Tag: Bobbie Scully

The Long Way Round by Peter Handke, Cottesloe Theatre, 8 July 1989

Whether or not I went the long way round from Oxford to London that morning is lost in the mists of time and probably the fog of a hangover…

Music At Oxford At The Sheldonian Theatre & Bodleian Library, 7 July 1989

…but for sure I got back to London in time to see this preview at the Cottesloe.

Bobbie might say, “more’s the pity”, as my log notes that Bobbie absolutely hated it. I merely found it long and hard to follow. That’s how I remember it and that is exactly what I wrote in my log.

Super cast – Tilda Swinton is always very watchable but does often do weird stuff. Also Aidan Gillen, latterly very well known indeed. David Bamber was in it too – thirty years on I tend to watch his son, Ethan, bowling for Middlesex instead.

The play is described as a dramatic poem in the English language text and/but it was basically a family drama.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this play/production.

Anyway, it wasn’t for us.

Postscript One -A Coincidence That Very Evening

I wrote the above piece on 14 February 2019, basically because it had been on my mind after writing up Music At Oxford a few days earlier. By strange coincidence, Bobbie Scully turned up at the Gresham Society Dinner that evening, as Iain Sutherland’s guest.

I mentioned the coincidence. Bobbie started to quiver with indignation:

I’d forgotten the name of that darned thing, but it was surely the very worst thing I have ever seen at the theatre…I think we walked out at half time…

…she said. Actually I don’t think we did walk out at half time. I’m sure I would have recorded that fact in my log whereas instead I recorded that the play was long and impenetrable.

I think we stuck it out tho the bitter end…

…I said. I also volunteered to dig deeper into the programme to see if there were in fact two halves.

Yes, there were two halves and they added up to a whopping three hours of hurt for Bobbie.

I’m not sure why we did stick it out. Perhaps I was still wet enough behind the ears to imagine t hat such a piece might yield in the second half all the answers it withheld in the first. I know not to do that now. Perhaps I was so tired and hungover from the joys of Oxford the night before I was reluctant to move on yet.

More likely, we had booked a late night eatery and jointly thought we might as well see the thing through rather than kick our heels somewhere.

Anyway, the whole experience clearly had a profound effect on Bobbie who was shaking with the trauma of recalling that evening and remembered it so well she even said…

…I seem to recall it was only on for a short run…

…which indeed it was.

Nearly 30 years on, Bobbie might wish to read the short essay from the programme too. The least I can do, upload the material, after all I put poor Bobbie through with regard to this play/production.

Postscript Two: Bobbie Chimes In With A Recovered Memory

An e-mail from Bobbie 24 hours after our encounter at the Gresham Society:

I was casting my mind back to that dreadful so-called play (it wasn’t, it was a string of tedious monologues) and had a recollection of being there after the interval in a (suddenly) half empty theatre. So I reckon that, although we did not leave at half time, about half the audience did.


And, indeed, I think that is why we stayed. We came out at the interval, intending to leave, but had pre-booked interval drinks to consume. As we did so, we watched more than half the audience exit the building. I think we went back out of sympathy/solidarity/courtesy towards the cast.


Does this ring any bells with you? Did we really watch the second half because we felt sorry for the actors? Personally, I can think of no other reason …

My response to Bobbie’s considered recollection was as follows:

Yes, we were young and foolish back then. We might well have stayed on for compassionate reasons. There’d be no such snowflake nonsense from this quarter these days. I do recall the second half seeming to drag to an even greater extent than the first half. I also remember an incredible sense of relief when the ordeal ended.

Postscript Three: Here’s a professional view…I don’t think Nicholas de Jongh in the Guardian exactly liked it either:

de Jongh on The Long Way Roundde Jongh on The Long Way Round Tue, Jul 11, 1989 – 38 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The Voysey Inheritance by Harley Granville-Barker, Cottesloe Theatre, 1 July 1989

I noted that this was a very good production and I’m sure that was true. Richard Eyre in charge of an infeasibly good cast in that intimate little Cottesloe Theatre.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for the production with so many top notch theatrical names on the list…

…David Burke, Michael Bryant, Jeremy Northam, Graham Crowden, Sarah Winman, Stella Gonet, Selina Cadell, Suzanne Burden, Wendy Nottingham… it was difficult to work out which names from the cast list to leave out from this highlights version of the list.

In truth I don’t think Granville-Barker is really for me. I find his plays stylised and very Edwardian – which is, after all, what they are.

This one is at least replete with interesting moral dilemmas but in truth it’s not Ibsen.

