Out and About

Theatre Royal Plymouth

On Friday, despite the threat of impending wind and rain based doom over the South West of England,  HOH and I ventured out to the ballet. We went to see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, partly because we wanted to and partly because I didn't want to be the last person in the western world to go.
I have seen a bit of Bourne, I took FOW2 to The Nutcracker (which she could have taken or left to be honest.) HOH and I also went to see his version of Joseph Losey's The Servant - Play Without Words, which was fan yourself hot actually and I'm glad I didn't go with my nana.
Anyway, this Swan Lake was a sort of cross between a Grimm fairy tale, an astonishing feat of beautiful dance and er .. A Bronski Beat video. As you probably know, the "Big Thing" about Bourne's Swan Lake is that the swans are played by blokes rather than girlies. This has obvious repercussions when the Queen's son falls in love with the lead swan. I trust you are following my meaning here. 
My first mistake was not checking out the story before I went. I am too mean to pay £3.50 for a programme advertising lots of shops in Plymouth that I already know about so I went in completely ignorant. By the time I reached the interval - so many questions.
Who is he?
Is that his mother?
Why is he chasing the swans?
Is in love with a swan? Is that allowed?
Does he want a swan as a pet?
Wouldn't the Queen have something to say about that? Doesn't she own all the swans in England or something? 
When does Natalie Portman come on?

We had also managed to find ourselves sat next to a group of understudies on one side of us - all taut limbs, straight backs and spontaneous applause every five minutes - and a very charming old man on the other side who was struggling manfully with a cough and had to keep putting sucky sweets in his mouth. I tell you, the whole event could have been fraught with tension.

I have to report though that it was quite wonderful. Such amazing physicality, and beauty and humour and wonderful music which they managed to keep the spirit of despite moving so far away from what I suppose is the "Classic" version of the story. The scene in a club called "Swanks" where people managed to to do sixties dancing to a Tchaikovsky score was inspired and the startling finale make you leave the theatre feeling that you had been in the presence of something special. 

I came home and read the story and it all made a bit more sense - as much as any story about people being turned into swans ever makes sense - and although I did realise that the was also an agenda at play - I couldn't be bothered with that. I stood up at the end and clapped. All the theatre and me and the annoyingly lovely understudies. They were all very tall. I've seen Billy Elliot. I thought you couldn't dance the ballet if you were too tall. Another mystery that my lack of culture means I will never be able to solve. 

Bit depressed?

Nah - you're not. Not after watching this.

You're welcome

Recommending

It has been a funny couple of weeks. Some sort of disk went on my laptop which has meant that it has been at the menders for a fortnight. Also, I have had a ten day headache/migraine thing going on so kept away from screens as much as possible. All well now - thanks for asking. Well, laptop still waiting for part but there you go. 

Can I just bang on a bit about these. You don't have to take any notice if you don't want to.

Firstly - inappropriate crush number 718. Francis Spufford and I haven't even seen a photo of him!!! this book certainly isn't for everyone and I'm not sure that it is even for Christians to be honest. Some of it I can't make head nor tail of because it is quite clever but there is one chapter on Jesus that is probably the best chapter on Jesus I have ever, EVER read. It captures the essence and the impact of Jesus in a way that makes me want to be as much like him as I possibly can. (Which isn't much I know) I have read it several times now and still find it amazing. (Please don't read if you will be offended by the use of the f word. I think I was offended but I appreciated his honesty and openness more than I was offended and who was asking me anyway?)

Secondly, we rushed off to see the new Woody Allen so that we got a chance to see it before any more revelations came out about his "interesting" private life and people started throwing rocks at us in the queue. Blue Jasmine reminds me why I love Woody Allen. It is funny, sharp and witty. Everyone is brilliant but Ms Blanchett is absolutely amazeballs as the young people say. I think there is a lot of faff talked about actors but she is just fantastic in this. Proper good.

Lastly recommending something I haven't read yet. The next Pen Wilcock monk book is out! Hurrah! Actually the series is called The Hawk and the Dove  and, having read the last six, unless there has been some sort of rip in the time-space continuum and life is not continuing as we understand it, then I can say with some certainty that this will be good. Am slightly worked up that William (inappropriate crush number 642) and Madeleine may not be living happily ever after but am prepared to try and cope. We must be brave.

