Anything Goes!

 Wednesday. 8.35 a.m. A bright, but chilly, morning.

Thursday. 8.35 a.m. It's quite frosty and cold this morning. A good deal colder than yesterday morning. The car windows are frozen over, so I have been to scrape some of the ice off, so I can drive to the Oaktree Centre after 9o'clock for our regular Bible study.

I got the printed bank statement with my address on it in the post yesterday morning from Nationwide. I wasn't expecting it, so it means my D.B.S. can be completed at Bridge Builder on Tuesday.

Friday. 10.15 a.m. It's yet another frosty and cold morning, but it's also foggy. You can't see the central shopping centre from my kitchen window, because the fog is so thick. It doesn't look as if it's going to clear at all today.

I am watching David Tennant in the central role in the Royal Shakespeare Company's  production of 'Hamlet.' Patrick Stewart plays Claudius as well as The Ghost. As they are meant to be brothers, it makes sense. It is on the BBC iPlayer, as part of the 400th anniversary celebrations for the publication of the First Shakespeare Folio. There are quite a few programmes on Shakespeare, a three-part drama/documentary on Shakespeare's life, which is very good, and I have discovered a lot of new stuff, one fact being that one of the Gunpowder plotters was a relative of Shakespeare and was executed because of his involvement. Also, a Simon Shama series about the Bard.

I might have mentioned this before, elsewhere in these blog posts, but I am something of a Shakespeare fanatic. I also 'collect' productions of Hamlet. I can't now remember how many I've seen, over the years, besides being an A.S.M. on a production when I was at Liverpool Playhouse in 1971. Carol and I went to see a National Theatre production of the play, which had Rory Kinnear in the central role. I find it intriguing to see how many ways it can be staged. It never seems to lose its power. They have more recently staged what's called 'gender blind' (not sure if that's the right term though.) with Maxine Peake playing Hamlet, although, in that production, I wasn't sure she was a 'he' or 'she'. Thinking about it, having second thoughts, her version might have been transexual. Thinking further, in Shakespeare's time, the female roles would have been played by male youths, because women were forbidden from appearing on stage. Some of the other roles have been gender-swapped, such as Polonius, becoming Polonia. 

Sunday. 12.30 p.m. It is a particularly unpleasant and wet day. I have just returned from the Oaktree Centre. I was scheduled to do tea and coffee, but an entire family were doing just that, so I had time to chat as it was what is called 'Cafe Church', which means there was no workshop, but a time of fellowship. 

My friends Margaret and Mike had invited me to lunch, so I came home to take Alfie out and as I got to my front door, I discovered a parcel, from Evri. It was difficult to read the label because the print was so tiny, so I had to get my reading glasses, but someone had put the wrong address on it. It was for the flat opposite. 

Stranger Danger And Other Dramas

On Tuesday I went to Camphill as usual. I'm now there all day so I'm better able to join in more with the students. They seem to like having me with them. Really enjoy our relationships. They are such a lovely group and to think so many of them have problems with communication, speech and probably the biggest one, confidence. There is an extra supporter who has been working on Camphill's care bank, which is a similar system for staff to do shifts whenever permanent staff go on leave. Also, a young girl who is doing a placement from university and she was given a tour of the theatre. She is doing a creative writing degree so she should be very helpful with the writing of the next project, based loosely (and I mean loosely!) soon 'Treasure Island'. During the morning the students did more work on the lines for the 'Stranger Danger: Three Little Pigs' play. The group was divided into two groups, some working in the theatre and the rest either downstairs in 'The Crypt,' or in the foyer area.

Jeremy, who has been videoing the Stranger Danger: Three Little Pigs' project, came in with DVDs and Memory Sticks on which the completed video had been put. These were handed out at tea break.

After lunch, which I had in the Camphill café, (a lovely atmosphere in there. Must be extremely popular because it gets quite busy at lunchtime.) we began working on developing the next project, which, as I've mentioned in an earlier blog post, is to be based on Treasure Island. We were split into two groups and sat around a table and each of us had to come up with a line for the narrator of the ply to speak, making it as imaginative as possible and building up the dialogue. Some really amazing ideas came out of this. A really brilliant way to workshop and devise a storyline. Almost like the traditional part game of Consequences, which I very much remember playing as a child. So where next with this new project? Keep coming back to my blog to find out!

