I have long been a fan of Caryl Phillips‘s writing; I discovered his novels in the mid 1980s and have several of his books in hard cover.
So I was excited to see that he had written a play, although, when I booked Strange Fruit at The Bush, I didn’t realise that it was an early work, written in the early 1980s, prior to the first of the novels.
I think Janie and I saw a preview, although it is hard to tell at The Bush when press night might be without doing deep research.
In any case, we found the production slick and the acting truly excellent.
Written and set in the early 1980s, the play covers some fascinating aspects of African-Caribbean culture and issues from that time, many of which resonate strongly with issues of migration and identity in our current troubled times.
In truth, the play is somewhat unsubtle, starting in a rather tinny, scene-setting style and tending towards melodrama at the end, in ways that Caryl Phillips clearly ironed out as a writer very soon after writing this play.
But there are flashes of brilliance in the writing and the characters, while somewhat stereotypical, are tragic and engaging.
In fact, the whole piece is engaging throughout; although the play is rather long for the simple story it tells, the piece held our attention throughout.
This is not a play that will cheer you up if you seek some light entertainment. It will make you think about the issues and if you like visceral drama then it is most certainly for you.
Unfortunately I shall not be attending the formal celebrations of Alleyn’s (my old school’s) founding 400 years ago, but I thought I would, instead, upload a suitably Jacobean piece.
My mind turned to the beautiful, tragic verse, In Darkness Let Me Dwell, which was well-known and much used in the Jacobean period.
The mournful piece would still have been popular in 1619 and highly appropriate that year, as the English Queen, Anne of Denmark, died that spring. Anne had been a great patron of the arts; indeed she patronised John Dowland. She was also said to enjoy theatre, such that she (unlike King James I by all accounts) even tended to stay awake during plays.
So Edward Alleyn might well also have mourned the passing of Anne. It is even possible that it was Anne’s passing that triggered King James I to sign the Letters Patent that founded Alleyn’s College of God’s Gift in June 1619. The matter had been mired in bureaucracy and politicking for several years prior to the theatre-loving Queen’s passing.
So, I went in search of a suitable musical setting for 1619 and discovered a rare scrap of music that had been recently discovered in the cellar of an inn located in the Darent Valley lowlands.
It might well have been written in 1619…or do I mean 1966 – anyway it certainly sounds ridiculously old and I’m sure it comes from a year with all 1s, 6s and 9s in it.
For those who are interested in hearing some alternative (i.e. other) settings of In Darkness Let Me Dwell, here are some decent recordings from the public domain:
Firstly, John Cooper/Copario/Coperario’s 1606 setting of the verse, performed by Helen Atkinson and Din Ghani.
https://youtu.be/JDPc8PtLJVc
Next up, a rather beautiful rendition of the John Dowland 1610 version of In Darkness Let Me Dwell, sung by Andreas Scholl, accompanied by Edin Karamazow:
https://youtu.be/Ym1kWj1TwkU
Finally, you might enjoy Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones. Please note how very similar the lyrical content is to the verse In Darkness Let Me Dwell, in meaning, albeit not the exact words.
The original idea had been to meet up at Lord’s late afternoon and venture on for food from there. But I had mixed up the dates and thought that this was Day Three of a match but it was in fact Day Four, so that idea was never likely to have worked.
In any case, John’s commitments ran a bit later than originally planned so we ended up gathering at my place early evening, which enabled me to torture John with my latest musical mash-ups and masterpieces, while John caught up with his e-mails.
We also got our “intense disappointment with politics/Brexit” conversation out of the way at my place before dinner, so as not to put ourselves and each other off our food.
Downstairs at Yauatcha this time – for the first time. I think on balance we decided that upstairs works better for us at Yauatcha. Quieter and more airy.
But the food remains absolutely superb – well remembered, John.
Unusually for us, we plugged for a set menu, not least because those seemed to have such an interesting and varied selection of dim sum, it would have been hard to better those choices by calling from the card.
The presentation is beautiful, especially the dim sum course, but for some reason we both neglected to take “food porn” pictures at that juncture.
So I have borrowed a couple of pictures from the Yauatcha site, guessing that, as long as the pictures are credited and linked to their site, the Yauatcha folk won’t mind:
Yauatcha Shui MaiYauatcha So (Puffs)
For some reason, when I did decide to take a couple of photos, John decided that he wanted to look wacky and insisted on maintaining a crazed expression. I can report that John was stone cold sober on this particular evening, as he is trying to get fit for some sort of marathon cycle thingie.