Eventful! Well no not really

A few things going on this week, nothing for you to lose sleep over but why would you? You hardly know me! The flowers in the photo were my brother's favourite - yellow roses. (I know, I know he certainly was not afraid of a gay stereotype, bless him) It was three years since he died this week. Because my Mum lives here now and can't go to the crem, I was trying to think of something memory thingy to do. I thought of taking some yellow roses to the beach and throwing them into the sea. Then I almost heard Dave's voice saying "Have you gone mad? You look ridiculous!" So we shoved the roses into a vase, I made a chicken pie and we sat round and told funny Dave stories. Better way to remember for us I think. Thinking of you this week Liam. (Sorry if you are a fan of the old lobbing things into the sea method. I expect you have more natural dignity than I do)

Head of House has returned safely from dropping Fruit of Womb 1 back at York Uni. There was a small problem in that the hire car provided for the trip was not the roomy economy that he had ordered but a last minute replacement Mercedes. You may think this would be a "good thing" However, call me ungrateful but..

1. HOH spent the whole weekend with his bottom tight with fear in case anything happened to the stupid thing.
2. The usual £60 fuel cost jumped to £90. (Apparently, Mercedes owners don't have to worry about trivial things like fuel consumption).
3. When FOW1 goes back to uni he takes nearly every possession he owns. Try fitting a base guitar, large amp, clothes, tv, music system, sports equipment etc etc into the back of a poncy car whose seats don't even go down!
4. Apparently it flipped unbidden into cruise control. It can be quite scary to find yourself suddenly travelling at 80 mph with your foot OFF the accelerator.

This weekend was the 40th Anniversary of the first night Northern Soul Allnighter at Wigan Casino. I am writing this with HOH sat next to me threatening to "help" me with this bit so it may be cut short if I stop and hit him with the laptop. I have never been to Wigan Casino. Too young for one thing and probably not cool enough either. But, every Saturday night for three years from 1973 HOH would go and spread talcum powder on the floor of the casino (to aid slippage) and dance from midnight to 8am. It was a phenomenon among the young working class who liked their soul music with an edge. This week - The Culture Show had a terrific documentary about it. It is on the BBC I-player here but

only until Wednesday. 

Even though I am only the other half of a Casino veteran, I do love a lot of the music (not all of it - trust me) and can certainly see how it attracted such loyalty. The program is certainly worth a watch, especially for my kids who were struggling to believe that their aged parent was once a member of one of the coolest groups of people in the universe.!

Thoughtful Home Thoughts

I'm watching and loving The Story Of The Jews at the moment on the old BBC. I love this for lots of reasons. Firstly, Simon Schama. I think that he is the daddy of all this sort of thing. I loved his History of Britain and his book on The French Revolution - Citizens is one of the best things I have ever read on it. ( A not at all snobby or superior warning here. If you are not interested in The French Revolution or you don't already know a bit about it, I wouldn't start with Citizens. You may lose the will to live)

I love the Jewish depiction of God - passionate, loud, argumentative - ultimately always believing in his fatherhood.

Anyway - as he has got older he has got a bit more er... theatrical in his delivery but I love it. The word my kids use is fey but either way - I could watch him for hours. He is Jewish, un-apologetically Jewish and a Zionist. Not wholly uncritical but certainly partisan. And he is living this series. Lips a tremble, hand waving, head shaking sometimes quivering with indignation. 

I have learnt loads too. I would not claim that this was a specialist subject and I am a bit embarrassed because I sort of thought that all Jewish men in the Old Testament dressed like Hassidic Jews. Whatever you think about the Jewish nation though and there is probably a good argument that says that modern Israel brings a lot of its trials down on itself; no-one could say that they have had an easy life. 

For many hundreds of years they had no area to call home. They lodged in other countries - locked in at night, forced to wear clothes that made them easily identifiable (this is all pre-second world war - we haven't got that far yet) and when the home nation got fed up, then they were expelled (if no one felt like massacring a few thousand of them)

I have struggled to get my head around not having a home country. I have my problems living here - I worry - Did we choose the right Millidee to lead Labour? What sort of government thinks it's ok to tax disabled families more for having an extra bedroom where carers can get some sleep? Will X Factor eventually lead to lions running in and eating the unsuccessful candidates? Will Sherlock EVER come back? However, it is my country. The place that I was born in and, at least at this point in time, it is the place that I can call my own and anyone who says otherwise is actually an invading force and we would feel well within our rights to deal VERY severely with them. 
I can't imagine not having that. It gives me pause.