Macbeth at Dock X

I have seen Macbeth numerous times and there has to be a pretty good reason to drag me out to see another version, and this production did that. Clearly Ralph Fiennes is a big attraction and I was also very tempted by the prospect of a staging in a performance space rather than a traditional theatre.

This was Julia's birthday treat so we pushed the boat out, quite a long way, and paid £85 each for our seats.

Dock X is in Canada Water which was convenient enough to get to (via dinner at Culture Grub by Waterloo) and a little difficult to find, we had to ask.

The venue was basic with bare concrete floors and simple seating in the auditorium. The stage was simple and raised and I had an excellent view of the whole stage ftom a corner position. I may have read my own biases into this but it looked more like an event audience than a theatre audience to me, e.g. it was much younger than I am used to for Shakespeare.

I was expecting the staging to do more than it did as the uniqueness of the production was billed as a key feature whereas I found it all very obvious. Indeed, productions like the one at National Theatre with Rory Kinnear in 2018 were much more experimental.

Essentially this was a standard production of Macbeth disguised as something more interesting.

Enough with the bad news, the production was probably the best Macbeth I have ever seen thanks to the production letting the words of Shakespeare do all the heavy lifting and to stellar performances by the two leads who gave those words the time and the space to flourish.

Israel is a terror state

Depressingly it is still necessary to show public support for Palestine despite the recent ICJ ruling against Israel as our government is still backing the wrong side and doing so with direct support, including weapons that are being used to kill civilians.

We started at Portland Place, home to the BBC but not our target, and took a simple route past Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square before passing along Whitehall to Parliament Square.

Unlike all the previous marches there was an incident this time.

I was marching with the Socialist Workers Party group (I am not a member but am broadly supportive) and soon after we entered Haymarket a small Police snatch squad swooped in and took someone they had clearly targeted plus one other who got involved. The two were dragged into Panton Street where a line of police officers stopped us following. There were quite a few of us and the police called in several groups of reinforcement, though there was no physical contact.

For bout twenty minutes we chanted at them, things like "Let Her Go!", while they took lots of photographs of us. We were soon joined by some Legal Observers and also by several people giving out leaflets on what to do if arrested. It was good to see an organised response but worrying that police action made it necessary.

The stalemate was ended when the two were taken away in a van and we rejoined the march that had been carrying on behind us for all that time, despite us starting towards the back. There were a lot of people there.

Kew Orchids (2 Feb 24)

Kew Orchids 2024 officially opened on 3 Feb but members were given an early preview and I was happy to take up the offer. This year's festival followed the trend of recent years with fewer large displays and a strict one-way system which takes about half an hour, depending how often you stop to take photos.

This year's theme is Madagscar and while there are a few orchids from the island on display this mostly means that the animal sculptures are of the island, which works very well because of the unique environment there.

Having fewer orchids arranged less densly than previously meant that the flowers made more of an impact individually and it was easier to appreciate their unique characteristics. Orchids have been around for approximately 80 million years and over that time they have evolved into over 800 genera; that is a lot of variety.

 

One advatnage of the members' day was that it was quieter thnan usual and another is that coming at the very start of the month-long festoval it means that it will be worth going back again in a couple of weeks or so when different orchids will be in flower.

Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening! at Richmond Theatre

So often when I book a theatre show it is a no-brainer but very few are such obvious choices as an update to Drop The Dead Donkey written by the original team, Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, and staring many of the original cast.

Quickness got me my preferred seat, Dress Circle A24, for £37.5 on the very first night of the long tour. Quickness was necessary as the week was completely sold out, though it has already been booked to come back again in June.

The premise was simple, the original Globelink News team had been recruited to start a new algorithm-led TV news channel on the lines of Talk TV or GB News.

The cast came on stage one at a time to loud cheers from the audience and a chorus of "Oh Fucks! from those already there.

After that it was pretty much Drop The Dead Donkey as we lovingly remembered and loved it with the same characters behaving in the same way and saying the same sort of things. 

The dialogue was constantly funny and the one-liners came thick and fast. There were topical jokes too, such as a reference to Marcus Rashford who had been in the news just a couple of days previously.

There was some good physical jokes too, like George's run-ins with a voice-activated coffee machine, and with a light switch.

Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening! was everything that I hoped it would be, and more. It was genuinely funny in its own right and being an update on an old favourite was a nice bonus.

The Hills of California at Harold Pinter Theatre

A few things had to fail and to work for this evening to happen.

It was my birthday so I was looking for a special show to see and my default option, a Matthew Bourne ballet at Sadler's Wells, was thwarted by the show finishing earlier in the month. I was rescued by a new Jez Butterworth play opening on my birthday and ATG offering club members decent prices.

I was quick to book and secured three seats in the centre of the front row of the Royal Circle for £55 each. Clearly a good deal.

Of course I had to find a suitable venue to eat beforehand and with my sister joining us the usual vegetarian Indian across the road from the theatre was not an option. A quick search came up with the swanky and moderately priced Masala Zone on Piccadilly Circus. It proved to be an excellent choice, the food was superb and different, the service was exemplary and the ambience was perfect. I will be going back!

The view from my seat was very good and I settled down for a show that was expected to run to a little over three hours, with breaks; hence the 7pm start time.

The scene was the private quarters of the Sea View Guest House in the wrong part of Blackpool (it does not have any sea views) where four sisters are gathered on the imminent death of their mother. As they reminisce they talk about when they were girls and their mother was building them into a singing troupe modelled on the (three) Andrews Sisters.

After a while the stage rotated and took us back in time to the same room when they were girls.

And that is about it.

As with the other Jez Butterworth plays I had seen (Jerusalem and Ferryman) there was a lot of talking, some of it funny some of it dark, but little in the way of action. That may sound like a thin meal but then nothing happens in Waiting for Godot either. The Hills of California relies on its dialogue and with Butterworth the dialogue is more than enough. The two and a half hours or so are thoroughly engaging, helped by excellent performance all round from the women and the girls.

I wanted something special for my birthday treat and The Hills of California was just that.