I’m not too sure why we booked this. to be honest.
We had not enjoyed Cardiff East at the National 10+ years earlier, despite the presence of the wonderful (ex NewsRevue) Di Botcher in that play/production.
Small Change is a revival of one of Peter Gill’s earlier plays around similar subject matter. So why we thought we might like another of Peter Gill’s working class Welsh drab-fests I cannot imagine.
Anyway, we didn’t much like it, although it was a less bleak and more lyrical piece than the relentlessly miserable Cardiff East.
Karen Fricker in Variety – click here – speaks highly of it and explains how Michael Grandage at the Sheffield Crucible rescued Peter Gill’s writing from obscurity;
Trying to work out how we ended up in a small theatre watching this production, I spotted the director’s name, Avye Leventis, which made me realise that this event occurred because one of Janie’s client’s daughters was making her directorial debut.
The piece is an adaptation of Doris Lessing’s novel “Briefing for a Descent into Hell”. It wasn’t that bad, but we were neither comfy nor inspired by the work.
As Janie said when I raised the matter with her just now (2016), “we’re too old and ugly now to allow ourselves to be bullied into seeing stuff in such circumstances any more”.
Ouch.
By all accounts, Avye’s career has progressed from here. Which is good.
…with their Saffron Walden telephone number. Nothing on the e-mail about it.
So I think this must have been the occasion we went to their house in Saffron Walden for dinner, probably the first time, without arranging to stay anywhere.
I think Janie volunteered to drive home but afterwards said that she was through with night driving on unfamiliar country roads – don’t blame her – so we have always made an overnighter of it since.
On arrival, I seem to recall that we got a guided tour of the estate, several elements of which I seem to recall were still up for debate at that time – e.g. where would John locate his drum kit and where would Mandy locate her professional practice room.
This was a very enjoyable family meal with the girls there as well (perhaps Lydia only joined us later in the evening, or perhaps I am now confusing two such evenings). For sure John cooked a blinder (he always does), I suspect it was loosely based on Indian cuisine but not too hot and spicy as he knows that Janie only enjoys spices if the food is not too hot.
John might remember the exact details of the meal; if so, with a bit of luck, he might be persuaded to chime in with a comment to flesh out the delicious details.
There is a good preview of this concert in The Cardinall’s Musick’s newsletter of February 2008 – click here. Apparently this concert was their first appearance at The Wig for quite a while. If I recall correctly, we had seen them before at St John’s Smith Square.
They really are a superb early music outfit. Andrew Carwood tries hard to explain the context of the work – perhaps he over-explains at times for our taste, but the music always sounds divine and the scholarship that underpins their work is evident for all to hear.
This type of concert is always a wonderful way to end the working week and I’m sure this occasion was no exception.
This is exactly what we heard – lovely.
We bought three CDs of The Cardinall’s Musick delivering their wonderful stuff. While I’m not 100% sure that we bought them on this occasion, I have a strong hunch that I did:
Our regular bridge four had rather fallen into decline at this time. Gavin decided he was too busy running Charing Cross Hospital or something…
…and we struggled to find a fourth.
Then, in early February, I wrote to Andrea:
It was good to speak the other evening, Andrea. We discussed a possible bridge. I have a fourth person “quasi-lined-up”, although without dates of course. I propose mine as the venue on that basis.
Andrea replied:
Good to speak to you too, Ian & thanks for finding a 4th – gather his name is Quasi!
Strangely, though, Barmy Kev really can play bridge. No, I don’t mean, “is someone who has more or less picked up the rules of the game of bridge and is therefore marginally more effective at the game than plankton”…
…I mean “Barmy Kev can REALLY play bridge”, in that it was almost embarrassing to have someone who can play at his level grace the kitchen table of people who play at our level.
Still, Kev likes good food, good wine and good company and my regular group could do all that as well as the best of ’em, so this arrangement proved to be more than a one off. I’m not sure that it was a “more than the fingers of one hand” off, but it was not a one off.
Maz, who I guess is now really quite good herself as she was keen to progress beyond our kitchen table stuff, chimed in afterwards to say:
…thanks so much for great evening last night – food and bridge was great. Good that Kev is so good.
I get the impression that I didn’t play so well. Message from Kev:
I would like to thank you for your hospitality last night. The food , drink, company was excellent. The Bridge-well you can’t have everything. Anyway, all good fun and would definitely be up for next one.
My reply to Kev:
It was good to see you. I didn’t think your bridge was that special last night – rust and vino veritas don’t mix it seems! My bridge I thought was exemplary.
Andrea’s thank you note, read so many years later (January 2019) made me chortle:
Just wanted to thank you for a really lovely time the other night. Great to see you, fab food, wonderful company and bridge wasn’t bad, either. Just one Q – when looking for a new bridge partner, was your criteria to find someone who is the complete opposite to Gavin in every conceivable way??
Note to Kev: Andrea unquestionably meant that kindly. It’s just that you REALLY aren’t like Gavin, in any conceivable way.
On the field of play, Gavin would have worn whites, not pinks, for a start
We had such high hopes for this one. We love the Almeida. We loved Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train by the same author at the Donmar a few years ago…
…but this one didn’t really work for either of us. The acting was good, but the play left us cold and disappointed. Perhaps we were expecting too much.
There’s a good Wikipedia entry for this play and production too. It states that the original off-Broadway production was reasonably well received, whereas the Almeida production was almost universally well received. I’m not so sure about more-or-less universal:
We returned from our trip to Barcelona, Northern Spain and Rioja a few days before Easter, having pre-arranged a small gathering for Easter Sunday. It seemed only polite to bring some amazing Iberico ham back with us, together with our new-found Rioja expertise.
Add to that some of those Lindt Easter Bunnies, without which it simply wouldn’t be Easter…and good friends of course…the result was a good fun gathering.
Janie and I both carry fond memories of this play/production, although it was a long play and is the sort of play that we sometimes dislike.
Howard Brenton has a tendency either to pull off this type of history/personality play with aplomb (as he did with this one and the Ai Wei Wei one) or leave us stone cold, as he did with his play about drawing lines across India at the time of Independence.
Jeremy Irons isn’t my favourite; he’s always sort-of Jeremy Irons. But Jeremy Irons is sort-of Harold Macmillan, so that aspect worked.
One element of the play that I recall really working for me was the notion of the young Harold, played by Pip Carter, moving the narrative on, even in the later years when Harold was becoming an old duffer.
This short break visiting several places in Spain emerged from a very simple idea; that it would nice to visit nephew Paul while he was temporarily living and working in Barcelona; a good excuse also to “take that town”.
…and our desire to see the Guggenheim in Bilbao…and we’d heard that Santander is nice…and also those wonderful reports we’d read about Rioja and the new boutique hotel and the Marquis de Riscal winery…
…the result was an out of character 10 day whistle-stop break. We wouldn’t do it at that pace any more, but we had a great time and there will be plenty of good individual pieces to dredge out from my trusty journal notes and brain, when I get around to it. Download/try to read my scrawl if you dare.
On 15 March, we went to the Guggenheim in Bilbao before setting off for Santander. We saw an excellent surrealism exhibition and more besides (programme retained). We took some good pictures of outdoor exhibits too.
Indeed we took a lot of photos for a 10 day break in Europe, divided into three mini Flickr albums
