I am loving the premium version of CityStrides

Today I paid £4 for a month's trial of the premium service on CityStrides and I am already loving it! I'll explain why but first, I'll start at the beginning.

I have been using MapMyWalk for years to map most of the longer walks that I do. This is a free app on my phone it does all that I want it to do in the free version, that is it maps the walks and gives me the total duration and time taken.

The screenshot below shows my latest two walks.

For some time I have been using the free version of CityStrides which has been brilliant. The main thing that it does that I love is it pulls together all of the walks collected in MayMyWalk and produces a LifeMap showing all the places that I have ever walked while using the app. (It works with other common mapping apps too.)

Not surprisingly this shows clusters around where I live and in Central London where I like to go walking. It also shows parts of Capital Ring and London Loop though, sadly, I did not always map my walks so there are some embarrassing gaps.

I use this a lot when planning walks, I zoom in to the area I plan to walk in and look to see which roads I have walked before and I try to avoid these.

Another thing that CityStrides does for free is show how many of the roads that you have walked in an area. There are 89 areas in my profile and this is the start of that list. The area that I have walked the most of if London Borough of Richmond upon Thames where I have covered just over 50% of the roads.

All that I have covered so far is available in the free versions of the app.Today I played with the paid (£4) version of CityStrides.

The feature I was most interested in in the premium version is the map showing red dots where roads have not been walked, or not fully walked. This will allow me to find roads that I have not walked before.

At this scale it shows areas of Richmond where I have many unwalked roads. The LifeMap above shows that I have walked many times in these areas and the gaps are things that dead-end roads and housing estates. 

I plan to use this a lot to both plan general areas to walk in and then specific roads to walk along. And this is not just about adding more walked roads to my profile, it is about finding new places to explore, every unwalked road has the potential for surprises and delights.

Zooming in further shows precisely where I need to walk to complete th exploration of a road.

I was a little surprised to see a few red dots in North Kingston and I will correct those omissions on my walk to the pub this evening!

CityStrides was already a useful tool for a keen walker with its free features and the premium services for paid supporters are a powerful upgrade.

Rainbow in Rock at The Cavern (23 Dec 23)

It was three months since I had last seen Rainbow in Rock so obviously I was keen to see them again on a return visit to The Cavern in Raynes Park.

In many ways this was like all other Rainbow in Rock gigs that I have been to, excellent songs played excellently in a well constructed set that contained many very familiar songs plus a few unexpected ones. The mandatory crown-pleases included Child in Time and Stargazer while the less familiar songs included Never Before (from Machine Head).

What made the gig different was that this was their last gig with Andy Fuller on keyboards. He normally hides behind Andrew on bass so I made a point of taking a photo from the side this time, and in saying a few words to Andy afterwards.

Willoughby Pub Quiz (17 December 2023)

While I have continued to be the quizmaster every couple of months or so at the regular Willoughby Arms Sunday Night Pub Quiz I have not had the time, not the inclination, to post every one here and I have not had the time (or printer) to do a picture round either. This time I am breaking both conventions! 

The picture round was something of a cheat as I found it while tidying up some papers in my living room. As was often the case, I had used recent issues of British stamps for the pictures and a quick DuckDuckGo search revealed that these are from 2016!

 

Gardens by Capability Brown

Blenheim Palace, Longleat, Compton Verney, Highclere Castle, Alnwick Castle, Berrington Hall, Stowe, Croome Park

Beatrix Potter books/characters

The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, The Tale of Tom Kitten, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny

Pink Floyd Albums

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Atom Heart Mother, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Endless River

Mr Men

Mr. Happy, Little Miss Naughty, Mr. Bump, Little Miss Sunshine, Mr. Tickle, Mr. Grumpy, Little Miss Princess, Mr. Strong, Little Miss Christmas, Mr. Messy

UK's prehistoric treasures

Battersea Shield, Skara Brea Village Orkney Islands, Star Carr Headdress, Maiden Castle Hill Fort, Dorset, Avebury Stone Circles, Drumbest Horns, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, Grime’s Graves Flint Mines, Norfolk, Mold Cape, Flintshire, Wales

Agatha Christie novels

Murder on the Orient Express, And Then There Were None, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Body in the Library

Edward Scissorhards at Sadler’s Wells Theatre

Sadler's Wells has the charming habit of putting a Matthew Bourne show on over Christmas and I have the equally charming habit of going to them all. Often this has been on my birthday but this year the run did not extend to the end of January so I went for an early December date instead.

This year the show was Edward Scissorhards which I was really looking forward to not having seen it since 2009! Booking and seat selection were easy and I got Second Circle Row A Seat 28 for just £45.

Banana Tree is my pre-Sadler's Wells eatery of choice and it is for many people so I booked a table for 6pm to be safe. That proved to be a wise decision.

Eating at 6 also meant plenty of time to grab a beer at the theatre before the show. These rituals matter.

My memories of Edward Scissorhards were slight, having seen it only once and that all but fifteen years ago so I settled down to enjoy the show afresh, and enjoy it I did.

It had all the characteristics of a Matthew Bourne ballet with heaps of skilful choreography, especially when the stage is full of dancers, where the patterns of movement the ensemble make are much more than the sum of the individual parts.

A nice aspect of this show is that it has two moods with light domestic scenes and dark gothic ones, with music and dancing to match.