(Wednesday) I've got rid of the old, broken plastic drawers from the fridge/freezer. I took them to the tidy-tip at Bleak Hall. That is one job done from my 'to-do' list. I am now waiting to hear from someone from church who is going to cut the grass (I refuse to refer to it as a 'lawn.') It's tough old grass which I can't cut myself. The electric hover mower wouldn't manage to cut it, it's not designed to cut such tough grass. The grass has got so long Alfie almost gets lost in it! He looks like a lion or a tiger in the grass in Africa or India or some such similar. It's also seeding, which means it it's not cut soon it will be virtually impossible to mow.

(Thursday) I was looking forward to my theatre trip to see 'Les Miserables.' My ticket had been booked for quite some while now. I really couldn't miss the chance to see it again. I saw the original London production at the Palace Theatre, probably only a couple of years after it transferred from the Barbican where it was staged in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company and directed by Trevor Nunn. I drove in to park near the XCape and walked through to the theatre and waited outside briefly because I got there at around 2 o'clock and the show didn't start until 2.30. I was making sure I wasn't late! I wasn't going to be. I waited by Door 5 on the first floor of the theatre. I had a seat in the Circle. Thank goodness I hadn't got a seat in the next layer of seats up. Carol and I had gone to see a production of Guys and Dolls and had seats in that area and it wasn't a good place to sit because you got a really awful view of the stage and it felt really cut off from what was going on on stage. You couldn't see everything. I found my seat, Row A, Seat 5. A good view of the stage. An excellent view of the stage. I love the buzz of a pre-show audience. The expectation of what's about to come. I've always had this since I was a child, probably from my first experience of 'live' theatre, being taken to see 'Peter Pan' by Sister Watson, a lady with whom my mother nursed before she was married. It was a regular production, at the Scala Theatre, it was on every year for years and years. I recall the flying. How was it achieved? I know, the actors were on wires, a sort of counterweight system, with pulleys and they wear a special harness under their costumes. Must be painful. Done by an outfit called Kirby's Flying Ballet.  Can't imagine what it would be like. Peter, played traditionally by a girl. The scene on board Captain Hook's ship, the fight with Peter. Loud explosions of cannons. I was hooked on the whole thing. And having tea, on a tray, in the auditorium, during the interval. They don't do that any more. Probably against our old enemy, Health and Safety. Goodness, sitting with a tray of BOILING WATER! Not possible now. Anyway, I digress. I think it's definitely the excitement of waiting for the show to start. I know the pressures on the actors and stage management, because I've worked as an Assistant Stage Manager and Deputy Stage Manager, have sourced and set props, operated the sound desk, moved props and scenery and, most important of all, run the prompt corner, done 'The Book,' prompted when actors fluff their lines, and generally run plays from that position.

As you face the stage, before the show starts, there is a curtain. I'm not sure whether it's what they call a scrim, made of a material which is transparent and when it's lit from behind, a bit like a lace curtain, you can see what's beyond, the actors and the scenery. When the lights are off and the stage is in darkness, then it appears solid. It can be painted as any other stage cloth. It was this that you see at the beginning of the show, with the words 'Les Miserables' in a sort of hand-written style, and the name 'Victor Hugo' at the bottom (the author of the novel which the show is based on.)

The sets for this production are not by John Napier who did the original Barbican, RSC co-created production, which I recall had a revolving stage and the two sections which became the barricade came of from either side of the stage and became other locations. This production had large doors which opened and closed for various scenes and the wing-pieces had doors and windows in them on several levels and other scenes were achieved with sections of scenery which slid on and off and a sort of 'track'across the stage which allowed pieces of furniture to move and be set in position. There was much use of what I assume was digital projection, but I couldn't work out where the projectors wee for these sequences. Very clever use and achieved very quick scene changes. Much impressed by the sound engineering. It must be extremely difficult to balance the singer's on stage with the orchestra in the pit. You could hear almost all the words the actors/singers sang and then have each actor with those tiny microphones taped or otherwise attached to their faces or in their hair which you couldn't see, thankfully. I've seen shows where there is absolutely no attempt to hide these things. It just goes to show it must be done. And then they'd have to hide the radio transmitter unit under costumes and also the engineers would have to balance the singing voice with the orchestra. All extremely well done and not interfering with the enjoyment of the show.

Birthday Outing To Stratford-Upon-Avon

Saturday was my birthday and, the weather being fine, Carol thought I might appreciate a visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Actually, as we drove to the Shell petrol station along Grafton Street, we were greeted by a thin fog. It was dull and sunless, but that didn't prevent us having our day out. The first day of Half-Term as well as my birthday. I had found the postcode of the Stratford-Upon-Avon park-and-ride carpark and set the satnav, so it was just a matter of following the device's instructions and driving out of Milton Keynes. A wonderful invention which makes driving and particularly navigation so much easier and stress-free. There are some modern inventions which one can well do without (mobile telephones for one, although they have their place, obviously.) but a satnav is a brilliant bit of kit. Attempting to follow a large fold-out map in a car as you are moving along can be very difficult.

