Plays: No's Knife

Ah, beautiful, bewildering Beckett. Surely the weirdest playwright that most of us are likely to come across. The members of London Dramatic Arts have never seemed that keen on him - it must just have been the fact that it was in the Old Vic that swayed the organiser, who's pretty traditional in general with venues. Anyway, when she advertised No's Knife for yesterday, I gleefully booked.

Great way to start the spooky, and somewhat dreary, month of October - watching some bleak musings on the nature of humanity. It being a Saturday, I started out in plenty of time, even for the bus.. amidst a cloudburst. They said it'd rain, they didn't lie. What the hey, that's what waterproof coats are for.. and it had stopped by the time I got off at Waterloo. Straight ahead then, down Waterloo Road, and there was the Old Vic. I really must stop accusing her of being late - I was early, and she was there ahead of me! So I had plenty of time to advertise the things I've been at lately, to her and to the others when they arrived - and when we all had, we headed upstairs to the Dress Circle Bar, for the Dress Circle was where we'd be sitting.

We ultimately entered the theatre to the sight of a large, white stage curtain with - something - on it, which we concluded was an eye. We were right - when the show eventually started, perhaps 10 minutes late (well, the start time was quite early!), the eye opened, just before everything went dark and the curtain was raised. And I did have to wonder at the incongruity of staging something so sparse in a venue so opulently decorated..

Because, like all Beckett, it was sparse indeed. Mind you, afterwards the one thing we could all agree on was that the staging was spectacular. This isn't one play - it's a collection of four pieces, none of which was written as a play: specifically, a selection from Texts for Nothing. Which is a series of texts that go in no particular direction, have no particular aim. Wikipedia quotes someone as saying that they are "rich in imagery but short on external coherence". Which may explain why our group gathered afterwards with external expressions of confusion. :-) In fact, one member - who works in the health service - described the texts as like the incoherent ramblings of a psychotic. Well, I'm sure they are.

They were selected and put together by Lisa Dwan, who performs them solo. Is she the foremost portrayer of Beckett's works? Possibly - you can tell she has a feel for them. And it does take work, to make four disconnected and incoherent monologues stay interesting for an audience. (Didn't work for everyone - we saw some people leave, doubtless those at the end of the row, and the person beside me nodded off at one point!)

The first piece has her(him) lying in a crack of ground, mist falling on her(his) face, nothing to look at but mist. From a brief description in the text, this crack seems to be in the Golden Vale - but anyway, somewhere it rains a lot. The ground is tipped vertically on stage, Lisa Dwan perched in a crack high up it. The second piece has her (him) forming her(him)self from scratch, considering what you actually need to be human. In the third piece, she (he) is in the dock, suspended from the roof, defending her(him)self from an unseen - but occasionally heard - accuser. And finally, she (he) comes right out to the front, acting the part of a character in a play or story, backed by the same desolate wasteland of the second piece. As I say, stunning staging.

Is it really that hard to get into Beckett's mindset? The pieces made complete sense to me - maybe I'm borderline psychotic. Which is fine, long as I behave. ;-) My recommendation? If you like Beckett, go see - it runs until the 15th. If you don't like Beckett - or barely - don't bother; this is one of the more impenetrable productions. Anyway, I loved it - although I'm still not sure about the wisdom of trying to show Texts for Nothing to a conventional theatre audience.

Our post-show discussion was held in the Penny bar in the basement, which I see has a separate entrance from the road, and apparently stays open till 2 - not that we stayed that late. But we stayed a good while, and had a good chat, and I drank quite a bit more than I should have.

And then today was supposed to be a film - which meant doing the film list, which I might have done earlier, had I not been so busy. So it's not a surprise that, by the time I finished it this evening, I'd missed the only showing of what it was telling me to go see! Hmph. Well, I didn't fancy any complicated journeys - and goodness knows, with having to shop, eat, blog, and do some work (as ever), I had enough to do without going out. So I haven't. But at least the list is more up to date now.

Never mind, I'm booked up for quite a while to come! Tomorrow is the Man with the Hat, who's taken over Soho Theatre; London for Less Than a Tenner has tickets for two shows there - Girls and Spine, both part of their Who Runs the World? - Girls season. I'd already booked for Girls when he announced that he had tickets for Spine as well - he offered to transfer people's tickets to Spine for free if we wanted, but I'm sticking with my original decision. Hey, at least it starts 15 minutes later, which could be useful, given that I'm in Guildford tomorrow.

On Tuesday, I was supposed to be with Henning from the London European Club, for a talk on The Decline of the West in the New Asian Century, at the London School of Economics. I doubt I'll make it though - I'm in Guildford that day, and would have to get across town for 6:30. So I've cancelled - what the hey, I wasn't that pushed.

Quite excited about Wednesday - flamenco (olé!) at Sands Film Studios, also with London European Club. Now that, I wouldn't miss for the world - one of my favourite things, at one of my favourite venues. Huzzah!

Thursday, back with one of my favourite groups, another of my favourite venues - the Man with the Hat hits the Globe for probably the last time this year, with Let's Do London - for less! for The Merchant of Venice.

Back to Ireland for the weekend.. then comes next week. Monday, I'm back with Let's Do London - for less! again, at yet another of my favourite venues (this is becoming a habit!). We're going to Southwark Playhouse, to see a production of Confessional by Tennessee Williams. Methinks we'll be sat in the middle of the production - TBC.

On Tuesday, Henning from the London European Club is hosting another of those early-evening talks, this time on Astronomy: Brave New Worlds - the Planets Around Other Stars, at the Royal Astronomical Society. Oh dear, hope I'm not in Guildford again - we shall see.

On Wednesday, he's at it again! There's a book launch for Understanding Eritrea: Inside Africa's Most Repressive State, at Housman's bookshop. Entry is £3 apparently, redeemable against a purchase in the bookshop. Ditto, I'll see whether I can actually make it.

On Thursday, the Man With the Hat is taking both his groups to a concert at the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. London Concertante are playing Mozart, Bach, and Albinoni. Good stuff, it seems like an age since we've been there!

On Friday, he's taking Let's Do London - for less! to the Royal Opera House - first outing of the season is to Cosi Fan Tutte. Choice of amphitheatre or slips - I, being cheap, am in the slips. Natch.

Finally, that Saturday is as yet undecided - but it wasn't! See, LDAM were off to The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures. As was I - independently. Now, this is showing at Hampstead Theatre - where I previously had to sneak out the back door to avoid them, under similar circumstances! So I was just a teeny bit relieved when the early performances were cancelled, owing to personal reasons of one of the cast..