The story was good too. It closely followed the original film whereas most Bourne ballets, e.g. Swan Lake, deliberately chose new paths to take. It was captivating and emotional throughout, helped significantly by the portrayal of Edward. 

It is hard to compare these things but on this showing Edward Scissorhards is my second favourite Matthew Bourne show after the iconic, and original, Swan Lake. I just hope that I do not have to wait another fifteen years before it comes back again.

Pandemonium at Soho Theatre

Pandemonium at Soho Theatre had immediate appeal thanks to the names Armando Iannucci (illustrious cv) and Patrick Marber (another illustrious cv and a local lad too) so way back in August I booked my Xmas treat with seat G7 for a knock-off £25 (old gits discount).

Having booked it I forgot all about it.

Come the day I got a text message from Soho Theatre sending me my tickets for the show that afternoon and I quickly changed my plans! These included an early lunch, a couple of tubes to Tottenham Court Road and a quick pint in the theatre bar beforehand.

Pandemonium, as the poster skilfully suggests, is a play about the Covid pandemic and the Boris Johnson led government's woeful handling of it. There was a little prologue on the Brexit referendum, which gave Johnson's career a big boost, and we started with the two articles he wrote, one supporting leave and one supporting remain.

Clearly a lot of easy comedy targets in that scenario and safe territory for a play.

Pandemonium was more that that. For a start it played heavily with Shakespeare memes like rhyming couplets. The two articles became "To leave, or not to leave" and the scene was set.

In an hour and a half we met all of the key players from that era, even Liz Truss, and these were all brought to life by a cast of just five.  

The humour was relentless and all the well designed and executed theatry bits made Pandemonium an intelligent show, not just a funny one.

Globalise the Intifada

It is depressing that the marches in support of Palestine as it undergoes genocide are still necessary but as long as they are then I will keep going on them.

For some reason this one started by Bank station in the City which is not one contiguous large open space but a series of roads radiating from a small space so there was a little work to do to find out which of those roads the march was heading out on. It also took a little work to find a coffee shop open in the City on a Saturday but I managed that too.

The route was a little unexpected at times, especially the turn down Temple Avenue from The Fleet to Victoria Embankment. A high point was massing next to St Paul's Cathedral which surprised and confused a few tourists. The end point was, as expected, Parliament Square via Whitehall.

The march was, again, without incident and there was a good mood amongst the large crowd, despite the seriousness of the cause. 

There was plenty of chanting of slogans that nobody is trying to ban anymore (e.g. from the river to the sea) and also of a common one that social media decided to get uptight about this time (globalise the intifada); apparently some people were arrested for carrying banners saying this which is just silly.

A Woman Walks Into A Bank at Theatre503

The reason that I like Theatre503 so much is that they do new plays that are interesting in the way that they are structured and in the subjects they cover and A Woman Walks Into A Bank hit both sweet spots.

The play was the winner of the 2023 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award and that was more than enough to tempt me along.

Theatre503 does crazy things with ticket prices for old people happy to sit in the front row and my seat cost me all of £6. I probably paid more for my pint of beer in The Latchmere downstairs.

I also ate in the pub beforehand, as I always almost do, and this time I hit the bar snacks rather than the gastro menu and they did the job nicely.

From the start, A Woman Walks Into A Bank uses a narrative style, much like Wolfie did, where the actors tell you what is happening before acting that scene. Much use is also made of repetition with variations and additions. I found the style engaging.

The story of the play was fairly simple, an old woman walks into a bank in newly commercialised Russia and a young man, who proudly tells us he is a Branch Manager on the way up, sells her a financial product she does not need or understand.

We are then led through various scenes that tell us about their personal situations and life in Russia generally.

Unusually for Theatre503 there was an interval but it was there for a purpose, other than to allow me to buy an ice cream. The second half moved a few years later when the loan had become a problem and a debt collector was involved. Things developed from there.

There were other characters involved in the story, including an unfortunate cat, and all the roles were played expertly by Giulia Innocenti, Sam Newton and Keith Dunphy. I rarely name all of the cast and I did so this time because they all deserve a mention.

A Woman Walks Into A Bank was a throughly entertaining and stimulating play, it was remarkable even by Theatre503's high standards.

Trashfuture live

It has been ten years (!!) since I last wrote about podcasts which, given how much time I spend listening to them, is probably a mistake.

My regular walks, c20km a day on average, are spent listening to them or to BBC radio drama and I subscribe to podcast on news, science, comedy, politics, drama, technology and design. At any one time I generally have about thirty waiting to be listened to.

I got into Trashfuture both of whom are paid subscribers; I am not and I just get the weekly free episode. 

Trashfuture calls itself a "podcast about business success and making yourself smarter with the continued psychic trauma of capitalism", which it is. The format is a team discussion on current affairs that skilfully and entertainingly combines an intelligent and knowledgeable analysis of the failings of capitalism with some decent jokes; the adage a spoonful of sugar comes to mind.

Occasionally the Trashfuture do live shows and when one coincided with a son's birthday it was quickly agreed rhat the whole family would attend.

Being a family meeting meant going for a walk, Rower Bridge to Waterloo, and being a birthday meant going to Pizza Express.

