and on to Sidon, by which time sun had turned to rain. Ruined castle– old souk – patisserie.
Then back to Beirut for tour of green line development – shopping and then rest before dinner with Elias Habre at Al Mijana (beautiful old villa in Ashrafieh (East Side).
Beirut CornicheDinner with Elias Habre
Janie had treated the Habre family in London for many years…decades even. Elias Habre was in Beirut at the time and insisted on providing hospitality to us that evening.
Al Majana still seems to be well regarded in 2022 if this review is anything to go by.
All of the Lebanon photos in our album can be seen here and below:
Sunday 2 March 1997 – Flew out of Heathrow p.m. – only 30 minutes late.
Got held up at the airport ever so slightly by immigration.
Got to Hotel Bristol late – dined at Kabab-Ji on Hamra Street near hotel.
Held Up At Immigration
Yes, “held up ever so slightly by immigration” is code for a rather peculiar incident, perhaps based on my physiognomy.
Of course our papers were entirely in order and Janie was waved through when we got to immigration at Beirut airport. In my case, however, a military-looking fellow stepped forward and swiped my passport from the immigration official’s hand for “routine checking”.
Janie got a little aggravated when she realised that she’d got through and I hadn’t but was told simply to stand at a distance and wait.
The immigration official engaged me in conversation, which I imagine was part of the “checking” process.
“First time in our country?”
“No”, I said, “I visited your country as a child, with my parents, many years ago.”
“Where did you visit?”
“We went to Beirut and Baalbek”, I said authoritatively.
“That’s not very much visiting”, he said.
“No”, I replied, “we were on a Mediterranean cruise, so only stayed here for one day, unfortunately”.
“Ah”, he said, “if you were on a Mediterranean cruise as a child you must also have visited ISRAEL”. That last word was hurled at me in an expletive manner.
I realised that our whole trip might be over. Were the officials to search our travel papers, they would see unequivocally that we were going on to Israel at the end of our trip. Beirut International Airport (Air Side) might be the sole and entire extent of our holiday.
Three Weeks Of Bliss? Many Stay Longer!
I smiled at the immigration official.
The immigration official smiled back.
I put on my thoughtful face, to show that I was trying to dredge the memories…or the right words. Then I said:
“Well, to be perfectly honest with you, I was 10 years old when my parents took me on that cruise. So I don’t remember all the places we visited back in 1973. But I clearly remember visiting Lebanon and I clearly remember liking it very much and wanting to come back to see more, so here I am!”
The official smiled and laughed. His laugh suggested the thought, “I know that you know that you went to Israel on that cruise”.
I smiled and laughed back, which probably implied, “I know that you know that I know that I went to Israel on that cruise”.
But I think his response was also a sign to the military-looking guy, who appeared as if from nowhere at that moment with my passport and said “welcome to Lebanon” as he handed me back the vital document.
We rather liked Le Bristol Hotel. Steeped in Beirut history, it felt like “the” place to stay for the couple of nights we were to be in Beirut. An affordable luxury too.
Sad to learn that the economic crisis and then the pandemic led to the place permanently closing in 2020. It’s history and undignified end well described and illustrated in the Middle East Eye piece – click here.
It’s hard to tell for sure, but I’m guessing that the Kababji in question, given the Hamra Street clue, is this one – click here.
Not many reviews post pandemic – ouch!
Photographing yer food hadn’t been invented back then, but it is more than likely that our meze looked a bit like this:
In those days, Ralph Fiennes was one of my buddies as Lambton Place…
…OK, what I really mean is that I’d quite often see him there and we were nodding acquaintances.
Anyway, Fiennes was doing great theatre work in those days, not least at the Almeida, which was having a heyday under the joint leadership of Iain McDiarmid (also one of my nodding acquaintances in the Notting Hill neighbourhood back then, as it happens) and Jonathan Kent.
I wrote in my log:
Very good production. Ian McDiarmid near stole the show the night we went understudying as Kosykh.
LIST OF SONGS SUBMITTED AND TAPE TRACK LISTING
MARCH TO APRIL 1997 RUN
Dear Mark
Welcome to News Revue!! It was good to hear from you the other day. As promised , here is a starter pack which consists of my latest songs plus some older ones which have longevity or are still topical.