You’d be mistaken in thinking that John doesn’t get out much
Those main dishes were:
黑菌花腩骨 Truffle pork belly rib
老乾媽雙鮮 Stir-fry pepper chilli seafood with asparagus
白菜苗 Baby pak choi
豆角蛋炒飯 Egg fried rice with long bean
So there.
John and I discussed, amongst many other things, our days writing for the Keele student newspaper, Concourse, not least because Dave Lee (seasoned Concourse journalist and one-time editor) had recently got in touch with me about that. Dave is pulling together a charity book about the Keele gigs of that era etc. John’s diaries might help Dave to fill gaps that mine can’t fill.
Watch this space.
Amusingly, John related that he had found several old copies of Concourse when clearing his parents’ house, all of which had his masterpieces carefully cut from them…but the file in which he must have meticulously preserved his own ouvre is lost for all time.
Anyway, as always it was a very enjoyable evening with John, which flew by all too quickly. Roll on the next one.
In many ways the smaller number is a shame, but it was nice, on this occasion, to have a single conversation between a group of five of us. I felt I had a proper catch up with everyone who was there this year, whereas sometimes I feel I didn’t really get to speak with some of the attendees.
Booking Bill’s is an interesting, different experience each time now. This time they seemed happy to take my booking for a largish group of people (I’d estimated eight) many weeks in advance, but I did get a shock when I was sent a reminder in late April for our 30 April booking. I checked my original e-mail from Bill’s and was relieved to see that it correctly said 30 May. I quickly got on the blower to Bill’s. Something about computer systems going awry, but not to worry, we were booked in for 30 May.
The booking all worked fine on the night. Even our reduced numbers proved non-problematic, as Bill’s had pushed two tables together for us and were able to recycle one of those tables when our last minute reduced numbers came to light.
We reminisced, perhaps a little more than usual. I think I might have got a half-confession out of Linda about the 1978 apple pie bed incident:
Linda’s guard, most unusually, must have been down, perhaps as a result of her having had a cocktail earlier in the evening before arriving at Bill’s.
Linda, Liza, Mark and Sandra all work in education and/or care professions, so I found myself a fascinated listener to a conversation about several sign languages and their diverse educational benefits.
When I discovered that Mark is now back in London, at Deptford Green School, I initiated a conversation about non-turf cricket pitches and my Trustee role at the London Cricket Trust…
…Mark agreed that it would be most helpful to his school if there were to be cricket facilities in Deptford Park. I said I’d see what I can do.
Then we returned to our reminiscing and concluded that we’d all like to see many of our old BBYO friends again, but in particular we should try to track down Barry Freedman who was, in so many ways, the driving energy behind our group in the early years.
I’m not quite sure how I got nominated and voted onto the non-existent committee in the role of “Tracking Down Barry Freedman Officer”, as I don’t recall leaving the table or the conversation at that stage of the evening.
My friends assured me that the instructions for my mission, should I choose to accept it (not that I could refuse it, seeing as I’d been elected nem con, in absentia), had been provided on a tape recording which, together with the tape recorder, had now mysteriously evaporated:
My friends wished me luck.
I said I’d see what I can do.
As usual, it was a really enjoyable evening with a great bunch of people whose company I enjoy with renewed relish at these annual gatherings. But the next gathering might need to be sooner than usual, if I can pull off an implausible mission.
Is a selfie with loads of people in it a groupie? If so, thanks to Mark Phillips for the groupie.
Postscript: Did I pull off the implausible missions? You bet your sweet & sour balls and your white cricket balls I did:
Yet somehow we hadn’t got round to it. But when Janie announced that she was, unusually, seeing patients in town on the Friday afternoon/early evening ahead of the Bank Holiday weekend, that seemed a perfect opportunity to try the place. It was, not least because I was able to get a table on a Friday evening at reasonably short notice.
We chose to try the three course Robata Omakase set and believe me that was plenty of food for both of us. Brace yourselves for food porn photos, mostly courtesy of Janie:
The starter thingieThis sweet waitress explains the sashimi element of the meal to me. She seemed thrilled to learn that we had been to Japan reasonably recently.Once it had been explained, we could and did indulge.A more bulky member of the waiting staff served the grills on great big stone blocks. The grills were served with some sushi on the side – an unusual touch?