Our progress towards Between The Bridges on Southbank was hampered by some event connected with Albania's independence day which is one reason that we were sat towards the back of a packed marquee. I did have time to buy a decent beer for a not frighteningly expensive £7.2.

I had been to many recordings of TV and radio shows and was interested to see how a podcast would differ. As expected from listening to the show for a while, recording it live made little difference, e.g. there were no retakes and no additional material that would disappear on the cutting room floor. What was different was that the four of them (the fifth was ill) sat in a line across the stage, so that we could see them all which is not the natural arrangement for a discussion and there were times when they spoke over each other a little.

The topic of the discussion was Nadine Doris' new book The Plot. One of the team, Alice, had drawn the short straw and had read it and she took us through both the content and the style with the other responding with analysis and humour. It was very like a normal show and so delivered on my expectations.

They talked for about an hour then the conversation reached a natural end and we all applauded enthusiastically before heading back out into the cold night.

I hope they pick this episode as a free one so that I can listen to it again.

Arthur Brown at Lewes Con Club

I have seen Arthur Brown live numerous times and in various locations, from a cafe in Soho to the Assembly Rooms in Leamington Spa, and with several different sets of musicians and  they have all been good or great. That is why I was keen to see him in his latest incarnation, even if that meant spending the night in Lewes afterwards.

I knew Lewes from regular visits to Glyndebourne and liked the look and position of the Premiere Inn there so a plan was formed. I had considered adding a second, maybe a third, night to my stay to make more of a break of it but the nights either side of Sunday were prohibitively expensive so that was dropped. I actually stayed in Eastbourne for a couple of days beforehand but that's another story.

I arrived in Lewes around lunchtime on Sunday but having had an all-day veggie breakfast only s couple of hours earlier I skipped lunch and went for an explore instead. Lewes was wet and hilly so this was a modest exploration with a break for a beer.

I had found the Con Club in the afternoon.(when I had a sneak peek of Arthur watching the sound check) and had confirmed the opening time for the evening's show. I arrived about that time and was the first in the queue, though several people had gone in before the official opening time and the staff were busy checking their tickets first.

Inside it was just a room with a stage and alongside that a long bar with just a few seats, all of which were taken. I headed in to the hall to claim a spot taking a pint of beer with me.

Arthur arrived on stage at the appointed time to an enthusiastic cheer.

Arthur had said in his newsletter that he was trying  to make these concerts more of a show and that was apparent from the start with the decoration of the stage; the arm on the far left is of a prop not a person. Arthur added to that with a series of exotic costumes and the light show added the final touch,

His backing band has changed many times over the years and I do not know if I have seen any of the current lineup before (apart from the recent gig supporting Hawkwind) but I liked their sound with a prominent keyboard, it reminded me of the happy days when he was backed by Instant Flight with Lucie Rejchrtova on keyboards.

The mood of the music was late sixties, think of the introduction to The Doors' Light My Fire.

The set was something of a change. For as long as I can remember he has played Devil's Grip, Kites, I put a Spell on You but none of these appeared this night. Fire was there with the introductory Fire Poem.

 

Also included was my all-time favourite Arthur Brown song, originally released on 1973's Journey album by his then band Kingdom Come. (There are lots of stories about my connection with that album, one day perhaps). There was a surprise here with some new lyrics after fifty years, e.g. "We hover at the speed of time".

The other familiar song that made the set was The Voice of Love from the 2007 album of the same name. I bought the album when it came out and have loved this song ever since.

There were a few songs that were new to me but the voice, the band, the sound and the staging were the same so they felt like old favourites.

I have seen Arthur Brown live numerous times and this is probably the best concert of the lot. I have booked to see him again next April.

The Pitchfork Disney at Lantern Theatre

I try, with high success, to see every production of a Philip Ridley play in London and it did not take a lot to extend this mission to Brighton.

My Google Alert for "Philip Ridley" brought this production to my attention and as I was already due to be in Lewes that weekend (for an Arthur Brown concert) a plan for the weekend quickly formed. That involved staying in Eastbourne for two nights because the hotels in Brighton were prohibitively expensive, which was fine as that gave me another new place to explore for a couple of days.

The plan had to be tweaked a little when maintenance works closed the railway line out of Eastbourne but there proved to be plenty of buses going along the south coast and I was able to take an A12X for free (it helps to be old sometimes). The bus took an hour and I sat upstairs and enjoyed the view.

The Lantern Theatre had the good sense to be near an Italian restaurant so that was the evening meal sorted.

The theatre was small and cosy, as expected. It was something like the Old Red Lion of the (previous) White Bear. My sort of theatre.

It was my sort of play too. I had seen The Pitchfork Disney only once before and was looking forward to seeing it again. Ridley's plays are so dense with wild thoughts and ideas that I cannot help but forget much of the details. To give but one example, the 28 year old twin brother and sister living together reveal, as an aside, that their parents simply left them and had not died as we had naturally assumed. The reason for this was never explored, let alone answered. I love that Ridley can have an idea that big and just throw it away almost unused.

For me, The Pitchfork Disney is about reality, a concept much visited by Ridley. Here we assume that the siblings are heavily locked in their flat to protect them from the post-apocalyptic world outside but when that world intrudes, in the bizarre form of Cosmo Disney, the reality of that world is questioned.

The Pitchfork Disney also sounds like a Philip Ridley play with its poetic dialogue and use of repetition. It is a joy to listen to even when the words are familiar.

