It wasn't until today - working from home; I'd have to, considering it was on at 6 - that I looked up how to get there. I knew it was in a part of town not conducive to parking, so public transport it was, and the cheaper option was a train to Waterloo and then a bus. Sadly, all buses mentioned went from different stops - so I picked the stop (and bus) corresponding to what Google Maps said was the quicker route: the 4, from Stop F. I hadn't used that stop before, and was dubious until I saw it was just up the road from Stop C. We were advised on the Meetup page to arrive at 5:30 - I checked, and discovered that was when the doors open; and I knew I wouldn't make that, but there was no arrangement to meet beforehand anyway, and with the talk not starting till 6, I figured I'd be ok leaving at 5.
Mind you, the directions were complicated enough that I needed a record - my phone was still charging, so I decided to print them. And then my printer stopped working, for some reason. So I ended up scribbling them on a sheet of paper. Ah, low-tech rules ok.
Arriving at Clapham Junction, I was faced with a plethora of trains to Waterloo - no fewer than three leaving within the next minute, all from platforms at the other end of the station. Finally, I saw one due to leave in two minutes, from the platform adjacent to me. And that's the one I got. Exit 2 at Waterloo took me to Waterloo Road; turn left from the exit for Stop F. And I hadn't been there more than a few seconds when a #4 approached.
Oh, but it was a beautiful, sunny day - what a change from the weekend!
(That's Somerset House, which we passed.) Interestingly, I see the #4 route goes right past the museum - although Google Maps made me get off on Ludgate Hill. Perhaps for reasons of traffic. Anyway, it's not a long walk, although they do their best to make it sound complicated - basically, facing St. Paul's (which you can't miss!), turn left onto any decently large road, turn right at the end, and follow the signs for the museum. And it was a beautiful evening for a stroll in the City! I'd forgotten how much I love it. The single most useful piece of information I found for my walk, mind you, was on the museum website, which informed me that the entrance was via an overhead pedestrian walkway - which made much more sense of what I was seeing on Streetview!
Yes, you approach a roundabout called the Rotunda - which I recognised from a walk of the City that I did last year - and the entrance is to the right (from this direction), via a lift and escalators (yay!). The entrance, on the upper level, is well signposted, and once inside, I followed my nose (and those of all the others headed in the same direction) and found myself in the Weston Theatre, down a level from the entrance. I didn't arrive until 10 minutes beforehand, but got a pretty decent seat, a few rows from the front.
This was the latest in a series of free public lectures given by Gresham College, it seems. Indeed, they put all the transcripts on their website afterwards - check out this evening's talk here. The speaker was a professor of rhetoric, and was principally concerned with the language of the play. Fair enough - and as a devoted Beckett fan, I was fascinated throughout.
She began with the theme of how the phrase "waiting for Godot" has entered the public lexicon, and opened her talk with a few political cartoons utilising this theme.. which was the last we were to see of visuals for a while. A well-thought out argument, but why oh why don't academic presentations (and I can speak from experience, as an ex-academic) pay more attention to the visuals? Would it kill them to pop up a relevant still every couple of minutes? It really wouldn't take as long as writing the text. (To her credit, she did have a couple more for us, later.)
Anyway, our group warned us beforehand that a knowledge of the play would be beneficial, and although I've seen it a few times, it has been a while, so I looked it up on Wikipedia before I left (linked to at the top of this post). Just for a quick reminder. Not that you'd really need an in-depth knowledge to appreciate this talk - perhaps just that Vladimir and Estragon are waiting by a roadside, under a tree, for Godot - who never appears. And that they meet Pozzo, and the subservient Lucky, in the meantime.
Mind you, that's almost the entire play.. and as she continued to deal with various interpretations, I began to think that perhaps I wasn't the only one present who had read that article! It was sounding very familiar. Well, perhaps she wrote the Wikipedia article, too. Anyhoo, it was all very interesting - and she ended with a couple of short clips of different productions - the first of which I've seen, a couple of times, on tv. The second was a trailer for the West End version, with Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan - which, as someone remarked in the q+a after, was exactly the comedic version that would have horrified Beckett. Well, yes - but he wasn't around to complain, eh?
