First stop was Victoria and Albert for mid-morning coffee and cake and a little perusal. The (free) display Re:Imagining Musicals in the hard-to-find Theatre and Performance section was the main attraction and, as always with Victoria and Albert, there was a lot else to enjoy along the way.
Then it was a walk up to Kensington Palace to take advantage of my Historic Royal Palaces membership. It was my first visit there and quite probably my last. There is not a great deal to see there and now I have seen it.
The rest of the afternoon was largely spent killing time in pubs with a couple of slow pints in The Hereford Arms and Courtfield before heading to Cafe du coin where I always eat before going to Finborough.
Salt-Water Moon is, apparently, a Canadian classic which with Finborough's reputation was enough for me to choose it as my main birthday treat. It also helped that I had seen the two actors, Bryony Miller and Joseph Potter, before.
Salt-Water Moon was a will they, won't they story of two young ex-lovers reunited after a significant break during which time both their lives had changed significantly, though just how much they changed was a little hard to work out due to his constant embellishment, retraction, restatement and denial.
During the reunion he was animated, physically and verbally, while she was constrained and precise. She was clearly in charge but he did not realise that.
Incidentally, in a similar play, Talley's Folly, which I saw at The Cockpit in October it was the man who was in charge though the balance between the two was more equal then.
It was the rollercoaster dialogue between the two young people that gave the play its purpose and its heart. I have been watching a lot of chess recently (Tata Steel Masters 2023) and it was a little like that with lots of to-and-fro during the competition and all possible outcomes still in play until the end when a clear result was reached.
The play benefitted from the intimacy of Finborough, we were only a couple of metres away from the actors, and the simplicity of the stage which had just a bench for them to sit at and a starry night sky for them to look at.
Salt-Water Moon was a gentle swim in other people's emotions and was just the treat that I was looking for.
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