Various ramblings by the small hobbit

I was determined not to waste any of my time in London, so I selected various things to do during the day.

First up, on Thursday morning I went to the V&A (my favourite museum) to see Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852 - 1860.  It's a free exhibition and one I found fascinating.  Tripe (what a splendid Dickensian name) was an army captain and engineer employed by the East India Company.  What particularly impressed me, apart from the way he adapted and improved the means of developing his photographs to combat the Indian climate, was the pride he must have taken in his pictures.  He would deliberately alter the negatives with his thumb so leaves and clouds would have much greater depth than was possible given the length of time it took to take a photo.  The pictures he was sent to take had a commercial/military purpose and yet he made them artistic as well.

Friday morning I took the National Theatre backstage tour.  We saw three of the four theatres and learnt much about all of them.  In the Olivier we were able to watch the start of the transformation of the stage from Everyman to The Beaux Strategem.  The different staging possibilities are amazing, especially considering the plays are in rep and therefore change between two different productions every few days.  From there we were taken to the Littleton and saw the scenery being installed prior to Three Days in the Country.  That looks stunning.  We were also able to hear a pianist at work on one side of the stage.  We were able to visit the rehearsal room for Three Days and see the costumes hanging on a clothes rail.  We walked through the Dorfman, but were unable to stop as there was a workshop in progress.  There's a new walkway installed, which means people can walk along above the workshops and see what's being made.  And I even saw the statue made for King Lear of Simon Russell-Beale.

From there I went to the Museum of London Docklands, for an exhibition of photographs taken by Christina Broom, entitled Soldiers and Suffragettes.  Although interesting I wasn't as taken by this exhibition.  Broom was a good photographer, but it was evident her photographs were all taken with an eye to earning a living.  There's no fault with this, but she was clearly intent on keeping on the right side of establishment.  Her suffragettes were parading and talking, but not really protesting.  Her soldiers were brave and patriotic and did as they were told.

Lastly I went to the main Museum of London for a tour of the gateway of the Roman fort.  This was very interesting - there isn't that much to see, but the guide, one of the museum curators, was full of knowledge, which she communicated well.  She had an ability to encourage her listeners to imagine themselves back in the Roman era - and also in the Victorian era, when the wall of the fort was the back of a row of shops.  I think Gloucester has more to show in the way of ruined fort, but it was well worth making the trip to see it.

Yesterday evening SM and I went to Tewkesbury to see Tewkesbury Camerata in concert.  Unlike the classical music the Camerata usually play, this was songs from the shows.  The Camerata, with their leader and co-founder, the lovely vix_spes, were excellent as usual and the music was fun and light-hearted and had the audience tapping along.

It was a combination of instrumental items with sung pieces, for which the South Wales Gay Men's Chorus provided the singing.  They were brilliant - so obviously enjoying the singing and the performance.  Stand out for me was "Can you feel the love tonight" from the Lion King which was just beautiful.  At the end they relished the opportunity to have the audience join in with singing "Do Re Mi" from The Sound of Music.

The soloist who had been booked fell ill two days before the concert, but they were able to find an excellent stand in.  Leo Roberts was educated at Tewkesbury Comprehensive, and had as a singing teacher Mark Aitchison, the other co-founder and the conductor.  Leo has just completed a twelve month UK tour of Shrek: The Musical playing Shrek.  Yes he was excellent and we were very lucky to hear him, especially as he had to rush back to London later in the evening.

It was an extremely enjoyable evening, with once more the chance to hear performers I wouldn't normally have heard and would certainly go to hear again.

In a couple of days I shall be heading East to spend a few days in London: three plays, one musical, one ballet, two tours, two exhibitions and the annual Sherlock picnic.  Reports will follow on my return.

This afternoon moonlightmead and I went to see the screening of The Crucible at Cineworld in Gloucester Quays.  The story of why Mead was with me, and the detour that we made, will have to be another post, this one is purely about the play/film.

I was delighted when they decided to film the play, and even happier when I realised I could see it locally and that the second screening wasn't on a Brownie night.  I would have liked to see the play again, but it was a sell out and going to London isn't always that easy (or cheap).  I understand that some cinemas sold out - Gloucester isn't the height of culture and there were plenty of empty seats, but the utter silence from those watching is testament to how much those who were there appreciated the opportunity.

I'd read that they'd tried to do something special with the filming of the play and to me it worked very well.  Although they had captured the play in its entirety it felt like we were watching a film.  For the scenery changes between acts the actors were made to look ghost-like which worked extremely well.  There were occasional shots which included the audience but there was never the feeling that they were being filmed for their reactions.  At times we could see the microphone lines taped to the actors, but that was really the only indication that this was a filmed play.