I like this production too. The setting was just right and the small cast did their job well. Ela Chapman, the sister, stood out for me with her expressions of fear and isolation.

The journey down to Brighton, and the nights away, just to see this were well worth it. 

Turner Prize 2023 at Towner Gallery Eastbourne

My long weekend in Eastbourne, unlike the recent one in Salisbury, was full of pleasant surprises. 

One of these pleasant surprises was Towner Gallery, part of an arts cluster right next to the famous tennis grounds.

Adding to the pleasant surprises was an exhibition by the contenders for Turner Prize 2023.

The piece by Jesse Darling (pictured right) was large and dramatic and while I quite like that sort of thing I have also seen quite a lot of this sort of thing in places from Tate Modern to Moderna Museet (Stockholm) and there seemed to be nothing remarkable about this.

I was very surprised when this won Turner Prize 2023.

What should have won it is Barbara Walker's Burden of Proof.
 

In Burden of Proof, Barbara Walker produced large copies of some of the many obscure documents that immigrants to this country produced in an effort to prove they had a right to remain here during the Windrush Scandal. On these documents she drew charcoal images of the people impacted by the scandal.

It was both artistically impressive and intellectually stimulating, just the sort of thing that deserves to win prizes.

The Enfield Haunting at Richmond Theatre

I go to see almost every play that is put on at Richmond Theatre and with Catherine Tate and David Threlfall in the cast I was certainly going to see The Enfield Haunting when it passed through on its way to the West End.

Those names were expected to be a big draw and the prices matched so, again, I was forced out of my usual place, the front row of the Dress Circle, and I went up a level to the front row of the Upper Circle where a central seat (A16) cost a mere £20. At that price I could afford to take a risk on an unknown play by an unknown (to me) playwright.

I had seen other supernatural plays at Richmond Theatre, notably The Woman in Black, and with Richmond Theatre's reputation for putting on a good show I had reasonable hopes for the evening.

The view from my seat was fine (aided by using my coat as a cushion to make me sit a little further forward) and the set looked good.

What followed was a major disappointment.

The story had a few shocking moments and these were handled well with, for example, all the lights in the auditorium going off. but the bulk of the play felt slow and irrelevant. The children apart, the characters were not very believable and any supernatural story trying to be heard got lost in the messy interactions between the adults.

This was the first night of a preview run so perhaps things will get better but I found a lot of the dialogue stilted as if it had not be learned or rehearsed properly.

Apart from the few brief shocking moments it had nothing going for it and I was very glad that I had only paid £20 and that it was not very long.

Knocking on the Wall at Finborough Theatre

The nice thing about Finborough Theatre is that they do the hard work for you, that is if they think that a play is worth putting on then it is worth seeing. And so I booked to see Knocking on the Wall for £20 without knowing anything about it. 

Other things going on made a Sunday matinee a good option which change the arrangements a little but not much, instead of having dinned at Cafe du Coin beforehand I had lunch there and ate the usual food despite the time change.

I also had time to explore Brompton Cemetery which is always worth a visit.

The other difference was that the audience arrived earlier than they do for evening performances and with the performance all-but sold out I had to settle for a seat at the end of the front row, which actually worked well, as corner seats often do.

Knocking on the Wall is a collection of three plays on the shared theme of loneliness with a hint of hope. That sounds a little miserable, and there were few laughs, but they proved to be engaging stories with characters I cared about in situations that I found interesting. The cast portrayed those characters excellently.

It was a thoroughly satisfying and fulfilling afternoon. Once again Finborough Theatre demonstrated what theatre can do and delivered a genuine treat.

The House of Bernarda Alba at National Theatre

I first saw The House of Bernarda Alba at Cervantes Theatre in 2017(!) and was keen to see it performed on a bigger stage. So much so that I pushed the boat out a little and paid £67 for Lyttelton Circle Row A Seat 22.

And as back in 2017 the evening started with a visit to Culture Grub for a Chinese curry. I still use that restaurant for any visit to a theatre in the Southbank area.

Food and drink arrangements at National Theatre were less impressive and I had to have a beer out of a can at some ridiculous price. I consoled myself by thinking that the profit was going to a good cause. The front of house there always feels like an afterthought with lots of open space but little in the way of seating or refreshments. I have eaten there but it is always busy and always a struggle to queue and then find a space. Much better to eat elsewhere first. 

This was a new version of The House of Bernarda Alba and the set reflected that newness. I liked the minimalist clean lines of it and the use of three levels. This seems to be the fashion and it looked quite familiar.

The story was the same and the extra space allowed it to be told more naturally then in the confined spaces of Cervantes Theatre.

Less natural was the language and I was very surprised that a story set in a strict religious household would contain so much swearing, it was unnecessary to the story and jarred with the setting.

Luckily the occasional foul language was the only (minor) flaw in an otherwise excellent production. I was again gripped by the story, despite remembering much of the detail, and fully engaged with Bernarda Alba, her daughters, her mother and her servants. Each one had motives and aspirations that created the tension that drove the story.

Federico García Lorca, who was Spanish, is recognised internationally as a great playwright and The House of Bernarda Alba as one of his major works; this production did it full justice.