We drove out of Milton Keynes towards Buckingham and eventually to the M40. Our journey was fairly stress-free. Fortunately the fog began to lift as we approached Stratford. We got to the park and ride carpark and it was here we discovered that it didn't seem possible to use the ticket machines. You should have been able to use your bank debit card to either pay with chip and pin or contactless but the machine wasn't working. We ended up finding we had to use the bus without paying and the driver allowed us to pay on our return journey. I have a free bus pass and it was at this point that I discovered that it had expired, meaning I couldn't use it for a free journey. I will have to go to the Council offices in Milton Keynes to get it updated. I would have thought I would have had a letter from them informing me that it was about to expire. It not only means a trip into the centre of Milton Keynes, but that I will need to get passport photographs done to go on the card.

On arrival in the centre of Stratford-Upon-Avon we decided that we required some sort of refreshment so we went to a Caffe Nero branch in Henley Street. Carol ordered hot chocolate and I had caramel latte with a good topping of whipped cream and caramel sauce and we also had chocolate brownie and pecan pastries. For once there wasn't loud music playing, which is one thing which we both find annoying in many restaurants and cafes we visit, which means you can barely hear anyone speaking and restricts conversation. A very clean and tidy branch and the staff were friendly and helpful.

William Shakespeare's birthplace.

From Caffe Nero we walked along the street towards the Shakespeare Birthplace. I have a longstanding interest in William Shakespeare and have studied his plays at school and university, and this was one place I had always wanted to visit. We were going to visit on this occasion but were put off by the cost of entry, so didn't go inside. I realise such places need to be paid for and kept going with such payments, but it seems a shame that they are making money out of tourists which keep such centres as Stratford alive, but in another sense they are putting of others who might like to visit but wouldn't be able to afford such costs. We did go into the shop, further down the street, and bought some cards and other items. Much of the souvenirs are, frankly, very tacky and cheap, but in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust shop there were some very worthwhile items, including books, pens, postcards etc etc.

Further along the street we discovered a shop which sold teddy bears. Carol has a love of these toys and has a wide collection at home. Several years ago I bought her a Steiff bear, which was sold as an offer in the Guardian newspaper. Outside this shop was a very large, more or less life size  bear dressed in Tudor clothes, no doubt to look like William Shakespeare. Within this shop there were all manner of bears, in all manner of clothes, large and small, some at reasonable prices but others very expensive. We have never been in such a well-stocked shop selling teddy bears!

Having left the teddy bear shop we walked towards the river. We found where the bus would leave to return us to the park and ride carpark, just outside McDonald's. We walked on and got to the Waterside, which is where the R.S.C. (Royal Shakespeare Company) has it's theatre. We visited Stratford a few years ago and it was at the time the theatre was being redeveloped and was under scaffolding. It is now open (it has been for the past few years.) and now has a tower as part of it's structure. There is also a recently-opened permanent exhibition inside which is about Shakespeare and called 'The Play's The Thing' which we ought to visit when we next come to Stratford. All part of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 1616.

 Canal boat at Waterside, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Along the Waterside were barges and boats and one which took passengers on a cruise along the River Avon and part-way along the canals. We thought it would make a pleasant and relaxing afternoon's experience, having spent several hours walking. We then saw a barge further along which sold food and bought ourselves baguettes which we took on board the boat, after we'd bought our tickets. So we spent around 45-50 cruising on the boat and went through the lock and into the main part of the river. It was from the boat that we got a view of the theatre you don't normally see and then, further along, the church where William Shakespeare was buried.

Falstaff statue at Shakespeare Memorial

Hamlet statue at Shakespeare memorial

When we got back to the Waterside we walked round to look at the statue of Shakespeare, which has him at the centre, but high up so you unfortunately can't see him at very close quarters. Around the four corners, but at ground level, are statues of some of his most famous characters, Sir John Falstaff, Lady Macbeth, Henry V, and Hamlet. I took photographs of each.

We then wandered back into the town centre and visited Marks and Spencer, buying lasagne and salad for our evening meal. We returned to the bus stop outside MacDonalds and waited for the bus which would take us back to the carpark and our car and drive home back to Milton Keynes.