Afterwards, we'd been told to meet "at the information desk". Now, this was my first time in this building, and the only desk I could think of was the front desk, upstairs - so that's where I made for. No sign of any group. I left a message on the group page - still waiting for a response to that. Now, some organisers are very conscientious about standing out - they hold a sign, they describe what they'll be wearing.. and then, some don't really bother. When it became apparent that no-one from the group was likely to come and find me (and I didn't know any of them by sight) I just went home.
Well, I was rather glad I did - it was still a beautiful evening, as I passed St. Paul's..
And I wasn't the only one taking advantage of it - there was a photoshoot on the cathedral steps:
My bus stop to go back to Waterloo was just on the other side of St. Paul's - just pass the statue of Queen Anne, at the West Front, and it's on the other side. I'd just missed a 76, which was what Google Maps suggested - but I figured, correctly, that there must be several buses to Waterloo from there. Sure enough, along happened another #4, which I took back to the station.
Tomorrow's a film again - doing well by them, these days! Top of the list were three films, tying at 8.1, and the one I chose was The Man Who Knew Infinity, just out this week. Yet another biography of a mathematician, this one was Indian, and is played by Dev Patel. Srinivasa Ramanujan was famous, among other things, for his work on infinite series (hence the title), almost entirely self taught, and highly original in his ideas. He came to Cambridge to work with G. H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons), but had to fight prejudice from others in his adopted country. Toby Jones and Stephen Fry also star. (And I'm sure I saw the latter at that classical concert I was at, last week..) Anyhoo, again I'm lucky in that it's showing in my local cinema, so I'm going to the late showing, for the free parking.
On Thursday, I'm back with the London European Club - luckily, this time the organiser is Henning: (a) I know him, and (b) he does make an effort to make sure people can find him. We're off to Sadler's Wells, which is a venue I really don't get to enough, and I relish an excuse. The show is She Said, featuring female choreographers. Looking forward to it.
On Friday, I'm off to Leicester Square Theatre, for a comedy show - Russell Kane: Right Man, Wrong Age.
On Saturday, I'm back with the Man with the Hat (who makes sure people can find him! and answers his messages). Let's Do London - for less! are off to the ballet version of The Winter's Tale, in the Opera House. Sounds lovely..
On Sunday, I'm back to The Globe for the first time this year! (Well, the Wanamaker Playhouse.) Got the last, non-restricted view seat for Pericles. God, I love this venue..
On Monday, I'm off to my first Meetup with Interesting Talks London - Banged Up Abroad is the subject. Topical, what with the recent parole of an Irish girl convicted of drug trafficking in Peru.. early start, but it's near, so should be ok.
Tuesday and Wednesday of next week are Man with the Hat days - Tuesday, Let's Do London - for less! is headed to Southwark Playhouse, for a play called Darknet. Now, I have more sense than to have anything to do with the real Darknet - the closest I've come to it are short horror films on YouTube. (In the course of my regular surfing for short horror films, of which I'm a big fan.) But I'll find this interesting.
On Wednesday of next week, both of the Man with the Hat's groups (Let's Do London - for less! and London for Less Than a Tenner) are off to a show called The Passion of Lady Vendredi, at Soho Theatre - and so am I. This was a recent development - I was originally supposed to be going to Doctor Faustus, with London Dramatic Arts Meetup, but sadly, the organiser's mother-in-law just died (as I found out over the weekend) and the funeral is that very day. Works out well for me though - the event has been rescheduled, at a cheaper price, the difference has been refunded to me, and I can now go to both shows! (So I'm going for Less Than a Tenner - 'coz I'm cheap.) The Passion of Lady Vendredi is, apparently, musical theatre, and designed to promote the music of the Lady Vendredi band. And should be interesting.
On Thursday of next week, I'm off to a comedy show in King's Cross, with London Live Comedy - unless I change my mind and go to a film - we'll see. Then it's back to Ireland for the weekend, again..
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