Sputnik Sweetheart at Arcola Theatre

Arcola Theatre (in Dalston) is harder to get to for me since I stopped working by Kings Cross, when I could easily walk there after work (and, occasionally, during work), but I still think of it as one of my regular theatres and I like having an excuse to get back there. Sputnik Sweetheart was such an excuse.

I liked that it was an adaptation of a Japanese novel with weird elements and I very much liked that it was directed by Melly Still whose work I first encountered with Coram Boy at National Theatre in 2007. Since then our paths had crossed a few times at Glyndebourne and Rose Theatre.

My first visit back to Dalston for a while met an immediate problem in that the regular eating place, Route, was (still) hidden behind scaffolding and was closed. A quick replan took me to a nearby pub, Farrs Dalston, which had decent beer and excellent tacos with a Pakistani twist.

The rest of the usual plan worked and I was seated in the front row of the central section, seat A14, which I had paid a modest £27.5 for. Lots of other people had bought seats too and the theatre looked to be sold out.

Sputnik Sweetheart was both weird and delightful. Weird because it jumped around time and space, and delightful because it was a love story, albeit an unusual one.

There was a lot going on with the dialogue and the staging and I am sure that, not being heavily versed in this culture, that I missed much of what was intended but what I could follow and understand was lovely.

Ceasefire Now!

While it was uplifting to be in a huge mixed crowd of people in Trafalgar Square all calling for an end to the genocide in Palestine it is also very sad that such demonstrations are the only voice that we have and the the political class continues to not only refuse to denounce the genocide but are actively supporting those doing it.

The politicians do not reflect the people they represent on this and we will keep demonstration until they do. 

A View From The Bridge at Rose Theatre

Not all Arthur Miller plays are classics but it is probably fair to say that are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955) are, and Wikipedia backs me up on this.

I had seen all but A View From The Bridge so was very pleased when it was announced that it was coming to Rose Theatre, particularly as their production of All My Sons was a triumph.

I picked a seat in my now favoured Circle, A24, which cost £35 with my Senior Citizen Concession. I like the view from Circle and that more than makes up for sitting amongst school children when at a matinee. That said, seat A24 is next to the aisle where a safety rail hinders the view slightly and I will avoid that seat in future (I am writing this now to remind me!).

The story was a fairly simple one, an American-Italian working class couple living with their orphaned niece (aged 17) are joined by two cousins who arrive from a poverty stricken Italy illegally to work on the docks. One of the cousins starts a relationship with the niece to which the over protective uncle is strongly against.

The story is the thread on which so many things hang that are revealed through the discussions between the five family members. Through these we learn more about life working on the docks, immigration into America at that time and the Italian community they belong too. We also learn about their histories and beliefs, for example the families left behind in Italy.

Central to all this is Eddie Carbone, the head of the family. It is his beliefs and passions that drive the story to its predictable conclusion. And we know it is predictable because a lawyer is used as a framing device and her intermittent narration explains that she has seen all this before. She may have done and while the outcome was predictable there were other outcomes that were equally possible.

Jonathan Slinger was perfect as Eddie and that was one of the main reasons the I loved the performance so much. The other cast members were good but this was Eddie's story.

Much of Eddie's character was the macho head of the family stuff but the play added some confusion over his relationship with his niece, he was accused of being jealous of his cousin at one point, and there were hints of homosexuality that were never resolved.

The other star of the show was the staging which made use of the shape and height of the unusual stage. It was a simple staging too with very few changes to the set, just a few chairs being moved around. I  have no idea why the swing is there in what was mostly a living room but it worked. Rose Theatre seems to like swings and so do I.

A View From The Bridge at Rose Theatre gave me everything that I could possibly want from a visit to a theatre, it was that good.

And Then There Were None at Richmond Theatre

Although I have never read any of her books, I have a bit of fondness for the works of Agatha Christie gained through listening to radio adaptations, of which there are many. That made And Then There Were None at Richmond Theatre a must see.

My usual seat had been sold so I went for the same position on the other side, Dress Circle A2, which was a very reasonable £26. Lots of other people bought tickets too and the show was sold out.

I had heard it on the radio not that long ago, probably less than a year, and while I could remember the main theme, and the main twist, I had forgotten most of the details and, most importantly, who did it.

The point of And Then There Were None is the story and I settled down to some unchallenging but entertaining theatre. The simple plot is that ten people have been tricked into a short break on an isolated island and one after another is killed until And Then There Were None.

Being character-light the ensemble cast was composed of relative unknowns which, as before, proved just how good less famous actors are. And being an ensemble it is a little unfair to pick any one actor out and Sophie Walter, as the school teacher Vera Claythorne, gets a mention possibly because she was one of the last to die and so was on stage for most of the evening but also because she was very good in the role bringing real drama to the piece as revelations about her past were revealed.

The staging was very good, being clever enough to cope with the various scenes and events while not being too clever to detract from the story. The only part that did not work for me was the very beginning where a not very legible recorded voice read out the letters that brought the ten together and that had no impact on my understanding or enjoyment.

Once again I was gripped by the story, one again I failed to guess the killer and once again I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ships by Brian Eno and Baltic Sea Philharmonic at Southbank Centre

And to think that I only went to see this because I had some credit at Southbank Centre.

