Mum’s Funeral, South London Crematorium/Streatham Park Cemetery, 15 January 2015

In the orthodox Jewish tradition, the funeral takes place very rapidly after death. But mum and dad had opted out of the orthodox way and had planned to be cremated. Hence the 10 day interval between mum’s demise and her funeral.

The funeral took place at South London Crematorium/Streatham Park Cemetery at 16:00 that day. The funeral was officiated by the Streatham Liberal Synagogue’s Rabbi, Janet Darley.

As for dad, I wrote and read a eulogy which I shall upload here, with any other artefacts I think worthy of retention, such as the music playlist, when I go through the relevant papers in the fullness of time.

We, family and friends retreated to Nightingale for a reception, the centrepiece of which was the cafe cheesecake which made mum so happy during those last few years of her life.

Come to think of it; if there is one thing I do miss about that whole period it is that wonderful cheesecake.

The Chronicles of Kalki by Aditi Brennan Kapil, Gate Theatre, 9 January 2015

Janie and I went to see this play/production during the hiatus between mum’s death and the funeral. Mum would have wanted us to go ahead with the theatre visit, that’s for sure.

I remember the show being quite magical and fun. Not deep and profound; but a modern telling/adaptation of Indian mythology. It was a good evening at the theatre.

The Gate Theatre has preserved an excellent resource on this production – click here. Why there seems to be an inverse relationship between the ability of arts organisations to put up excellent archive resources on the web compared with their size and scale is a discussion for elsewhere.

Perhaps if we had been more in the mood for challenging theatre we’d have felt more critical too – as it was, Janie and I both enjoyed the escapism of it and some good acting by a young, talented cast.

I think I served up a splendid Big Al pasta dish and salad when we got home, but really my memories of that week are all a bit blurry.

Mum’s Death, 5 January 2015

Janie and I had visited the day before and suspected that mum was fading.

Angela Broad visited on the Monday, allowing me to try and get back into work. She called me late afternoon to let me know that mum looked very weak indeed – significant change even in the last 24 hours.

So it didn’t come as a surprise to me (although these things are always a shock) when the hospital called about 10:00 pm and broke the news to me that mum had died.

After sorting out the formalities over the next couple of days, I made the following posting on Facebook:

I also felt the hospital treated the whole matter with great care, compassion and professionalism, so I also (a few days later) published the following open letter of thanks to the hospital staff:

Those two Facebook postings pretty much sum up my thoughts at the time, really.

Allen Jones RA, Royal Academy, 1 January 2015

We were having a pretty shitty Christmas break, with mum in hospital since just before Crimble (and, as it turned out, never to come out). Our main respite had been some reasonable weather that at least enabled us to play tennis in the mornings, as reported on Facebook at the time – see below:

At the end of that long weekend (the Sunday I think) we went to the Park Royal Vue to see Paddington- click here for the IMDb resource on that movie. Janie warned me that I would probably blub at the scene where Paddington loses his old uncle and moves on from his family – she was right as usual.

Still, lots of laughs and fun in Paddington. I loved the way that there was a calypso band on every street corner in this version of Notting Hill, in contrast with the ubiquitously pale look of the neighbourhood in the eponymous movie.

Yet we craved some high culture and had been eyeing up the Allen Jones as high on our list for the holiday season, so we took some respite on New Year’s Day and went to see the Allen Jones in the afternoon.

The excellent Royal Academy resource with videos, pictures and information can be accessed by clicking here.

We really enjoyed this exhibition. Allen Jones’s work is colourful, accessible, fun, sometimes shocking…it was just the ticket for us that day.

Nuff said.

Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall, 27 December 2014

Igor Levit in 2019 – Bundestagsfraktion Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, CC BY 2.0

I got more out of this one than Janie did.

I’d heard so much about Igor Levit as this emerging talent which The Wig was promoting, so when this concert came up in the Twixtmas period, I thought it would be a good one for us.

Here is a link to the programme of the concert we heard.

I thought he was very good, but Janie thought he was showy and our friend Eric Rhode voted with his feet at half time, telling me afterwards that he found Levit’s playing very heavy handed.

He’s certainly getting rave reviews now; perhaps he was still a bit raw in 2014.

Here is a little snatch of Levit playing one of the Bach Partitas a few months earlier than our concert – it’ll give you an idea of his style and you can judge for yourselves:

Tiger Country by Nina Raine, Hampstead Theatre, 12 December 2014

Talk about bad timing.

