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.