Of course I bought the early Roxy Music albums, and I had heard Brian Eno give a lecture on art and humanity (I think!) when at university yonks ago, and I bought some of his solo works, particularly Ambient 1: Music for Airports, and I bought Bang on a Can's version of that too, but for reasons verging on insanity I was not quick to buy tickets. Eventually I saw reason and paid out a somewhat massive £135 for seat CC - 39 in Royal Festival Hall. That is about what I pay for Glyndebourne tickets!

Combined, Brian Eno and Baltic Sea Philharmonic was a fest of musicians wielding both classic and rock instruments. They were all dressed in black, played without a score, were spread standing on two levels and on the lower level they moved around a little.

The show was completed by an extraordinary effective light show which upgraded it from a mere concert to a performance.

The show opened with The Ship, Eno's album from 2016. This had four dark and brooding parts which glided along beautifully. At times is sounded a little like a sea shanty, at others there were the tannoy sounds from Airports and there was an awful lot else going on too. I loved it.

The second of the three halves was a collection of other songs from Eno's extensive back catalogue, non of which I knew. They had the same sort of atmosphere as The Ship not least because the same set of musicians was used throughout. Whoever scored the songs for this orchestra did a fine job.

One song, Brian told us, had been written about Israeli and Gazza several years ago in the expectation that the issue would have been resolved by now, instead it was the worst it had ever been. He said that anyone not marching for peace should be, and got applauded for saying that.

A little after an hour of the expected seventy minutes everyone took a well deserved standing ovation only to return shortly after for an encore. This was more like a rock concert than a classical one after all.

That encore consisted of several more songs and took us up to almost the ninety minute mark, with a few people sneaking out before the end. It was more a third act than an encore and I certainly welcomed the extra time.

Ships far exceeded my reasonably high expectations and it was a phenomenal show. Of course Eno's music was the heart of it but the arrangements, the musicianship and the staging all added to the experience.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free

For the second weekend in a row there was a massive demonstration in London in support of Palestinians as the onslaught by Israel continued. Taking part was a small act in the scheme of things but it was a way to show support for their cause and to remind UK politicians that many people do not support the position they have taken. 

There were lots of different organisations on the march and I chose to follow a Socialist Workers Party group.

Dead Dad Dog at Finborough Theatre

Going to Finborough Theatre regularly is one of my better habits and this time it was to see Dead Dad Dog. 

The reason was simple, it was a "comic smash hit in 1988, embodying the new Scottish optimism of its time". Well worth investing £20 in.

Trips to Finborough Theatre have their own rituals including eating and drinking the usual things in the usual places. 

These are still slightly modified rituals as the Finborough Arms is still out of commission and looks to remain that way for some time yet. It is a shame not having a pub close to the theatre but there are a couple close to the tube station that make adequate substitutes.

Dead Dad Dog is a simple if strange tale. A young man who has a busy day ahead of him, including a job interview and a serious date, gets visited by the ghost of his father, who everyone can see and hear, and who cannot be more than a couple of metres away from his son without causing them both severe distress.

The son not only has to deal with his dead dad following him around like a lost dog he has to cope with his dated comments.

The son goes through his planned events for the day and the unexpected presence of his dad not only provides a lot of humour, it lets us examine the relationship between the two and the differences in attitudes between the times of the dad and of the son.

It was a nicely constructed play that was funny but stopped well short of being silly and also gave the audience some things to think about.

Free! Free! Palestine!

The first mass demonstration in sipport of Palestine started at Marble Arch. I was a little late and was made later by the closure of Marble Arch station due to overcrowding. I got off at Lancaster Gate with lots of other people where it was so busy many of us chose to walk up the emergency stairs. I suspect that station was closed soo after too. 

The march itself was slow and unexentful, slow because there were so many people and uneventful because they were all well behaved. 

It rained occasionally but nobody minded.

As always I was just a very small cog in a very large machine but it felt important to stand up and be counted in opposition to the extreme violence being inflicted in Palestine after decades of subjugation.

Rainbow in Rock at The Cavern (7 Oct 23)

As always, going to see Rainbow in Rock at The Cavern was a no-brainer, even though I had walked over 30km earlier in the day.

To be honest, I would have been happy if Rainbow and Rock had played just Child in Time and Stargazer but they added plenty of that to deliver a rocking two hours of music from the extensive Deep Purple and Rainbow catalogue. (this is a copy from a previous post and it is still true)

It's Headed Straight Towards Us at Park Theatre

Obviously I am on the Park Theatre mailing list and It's Headed Straight Towards appealed immediately because it was written by Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer and had Rufus Hound in the cast. But there are lots of plays that I want to see and I was slow to book.

Then Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer were on the BBC Radio4 Today programme talking about it and that was the final nudge that I need to go ahead and book.

Tickets had been selling well and I was very limited in my choice of dates and seats and I was pleased to grab a couple of returns and got 2 standard tickets  in the front row of the Stalls, seats A24 and A25, for a perfectly modest £32.5 each.

I then Tweeted to BBC to say that I was surprised that in the interview they had not mentioned that Edmondson and Planer had worked together fairly recently in Vulcan 7 which I had seen in Richmond Theatre in 2018.

I had planned to eat in the cafe across the road with the enticing photos of Jeremy Corby on the front but I was too late getting there for that option so was pleased Park Theatre was doing pizzas. One of those and a beer eased me into the evening's performance very nicely.

It's Headed Straight Towards Us takes place in a smart film production trailer in Iceland, home to one of the lesser stars in a franchise. 

