We are spending a weekend in the gatehouse of Tewkesbury Abbey, a property now maintained and rented by the estimable Landmark Trust. They often provide a customised jigsaw puzzle showing the place you’re in – so here’s ours duly completed!
Went with Elizabeth (thanks to her) to see Sondheim’s last work Here We Are, currently at the National Theatre. For Sondheim’s many fans, this last musical, left in draft form at his death, is a must-see, but it’s an entertaining evening for anyone.
It’s based on two Bunuel films: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel, but transplanted to America and infused with a New York sense of humour. In the first part the characters just can’t seem to get brunch: in the second they somehow cannot leave the room. Meanwhile they are covertly involved in a drug cartel and a revolution is brewing.
Bunuel’s originals, though surreal, had a dream-like logic which is missing here, but in compensation you get the wisecracking humour. You don’t expect to come out of a late Sondheim show humming the big melodies, but if you’re not a grouch you’ll enjoy the singing.
To me Sondheim represents the pinnacle of the curious trend that briefly saw the Broadway musical turn away from its song-and-dance razzle-dazzle roots towards something much more intellectual. That all stopped when Andrew Lloyd Webber put strong stories and popular tunes back in place, but we were left with some interesting works – and this is a decent final addition to the portfolio.
Another look at forthcoming writing competitions I might enter. A lot of them have deadlines at the end of the month this time.
All the rest have a deadline of 30 June.
Do let me know if you achieve recognition in any of these, but do not try to enter Periscope’s Paired Fiction prize, because they’ve been overwhelmed by entries and are not accepting any more.
This figure, a modern carving on a modern house, became a bit of a landmark in Carshalton. It was removed for restoration a long time ago, but today Anne is back!
Why Anne Boleyn? She stands opposite ‘Anne Boleyn’s Well’ by All Saints’ churchyard, but in fact the history is garbled: the well was originally associated with the local Boulogne family, not connected with the Boleyns (or Bullens as they were more prosaically known).
Nice to see her back, though.
I tried out a new design of place mat made from wine corks. This one isn’t as floppy as the ones I’ve done before.
I have again reached the shortlist of the estimable Parracombe competition, which means my story They All Left the Room will be in this year’s anthology even if it doesn’t progress further.
Here again are some writing competitions with deadlines during the coming month. The list is not comprehensive (I don’t bother with flash much, for example), but I hope it might be of interest.
All the rest have a deadline of 31 May.
If you enter any of these and get anywhere, do let me know!
Brian Cox gives a masterly performance as J.S.Bach in The Score at the Theatre Royal Haymarket (whose opulent interior provides a suitably baroque background). The play, by Oliver Cotton and directed by Trevor Nunn, centres on the true story of Bach’s visit to the court of Frederick the Great, where he was challenged to improvise a three-part fugue on an ‘unfuguable’ theme – which he did, a feat of mental musicianship that seems hardly credible.
Here though, Bach rather implausibly uses the opportunity to denounce Frederick’s military ‘interventions’ and the horrors they bring with them. The King is portrayed as a precursor of later German belligerence, but Bach’s musical insights reveal the complexes that motivate him, rooted in an unhappy childhood. The play is neatly constructed and works pretty well apart from sometimes getting just a little bogged down.
The weakest part, in my view, is Voltaire, who appears as a secondary character but is written, not as the sharp and witty sceptic we know, but as a over-demonstrative French stereotype. He is allowed only one characteristic witticism (‘murderers are severely punished, unless they kill thousands, to the sound of trumpets’). If Voltaire had written this play it would have been shorter and funnier, but that’s a tough benchmark, and Cox’s bravura turn helps make it a well-spent evening.
This old sweater had been attacked by moths: I thought I would have a go at visible darning, where you make feature of the hole repair. Experts produce works of art, but I just went for traditional square darns with coloured threads for a slight tartan effect. I don’t think I will actually wear this much, but it was an interesting thing to do.
We were lucky enough to get really good tickets at a reasonable price for The Seagull at the Barbican with Cate Blanchett. This is a modern, rather innovative (some might say gimmicky) production by Thomas Ostermeier. Most of the additions, changes and updates are OK, I think. Some, like regularly breaking the fourth wall, are intended to highlight a kind of dialogue about the relation between performance and reality: modern music and references are either irrelevant or legitimately funny. Probably the most uneasy thing imo is the way the character Semyon Medvedenko is changed from a poor schoolteacher into a ‘factory worker’ (how is a factory worker hanging around this country estate all the time?) who drives around on a quad bike and sings Billy Bragg songs – though of course we are made well aware that it is not Medvedenko singing, but the actor Zachary Hart.
The cast is terrific, by the way though obviously Cate Blanchett’s amazing performance as the famous actress (see what they did there) and attention-hogging narcissist Irina Arkadina outshines everything else. The tap-dancing and doing the splits are the least of it, I promise you.
It’s a terrific show, and the fact that it is so clever, funny and profound is largely due to the fact that none of the fancy tricks is ultimately allowed to get in the way of Chekhov’s classic play, which is delivered pretty well intact. I would strongly recommend it, but I think it’s sold out.
Seen and Done 