Month: June 2013

A Day At Wimbledon, Number One Court, First Friday, 28 June 2013

At our first attempt in the Wimbledon ballot – spurred into action by our attendance at the Olympics the previous summer – click here or below…

London 2012 Olympic Games, Tennis, Wimbledon, Centre Court, 2 August 2012

…Janie secured Court One tickets for the first Friday. Excellent seats – 4th row. Not bad at all.

The weather was not so keen to play ball as the ballot, unfortunately. It was a dodgy weather day to say the least.

The Getty Images from the day show a pretty poor weather scene – click here.

The ESPN photo gallery for the day shows centre court mostly, as that was where most of the action took place – click here.

But there were clearly going to be breaks in the weather too, so I suggested a meet up time to Janie based on the forecast, which Janie felt was overly-optimistic…

…the upshot being that we missed the first 30-40 minutes or so of the first match on our court.

Still, in the end we got to see a surprising amount of tennis, not least the remainder of the second round match between David Ferrer and Roberto Bautista Agut. Below is the highlights reel from that game:

Then we saw most of the third round match between Petra Kvitova and Ekaterina Makarova. Below is the highlights reel for that game:

We’d done surprisingly well, tennis-wise. Also picnic-wise – I laid on a Big Al special picnic which pleased Janie no end.

The Night Alive by Conor McPherson, Donmar Warehouse, 22 June 2013

Janie and I are partial to a bit of Conor McPherson. We absolutely loved The Weir, but then you can’t expect a playwright to achieve such giddy heights every time.

Further, this was our second visit to the theatre that weekend, having seen the superb Dances Of Death at The Gate the night before – click here or below:

Dances Of Death by August Strindberg in a new version by Howard Brenton, Gate Theatre, 21 June 2013

So I suppose this particular evening was all set up for disappointment.

A wonderful cast, especially Ciarán Hinds and Caoilfhionn Dunne, plus a good script, provided plenty of entertainment for the evening – so in that sense we were not disappointed. It just wasn’t quite the jaw-dropping, mouth-watering night of theatre we had hoped for when we booked it. Greedy pair, we are, me and Janie.

Having been critical of the Donmar’s lack of on-line resource on many Ogblog occasions – I have now discovered (perhaps it has only recently opened up and/or was well-buried) a wonderful trove of Behind The Scenes resource guides on many productions – click here…

…including this production of The Night Alive, which I have uploaded and which you can specifically click here. Excellent resources – well done Donmar.

Below is a Donmar trailer, mostly talking about the music – interesting to hear and see Conor McPherson talking about his own work:

Click here for a search term that finds the reviews for this production. It was mostly very well received and transferred well. I’m glad. It deserved to do well, even though it didn’t bowl us over. We’ll still look out for Conor McPherson’s work, though – he’s a special talent.

Dances Of Death by August Strindberg in a new version by Howard Brenton, Gate Theatre, 21 June 2013

Yes, yes, yes! This was really good.

I have seen The Dance of Death before – indeed both parts – but this tight version by Howard Brenton, enabling both parts to pan out in one play, worked really well for me and for Janie too.

Superbly well acted – Michael Pennington and Linda Marlowe were sensational in the leading roles (my previous experience of Edgar and Alice was Alan Bates and Franbcis de la Tour, so I know my top notch Edgar and Alices). The youngsters in the tightened up Part Two were also excellent.

An extraordinary production too, in that tiny theatre, managing to get so much out of that small space.

Click here for a link to the Gate resource for this play/production.

Click here to a search term for the (mostly very good) reviews.

A cracker.

The Celtic Viol, Jordi Savall, Andrew Lawrence-King & Frank McGuire, Wigmore Hall, 9 June 2013

Two nights in a row at The Wigmore Hall…two nights in a row from the Early Music and Baroque Series…two corkers.

The previous night we’d seen the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin – click here or below:

‘Opus 5!’ – A Corelli Celebration, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Wigmore Hall, 8 June 2013

A very different style tonight. A rare chance to see Jordi Savall up close playing small scale music, along with Andrew Lawrence-King (he of the Loqueville that captivated me so many years ago).

Not all early music, of course, but some well early and some traditional of no fixed provenance; neither composer nor time period. Some lovely. All interesting.

Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall programme page for the evening.

Below is a YouTube with some music very much along the lines of the music we heard that night…

…and here is the very trio we saw, a few months later, performing live at the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa:

A truly memorable weekend of early music.

‘Opus 5!’ – A Corelli Celebration, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Wigmore Hall, 8 June 2013

This was an excellent concert. Janie and I are both partial to the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and are also partial to a bit of Corelli. So we weren’t going to miss out on this one.

The concert was actually Corelli plus – it also highlighted some composers directly influenced by the great man.

The Wigmore Hall Programme page – click here – explains.

Below is a YouTube of the Alte Musik Berlin mob playing one of the Platti concerti we heard…

…followed by a real treat – the Corelli Op 5 No 10 (recorder concerto) shown live from the concert the night before ours, at the Kablow Dorfkirche – absolutely dreamy:

Kablow Dorfkirche KW
Kablow Dorfkirche

Chimerica by Lucy Kirkwood, Almeida Theatre, 1 June 2013

Janie and I both really really liked this play/production.

In many ways not the sort of play we normally like. It was quite long and very broad in its sweep – spanning continents and decades.

But it was such a good play and so well done.

Fine cast; not least Claudia Blakley (who we think of as an Orange Tree regular), Stephen Campbell Moore (who I got to know quite well shortly afterwards at BodyWorksWest) and Benedict Wong (who we’ll forever think of as Ai Weiwei – or at least Janie will).

We liked Lucy Kirkwood’s previous play, NSFW...we loved Chimerica.

Click here for a link to the Almeida resource on this Chimerica production.

It subsequently transferred (pretty much intact, I believe) to the Harold Pinter that autumn.

Below is the trailer vid:

It got rave reviews, deservedly – click here for a search term that finds them.

London theatre at its very best.