So its been theatre week this week for me with 3 visits (only one planned) with a gig, a pub quiz and a meal out thrown in.
Now when it comes to theatre I always mean plays. Musicals don't really do it for me. But when someone rings up with a free ticket, well I don't need to be asked twice. And Hamlet - the Musical is really not what I think of as a musical. Yes its entirely in song, but its a spoof. A real hoot, just lots of great puns and while based (a little loosely) on Shakespeare its a really satirises musicals, opera and pop, well those are the cultural references one needs to enjoy it anyway. And enjoy it I did. Hope it makes a transfer to the West End.
The second musical I went to was "Betty Blue Eyes," which is in the West End. Really more of the same, a musical comedy based on the film "A Private Function", but this time with a bigger budget (and so an animatronic pig - every play should have one). So it looked better and you recognised members of the cast, and certainly the choregraphy was better, but it wasn't really any more fun than its comparator at the Richmond Theatre earlier in the week. And the three male leads were all recognisable from TV work as character actors (and the lead Reece Sheersmith was a member of the League of Gentlemen) but that was a disadvantage as they were the three who couldn't really sing. Which, as you will appreciate, when everything is conveyed in the medium of song, is a bit of a downside. Not saying it was poor, far from it, but just not as much of a bargain. And sometimes a lack of stars is better, although maybe not for box office which is what counts I guess.
The pub quiz was fun. Hadn't done one for a while. In addition to the usual rounds of general knowledge we had an additional paper on which we had to name various items which contained none of the letters in the word "Mackerel." One was an item of furniture, which sounds like it should be easy but futon was the only one we could come up with. (Another was a London Tube station. Think of it? Bet you can't! A state in the US? A national capital? A fish?) I had an early start for a meeting next day so stuck to just the one pint, which probably helped my contribution. (Yes our team won, he says modestly.)
The gig was Two Door Cinema Club at Brixton. As the lead singer pointed out, the biggest gig the band had ever played, as Brixton is the largest theatre style venue before you start venturing into the more utilitarian world of arenas. Great gig, their jangly guitar music being bang on my musical tastes. And a lovely young bouncy audience. Unfortunately had to go on my own as my mate's lad was put under curfew at the last moment by his parents as he has GCSEs coming up next week and they wanted him to fret at home a bit about them. Anyway the band are now off to do that difficult second album after the great success of their debut, Tourist History. Check it out.
Saturday, with the stunning weather, I thought was too good to waste on watching England v Switzerland on TV (one of my better decisions) so I went on a walk through Regents Park, starting off at Primrose Hill which affords fine views over London.
Now those who say they don't like London because they prefer somewhere greener, well they are just lazy sods and don't look around the place. Now I agree if you want bleak moorland and mountains with the odd glacier thrown in then London may not be the ideal spot, but London Parks are beautiful. Regents Park is possibly the best maintained, with its boating lake, sports pitches and well-manicured gardens.
And in the middle is the open air theatre, and given the stunningly nice day I just decided on the spur of the moment to go for my third theatre visit of the week, this time to a straight play, Lord of the Flies, adapted from William Golding's famous novel (which I first came across in my teens when it was book at bedtime on Radio 4). If you don't know it, the story is of a group of schoolboys whose flight crashes on the ubiquitous desert island. There is an unspecified background of a war, presumably nuclear, going on in the rest of the world. No adult survives and the story revolves around the breakdown of civilisation between the boys and so is an allegory for the breakdown of civilisation into war amongst the modern adult world too. (Modern at the time being in the Cold War and with WWII only a recent memory)
Now what I thought was hilarious was the jobsworth selling tickets felt the need to go through their policy on cancellations for bad weather with me, notwithstanding the performance was starting in half an hour and it was a scorching hotday.
The book is brilliant (well Golding won his Nobel prize for literature partly on the strength of it) and the play was ...interesting. Firstly I have to say the set design, with bits of a crashed airplane scattered across the stage and up into the sides by the seats, one detached wing being used as the pathway for actors to enter the stage and clothes strewn in the surrounding trees, was utterly, utterly inspired. For sheer intelligence I would say best I have seen. And the boys did a very good job with the script. There is a lot of action, and a very hot day to be doing it all in. And an evening performance to follow. The lad who played Ralph should go on to great things.
But its a very difficult thing to pull off. In the book (and indeed as narrated on the radio) one can imagine the boys whipping themselves up into a frenzy of excitement and fear. Much more difficult to depict on stage when there is only a cast of 10 of you. And difficult too to show the gradual decline from civility to savagery. And one problem with the play, and the book, is that (deliberately) Piggy is just such an unattractive character. On the one hand he is trying to be sensible, and he is the appeal to reason, and not to mock the weakling, but its just that he is so unattractive in every way that one is tempted to side with the power-intoxicated Jack and throw stones at him. But the main characters are such a neat bunch and so well depicted in terms of how one sees political intrigue in the adult world. Jack and Ralph start out ok, but Jack just likes power. And the more he gets the more deranged (or calculating) he becomes. And he has in Roger the perfect toady henchman, who is happy with being second in command as it satisfies his lust for bullying others without having to contribute anything himself. And its enough toadying thuggish supporters that are behind every ruthless dictator. Read in Stalin, Libya, Zimbabwe well anything. And Ralph is of course the emblem of all decency, and unlike Piggy also brave, handsome etc. And British. Well every story needs a hero.
The other thing to say about Regents Park (after that long critical diatribe) is that being originally Nash's scheme for grand housing rather than a park (in fact only 8 villas were built in the park when it was designed to be dotted with 56 of them) there is a rather nice harmony (in my view) of idealised scenery with grand regency architecture. While there are only a few houses actually to see in the Park, there are wonderful terraces surrounding it. Anyone who wants to see good quality high density housing should be brought here. And it all positively shines in the sun.
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