24-07-20 - Saturday I - Present Laughter @ Connaught Studios, Worthing, Thursday 18th July

Thursday evening took us to Connaught Studios to watch Present Laughter, a play by Noel Coward revived and starring Andrew Scott (he of Moriarty / Sherlock fame). 

It was a very funny play, I really enjoyed it. There were moments when it was all a bit too hysterical, the actors were screeching at each other, but I’m sure that was intentional. It was a view into a very niche bohemian way of life where people were awfully catty to each other but it didn’t really matter, they carried on anyway. And their love lives were very complicated; Garry (Scott) was married to Liz (Indira Varma) but sleeping with Joe Lypiatt (Enzo Cilenti). Joe’s wife Helen was having an affair with another woman. It was hard to keep track of what was going on, tbh. But that was half the fun. 

We have seen Indira Varma in a couple of filmed plays, one was The Seagull, which was a bit meta, and tbh I can’t remember the other. But she is always good value and she was in this play as well. 

It was a great night out and I think these plays filmed by the National Theatre are well worth going to see, even if the subject matter doesn’t look that interesting. It’s something a bit different from a Marvel film or the latest Mission Impossible. They normally leave you with something to think about, and I think that’s a good sign in an evening’s entertainment. 

TTFN. 

24-07-17 - Wednesday I - St Swithin’s Day

In order to be a writer you have to write, and so here I am. 

First up, I guess I should mention the Euros; England managed to lose in the final last night. There were some poor performances during the campaign and it was a bit of a surprise, to be honest, that we made it to the final at all, but once we had made it there was always the hope that we could win. However, it wasn’t to be. I think I’ve watched more football in the past four weeks than I have in the past four years - or it certainly feels like that. England had a good go at it, and probably played better in the final than they did all tournament, but it wasn’t good enough and Spain won. They were the better team, and had been the best team all tournament, tbh. 

The other item worthy of a mention is the assassination attempt on Trump on Sunday. I guess we have to call it an assassination attempt, since he was nearly killed. The weird thing is, his would-be assassin was a registered Republican voter. Of course he was immediately shot, so we might never know his motives. Oh well. 

Monday was St Swithin’s Day, which is supposed to signify 40 days of the same weather: if it rains on St Swithin’s Day, we are supposed to be in for 40 days of rain. And similarly, if it is dry, we can expect 40 days of good weather. So the legend goes. Anyway, it rained, and today has actually been a summery day. So that myth / old wives’ tale is clearly rubbish.