Less than a week earlier we’d seen a play about dementia (albeit a truly excellent one), while mum’s dementia was fast deteriorating:

Visitors by Barney Norris, Bush Theatre, 6 December 2014

…little did we know that we were seeing this play about NHS hospital chaos less than a fortnight before mum was to make her final, one-way trip to such a place.

In truth, although we quite enjoyed this play/production, we found it a bit fast and furious without really saying all that much. We’d felt similarly about the police one, Wildefire, at the same venue a few weeks before:

Wildefire by Roy Williams, Hampstead Theatre, 7 November 2014

As with Wildefire, there was some great acting, some wonderful lines and some super vignettes in there. Indira Varma was excellent, as usual; in fact the whole cast was good.

Perhaps it was just a bit too near the bone for me – not just in the mum aspect but also because I was doing so much work with NHS Foundation Trusts at that time. Definitely worth seeing, but no wow factor for either of us.

Below is a “behind the scenes” video:

Below is the actual trailer for the production:

Here is a link to the reviews – the critics pretty-much universally loved the piece.

Z/Yen Seasonal Event At 90 Basinghall Street, 11 December 2014

On this occasion, we decided to make the Z/Yen seasonal event “a musical house party” at our offices in Basinghall Street.

We weren’t exactly flush that year and we had a lot of musical people in our midst…

…well, one or two genuinely musical people and quite a lot of people who like to have a go.

It was the year that Mike Smith had induced me to start playing the baritone ukulele.

It was a bit like the definition of jazz – i.e. the musicians were enjoying themselves more than the audience. But that was OK because almost everyone WAS the musicians. And everyone was enjoying the party.

I’m grateful that Janie took pictures to help mark this event.

The usual traditions of Secret Santa, a little giftie for everyone and of course the seasonal song were all in play.

A rare offering in the lyrics department by Michael Mainelli that year. I think we agreed that, as Mike and I were putting together a whole load of musical entertainment, a revival of Michael’s contribution to the 2011 medley would do.

The lyric is not bad at all (is it possible I tweaked it a bit?) and well suited to an event in Basinghall Street:

OH LITTLE STREET OF BASINGHALL

(Sung to the tune of “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem”)

Oh little street of Basinghall,
On Guildhall’s shady side;
Above old Gresham College Hall,
Z/Yen’s offices reside.

Yet on the fourth floor slaving,
Z/Yen staff work till they sink;
While past the fifth floor sliding door,
Directors eat and drink.

How noisily, how noisily,
They party with the swish;
To show off Z/Yen’s new office and,
Promote “The Price of Fish”.

But now Z/Yen’s Christmas party,
Is here so we can sell;
This gastro dome, that wondrous time,
To the tune of Jingle Bells.

Visitors by Barney Norris, Bush Theatre, 6 December 2014

This was a really excellent piece, performed beautifully.

We went to see this only a month before mum died, by which time her dementia was getting rapidly worse. So I went with a mixture of trepidation and eager expectation.

I needn’t have worried – the play handled dementia as its central theme with great balance and dignity. An excellent effort from a young playwright in his 20s.  Barney Norris, you are now on our watch list.

Here is a link to the Bush resource on this play/production.

All of the performances were good, but Linda Bassett and Robin Soans were both exceptional.

There’s a neat little interview with Barney Norris (playwright) and Eleanor Wyld, one of the performers:

Mostly well received by the critics – click here for a search term that finds the reviews.

Solomon And Marion by Lara Foot, The Print Room At The Coronet, 28 November 2014

We rather liked this piece.

Very South African. It reminded us of Athol Fugard’s style of rural chamber plays.

Both of the performers were excellent – we expected nothing less from Janet Suzman but Khayalethu Anthony was also excellent.

Here is a link to a search term that finds the (mostly excellent) reviews.

We’d like to see more Print Room at the Coronet, but since this piece, on the whole they seem to be choosing stuff that isn’t up our street. Sort it out, Print Room folk.

 

Chimera by Deborah Stein, Gate Theatre, 21 November 2014

Chock full of interesting ideas, this one generated lots of topics for me and Janie to discuss afterwards and had some lovely vignettes within it, yet it didn’t work quite so well for either of us as a coherent piece of drama.

Here is a link the The Gate resource on this production.

Still we enjoyed and were glad we saw this production.

I think it left some of the critics as confused as we were – click here for a search term that finds the reviews.