A visitor to the trailer was an other actor who had been at drama school with the first and whose career had taken a different path. They were appearing in this film as "angry thermanoid". The other visitor was a young female production runner.

It took a while to realise that this was Vulcan 7 in another guise. I am not sure that I would have booked to see it again if I had know but I am glad that I did.

The play was still funny while also being intelligent and with an interesting story.

After the show I was lucky to be able to ask Adrian Edmondson how this differed from Vulcan 7 and he convincing explained that it was a significant rewrite and that the new title was more appropriate.

It's Headed Straight Towards Us was a thoroughly entertaining evening at one of my favourite venues.

Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at Olympic Cinema

I have seen Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake several times, usually at Sadlers Wells, and when a chance Tweet alerted me to it being shown at cinemas I rushed to find a local showing.

Screenings had already started and so my choices were very limited but there was a morning slot at Olympic Cinema in Barnes. I had walked past the building several times and had admired the 1900's architectural style of it so welcomed this chance to go inside.

In less time than it has taken to write this I had booked my ticket for £10.

Getting there was fairly straightforward, two buses, a 65 and a 33, took me more-or-less door to door and in enough time to get a coffee from the cafe in the same building.

It turned out that, somehow that completely escapes me, I had booked for a Babes In Arms screening and the only other people in the cinema where a family with a toddler and a mother with a baby. There was quite a bit of gurgling, whispering and paper rustling but I have had children and am used to ignoring their distracting behaviour.

Besides, this was Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake and it would have taken something quite gruesome to spoil that.

Of course Swan Lake starts with the advantage of Tchaikovsky's sumptuous music and I was silently humming along to all the familiar tunes.

Swan Lake made Matthew Bourne's reputation and it is easy to see why. The choreography is busy with so much going on even in the quieter scenes. I spent a lot of time admiring the details of hand and head movements. This is unapologetic contemporary dance with intricate shapes and unusual movements, so unlike the traditional ballet with its jumps and spins.

And because there is just so much details dancing going on all the time a lot of it had been forgotten and could be enjoyed again as if new.

The story is better too with the fill-in dances in the original ballet being incorporated into the story. This is particularly true with the succession of national dances in the ball scene in Act 3.

It is hard to overstate just how much I enjoyed Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake even on film in a cinema shared with children.

After the film there was only one sensible thing to do and that was to have lunch in the Olympic Restaurant. That was a little more pricey than I am used to, but their menu outside had warned me of that and it was well in the price range of a deserved treat.

I think I will be going back to Olympic Cinema and I will most definitely be seeing Swan Lake again the next time I get the opportunity to do so.

God of Carnage at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre

God of Carnage appealed to me for various reasons; it has won a few awards, it was translated by Christopher Hampton and the cast included Freema Agyeman of Doctor Who/Torchwood fame.

It was also described as "darkly funny" which is most definitely my sort of thing.

All that was enough to get me to fork out £34 for Circle A23, my usual area.

I made time for a little local walking, which included a look at The Aircraft Factory, before heading to my recently adopted pre-theatre eating place of choice La Petite Bretagne where I went for the goats cheese crepe. It is a good place and meets all my needs but it is still a shame that Lyric does not do full meals any more.

It was also a shame that this performance had no interval as that meant no ice cream. I would like to give Lyric more money but they made it hard for me to do so this evening.

The set was an immediate plus. I liked the elegance and the simplicity of it. Much later I realised that it was rotating slowly though why it was doing so remained a mystery to me.

The fairly simple premise of the play was the meeting of two couples after their sons were involved in a violent incident at school. In the attempt to resolve the situation things obviously did not go to plan.

The discussions got complicated and changed direction many times, being deflected by things like repeated phone calls, a (probably) dead hamster and a (possibly) dangerous drug.

None of these sub-plots grew into anything significant and the play remained at a fairly constant level. It was constantly humorous without developing in to, or descending in to, a farce. That humour came from the interactions between the four different people and was reinforced wonderfully by the acting which was rich with knowing gestures and looks.

Leading the pack was Freema Agyeman as the wronged mother in a rather lovely outfit by, possibly, Christian Dior (I am not an expert on fashion logos!), and she led it masterfully.

I liked God of Carnage even though it did not do very much or go anywhere surprising. For an hour and a half we watched four people struggle to cope with the situation that they found themselves in and with each other. Things were said and looks were given that many of us could relate to and which made us chuckle in shared embarrassment.

Birthright at Finborough Theatre

Birthright immediately appealed to me as the rediscovery of a successful play from ninety years ago when it played in the West End and on Broadway. I also liked that it is set in Ireland as different cultures give different perspectives and different learnings.

And it was on at Finborough which is always worth a visit so it was a ridiculously easy decision to invest £18 on the experience.

There is a routine around visits to Finborough which I was very happy to follow. The cornerstone of this was the visit to Café du Coin in Earls Court Road for the customary Egg Florentine with a Magic Pear and Mint drink to wash it down. Always a good combination.

This new routine still has to cater for the Finborough Arms, the pub below the theatre, being closed as it has been since covid closed its doors. There are signs that it is coming back and it will be good to have a comfortable drink before performances.

Birthright is, apparently, based on the biblical story of Esau and Jacob but it is almost sixty years since I had stories like that forced on me at school and so that was not much of a help. More helpful was the explanation that it concerned one family on one day where the succession of the family farm would be argued over.
 