But I do recall really enjoying this particular evening in the theatre and I suspect that this is the best Granville-Barker experience I have ever had and ever will.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on VoyseyBillington on Voysey Thu, Jun 29, 1989 – 24 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Kate Kellaway’s Observer review:

Kellaway on VoyseyKellaway on Voysey Sun, Jul 2, 1989 – 41 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I don’t recall exactly what Bobbie thought of it but I think she, like me, was much taken with the production. I also don’t recall what we did (i.e. where we ate) afterwards. Bobbie might just remember.

Don Giovanni, English National Opera, London Coliseum, 10 June 1989

I don’t have great memories of seeing this opera, but I think my memories of it are more closely linked to my general mood that weekend than to any intrinsic issue with the opera/production…

…other than to say that this experience probably helped to kick off the view, which has become a prevailing one, that opera ain’t me.

Bobbie was there for this one, as was Ashley Fletcher – yes, my memory definitely serves me correctly for this one, as the diary makes clear that Ashley was down for the weekend and stayed in the tower – i.e. the annex to my flat in Clanricarde Gardens – so named, by Ashley, as he felt that the place would be suitable for the detention of a mad and/or elderly relative. That annex now serves as my office – renamed the ivory tower – a more liberal purpose and name.

But I digress.

Not much about it on the net, given its antiquity, but here’s some stuff from the translator, Amanda Holden.

While here is a rather cute link to a fan’s piece:

I'm off to ENO's Don Giovanni tonight. Here's the programme for the version I saw there last. In 1989

Below is Tom Sutcliffe’s Guardian review:

Sutcliffe on GiovanniSutcliffe on Giovanni Fri, Mar 24, 1989 – 31 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I’ll write more about other aspects of the weekend after I have had a chance to liaise with Ashley on’t matter. Bobbie and I had a rather entertaining conversation about in 28 February 2019…

Dinner At Spring Restaurant With Bobbie Scully, 28 February 2019

…a few days before I wrote up this piece, about Don Giovanni.

Postscript after seeing Ashley in April 2019: Ashley has no recollection of that weekend. So we must rely on Bobbie’s memory that I was tripping out on tiredness and rather freaked at the thought of going out to get some additional soap, as there was none for Ashley in the shower of the tower. If I really did say words to the effect:

I did not envisage this weekend as a soap buying weekend…

…that would have to be up there amongst my most autistic utterances ever. I have a dreadful feeling that Bobbie’e memory is going to be bang on regarding that point.

Icecream by Caryl Churchill, Royal Court Theatre, 13 May 1989

I don’t remember all that much about this one, which probably means that I found it somewhat impenetrable, as is sometimes the case with Caryl Churchill plays.

The Royal Court has a tiny stub on-line for this production.

Super cast with Saskia Reeves and David Thewlis. Max Stafford-Clark directed it.

Here is the Theatricalia entry.

Below is Michael Ratcliffe’s Observer review:

Ratcliffe on IcecreamRatcliffe on Icecream Sun, Apr 16, 1989 – 43 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on IcecreamBillington on Icecream Wed, Apr 12, 1989 – 45 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I have the play text, so perhaps I should have a read to refresh my memory about this play/production. Or perhaps Bobbie can help.

Postscript

I have now reverted to the text and it sort-of comes back to me. The diary also tells me that we sat in seats D9 & D10 and that they were £10 tickets that Saturday. Good value, I suppose.

Roots by Arnold Wesker, Cottesloe Theatre, 22 April 1989

My log suggests that we thought this production was good. I’m not a huge fan of Wesker’s plays; in fact this one sticks in my memory as probably the most interesting of all those I have seen and read.

Here is the Wikipedia entry for the play.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for the production Bobbie and I saw at the Cottesloe.

Good cast – Maria Miles as Beatie and Caroline Quentin as Jenny.

This sort of play works really well in a small house like the Cottesloe; I remember the production having a very intimate feel.

Bobbie might remember even more about it.

Below is Nicholas de Jongh’s Guardian review:

de Jongh on Rootsde Jongh on Roots Wed, Feb 8, 1989 – 46 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Juno And The Paycock by Sean O’Casey, Lyttelton Theatre, 22 February 1989

A midweek visit to the theatre with Bobbie. How on earth we ended up at the National for a major production on press night I have no idea – perhaps a couple of Bobbie’s journalist friends/colleagues had to divest themselves of a pair of tickets at short notice.

Midweek theatre was a habit we had acquired during my quieter months in late 1988 but this was not a sensible idea once my Binders career got going, as I might be deadline-ridden or out of town at the drop of a hat in my new career – so such mideweek jaunts became rare.

Having said that, it seems that February 1989 was a relatively quiet month for me, in terms of client contact anyway, certainly compared with the frantic few weeks I spent on my first major assignment in December 1988 and January 1989:

Reduced To Tears By My First Consultancy Assignment, 27 January 1989

I don’t recall being quiet at work, though, so I must have been immersed in something or things that didn’t require meetings. I think I ran a tendering process or two, got involved with some proposal writing and helped out on a few projects staffed by people who didn’t really “get” accounting.

