Japes Too

We had already seen seen two plays in this series at the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, Japes and Michael. All based on two brothers who had fallen for the same woman. She marries the elder more successful one, with whom she has a daughter (but is it his?), but really fancies the younger.

Japes was fair enough, but something not quite right about it. Some of the emotions just didn't ring true, and the ending is uncomfortable. Michael was then a short play somewhat filling in the middle of the Japes story with a very similar but not quite identical ending.

So with Japes Too we thought we were going to get another short play like Michael. Instead this was re-write of the original Japes. Lots of the dialogue and action was therefore familiar. But there was a completely different ending. I have to say this was so much better a play. I really didn't need to see the other two, except that by doing so one is maybe exposed to the process of writing. Its difficult to describe what the improvements were, other than it suddenly all worked. The characters all behaved believably this time. And there was a less uncomfortable ending, except that the ending seemed underdeveloped; we needed another bit of exposition to explain how the older brother had ended up in this mental state. But overall, a very good play, this time.

We drop of from the theatre front now - have very few plays lined up imminently, partly because I am soon off on holiday but also perhaps because we are entering a season of being outdoors. I made a bit of an attack on my overgrown garden today. But it is very much in flower.

The Silver Tassie

Oh dear. This play had some good reviews too. But it is best put down as pretentious nonsense, likeable only by a professional critic. Of course it can't really be pretentious as its delivered in an Irish accent and its anti-war which should make it ok. But it really isn't. The play opens conventionally enough in an Irish home, with a young man returning from helping his team win a football game, before returning to the front line in the First World War. This scene just drags. Worse follows.

Now comes the theatrical coup de grace. The stage (rather brilliantly) alters in steps to the ruins of a church with added pyrotechnics. The BBC article I read described this as  the play turns from the more naturalistic speech of the rest of the play to a style of dialogue drawing on the Old Testament, the Catholic Latin mass and music-hall. Basically the section is done in a lot of chanting. Far from an effective device, it just makes the dialogue hard to follow. So the scene drags even more.

And then we return to find our hero has been paralyzed from the waist down. We see him first in hospital where his girl no longer wants to see him, and then finally at a party to celebrate his football team's win, with him now an angry man forgotten by the able-bodied and shunned by his ex-girlfriend who has a new fella in tow.

All this should leave plenty of room for pathos. But the middle section does nothing (except maybe it ought to win an award for best set design) and frankly the pathos is buried. There is a lot of the totally unfunny sort of banter between unnecessary side characters which one often finds in Shakespeare. Indeed you rather felt that the playwright, Sean O'Casey, fancied himself as the Irish Shakespeare. Added to the fact this has a cast of 25, its fair to say its unlikely to get many more revivals, being disinterred now only because of the First World War centenary. There are so many better plays on the subject than this one. Hopefully it will be re-buried now and rest in peace in a dusty drawer for eternity.

 

Coventry v Swindon

Sick as a parrot.

I decided to devote Good Friday to watching the Sky Blues in their relegation battle form League One. So imagine how gutted I was to travel all the way to Northampton and back to watch City lose to a last minute goal. Galling to put it mildly. One point and I would have felt we were on the way to safety, but it was not to be. Cracking equaliser from Robert Fleck was the highlight. But ultimately we were just not good enough. Both sides were willing to take players on, but far from dribbling past them it normally just resulted in losing possession.

Ah well, I guess that's the difference from the Premier League. The players try to play the right way, but just lack quality.

Sunny Afternoon

My second trip to the Hampstead Theatre of the week (well it was awarded Theatre of the Year 2014), this time to the upstairs to see Sunny Afternoon. This was a musical biopic of the Kinks. It follows many West End successes like Mama Mia and We Will Rock You. in combining songs or parts of songs into a story line. This was the rise fall and rise again of the Kinks with the usual battles with fame, drink and record contracts.

Now one way of looking at a musical such as this is how amazingly clever it is to weave together all these songs into a cogent story, and marry it up with complicated choreography. The actors can all act and sing. Its all quite impressive. But not my cup of tea. And this is largely because while it is all clever, one ought to ask why one has to do it at all. A proper play could be interesting. If you like the music you could just listen to the Kinks Greatest Hits cd. Or see a tribute act. One doesn't need to splice together all these art forms.

I should add that the audience seemed to like it enough, especially the end when it burst out of being a musical and into a tribute act by just bringing the best unused stuff from the narrative at the close, notably Waterloo Sunset and Lola (particularly hard to fit a song about a transvestite in to the rest). At that point the middle-aged (veering to OAP) audience were up and dancing and that was probably the market for this - a nostalgia trip to the Sixties when the audience was young.