Janie and I both thought the food was really excellent and for sure the best meal of this kind we have had outside Japan. The ambience was a little soul-less, but to be fair such places in Japan tended to have a similar, “mall-restaurant” type ambience.
We were both really pleased to have tried the place at last and the meal got the bank holiday weekend off to a very tasty start.
Janie took some more photos; you can see them all by clicking the link below:
Unusually this year, the first Lord’s County Championship match of the season didn’t work out for me and Charles “Charley the Gent Malloy” Bartlett to have our traditional early season meet, but this second match did, so we arranged to spend Day Two of the match together.
A Cunning Plan: Tuesday 14 May 2019
Actually I was able to attend for the latter part of the first day. My cunning plan was to get my work out of the way, drive over to St John’s Wood Road around 15:00 – it is almost always possible to find a Ringo parking place at that hour, drop off my tennis kit ahead of tomorrow, get some reading done and watch some cricket in the sunshine.
The cunning plan worked.
I briefly popped in to the pavilion and chatted for a brief while with Colin, before going in search of some warmth in the spring sunshine of the Mound Stand.
Barmy Kev joined me briefly in the Mound Stand that afternoon before going off to speak with more important folk than me:
Borrowed from Barmy Kev’s Facebook posting – Click the picture to see that posting.
As I left Lord’s that evening, I ran into John Lee from the Leicestershire committee, who was on his way to try to find his hotel on Sussex Gardens, so I was able to give him a lift there and have a chat along the way.
A Great Day Although The Picnic Partially Went Pear-Shaped: Wednesday 15 May 2019
I rose early to prepare the picnic and set off for Lord’s soon after 8:00 in order to play tennis at 9:00. I used the rucksack that DJ kindly gave me last year, as that is an ample size for a picnic for two…
…except that I didn’t think about relative softness and hardness of items in the various compartments and planted a bag containing Chas’s pears (Green Williams) towards the bottom of the rucksack.
Other Species Of Pears And Bagels From A Previous Visit To Lord’s
Charley’s fussiness about his pears is a matter of some legend and a yet unpublished piece that should appear on King Cricket at some point in the next few years.
Infuriatingly, I had procured and ripened the bag of pears to perfection for this visit, but they got badly bruised in the rucksack. Message to self: put pears in a protective fruit box next time.
Chas threatened to go public about my pear preparation going pear-shaped, but I decided that the best way to prevent the risk of blackmail was to come clean myself. Now Chas will have to decide how to deal with the other side of the “mutually assured destruction” information unholy bargain we had with each other. It could get as messy as that bag of bruised pears.
Anyway, I played quite a good game of tennis (won) and spotted, as soon as I got off court, that Chas had messaged me to say that he was in the vicinity ridiculously early. I suggested that he make haste to the gate where I could get him into the ground with his voucher before I showered and changed. This ploy worked well.
In the morning, we braved the traditional back/backside ache of the pavilion benches. John Freer from the visiting Leicestershire group spotted us on those benches and came out for a pleasant chat. Peter Moore also chatted with us for a while. Chas and I didn’t get around to the picnic (apart from nibbling some cashews) until we got around to the Mound Stand in the afternoon.
Apart from the pear debacle, the picnic was a great success. Poppy-seed bagels with Alaskan smoked salmon, Prosciutto and Parmesan cheese sandwiches on sourdough, a fruity Riesling and several sweet treats – the latter arranged by Chas.
There were some large school groups sitting quite close to us – very well behaved but autograph hunting like crazy – especially from Nick Gubbins who was fielding down our way and patiently worked his way through a long queue.
At one point in the afternoon Dawid Malan (out injured) wandered around the outfield and stopped to chat with us briefly. Some of the junior autograph hunters asked him who he was and/but seemed minimally impressed that he was the Captain of the team. Only some sought his autograph; still Dawid handled the matter with great dignity and willingness to please the junior crowd.
As always, the day just flew by and it seemed like a blink of an eye after meeting that Chas and I were parting company again.
I watched tennis for a few minutes to let the crowd and traffic die down before Ubering home.
