Yes there is such an animal but it looks like it's come straight off the pages of a childrens book. They missed an opportunity in capturing it actually biting though.
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March 2009
31/03/2009
30/03/2009
Theatre: Dimetos and celeb spot
For some reason I referred to this play as Dee-men-tos prior to going to see it at the Donmar Warehouse only realising my mistake when the call came to take our seats and it was pronounced 'dimmy-toss' over the tannoy but in hindsight perhaps it was a subliminal premonition because I nearly went demented trying to fathom it out.
On the surface the ideas seem very simple and the character conflicts are given away all too easily but then there are these looong monologues that hint at something more but left me wanting to shout, 'a clue, just one, a hint, anything...'
Written by South African playwright Athol Fugard it is about a former engineer who leaves the city for a remote village with his housekeeper and niece. A former colleague visits to try and persuade him to return.
You never really find out why he left other than he didn't care about the people he worked with any more but I found this argument a bit wanting and in lieu of any further explanation a little lacking in substance.
The visitor stays for five days, hidden feelings are revealed with tragic consequences - one of two really good moments in the play (but I won't spoil it if you are going) and that's the first half leaving you wondering what the second half was going to be about other than feelings of remorse.
Well there is plenty of that and more monologues and throwing around of stuff but little else I could fathom.
The only other excitement of the evening was spotting Christian Cooke who co-starred with Holliday Grainger in ITV's Demons (yes I'm the sap that watched it). The later playing the part of Lydia in the play. At the rather lacklustre curtain call (from the audiences part I felt) Ms Grainger got a special little applause from Mr Cooke when she turned towards his seat up in the circle.
Other reviews:
West End Whingers
29/03/2009
28/03/2009
27/03/2009
Addenbrooke's mosaic
Hospital mum is in has the most beautiful mosaics. This is just a part of one. More pics at www.flickr.com/photos/revstan
26/03/2009
25/03/2009
24/03/2009
23/03/2009
22/03/2009
Street entertainer: juggler 1
And another one. More at www.flickr.com/photos/revstan
Street entertainer: applying make up
Took this yesterday on the South Bank - where else would I be on a bright saturday or sunday?
21/03/2009
20/03/2009
Vox Hunt: Signs of Spring
Show us the first sign of spring.
I've taken these in the last 10 days...
19/03/2009
Theatre: Dido Queen of Carthage
During the interval of Dido, which is on at the National Theatre, I overheard a conversation about the play in which one person asked why there were Greek gods. 'Duh,' I thought, 'it's so they can manipulate the mortals and add a few extra bends in the storyline'.
However come the end of the play I was beginning to ask the same question myself.
Taken at it's basic thread Christopher Marlowe's play is about how Dido falls in love with Aeneas who is shipwrecked on the shores of Carthage. There is a honeymoon period then Aeneas leaves Dido to continue on his mission to rebuild Troy which breaks her heart and she kills herself.
Now if they'd stuck with that it could have been a good, simple tragedy.
But the Gods in the first half who manipulated Dido and Aeneas's relationship by kidnapping Aeneas's son and replacing him with Cupid were also arguing among themselves then making up and scheming so that when they virtually disappeared in the second half I was left wondering...'hang on a minute, what about... They never returned to view the fruits of their labours or even comment on the catastrophe.
It felt like chunks of the story had been chopped out and I admit I lost the plot. Dido's speeches became more hysterical, so much so that I was silently urging Aeneas to run like the wind and was quite relieved when she topped herself. And so was the rest of the audience who didn't applaud enough to encourage the actors back a second curtain call.
The production wasn't helped by technical problems with the curtains that ran across the back of the stage concealing bits of set. One of the Gods would gracefully walk by to elegantly undraw the curtain and reveal say a bed with Dido and Aenaes asleep only to find it sticking and no amount of subtle tugging would get it moving.
Then there was the noise of the back stage scene changes which disturbed the atmosphere of what was going on on the stage. There must have been problems we couldn't see during the interval because the second half was late starting, in fact the production finished 40 mins later than the estimated time in the programme.
I don't know how reflective of Marlow's writing the confused story is or whether chunks were removed as I haven't read the original.
It was preview week is the only concession I can give and maybe come opening night technical problems will have been ironed out, some performances pegged back (the Gods were far to pantomime) and some semblence of sense restored to the story.
No other reviews to share as it hasn't had it's press night yet.
18/03/2009
17/03/2009
Theatre: A View From the Bridge
I've been a bit lax in writing about the plays I've seen in recent weeks but had to hit the keyboard for this one. Studied it at Uni but have never seen it on stage so I had to book tickets, especially when I heard that Ken Stott was to play Eddie in this production at the Duke of York's Theatre.
He's perfect for the role physically for a start. Eddie, in my mind, is a character that needs to be played by a manly man, dark and stocky. And he's a talented actor.
Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge is the story of a working class family of Italian immigrant stock in 1950s Brooklyn.
Eddie and his wife Beatrice (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) have brought up their niece Catherine (Hayley Atwell). Eddie is naturally very protective of Catherine and wants a better life for her. She is growing up and emotions are tested when the family put up a couple of illegal immigrant cousins from Italy, Rodolpho (Harry Lloyd) and Marco (Gerard Monaco). Rodolpho and Catherine start to fall in love and so the tinderbox is lit.
It is a story about a raft of basic human emotions: love, jealousy, loyalty and pride, written at a time when Miller's own loyalties were being tested by his associations with Marxist and Communist groups.
My excitement about this play was justly rewarded. Stott's performance is stunning. Every emotion is so expertly played out that you feel it all, the anger, pain and the frustration at the situation and with himself. It is his journey and he grabs you and takes you with him.
In his shining performance it would be easy to put the others in the dark but there isn't a weak one among them.
My only minor quibble was whether Harry Lloyd is just a tad too young to play Rodolpho as he appeared a little juvenile next to Catherine, almost making her look like a sophisticated city girl when in fact she's had quite a sheltered up bringing and he's the one that's sailed half way across the world. But it is only a minor quibble.
It was the best night of theatre I've had for a while and if it wasn't so expensive I'd go and see it again.
It's apparently a GCSE set text this year - wish it had been on when I was a student.
And as I believe reviews are to a certain extent subjective, here are what some of the pro's have thought about it:
Guardian
Telegraph
Independent
15/03/2009
In honour...
...of the fact that I've just finished watching my Queer as Folk box set I thought I'd post this picture:
14/03/2009
Man in a kilt
I do like a man in a kilt, especially a black one.
13/03/2009
11/03/2009
09/03/2009
08/03/2009
Playing with the Flip Mino
So Adam told me to have a play with the flip, get used to it before I take it out on the road for work this week and I think I can safely say, that Spielberg hasn't got anything to work about. Yet.
In the first one, I try and eek a performance out of Mosh and the second is where I enter a slightly more arty phase...
07/03/2009
06/03/2009
New phase at work
It seems slightly perverse to be excited about my job when so many in my industry are being made redundant but the winds of change have be blowing the through the office.
The subject matter we write about has been turned on it's head in recent months. Our editor announced he was retiring at the end of last year and hung up his notepad and keyboard a week ago. And then over the last few weeks the social media projects that have been long talked about and prepared have started coming to fruition.
A few of us started work-twitters a couple of weeks ago, our formerly subscription-only website has just given birth to a free-to-access blog and today the first podcast went live, again outside the firewall.
Exciting times. Exciting because I feel like I've been sitting on sidelines watching while a lot of other publications grasped the web 2.0 nettle. Exciting because we are being encouraged to experiment, use different means of getting information across and are finding ways of sharing information that would rarely had an outlet in print.
Next week I head down to Cannes for the week-long annual property industry trade fare where previously I had lots of meetings and came back with lots of ideas and contacts.
This time I have lots of meetings and expect to come back with lots of ideas and contacts but I'm also going to be able to share the experience more fully with our readers. I will be tweeting the entire time, post pics of people I see, the parties, launches and events. I'll also be blogging and vodcasting and podcasting. In fact I've coined my own term for what I'll be doing: twigcasting.
I won't just have a notebook and my blackberry, I'll have my new blackberry camera phone, a flip camera and a posh digital dictaphone thingy.
It's going to be a baptism of fire. I've never recorded or filmed anyone before while asking them questions. I've never really taken pictures for our readers to see. I only got given the equipment today. But I'm excited to be given the opportunity and in an environment that will no doubt be the most fruitful I could wish for.
And now I'm going to stop writing about work stuff because this blog is suppose to be my non-work bit of writing fun.
Theatre excitement
As if seeing Dame Judi next month wasn't enough another grand dame of the acting world is treading the boards. HRH
Knew the tickets would sell quickly but not as quickly as the stalls virtually all gone within 10 mins of the website going live. But for some unfathomable yet fortunate reason the front row in the circle still had seats and so I pounced on them.
Dominic Cooper (The Duchess and The History Boys) and Margaret Tyzack join HRH join the cast so there is much to be excited about.
Dame Helen, and a curtsey as I type that plays a step mother who seduces her step son and based on how gorgeous she looks in the poster, it's not going to be too hard to believe that she can pull it off.
05/03/2009
London sunset on the South Bank
Was hoping for a clear evening as I'd been planning to walk into town to meet Mosh's mum for dinner and wanted to take some pictures of the Houses of Parliament all lit up. Guess I got my wish. More pics at www.flickr.com/photos/revstan as usual
04/03/2009
03/03/2009
Rock moment
Rob Trujillo of Metallica
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