A couple of weeks ago back to Drury Lane for a second helping of 'The Tempest'. A solo expedition as BH had declined. The first helping was noticed at reference 1.
Opted for the full performance: stick, trolley, duffel coat, woolly hat etc. On the grounds that a big posh theatre like the Theatre Royal was bound to have a proper cloakroom. A lift to the station, no lift at the station, but, as luck would have it, one of the new style, trolley friendly red trains to Waterloo.
For the first time, noticed the veranda in front of the flats to the left of the station, probably because there was someone there. Closer inspection subsequently, suggested that there was communal access. But clearly not taken much advantage of. Never, for example, seen drink being taken in mixed company of an evening.
On the way to Waterloo, I noticed that what had been the Wetherspoon's at Raynes Park, a place where we had taken fish and chips from time to time in the past, empty for some time, was now a gym. Seemingly right next door to another gym. Street View has not quite caught up and can only confirm the Anytime Fitness gym next door.
Bus'd to the Aldwych and then strolled about looking for a snack. It turned out that the area around the theatre was well stocked with eateries of various sorts, from lowly cafés to smart restaurants. I settled for quite a decent ham and cheese roll from Orée, taken outside among the pigeons. While today I find that it is well over a year ago that I first tried this chain, noticed at reference 3; another instance of the memory problems alluded to in the second postscript to reference 4.
Into the theatre, where there were lots of front-of-house people, lots of attention paid to my trolley. But no cloakroom which could take it in. The answer being to take it into the auditorium with me, where after a while someone took it in charge and put it to one side. I was pleased to be in row M rather than row R, which as well as being closer was clear of the dress circle and one got a much better view of the grand auditorium.
On the way, I took in one of the Maria Kreyn's large paintings which decorate front of house. Perhaps if I had tried harder, I would have found the one lifted from reference 5 included above. Very topical.
One of a pair of what I took to be loudspeakers hanging to the side of the stage. They have something of the same sort at Milton Court, and I am sure that I have noticed them, but failed to turn them up to today. Lower down there were much larger hanging contraptions, more like half a dozen flat screens strung together than loudspeakers. Something else to inquire about.
The Tempest itself wore its second outing pretty well, although I still thought that Miranda was a bit weak and I did not like Ferdinand. But then today, I realised that not liking Ferdinand might all be part of it, a covert commentary on the probability that someone makes a poor choice for their partner for life - with concerned family and friends not able to do much more than watch. The subject for many a tale over the years.
And somehow, I thought that Gonzalo came across as feeble in the wrong way. Feeble now perhaps, but somebody who had once been a somebody. I had expected more from Selina Cadell who has turned in very serviceable performances in police dramas - for example the first ever episode of 'Midsomer Murders' - on television.
I continued to enjoy the set, mainly stage effects rather than furniture, and this morning my mind turned to reference 6 where much space is given to the unfortunate side effects of the drive for realism on the stage, realism which had perhaps peaked by the end of the 19th century, but the effects of which are still with us; realism which is all too likely (on this account) to squeeze out a proper interest in the words, either on the part of the actors or the audience. Whilst here we had a set which is all magic, not realistic at all. But maybe distracting in something of the same way?
It also happens that yesterday we watched the first half of a 1977 adaptation by BBC2 of the Henry James novel 'The Ambassadors', as advertised at reference 7. Here, being used to (visual) realism in the sort of television dramas I usually watch, I found the rather stagey adaptation rather tiresome at first. But I think it is growing on me, it is giving space for character to show through. Which is perhaps part of what Gallivan was getting at. We will see how I get on with the second half. More work in progress. And I have turned up my copy of the originally episodic novel on my Kindle.
At the end of the show, I puzzled about the round of forgiveness all round - except perhaps for the unredeemable Caliban. While today, I read that maybe forgiveness all round was a very proper ending for a masque, very much in fashion at the time of writing at the beginning of the 17th century. And this play does include a fair amount of masque (and antimasque, another word I have learned today).
Out to stroll across the river, and to take cod and chips at Fishcoteque, my second visit in not so many more weeks. Very good it was too.
Old style red train to complete the day, complete with a gentleman who jabbered loudly into his phone more or less the whole way, while the rest of us went in for silence after the ardours of a day in town. As they used to say, there's always one.
PS 1: the programme still stinks of ink, despite being a few weeks old now. Perhaps we have not been turning the pages enough to let whatever it is burn off.
PS 2: it remains a bit of a puzzle why there were parsnip peelings in one of the bins on Clay Hill Green, snapped a couple of days earlier. One would have thought that the sort of person who bothered with parsnips probably ran to their own dustbins. BH thought that a fox was probably responsible for the mess, but that does not solve the principal puzzle.
References
Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/01/weaver-one.html.
Reference 2: https://oree.co.uk/.
Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/11/cheese.html.
Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/01/veggie-thursday.html.
Reference 5: https://mariakreyn.com/.
Reference 6: Shakespeare and perspective - Colum Gallivan - 2012 (draft).
Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/01/fishcotheque.html.
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