Yes it was well produced, the actor playing Danny being particularly good I thought, and the actress playing Ray Davies' wife had a very sweet voice. But I think I will settle for that Kinks cd.

One day like this a year will see me right

The more learned of readers will spot this as a quotation from One Day Like This by Elbow, appropriate as I ended the day at an Elbow gig, but also because this was just such a lovely day start to finish. Although maybe I have higher ambitions than just one such day a year.

I had friends staying with me, which is always nice, making full use of my new loft conversion and extra bathroom. This helped get 5 of us up and out early to see the Viking Exhibition at opening time. My third visit and I do appreciate how much easier it is to go round first thing than later in the day when it gets ever so crowded. Having seen it twice before I felt happier taking the youngest member of our party round at perhaps greater speed than his mother. But that's not to say we didn't give it a decent amount of attention and chat about Viking technology, from sword making to boat building as we went. He is a fine lad.

Following that I had arranged to meet another friend of mine and her son mid-morning. So we had a little meander around the Elgin Marbles before getting both groups together for lunch. Fortunately it was a glorious sunny Spring day, as I had planned having lunch outdoors. Now the British Museum simply gets hordes of tourists so its not really such a restful place, not even for lunch. However just a short walk away and totally hidden is Pied Bull Yard, a little courtyard down an alleyway. It is really pretty and an excellent spot to have lunch for 7 by bunging together some outside tables. Anyway, we all got on very well and it was a genuinely pleasant social occasion, as a good lunch should be.

After a quick return to the British Museum and walk around the Anglo-Saxon galleries (which sparked off a lively theological debate between the 14 year olds!), we split up, leaving my house guests to spend the afternoon in the Museum and then go on to see the Piano Guys in Shepherds Bush while I took my friend and her son to the Shard for Tom's 14th birthday treat.

I have to say this was well worth doing. The Shard is a phenomenon. It is just scarily high, scary even looking up from the ground.

Nice contrast with the war memorial don't you think?

 You can't beat a good view, and this is just the best view in Town. The lifts are amazingly fast and smooth and before you know it you're at the 68th floor.

A good view down on London's new skyscrapers going uop

The birthday boy

HMS Belfast

The Olympic Stadium

Tower Bridge

St Pauls

Train coming into London Bridge, but looking like a toy train set.

Monument

And if the 68th floor isn't enough, one can go up from that entirely enclosed viewing platform to 72nd floor which is open to the elements so you can feel the breeze, although it is entirely wrapped in glass.

HMS Belfast in the shadow of the Shard

A different view of the Tower of London

And Tower Bridge

And St Paul's

Mother and child

Looking down on the lower viewing platform

A crane reflected in a glassy office block

We also had a nice walk around Borough Market (with a stop for Turkish Delight - this is the ultimate foodie market) and a drink at the George Inn (a National trust pub) before settling down in TAS for a Turkish dinner. I hope Tom enjoyed his birthday - I think so. He is a very engaging young man. With very adventurous tastes in food, so will need to find something more exciting than a scallop stew for next time! Anyway, a lovely day, but that was only my early supper. Having waved them goodbye at London Bridge, I whizzed off in the opposite direction to meet my mate James and get into the Elbow gig at the O2.

First up was Jimi Goodwin. We arrived part way through his set, and after a couple of songs James commented that the band sounded like the Doves. I pointed out this was hardly surprising since Jimi Goodwin is the frontman of the Doves, plugging his new solo album. Good spot James!

Now I have seen Elbow many times and am quite evangelistic about them. Well very, actually. So it was nice seeing them with someone new. And even though I had extolled their virtues, I don't think James was prepared for quite how good they are live.


The musicianship is of course wonderful - they have a horn and string section touring with them.

Their songs are beautiful - Guy Garvey is a terrific lyricist. They played stuff almost exclusively from their new album before ending on more familiar work. Guy Garvey has an excellent voice with a remarkable range. But what one is particularly left with is Guy's personality. He just oozes niceness. Basically 20,000 of us turned up to be wooed by just about the nicest bloke on Earth. He just leaves one with a feeling of genial warmth. Truly you have to go to appreciate him.

The mirror ball has to come out for "Mirrorball"

And of course the encore ended with One Day Like This, Elbow's Hey Jude really - a song which the crowd could just sing along together with all night. We lapped it up. And they released some big balloons for us to play with. We lapped it up even more.

Wonderful day