The following is a diary extract, perhaps with one or more illustrative pictures.
Arrive in Hyderabad 4:45 India time.
Met by Basquar – arrange/bargain our way into early check-in at Taj Krishna.
Restful day sleeping, sorting, checking out hotel etc. Arrange to eat in Indian restaurant.
Take massage before dinner.
Club Room at the Taj Krishna. Hyderabad
Try wonderful Hyderabadi dishes – Haleem with Sheermal (wonderful slow-cooked lamb) and Dum Ka Murgh (creamy chicken dish) plus some lamb biryani hyderabadi style
Janie and I both really enjoyed this play and production. It is an American comedy about disastrous blind dating, with enough issues in it to keep it interesting as well as amusing.
Superbly acted and beautifully directed and produced.
Ever since, I had been keen to see productions of Twelfth Night when they came around. Further, this production with Rebecca Hall as Viola and possibly a last chance to see a by then 80 year old Peter Hall directing…Janie said yes.
In truth, I don’t think this was the best Twelfth Night I have ever seen. It was of course very well acted, directed and produced, but it was a little old-fashioned in style for my taste; it felt like the sort of Shakespeare production I might have seen at the National 20-25 years earlier. I guess I should have expected.
It certainly didn’t do anything to improve Janie’s view on Shakespeare. I explained how much better it was done in the hands of Alleyn’s schoolkids in 1978 and Janie said she could understand exactly what I must mean.
She wasn’t humouring me, was she?
“After all,” said Janie, “you are practically a reincarnation of The Bard, are you not?”
Just as well, as the showing sold out, so even Frontline Club members were turned away on the day; we ran into Roger Graef outside the club, regretting that he hadn’t booked.
It is a short film. Unlike some at that time, this film was not brimming with unequivocal praise for “The Lady”. Writing in late 2017, that equivocation seems prescient.
Still, it was a very affecting, moving hour of documentary.
Janie and I made a profound sacrifice in the August preceding this event – dining at the Boundary with Anthea and Mitchell, before booking it for the 2010 Z/Yen do. The things we used to do for the sake of the team.
Anyway, the Z/Yen seasonal event started with “Goodbye” drinks at St Helen’s Place – hence the search for a suitable venue quite near that office.
Those of us who had been with Z/Yen from the outset had been at St Helen’s Place since 1995, albeit in different bits of it at times. Still, the move away from there felt a little unsettling at the time.
Janie remembers the meal at the Boundary fondly, despite us being unable to use the terrace (as we had on our previous visit in August) and despite the fact that it was only a couple of weeks after her twin, Phillie, had died.
It was a growing team at that time and it felt that the seasonal events were getting better and better. The house party atmosphere ahead of the dinner helped, I’m sure. As did the excellence of The Boundary as avenue for our sort of event.
With so much going on in our lives at that time, I was neither in the mood nor well mentally equipped for writing a silly song. We revived The Twelve Days Of Z/Yen Training that year.
We don’t normally do musicals. But this one sounded interesting and different so we booked it.
Set in Nigeria in the late 1970s, it is basically a tribute to the life, music and politics of Fela Kuti.
It was at the National, so of course no on-line resource to help navigate all the whys and wherefores of the show. This search term – click here – should find the (mostly rave) reviews and other resources you might want.
I’m not sure we need a subsidised National Theatre to import this sort of hit show from Broadway and make a hit of it in London, but anyway I’m glad it was on there and I’m very glad we saw it. This was just the sort of boost we needed so soon after Phillie’s passing. A life-affirming show, but with real grit too.
A larger audience for this one, at the Museum of London; slightly more intimidating feel to the platform too (Barnards Inn Hall sort-of feels like home).