Good luck and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Song Title
Original Title/
Artist on Tape Approx.. No. of weeks performed
7+ 4-6 1-3 New
side 1
plagiarise walk on by / dionne warwick N
labour medley world war two songs by ghastly soldiers 7+
what’s the story boring tory? what’s the story morning glory / oasis N
netanyahu chorus halleluja chorus / handel 1-3
paisley and adams father and son / cat stevens 7+
labour chorus symphony no 1 mov iv / brahms N
john major just cares for my baby just cares for me / nina simone 4-6
tony blair gloria / vivaldi N
hooray for bollywood hooray for hollywood / orignal cast N
i cannot run the government i’ll never fall in love again / ddionne warwick 1-3
side 2
short beckett prescott and the amazing tony blaire simon smith and the amazing dancing bear / alan price 7+
stakeholder economy don’t sit under the apple tree / andrews sisters 7+
…and Di Botcher. Di Botcher who directed Newsrevue in 1994 and seemed so keen on my stuff. Where’s the mutual support?
Well, in truth I do think that Di Botcher can act. Her role in this miserablist piece, as far as I could tell, was mostly to stand around looking miserable. Di stood around looking miserable with aplomb.
Here’s what our friend Michael Billington had to say…and you know for sure that when he uses the phrases “important” and “not an easy evening” that misery must be part of it:
…perhaps we should have stuck it out to the second half after all. But we were about to fly off to Lebanon & Syria just over a week later, so time was at a premium…and they really know how to play for sympathy over there.
This one went down pretty well, if I recall correctly, in Mark Brailsford’s spring 1997 run of NewsRevue.
PLAGIARISE (To the Tune of “Walk On By”)
VERSE 1
If you should be walking down the street, And you hear a tune you think is neat. Just Plagiarise Plagiarise Gabby’s eyes, Are covered, like this song, No one can see; What she’s done, That Dionne, Had not done, In 1963; More easily (Don’t…….bother) More soulfully (Don’t……bother).
VERSE 2
I just hope that I don’t end up sued, Cos all my hits are deja vu; Plagiarise, Plagiarise, Some eye-tie’s Just stitched up Michael Jackson copy-wise, Cos that song, That he’s done, Was written, By some other guys; Plagiarise, (Just…….stop) Plagiarise, (Just…….stop)
Below is a video with Dionne Warwick singing Walk On By:
My log suggests that I lost the programme and therefore all record of this event, but thanks to those wonderful people at The Questors Theatre who seem to archive absolutely everything, I have been able to retrieve the programme and all the details of the cast and creatives – click here for the Questors archive link.
I have always had a soft spot for Anouilh, ever since I saw his Antigone at Alleyn’s in my first year of secondary school.
I must admit, though, that lighter, lesser Anouilh has not dated as well as his more serious work. The Rehearsal falls into the “lighter work” category. It seems extraordinary today that this play fell foul of the British theatre censors until the 1960s.
Still, my vague recollection of this production was that it was quite eye-catching and held our attention.
The diary is silent on where we ate afterwards.
The deal with Pauline on Questors nights was that she did the theatre tickets, Janie did the interval drinks and I did the dinners. No sign of me putting a credit card down for a fancy meal that night, so I’m guessing that we had a modest dinner at Wine & Moussaka, which I recall us doing occasionally after the Questors.
We were neither of us too sure about this play/production.
Granted, it was extremely well received. Granted, we recognised Martin McDonagh’s talent and said we’d like to see more of his work, which subsequently we have done.
But this particular play/production felt like a pastiche of a pre war Irish play to us and left us a bit cold.
18 January 1997: John Random (Burns) & Jenny Mill At Sandall Close
I think this was the first time we had dinner with those two. Janie dutifully wrote in her diary “fish only, no meat” so my guess is that we did indeed eat fish.
Who would have thought that, inadvertently, we’d see those two for a meal almost exactly 25 years later, but we did indeed go to their place in Bromley for a super meal on Sunday 16 January 2022.
24 January 1997: Bridge At Maz’s Place
I’m guessing here, but the four would probably have been Maz (obvs), me (also obvs), Andrea and Tessa at that time.
I think Maz was living in Becklow Road, Acton by then.
The eating and drinking will have been as central to the evening as the bridge, if not more so.
25 January 1997: Dinner At Stuart & Cathy’s Place
Stuart Kent (“Little Mick” Kent, my dad’s cousin’s son) and his partner Cathy Andrews.
They lived in Muswell Hill in a rather eccentric-looking penthouse apartment designed in an uber-1970s garish style, which they had inherited from the previous owner – an unusual look they clearly liked & had enhanced.
Oh by gosh we enjoyed this one. I wrote in my log:
Great fun. Subsequently, the cast changed every five minutes, but we saw the “original” UK cast.
And what a cast that was: Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay and Ken Stott.
Unusually, it was Janie who booked this one. How do I know – because the details are all over her diary, not mine…and boy did Janie write down details. So I can report that the play was 1 hour 40 minutes without an interval and that we sat in K22 & K23.
While the play/production was a huge hit and ran for yonks, it was not universally praised by the critics.
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