lady busker, game enough and who knew how to use a microphone. Tuneful rather than raucous and at least two people dropped some money in her tin. More or less dead centre in the snap above, with some impressively slender cranes to the left.

We noticed that the Kingston branch of Wildwood, a chain we had first come across in Ely, had shut - before we got around to visiting it. I suppose, given the huge number of food outlets these days, not to mention competition from the street, means that a fair bit of turnover is inevitable. All part of foodie progress - even if progress does not seem to include decent white bread in very many of said outlets. Let alone soup, boiled green vegetables or stewed fruit.

Busloads of what like sixth form students piling out of their buses as we arrived. Despite which the house was not much more than half full. Probably less in the first circle, and zero in the second, which appeared (as usual) to be closed. But at least the Rose - which includes an impressive stage and auditorium - is still managing to put on the occasional proper play - while the much smaller theatre at Epsom is more or less reduced to comedy and tribute acts. Our going to see 'Waiting for Godot' there was an anomaly.

A minimal set, consisting mainly of a sloping disc which did not, in the event, rotate. Snapped while being decorated for the second half above. Nothing like the glass menagerie snapped at the top of this post - which looked to me as if it would have worked rather well. Rather better than the rather tame line up, with little glass figures placed around the perimeter of the disc - that we got.

A decent enough production, but I did snooze a bit in the first half and I thought the second half was rather too long; rather too much of it for the fairly slight material to work with. Spun out a bit with a fantasy dance sequence, such spinning out being very much the thing at the Globe at London Bridge, before we packed up going there. From time to time, there were also some very bright flashing lights, which I found tiresome. Shutting ones eyes seemed to be the answer. 

The use of a slightly handicapped person (Natalie Kimmerling, snapped above in another time and at another place) to play the rather more handicapped sister (Laura Wingfield) worked well - rather to my surprise. Not usually very keen on stunts of this sort, like having Richard III played from a wheelchair or on calipers.

Proceedings slightly marred in my case by the older lady next to me having energetic bouts of coughing from time to time - from which, I am glad to be able to say that there were no ill effects on my side. Plus, at one point, she started on her phone right in my eye line and had to be pulled up. While BH was rather annoyed by the young lady in front of my old lady, slouched down in her seat, clearly only there on sufferance, and playing with her phone, on and off, more or less throughout. Right in BH's eye line, so eventually she had to be pulled up too.

Out for something to eat at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, just a few doors down from the theatre. Not the sort of place we normally visit, to the point that I can't remember ever having visited such with BH before. She took a quorn burger dressed up like a triangular piece of chicken breast, while I took a regular burger with cheese, chips and so on. With a range of additional sauces available, should they have not put enough goo in in the first instance. Young people must need a lot of oral stimulation: perhaps Freud would have had something to say about it.

Quite eatable, although not something one would want too often. Although on this occasion, I did not feel I had eaten quite enough and went for seconds in the form of a basic burger.

A basic burger which dropped a large amount of oily liquid onto my plate. Perhaps on any future occasion I had better ask for well done rather than medium rare to be on the safe side.

All washed down with a couple of bottles of J2O, probably orange and passion fruit flavour. Which did well enough. And which meant that I could drive us home, catching the ramps a few more times, as already mentioned above.

It also took quite a while, what with gas works and police works.

PS: in the course of posting this, I hear about planning permission being refused for a proposed redevelopment of the former waste water settlement beds we pass on the way to Kingston, possibly those snapped above, long derelict. Presumably bought by some speculator on the understanding that some sort of development would be allowed. Which all seems like a bit of a lottery - but how on earth does one fix fair prices in such circumstances? With the heritage gang spoiling for another fight - but not stumping up the necessary to buy up the land themselves. Much easier to spoil someone's else's play than to put their own skin in the game. Not confident that I have got this right, but the very keen can read all about it at reference 5.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/08/cats-roof.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2013/06/sweet-bird-of-youth.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/indecision.html.

Reference 4: https://wildwoodrestaurants.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://moderngov.kingston.gov.uk/documents/s105510/Seething%20Wells%20-%20Updates%20Apr%202024%20-%20FINAL.pdf.