One thing I most certainly wasn’t doing was strutting around the office like a “paycock”. Which brings us back neatly to the matter at hand – a Wednesday evening visit to the National to see Juno and the Paycock with Bobbie.

It’s a good play – one of O’Casey’s best in my opinion – a synopsis and the play’s provenance can be found here. The 1989 Lyttelton production was a good one to be sure – that’s what I wrote in my log anyhow.

Linda Bassett played Juno and Tony Haygarth played the Captain. It was a very good cast altogether, in fact – see this Theatricalia entry for details.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on PaycockBillington on Paycock Fri, Feb 24, 1989 – 34 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Ratcliffe’s Observer review:

Ratcliffe on PaycockRatcliffe on Paycock Sun, Feb 26, 1989 – 44 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Strangely, it was revived again at the Lyttelton in 2011 with Ciaran Hinds and my neighbour, Sinead Cussack. Here is a link to a list of many productions.

It is hard to find any information on-line about the 1989 production, although some of the 2011 reviews hark back to the earlier production. But take my word for it that the 1989 production was good. I’m pretty sure it got good notices. Bobbie might remember yet more about it than I do. I’ll ask her.

John & Mandy & B For Dinner, 4 February 1989

I think my hieroglyphic for 4 February reads:

John & Mandy meal +B

…which I take to mean that John and Mandy and Bobbie came over to Clanricarde Gardens and I cooked them dinner.

I suspect that this was John & Mandy’s first visit there, so perhaps one or both of them remember the occasion better than i do.

John has so far signally failed to respond to my request for him to remember what he and I did a few weeks earlier:

Dinner With John White, 11 January 1989

…despite the fact that I can’t remember and cannot read my own handwriting. Infuriating.

My guess is that on 4 February I probably cooked something East Asian, although it might have been Southern Asian cuisine for that crowd.

Thoughts most welcome.

Smelling A Rat by Mike Leigh, Hampstead Theatre, Then Jilly’s Party, 14 January 1989

This was at the old Hampstead Theatre – the portacabin-like place quite near the new Hampstead (i.e. also Swiss Cottage). The place had a proud tradition by 1989, not least in the matter of Mike Leigh plays.

What a fine cast – as always with Mike Leigh who seems to be a magnet for talent – including Timothy Spall, Saskia Reeves and Brid Brennan.

I do remember really liking this play/production. It was, in some ways, the sort of cheesy farce I tend not to like. But being Mike Leigh, it was sort-of an antidote to such farces, much as Noises Off by Michael Frayn is sort-of farce, sort-of antidote.

Here is the Theatricalia link for this play/production.

Dramaonlinelibrary.com has a synopsis of the play – click here.

Below is Kate Kellaway’s Observer review:

Kellaway on SmellingKellaway on Smelling Sun, Dec 11, 1988 – 41 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian Review:

Billington on SmellingBillington on Smelling Tue, Dec 13, 1988 – 35 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I went to see this one with Bobbie – I wonder whether or not she remembers much about it…

…or whether Bobbie remembers much about Jilly’s party at the latter’s Nether Street residence?

I think it was at this particular Jilly party that I had a long conversation with one of Jilly’s scientist friends about nuclear fusion technologies, which we reprised some 20-25 years later at a subsequent Jilly gathering.

A full and enjoyable evening.

Ten Days Spent, Primarily, Eating And Drinking, 15 to 24 December 1988

If you simply go by my diary notes, I spent the ten days in the run up to Christmas eating and drinking that year. What’s changed/who knew?

I’m going to be a bit light on details with several of these:

Thursday 15 December: Went over to Bobbies for dinner

I’ll guess that there were other people involved, but the diaries are silent on the matter, beyond the above information

Friday 16 December: Went to Ma and Pa for dinner

One thing I do remember about this visit was me gently but firmly letting mum know that, now that I’d moved to Notting Hill, I wasn’t suddenly going to be making Friday evening visits for family dinner a regular thing.

Saturday 17 December: Driving lesson. Annalisa came over for meal in evening

That was my second driving lesson in Notting Hill (I’d had one the previous Saturday). I think that meal I cooked for Annalisa that evening might well have been the first time I cooked for someone other than myself at Clanricarde Gardens. No idea what I cooked for her. There are some Thai recipes on my jotter but I can see, from the context of the other notes, that those were jotted after Christmas, probably after I discovered Tawana.

Monday 19 December: Driving lesson in evening.

My instructor in Notting Hill Gate was a gentle fellow. I remember his girlfriend (or wife) was an orchestra musician from East Germany and he spent much of our chatting time railing against the Honecker regime, little knowing how close we were to its demise.

