London Lives

This weekend, I’ve broken two important barriers:

1.  Been back to the Coliseum: when we went there before Christmas I fainted in my seat (they were high up and I hadn’t been well a few days beforehand). When my pal booked tickets for The Mikado I was apprehensive, but needed to get back in the saddle. And, from the same very high seats last Friday, all was well. Great show, too.

It sounds a silly thing to need to get over. When I was a child I was always fainting. “It’s her metabolism. She’ll need to eat little and often,” my mother was told. She was forever putting a couple of barley sugars in my coat pocket to eat at school. But, as an adult, the sensation of feeling faint in a darkened packed theatre was terrifying when you’re not quite sure how you’re going to get out afterwards. Thankfully my lovely pal negotiated all this for me.

So Friday was important. It also taught me something else: even if I faint in a darkened theatre, nothing truly terrible can happen. Let’s hope I have no further need for this wisdom.

2.  Read something out in front of a group of strangers at a writing course: I was at a weekend course at the fabulous CityLit where I met lots of lovely and talented people. Brilliant tutor too. The aim was for us to have a draft of a short story by the end of the weekend and the tutors was asking for volunteers to read their ‘beginnings’. I had set myself the task beforehand of standing up and reading something out if possible and I managed it (I was standing metaphorically if not literally).

Great feedback, too. Very encouraging. It’s easy to think you’ve written something unimportant or tedious that takes too long to hit any moment of resonance. Feedback is important and so welcome. And I have my first draft! I can see this as a completed piece. Brilliant.

Stephen Berkoff spoke at one of the National Theatre’s Platform events on Friday night. A superb event where he spoke with warmth and vigour about his upbringing in Stepney, his tailor father and his acting and directing career.

He spoke of wanting a Zoot Suit (and of looking ridiculous in it when he tried it on); of the trials posed by directors; of his parents cursing in their native Yiddish.

The Cottesloe, the theatre where the event was held, is a rather odd place. We discovered that you need to leave the National Theatre, wander along through something akin to a car park and enter another mysterious (and hitherto never-seen) doorway. Once there, you have to navigate the strange seating system, only to be sharply told that you’re on the other side of the auditorium. More seating navigation required. Inevitably, our seats were at the end of the row and required us to squeeze past a pillar and clamber over from the row behind to avoid disturbing the seated patrons.

Did I mention that all of these fresh discoveries were made while we carried plastic beakers full of red wine? But of course they were… Naturally, we were the only ones ambling along to find the theatre with beakers in hand. When squeezing into our seats, one friend clambered over the row, then held the wine and the coats while the other friend followed suit. All attempts to be ladylike vanished (vanquished?)

Stephen was still the business, though.

The Royal Court Theatre is staging four plays in the Elephant and Castle shopping centre. Excellent. This is a brilliant idea:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8496070.stm

The Priory, Royal Court Theatre SW1W
Written by Michael Wynne
Directed by Jeremy Herrin
Cast: Nick Blood, Jessica Hynes, Alastair Mackenzie, Joseph Millson, Rupert Penry-Jones, Charlotte Riley, Rachael Stirling

This comedy is about successful but unhappy thirty-somethings gathering on New Year’s Eve and all the underlying angst that suggests. In the wrong hands, this could have been twee nonsense that moves to a neat resolution. But this this is deftly handled: sharply written and directed, with a tightly co-ordinated cast. More importantly, it’s funny. All of the characters’ lives have been interlaced but are now moving in different directions. Motivations, love, ambitions and locale are all fluid and up for grabs.

Rachael Stirling (Rebecca) and Charlotte Riley (Laura) are particularly appalling characters and loathsome house-guests. In context, of course, this gives them amusing lines to deliver and they inevitably unravel even more quickly than the others. Laura’s potential to unravel is more evident from the start, although this takes a darker and more unexpected turn when it does come.

There are quirky elements, too: the mention of the dressing-up box near the start hints at masquerades to come. It never takes long for the men, in particular, to start dressing up and unburdening themselves while wearing dresses (lovely Rupert Henry-Jones spends some time doing this). The resolution is still neat, in a manner of speaking, when Kate (Jessica Hynes) declares to Daniel (Joseph Millson) about life: “This is it, and it’s okay. This is it, this is it, this it.”

First time to the Royal Court for me and we had seats on the Balcony (upper circle), in a similar position to those at the old Vic last week. Great stage set – I really liked it. Decent pub food and a couple of glasses of wine in the Duke of Wellington round the corner in Belgravia beforehand. An excellent night out.

The Old Vic, Waterloo SE1
Kevin Spacey, David Troughton
Directed by Trevor Nunn

Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee’s play about freedom of thought is as relevant as ever in this, the 150th year since Darwin’s Origin of Species was first published. A classic battle between science and religion, Trevor Nunn’s production is a tense and sweaty courtroom drama. It was also surprisingly comic in places, with the house laughing along to Spacey and Troughton as they delivered their performances with conviction.

Kevin Spacey seems to divide opinion: I’ve discovered that some of the people I know really don’t like him. I loved American Beauty at the cinema and wasn’t disappointed by The Usual Suspects. To me, he excels in playing an apparently ordinary Joe with a sinister underbelly. While his role in Inherit the Wind doesn’t immediately call for these things, there is a seeping sense of him wearing down his opponent’s argument amid a climate which doesn’t promote freedom of thought. Spacey is a prowly presence on stage against Troughton’s Biblical bluster. Stunning stuff, even better than I expected it to be.

Beforehand, we ate at the Waterloo Brasserie, new place for both of us. It’s the first time I’ve booked a restaurant online and it all worked. Fish and chips for me, followed by apple and pear crumble with cinnamon ice cream. My pal had the crab linguine, which I sampled some of and it was luscious. She also had the crumble. The Brasserie was good: smart and busy with pre-theatre diners. Lots of red design and dark woods. We will return.

Right. I recently became a lady of a Certain Age and had a splendid weekend of celebrations. After agonising about where to go, I plumped for a favourite Italian restaurant in town that most of my pals have been to at one time or another.

If I was nervous about gathering various people together, I needn’t have been. There was something special about seeing friends of mine who’d never met before getting on like a house on fire at each end of the table. Lush food (as always), Prosecco, wine, puddings and liquers. Wonderful.

The following day, my brilliant best friend took me to lunch at Brown’s, a great brasserie in Covent Garden. I haven’t been there for years and I like the fact that it is buzzy and smart, without being stuffy or full of nightmare people. I had a lovely crab and avocado salad followed by fish and chips. Sometimes F&C just really fits the bill and I wasn’t wrong this time. We had great natter over Prosecco and Gavi. My pal had the goat’s cheese and red pepper tart (which I purloined a mouthful of), followed by quail and rice.

There was a smart wedding reception taking place at Brown’s; lots of men in kilts and women in gowns, although there was one woman in a kilt and staggeringly high heels. She looked ace.

Afterwards, we went to see Stomp! at the Ambassadors Theatre. Fantastic, vibrant and something completely different from anything I’ve seen before. The Ambassadors is a lovely theatre, very small and with an interesting history.

Brilliant weekend. I love my pals.