A Random Ramble Around Lord’s: Thursday 16 May 2019
When arranging that visit, I mentioned in passing that Middlesex were playing at Lord’s that day and that I could show John around the place properly if he was interested. His previous visit had been to watch tennis only:
Anyway, John said he would really enjoy that, so after the concert we legged it to Lord’s, where John reckoned he could spare 90 minutes to two hours before heading back to do some work.
I gave John an informal tour of the pavilion, which I think he really enjoyed, stopping most of the way through the tour to take some refreshment and watch some cricket on the sun deck, at Janie’s favourite spot under one of the turrets.
While chomping and drinking coffee there, John informed me that, although he had no pedigree in cricket whatsoever, his grandfather, Hector Ireland, had been a leading light in Widnes Cricket Club in days of yore, to such an extent that a bar in the club is named the Hector Ireland Room:
I explained to John that, while I like to pretend that the Harris Garden at Lord’s is named after my grandfather, the truth of the matter is that I have no cricket in my ancestry at all, so I felt that John’s so-called remote cricketing pedigree was trumping mine big time.
We completed our informal tour in time for John to get away in a timely fashion, I hope.
After saying goodbye to John, I then returned to the pavilion to join the Leicestershire visitors in the Committee Room. John and Penny Freer were in there, as was John Lee and also new Chairman Roy Bent, together with a smattering of Middlesex hosting folk.
Postscript To John Random’s VISIT To LORD’S
In August 2021 John visited Widnes CC and reported the event to me with the following charming words and photographs:
…I finally managed my pilgrimage to the Hector Ireland Lounge of the Widnes Cricket Club, Hector Ireland being – as I think you know – my grandfather; as opposed to the one [George Corke] who had a honeymoon in London and Paris. That was a generation earlier. I was so proud and happy to see his name memorialized on the plaques and his photo still above the bar. I was shown such a warm welcome by men who knew him even though he died fully fifty years ago. I even watched some cricket.
The Match Was Poised, But…: Friday 17 May 2019
I returned to Lord’s again early that morning; a long-planned appointment with the tennis court. In fact, I ended up being press-ganged into playing two hours, from 9:00 to 11:00, which is a bit of a mad idea for playing singles at my age, but there you go.
John Lee had threatened to come and watch me play real tennis for a while before the cricket started and saw through that threat. Afterwards, he reported that he had been baffled by the tennis at first, then after a while decided that he understood it, then after a few more minutes realised that he hadn’t understood it.
Meanwhile, I played quite well that morning and then, after changing, joined the small remaining group in the Committee Room for the rest of the morning session. A few overs had been lost to bad light but the forecast was hopeful for the rest of the day.
Nevertheless, I realised that I needed to get some work out of the way to relieve the pressure from the first half of next week, so went home at lunch, resolving to return for the lasts session of the match.
Sadly, the drizzle started as I arrived back at Lord’s around 16:00 and that last session was much curtailed, turning an interestingly poised match into a draw. David Morgan joined us for a while during that stop-start session.
It was probably Leicestershire who had the most reason to feel aggrieved by the rain, although a couple of quick wickets would have turned the match back Middlesex’s way. Infuriating that a poised match ends that way, but that’s cricket.
It was nevertheless very enjoyable company with which to pass the time at the end a few days of cricket intermingled with work and other activities.
The themes for the festival and from the 12 May concert continued in this charming lunchtime concert by Improviso – namely ideas around cross-fertilisation of musical ideas across countries/continents, plus the use of improvisation as part of the musical fabric in the Baroque period.
I thought this concert might appeal to John Random, who enjoys these lunchtime concerts when we are both available for such. In fact the timing worked so well for us that John was also available to join me at Lord’s for a while after the concert.
While I was striding my way towards Smith Square, a voice to the right of me said “hello Ian”; it was John Friend, taking lunch in a cafe I was passing. Sadly I couldn’t stop to chat with him, but the irony of running into John Friend while on my way to utilise my “Friend of St John’s” rights to lunchtime concerts was not wasted on either of us.
The concert was lovely, with some unusual works as well as some familiar pieces.
Below is some of the Mecmûa-i Sâz ü Söz played in the traditional Ottoman style, rather than the Wojciech Bobowski adaptation which was played by our Improviso quartet.
https://youtu.be/EYLIASW44kI
I cannot find any examples of Improviso playing the pieces we heard at this lunchtime concert, but they do have several lovely examples on their website – click here, including the Castello sonata, embedded below:
John and I had, in fact, enjoyed seeing Johan Löfving perform before – just a few months ago, at such a lunchtime concert…
…but the addition of three more musicians in Improviso, rather than just the duo, enabled each of the musicians to show their individual and collective talents superbly.