Tuesday 20 December: Bobbie came over for meal in evening

This might well have been the first time I cooked for Bobbie at Clanricarde. This will have been a meatier affair than cooking for Annalisa and/but probably a simpler meal being an after work job rather than a weekend job.

Wednesday 21 December: Radius lunch in afternoon. BHMC [Binder Hamlyn Management Consultants] & drinks after work

I cannot remember exactly who Radius were, but I am guessing that they were a software supplier. That week, and the week before, I had switched away from Save The Children Fund (who wanted me to return to do most of my assignment in the new year, after their massive Christmas Appeal surge was over), so I joined colleague/mentor Lars Schiphorst at Holland & Holland. My guess is that I was brought in at that place to look at the financial/accounting systems aspects of a project long since forgotten by all involved.

Thinking about Lars, who, despite having to tolerate teaming with me on that assignment and others, went on to be a good friend for several years at Binders before he emigrated to Australia…I wondered if it would be possible to trace Lars 30 years later.

Yes. Thank you, Mr Google.

Here he is at the Australian Institute For Performance Studies in December 2018 – click here…

…or click here, where I have scraped the relevant page at the time, if you get no joy on the AIPS site above.

Lars Schiphorst – ludicrously still recognisable/barely changed all these years later.

Friday 23 December: Pub lunch with BHMC mob – little work after

The thing I remember most about that lunch was chatting with Geoffrey Rutland, RIP, who was especially friendly, welcoming and helpful with advice. He also turned out, strangely, like myself, to have been a former scholarship boy at Alleyn’s – although in his case a few years earlier.

Actually I remember everyone at Binders being friendly and welcoming that December – I felt quite at home in that firm quite rapidly, despite the fact that I knew I had been recruited as canon fodder in a turf war between a handful of partners.

My First Weekend At Clanricarde: Encountering Van Morrison, Single Spies by Alan Bennett, National Theatre, With Bobbie & Bridge At Pam & Michael’s Place, 3 & 4 December 1988

Saturday 3 December: Much sorting to do re flat – went to see Single Spies in eve – B came back to mine

My appointments diary informs me that my Zanussi washing machine was delivered to the flat that morning. I remember going for my first local shopping expedition after the machine arrived.

I am fairly sure that it was on that very first Saturday’s shopping spree that I found myself face-to-face with Van Morrison on the traffic island which divides the north from the south side of the Bayswater Road. We exchanged glances. I nodded, in as much of a “cool, nodding acquaintance” manner as I could muster.

Van-Morrison

I remember thinking that the Van encounter proved that I had really arrived in a hip, happening place – I was going to be rubbing shoulders with Van Morrison and people of that sort all the time from now on. Well, to some extent I suppose I have got to meet quite a lot of such media folk in the neighbourhood since, but that traffic island encounter with Van the Man was, sadly, a one-off. “No Van is an island”, I suppose.

Single Spies is actually two Alan Bennett plays: An Englishman Abroad and A Question Of Attribution. Both are about the Cambridge Spy Ring. The first of the two plays had been knocking around for a few years before this production – it is primarily about actress Coral Browne’s encounters with Guy Burgess. The second play was about Anthony Blunt’s role as art advisor to the Queen.

Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry.

According to the National Theatre’s historical notes, A Question of Attribution contained:

the first representation on the British stage of a living monarch, in a scene in which Sir Anthony Blunt has a discussion with ‘HMQ’.

Prunella Scales and Simon Callow played the leads in both plays. I think this was the first time I saw Prunella Scales on stage, although she had seen me ponce about in tights some 10 years earlier:

Twelfth Night, Alleyn’s School, 12, 14, 15 & 16 December 1978

I thought the production (Single Spies, I mean, not Twelfth Night) was very good and said so in my notes. I’m pretty sure Bobbie liked the production too. I think we might have eaten at the National that evening – I can’t believe that I was geared up to cook yet at Clanricarde.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on Single SpiesBillington on Single Spies Sat, Dec 3, 1988 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Ratcliffe’s Observer review:

Ratcliffe on SpiesRatcliffe on Spies Sun, Dec 4, 1988 – 44 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Sunday 4 December: Went to Pam & Michael’s in eve for dinner and bridge

I wonder who made the fourth for bridge that evening? It was before my irregular social group had emerged, so it wouldn’t have been Andrea on that occasion. I’ll guess it was a friend of Pam & Michael’s – perhaps one of the Setty/Gareh family or possibly it was Ralph Glasser. The diary is silent on such details – never mind.

I’ll have walked there and back, learning that Clanricarde Gardens to Pam & Michael’s place only takes around 15 minutes on foot. Cool.