Tag: Evan Rule

Absolute Hell At the Questors Before A Weekend In Bristol, 9 to 11 November 2001

We went to The Questors with the Duchess of Castlebar to see Absolute Hell by by Rodney Ackland.

It was absolute hell.

We walked at half time.

Things had to be pretty bad for us to walk at half time, especially when The Duchess was treating us to some of her freebie tickets for The Questors.

We had a late reservation at an Ealing restaurant named Parade. I suspect that they were grateful to see us much earlier than our promised arrival at 10:45.

Here is a review of that place from the Standard about a year before our visit:

Parade Campion Standard Parade Campion Standard 26 Oct 2000 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The next day, we set off for Bristol to join the Boswell branch of the family for Scott’s birthday. We stayed at The Swallow Hotel. We were no doubt generously entertained at chez Boswell for the birthday.

I don’t think the Duchess joined us on that occasion; hence the theatre visit and dinner with her grace the night before. Absolute Hell on the Friday evening – redemption for the rest of the weekend.

The Balcony by Jean Genet, Questors Theatre, Followed By Dinner At Gascons Ealing, 28 January 2000

Possibly the least said about this one the better. Naturally Janie and I would have been with the Duchess. Naturally she will have treated us to her theatre tickets (comps), while Janie and I will have done the interval drinks and dinner.

My log reads:

tame – we left at half time.

This will have been a collective and unanimous decision. It was quite a long play – Janie had booked Gascons for 10:30 – possibly with a bit of persuasion for the late booking. In any case, we were probably all ready for our din-dins after 90 minutes or so of Genet.

The Questors, being the Questors, has all the details, including a downloadable scan of the programme, available for all to see – click here.

I don’t think the meal afterwards was redemptive of the evening. Neither Janie nor I can remember much about Gascons in Ealing. The Duchess was probably in a foul mood because she hadn’t had value for (lack of) money out of those three Questors comps.

“Waste not, want not…”