Tag Archives: playhouse

Set to a different tune

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Dot among the snowdrops at Whitlingham
Dot among the snowdrops at Whitlingham

The rain has abated for a while, and it’s fairly safe to venture out. In fact the sun is shining. Juliet Corbett from the Diocese has just been round for lunch and a DSSO meeting with Dot. Discovered she is very interested in poetry, and her husband (Tom) is a poet. She took away my recent book and a couple of others.

We have disbanded the Tuesday Group for various reasons and after many years. As a finale last Tuesday we all went to the Playhouse to see John Newton: Amazing Grace, performed by the Saltmine Theatre Company. I wasn’t sure how they would handle the material, but they did very well, with plenty of songs and climaxing, of course, with a beautiful performance of Amazing Grace – originally no 41 in the Olney Hymnal and not particularly popular, until it was taken to American and set to a different tune. The rest is history. I chose it as one of our hymns on Sunday.

The next day Dot and I dodged the rain to catch a special performance of Philomena at the Odeon for seniors : £6 for the two of us, plus a free cup of tea! The film was very moving, both Judi Dench and Steve Coogan were excellent, and I had trouble holding back the tears. In fact I was a complete failure at it.

On Thursday I accompanied Dot on a DSSO visit to Hickling, hoping to run into Lily, who is an old friend and who plays piano for their assemblies. This didn’t materialise, but I had a good walk over to the Broad and back in sunny but chilly conditions. I have since discovered that Lily is married to the churchwarden and lives in The Street.

The next day – Valentine’s Day – I had a meeting of Paston trustees in the afternoon which turned out to be even more incoherent than usual. Nevertheless, I produced some minutes  which seem to have met with approval, if silence can be deemed to be approval. Rob liked them, anyway. In the evening Dot and I had a celebratory meal from Waitrose, with some very pleasant sparkling rosé. I bought Dot an M&S bag that she had coveted.

The weekend was relatively quiet: I led the service again and had to prepare an emergency “sermon” in case Carrie was detained at the last minute. Fortunately she wasn’t. It was a lovely day, and so after Dot had done some work in the garden, tidying up after a gale on Friday night, and I had hoovered the entire house, we went to Whitlingham for a walk along the lane, taking in a fair number of snowdrops. By the end I was totally exhausted. Not sure why.

Yesterday, by contrast, Dot arrived back from a meeting with Barbara totally exhausted, while I was feeling more or less OK. In the evening we went to the ballet at the Theatre Royal: Sleeping Beauty, by the Russian State Ballet of Siberia. The tickets had been my present to Dot at her last birthday, and the performance was striking. The staging was brilliantly colourful and clever, not to say witty, and while from a narrative point of view the structure fell apart after the interval, the dancing was stunning. I say this as someone who is not at all into ballet.

The uphill walk to the theatre was avoided as Bridget and David pulled up in our drive as we were leaving. They were bringing us flowers and a card to thank us for running the Tuesday Group for so long. Very thoughtful. They also gave us a lift up to John Lewis, from where it was a short and easy walk to the theatre.

27 January 2007

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The last of the snow on the hill above our house yesterday. Today it’s still pretty cold, but the sky is blue, and Dot has recovered sufficiently to go to the shops. We were going to see Aunti Ethel, but didn’t want her to get what was left of the cold.

Dot also managed to get to a performance last night of Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Der kaukasische Kreidekreis) by the National Theatre at the Playhouse. I dropped her outside and parked behind the Green’s. The place was packed, largely with teenagers who must be doing the play for A-level, so lots of chattering in the foyer. We were in the balcony – bit squashed, but an excellent view.

The performance was on the mind-blowing side of mellow and included the most intriguing array of technical effects I have ever seen on stage. Not least impressive was the way a doll was used as a baby, but manipulated very realistically and with one of the cast producing convincing baby noises through a microphone. The singer was a very powerful presence, backed by drums and odd electronic instruments, effectively tying the action together. This was useful, as the action is often chaotic and spans time and space.

The actors were tremendously energetic but had a huge range of styles. All had several roles, including technical ones. Many a tour de force, especially the two leading roles and the judge in the second half. A memorable evening.

After that we even survived watching the cricket, in which England were humiliated even further by Australia, scoring only 110 and then failing to take a single Australian wicket, except one run-out. When will someone notice that Flintoff often plays badly when he’s captain and Strauss plays badly when he isn’t? The solution is not rocket science. You get the definite impression that the team has more or less given up, and FF can’t do anything about it. Pity: he’s a great guy.

David and Vicky bought a new car yesterday: an Astra less than one year old, from a garage in Harpenden. He sent us pictures over the net and I’ll use one soon. Looks impressive. Oliver is very keen.