Below you can hear the charming Blavet sonata we heard, on this recording performed by Jed Wentz:
Below is the allegro from the Telemann Trio Sonata we heard, but performed by a different young quartet, Ensemble Tolmetes:
In addition to the several pieces listed on the programme, Improviso also improvised a La Folia, very energetically and beautifully I might say. This, for me, felt like a full circle, as Jordi Savall and his pals had performed a couple of La Folias on the Sunday.
Below, a very different La Folia interpretation from any that I saw this week, but an exceptional one by Jordi Savall, family and pals:
But returning to Improviso, they are a very talented young quartet who seem to take great pleasure in making music together and in explaining what they are doing to a rapt audience.
To round off this Ogblog piece, here are Improviso performing William Byrd’s charming tune, John Come Kiss Me Now, demonstrating their style of improvisation:
Janie and I have seen Jordi Savall with his various Hespèrion colleagues several times over the years and have bought quite a lot of his recordings. To the extent that we are fans of anyone, we would consider ourselves fans.
Yet I had always assumed that Jordi was pronounced “Yordee” and not, as we learnt at this event, “Geordie“. Haddaway! Yes, really.
How did we find out? Because there was a short interview session an hour ahead of the concert, hosted by Robert Heason, who tossed a couple of open-ended questions at Jordi who then got on with the business of interviewing himself.
Gobby crack an’ all
It was actually really interesting to hear Jordi explain his way of thinking about early music and performance. He comes across as a very learned but likeable man who wears his expertise lightly. His comments on improvisation and the folk origins of serious music were especially interesting.
When the “conversation” ended, there was still nearly half an hour until the concert. We thought we’d take a picture of the instruments on the stage…
…but then almost immediately Jordi returned…
…and warmed up his fingers for a while on the stage…
Then we went to get some refreshments
“Gi’s a drink I’m gyezend, our lass”, (or words to that effect), said Ged.“Are ye in a fettle, pet?”, (or words to that effect), asked Daisy
We saw “the nice couple” from the front row of many concerts previously reported, sitting a few seats away from us during the talk, but when we returned to our seats it transpired that their booked seats for the actual concert were right next to ours this time. Nice.
…but not with Xavier Díaz-Latorre, who I don’t think we’d seen before at all. His guitar and theorbo playing was excellent.
Below is a really nice video that shows Jordi and Xavier’s skills, though not one of the pieces we heard:
Below is some Jordi viol solo work, including some pieces we heard:
The entire concert is due to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 5 June 2019, so enthusiasts can hear everything we heard.
It was a really interesting and lovely concert. It is always a treat to see Jordi Savall and his pals perform. And now we know to pronounce the name “Geordie”, which is very important.
After saying goodbye to the nice couple…
…aw’s clamming, as was Daisy…
…so we picked up some shawarmas on the way home, to round off a very enjoyable evening with a tasty supper.
Gosh, this Irish play, which has done well at the Abbey and in Edinburgh before finding its way to London, got me and Janie debating the issues robustly for most of the weekend.
The play is basically about a teacher’s attempt to help a young boy, Jayden, who is struggling in class, while the parents have separated and are struggling with their relationship and the needs of their children. The play is a tragicomedy – some scenes are genuinely funny, but the underlying sadness of the situation is the prevailing emotion.
The acting was very high quality; Will O’Connell, Sarah Morris and Stephen Jones are all three fine Irish actors. The latter two, who play the parents, also play 9 year-old Jayden and one of his female classmates. It must be very challenging to switch from parent to child mode many times over in one performance, but these two do that well.
The class of the title has, in my view, a double meaning; not only the classroom in which the entire play is set but also the social class difference between the teacher and the families whose children he teachers. It is that class divide, in my view, that drives many of the events that occur in the play, both on stage and also offstage.
We were really impressed and very pleased that we have now seen this play. We read about it when we were in Edinburgh last year and couldn’t get tickets to see it at the Traverse, so were delighted to see it scheduled at one of our beloved local theatres, The Bush, this spring.
