Back to Drury Lane towards the end of last month for a birthday outing to 'Much Ado about Nothing'. A show last seen as long ago as those noticed at references 1 and 2.
My interesting old text at reference 3 notwithstanding, I thought a two page crib, assembled from Wikipedia and elsewhere, would be helpful, which indeed it was.
On the day, I settled for Duffel coat and stick. There were no trolleys on the way to the station, not that they would have scored anyway, and no taxis at the station when we got there. But we did get one of the blue trains to Waterloo which seem to have more or less taken over from the red ones.
Presumably not like mistletoe which grows into a sphere without human intervention. Google Images suggests Prunus incisa 'Kojo-No-Mai', with the catch there being that these flowers look like doubles rather than singles. I shall have to take a closer look. But I think it may well be some kind of ornamental plum.
An elaborate flower display at Waterloo. BH thought the boxed bunches were more than double the price of the same sort of thing at our big Sainsbury's - but then they do not offer the display, the choice or the commuter convenience.
On the bus from Waterloo we came across a couple of cheerful ladies on a day out from Ely. Their plan being, having had lunch somewhere unspecified but known at Waterloo, to take in the show 'Clueless'. I learned that the fine pork pie shop in Ely closed a couple of years ago, although the business survived in another town and that they made a trip to Sandringham each year to have a go at the pick-your-own apples there. They also knew all about the caravans of Snettisham. Ladies who knew how to enjoy themselves.
Strolled up to Orée in Wellington Steet where we took a couple of their entirely satisfactory chicken salad baguettes.
I thought the short white tower block at the end of the street had worn well, once the home of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and once possibly called Telstar House. Must be more than fifty years old now.
While Bing turns up reference 4, from which I learn that memory was fairly right. Space House rather than Telstar House and CAA have not long gone. From the same team which gave us Centrepoint and now elevated to Grade II.
In the theatre, we fell for another stinky programme for a tenner, but we got our money's worth. I was interested to find, for example, that the actors got credits in their biogs for video games as well as for full on acting. But what does an actor do in a video game? Furthermore, the production team had the services of an intimacy coordinator who got lots of credits, some of which I had heard of. To be found at reference 8.
Theatre more or less full for this Thursday matinée. Front of house staff as good as ever - with one on the door busily alerting a colleague inside to an approaching wheelchair. And a bit later on, the two holding up the signs about mobile phones did a little dance with them, which must have been quite tiring with the signs held up above their heads. Wannebee dancers? Sadly, not enough to stop a few phones going off during the performance.
Search lights plying the elaborate ceiling, making a very striking effect as we went in. Sadly, we were sat a little too far back to see it from our seats. I wondered whether all the smoke in the air - which greatly added to the effect - was an extra or whether that was what the average air looked like under light.
As with the Tempest, which we took in earlier in the year, we had clever staging, not involving much in the way of furnture. Clever use of lighting, paper cut up to look like pink petals and a large inflated pink heart. And the performance as a whole was very slick.
However, the chap who had played Ariel in the Tempest seemed quite wrong as Margaret. Wrong sort of voice altogether. And I did not care much for the music generally. Hero was quite wrong too, and she had not been very right at Miranda. Here, she was far too coarse. Beatrice was better and Benedick was good. He had a good sense of timing, which reminded me of the young Hugh Laurie (as Bertie Wooster). A lot of well drilled dance.
First half went along well enough, but I though the second half, from which Dogberry & Co had more or less vanished, rather sagged.
Out to dine at the Delaunay where the doorman thought to ask whether I was headed for a private room. A neat bit of flattery. We both took the borscht, which I liked, being surprised that it tasted more like a thin jam than beetroot (which BH boils up quite often, taken more or less entire rather than souped). Good portion and good bread.
I took chicken with a hint of broad beans, with French beans (probably from Morocco) on the side. While BH went for the mackerel already mentioned at reference 5. All taken with the same red wine as last time, that is to say the 'Spätburgunder, Hohem-Sülzen, Alte Reben, Erste Gewächs'.
Followed with a rather splendid cake, taken with a regular white wine, the 'Albariño, Abadia de San Campio, Bodegas Terras Gauda', rather than a pudding wine, mainly because it came in a more sensible quantity. In fact, quite a generous quantity. I might say in passing, that they run to quite a decent wine list, a list which suits us well.
A good meal, good ambience and good service. Plus two very sheer blouses, one of which had rather an older occupant than I had expected from behind. More or less full when we left.
Out to think that the seats on offer in the pedestrianised bit of the Aldwych looked a bit young for me. Plus a minor infestation of the outdoor art (aka Easter eggs) which we learned later had reached Wisley.
We made the mistake of going to the bus stop in Lancaster Place, which turned out only to cater for the buses turning in from the Strand. Most of them just sailed past. But we got back to Waterloo in the end.
Where I was pleased to be reminded of the splendid buffers from Ransomes of Ipswich, the town where were family were living for the first few years of my life. And we had a Ransomes push lawn mower for many years after that. But when were the buffers last used in anger?
Passed on the platform library at Raynes Park but we did get the stink of a peanut flavoured snack instead. And an empty VTG goods train, probably with the sort of wagons that are used for ballast. Checking today, I find that VTG are a German wagon leasing operation, rather than a rail haulage outfit. Everything is so complicated these days.
A good outing. But, for some reason, not tempted to go again, as I had been with the Tempest.
PS 1: in the margins of this post, I learn that people in Sunderland who have been trying to contact me are not spam or worse after all, as my telephone had suspected. Rather, EDF wanting to install a new meter. The young lady I spoke to was not a native English speaker, but she stuck to her long script and she did pretty well. I did not part with any tricky details and I am due an email on which I can check the address.
PS 2: a bit later, I asked Bing about Eli's pork pies of Ely and all he would offer was Eleys' of Ironbridge. At least Google put me right, connecting me, additionally, to Edis of Bury St. Edmonds. See reference 7.
References
Reference 1: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/07/globular.html.
Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2007/01/smuts.html.
Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/a-botanical-digression.html.
Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Kemble_Street.
Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-trick-of-memory.html.
Reference 6: https://uk.vtg.com/.
Reference 7: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/01/in-praise-of-edis-of-ely.html.
Reference 8: http://www.ingridmackinnon.com/.
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