I found the play just as compelling as when I saw it live and it dragged me through the same set of emotions.  A few times it lacked the power it had on stage - when the girls are mimicking Mary in the courtroom scene was one - purely because watching live you have the ability to look around more, rather than having the direction of your view dictated.  And I no longer felt I was having to restrain myself from going onto the stage, either to confront the judge or comfort Proctor.  But that's inevitable when watching a screen rather than from the third row.  I was sitting next to someone who had been in the upper circle at the Old Vic and they were delighted at being able to see the action from much closer.

And yes, watching Richard Armitage go through the range of emotions once more was wonderful.  I was so pleased that I had been able to see John Proctor again.

( Great Britain )
( Kate Adie )
( A Small Family Business )

and so, another week of finding the bright spots:

Day 87 – Writing was successful.  One drabble for watsons_woes and my lewis_challenge fic went to beta.  I should add that it came back with various questions, plus the comment that the victim changed his first way through - clearly his wife didn't like my choice of name.

Day 88 – My hour of escapism with Kennex and Dorian.  Karl Urban does have lovely eyes.  SM has realised that it is what is termed “buddy cop”.  Fortunately he hasn’t enquired any further as to where that can lead.

Day 89 – I had my eyes tested at the opticians today.  One of the girls in the office recommended them and the optician was really good, explained everything and I am considerably more confident about buying glasses from them, even if they are more expensive.

Day 90 – I ended up with three different fics to beta on one day.  Good job they were all different fandoms, or I could have got very confused.

Day 91 – It’s not often that you’re working in your office when someone arrives to ask you to cast off for the blanket they’ve just finished knitting.  Or you walk into a room full of people to have someone come rushing across to tell you how they’d picked some flowers for someone and wasn’t it wonderful.

Day 92 – Sherlock Holmes Annual Picnic in Regent’s Park.  As always it was good to see everyone.  But the best bit was sitting in the pub with my friends and playing a card game that involved each of us producing mini fics on the spot.  I have some great friends.

Day 93 – With a bit of time to spare before catching the train home I went to the British Library and spent an interesting half hour looking through their current First World War exhibition:  Enduring War, Grief, Grit and Humour.



 

This trip was our Christmas present from SM’s parents - or at least they gave us some money and we used it to pay for the concert tickets and Travelodge.  It was the opportunity to see Andreas Scholl again and visit the new Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at The Globe.

( Sunday night and Monday morning )

When I was in London at the beginning of this week I had some free time on the Tuesday morning before going to Talking Lear.  Accordingly I decided to visit a gallery/museum or two.  elfbert recommended the Saatchi Gallery, which is just off the Kings Road.  I'd never been before, so I thought it would be worth going for that reason if no other.  I have to admit to not being a particular fan of modern art, but then there are only some strands of classical art I like as well, so perhaps it would be true to say that I'm quite particular in the sort of art I do like.  The Body Language exhibition was interesting, although some of the paintings left me wondering 'but why?'  The one picture that particularly struck me was Walking with Vito by Henry Taylor.

Having finished walking round the Saatchi Gallery I decided to move onto the V&A, because it was only one stop on the tube and I like the V&A.  With limited time I headed for the East Asian galleries, because I love wandering around the items from China and Japan.  I suppose they could be termed my museum equivalent of comfort food.  There was a junior school group looking round at the same time and at one point one young girl, looking at a group of three statuettes, one of which was headless, said "ooh, 'e's lost 'is 'ead".  There was a large document which initially looked as if it was written in Chinese characters, but on reading the description and looking more closely the artist had used English words, but combined the letters to resemble Chinese.  I was fascinated and started spotting words like "the" and "peaches".  As I was doing so, one of the teachers from the school came up and told her group that if they could read Chinese they would know what it said.  I explained to her what I'd discovered and pointed out one of the words to the group, who were as fascinated as I was and came to inspect it more closely, one of the girls chatting to me about what she could see.  I love the enthusiasm that kids of that age have.

Before I left the museum I went to look at the short listed entries for the Jameel Prize 3, which is a competition for artists and designers who are directly inspired by sources rooted in the Islamic tradition.  Inevitably some of the short listed entries did not appeal to me for various reasons, but the two that I particularly liked were the beautiful silk textiles of Rahul Jain made in a workshop in Varanasi in India on drawlooms, at which local Muslim weavers work in pairs; and Florie Salnot's Plastic Gold project creating necklaces and bracelets.  The work is done by Sahrawi women who live in refugee camps at desert sites in Algeria, using hot sand, simple tools and spray paint.