Remember my goal of seeing all of Shakespeare’s plays performed before I turn 40? Well, notwithstanding what happened last Sunday, it’s STILL ON. We’re just going to have to add “-something” to the end of it. Which means that when the RSC does a new production of King John, one girds one’s loins and boards […]
One of my favourite nights of the year: when I come home and my little Passage is all lit up for the holidays. It’s just the best. And since I’m in England I don’t even have to pretend I’m horrified they didn’t wait until after Thanksgiving. That window you can see just over the shop […]
Somewhere across town the London Symphony Orchestra is performing Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet for an audience of n minus 1, as I think the expression goes. That’s because instead of occupying seat C42 in the Circle, I’m sitting cozily in my living room, enveloped in wool and candlelight and the sounds of a Beethoven symphony […]
Tonight after work I hurried off to the Barbican to see the RSC’s production of The Taming of the Shrew. It was an interesting take on the play — all the roles were reversed, with women in the men’s roles and men in the women’s roles. Some of it worked well, mainly because the RSC […]
Another quiet weekend in London. Most of it spent in and around the flat doing life admin, errands, etc. The highlight was Friday night, when I walked down to the Barbican and saw the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of As You Like It — which it turns out I had never seen before. It’s one […]
One of my favourite days of the year: when summer time ends and we’re back on standard. Because I never bother to check the date in advance, it’s always a surprise. I wake up at the ordinary hour and discover that it’s actually an hour earlier. That blessed miracle of an extra hour in the […]
Remember how last year I brought that (allegedly) 18th Century Chinese dish home from the Cotswolds and used it for eating burrito bowls until I broke it by tapping it gently on my granite countertop? Well, it occurred to me (and some of you — Susan!) that this might be an interesting opportunity to try […]
Sometimes a play’s title sheds light on what’s to come. Sometimes it doesn’t. Last week I saw a play that fell into the latter category: Lungs, at the Old Vic. I still have no idea why it’s called Lungs. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it! Ninety minutes of Matt Smith and Claire Foy […]
What to do in London in the middle of October? The weather’s not great, certainly not reliable. All the gardens are past their peak. But the theatre season has begun! So pop down to the National Theatre to see Translations, a play about language and identity and British-Irish relations and history. There was a costume […]
I’m having a homebody moment. After all of the travel the last month, it’s nice just to be here in London. Coming into this weekend I had no plans, and when I sat down to make some I discovered that these two days seem to sit weirdly within a gap in the performing arts season […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 