All the action took place in the main room in the family cottage with the two parents and two sons coming and going over the day as they went about their work and activities.

The set (pictured) was superb.

The play was almost all dialogue, a lot of it heated, as the four characters made their positions clear.

I liked the way that the four people all had good arguments though they did not always present them in a good way, e.g. at one point the father said things might have been better if he had married a woman from farming stock who knew the ways of farms.

A play about four strong characters needs four good actors and Rosie Armstrong (mother), Pádraig Lynch (father), Thomas Fitzgerald (elder son) and Peter Broderick (younger son) were all excellent. The father was the most animated so Pádraig Lynch got the most attention but this was a team effort. There's also a favourable mention for the fifth character, a family friend played by Aidan McGleenan, whose visits to the house helped to frame the story.

Birthright was just over an hour of passion and argument with only a few slower moments where I could catch my breath. Watching it was an intense and enjoyable experience and it was just the right length to maintain the intensity.

With Birthright, Finborough continues its good habit of rediscovering old plays and presenting them skilfully. It is another fine example of just how good small theatre can be.

South West London Humanists: Discussion on Climate Change

Despite what the lack of postngs to this blog suggests, I have continued to be a good attender at South West London Humanists monthly discussions and it is only a lack of time that has stopped me from writing them up.

It was all a lot easier before I retired because then I could do things in the office and the activity I was displacing was work but now I have to give up something nice, like walking, to make time to do these write-ups.

It was made easier for me this month as we split into three sub-groups for the main discussion and as I was asked to feedback on one group and I had to take some sensible notes! What follows is a summary of the discussion that uses those notes and also my subsequent thoughts. It is a write up of my thoughts on the topic rather than a report on the meeting.

The question we were asked to conjure with was: How can countries do enough to tackle climate change if it makes today's citizens poorer?

Before the discussion the scene was set with a short presentation on climate change. This probably helped to level the understanding but I think that we all already believed that climate change is a significant threat and needed a significant response, one that is lacking so far.

In our group we spent sometime disputing the framing of the question, yes we need to tackle climate change but why should this make us poorer?

What needs to be done and how it is paid for are two different questions and there are plenty of ways to pay for tackling climate changes apart from raising general taxation, e.g. wealth and windfall taxes.

Also some of the measures we should take will actually make most people richer, e.g. renewable energy is cheaper that gas/oil so was can expect energy prices to fall in future. Similarly if we Reduce and Reuse what we buy then we are spending less and Right to Repair will enable us to keep devices for longer.

We also queried the meaning of "poorer". Is someone who wears a jumper rather than switching the central heating poorer? Or someone choosing to cycle to work rather than driving?

And even if we do become poorer we will still be richer than we were, say, twenty years ago (which felt pretty good at that time) and richer than most people on the planet.

We veered slightly off topic (as good conversations often do) to discuss how to make the changes. We thought that changes should be introduced to make it easier for people to move to greener lifestyles, e.g. have more public transport (free!) before banning cars. 

We also felt that any changes should not penalise people who had made what seemed like reasonable decisions at that time and the ULEZ car scrappage scheme is an example of how to do this.

It was a good discussion in which everyone in our group participated enthusiastically and which reached a broad consensus. That does not always happen!

Wolfie at Orange Tree Theatre

I saw Wolfie at Theatre503 in 2019 and it made quite an impression on me. So much so that when recently I was asked by somebody which of the many plays I had seen at Theatre503 was my favourite, Wolfie was the first play that came to mind (quickly followed by several other contenders),

So when I heard that it was coming to Orange Tree Theatre I could hardly wait. But wait I had to as it took a few months for it to appear in their booking system, and even then it was buried with other plays under the heading Greenhouse Festival. I managed to find the booking form and eagerly grabbed a seat for £12.

The reason it was so cheap was that the festival plays were performed by graduating LAMDA students. If anything, that was a plus for me as I have a high regard for recent graduates having seen so many young actors over the years, often in small theatres across London, places like Theatre503.
 

This was a very different Wolfie visually because of the different stage layout and this one used more props than I remembered. The main prop was actually the shopping trolley on the left.

Wolfie is the story of twin girls, the Sharkey twins, who we follow from just before they are born, their birth being through the shopping trolley.

Soon after birth they are separated with one getting a wolf as her new mother and the other a woman who stays in the bath all the time. After that things get weird.

The situation may be a little strange but the story is a simple one of two girls growing up apart and in different ways. What lifts the play far above the simple story is the way that it is told and the language used. 

The story was brought to us by the two girls taking it in turns to tell theirs with the other girl playing characters in her sister's life. They also talked to each other about how they would tell the story, e.g. "It's my turn now.". A novel approach (for me) and it worked.

The language was the highlight with throw-away comments all the time, something like Wilde but also not like Wilde. To give just one example from the many that flew past, one of the sister's said that she and her daughters had not been anywhere recently, apart from a trip into space. There was also something about using Cillit Bang to clean the ocean. You get the idea.

The language also flowed poetically with a rhythm that carried it effortlessly through two hours.

A play like this requires good actors and both women were very good. I would like to namecheck them but the Orange Tree website does not give their names (as far as I can see).

My memory was of something special and it most definitely was.