So, I was finished with meetings in good time, and with this venue, I was a lot closer than the night before. So, no problem with buses. Spent an interesting journey in, avoiding stepping on the pile of coat hangers at my feet (?) and listening to the Italian-sounding lady behind me complain about English sausages (I'm with you, sister!) and wonder why London dogs don't bark. Gotta love buses..
I did leave slightly later than intended, but hey, still made it in decent time - and most of the group still hadn't arrived. We had to meet outside the theatre to get our tickets, which our organiser had ready for us. Nice evening for it, anyway. And then we passed a most cursory bag check, and up the stairs to the top level, as we were all sat in the circle - half on each side. As for thinking that Monday night's stage looked like a dolls' house - well gee, I was getting déjà vu!
So, that's everything on stage - before the actors come out. I did wonder what they were going to do with it - but it comes in very useful! See, the play centres on a hitherto wealthy and privileged family from Donegal, who gather in the ancestral pile (pictured) for a family wedding. And there's a visiting academic, writing a book and fascinated by the family history, who spends much of his time examining furniture and fittings that are supposed to be associated with one famous, historical figure or another. Well, rather than putting together an elaborate and expensive set - which would have to be changed for different scenes - gee, all they do is, when he wants to talk about some piece of furniture or other, they take it from the dolls' house! (The front opens.) Most pragmatic - and after all, the furnishings aren't the focus of the play. As to us understanding what setting we're supposed to be in, an extract from the stage directions is read at the beginning of each act, which describes what each character is doing.
Back to the family. It's quite a sizeable one - the patriarch had a stroke a few years back, and is now confined to his room, apparently also suffering from dementia. As the play opens, a speaker is being installed, whereby he can be heard downstairs, so that the long-suffering eldest daughter can know what she needs to do for him. (His wife, it transpires, died some years ago.) There's a daughter who's a nun, on the missions in Zambia. Another daughter married a lad from the village - it doesn't seem to be going well, with her sculling everything alcoholic she can find and sporting a bruise, and him wisecracking and seemingly unsympathetic. Turns out he has a chequered past, too. As for the two younger siblings - well, they're a bit odd. The son was supposed to carry on in the family lawyering tradition but had an aversion to study, married a Fraulein instead and moved to Hamburg. The youngest daughter spends every waking moment, it seems, playing Chopin on the piano - she's the one getting married. And the two of them continually play games where she plays something and he has to guess what.
Funny how the son is the only one whose education and career seem to have been considered (albeit to little avail) - but then, this is set in the 70s. Oh, and I forgot Uncle George! (He's the brother of the chap who had the stroke.) He's easy to forget, to be fair - hasn't spoken for years, it seems, and apart from wandering around the stage intermittently and freaking people out, he spends most of his time (spoiler) peeling wallpaper from the back wall of the stage! to reveal a 19C pastoral scene. He does it very slowly, and once you notice it, it becomes strangely compelling..
I think my group found it very slow - personally, I thought that the languorous pace suits the way of life in rural Ireland. Friel was, apparently, a fan of Chekhov's, and you can see the influence - a formerly great family, in the crumbling family pile, reminisces about past glories and ultimately has to reinvent itself. Oh, and life is pretty miserable. I did find the revelations of the second half interesting, and overall I liked it, found the characters appealing. And of course, the decline of the family and of the house recalls the decline of the Irish gentry - the very thing that the academic has come to write about, in case we missed it.
One thing bothered me - Chekhov's Gun, ironically. In other words, if a plot element is mentioned, it must be used. Unfortunately, not everything here is - the son-in-law, for instance, seems a volatile and unpredictable character, but never fulfils that description. There's a too-dramatic twist at the end of the first half, which is never explained. Oh, and I missed the peeling of wallpaper during the second half - after the interval, they'd ripped the whole lot off! (Nearly - they missed a bit at the side.) Still, I enjoyed it.
Afterwards, we schlepped the streets of London for what seemed like ages before ending up at Brown's - a sensible choice, with pleasant surroundings and plenty of space. Shared a bottle of wine, and some good chat in excellent company - I miss that, in general these days. Got caught up doing something afterwards, and it was too late to blog.
Tonight - well, I got tired of waiting for London Literary Walks to arrange something, and with a huge choice on Meetup, I'm now going with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) to Dance Nation, at the Almeida. No convivial drinks expected, I'm afraid.
Tomorrow, in contrast, there's nothing on Meetup that I fancy! Instead, the £3.60 club is letting me see Scandale, at Sadler's Wells - for £5.40. Still a big improvement on the official price of £20 - and just like before, they have a cloak-and-dagger collection method, where you collect your ticket across the road, from someone with a pink clipboard..! Hey, I might get a better ticket than usual.
On Friday, I'm with Spooky London - for yet another ghost tour. This one is the Thames River of Death Ghost Story Tour. Be interesting to see what hand this group makes of ghost stories - payment on the day, so (unusually) I must remember to bring cash.
On Saturday, Let's Do It! is off to Windsor. However, they're off to a Mexican restaurant as part of the day, and I don't really like Mexican food.. and have seen Windsor town in general anyway. However, I haven't yet been around the castle.. so lo, I've booked myself a ticket for that day, finally. I see it's one of those places I'll have to buy a souvenir guide for - no photography allowed inside. Tip when booking train tickets - use the Trainline website to look, not book! Get the rail company name from them, then book with the company direct. It's cheaper.
On Sunday.. tan-ta-ra! The Crick Crack Club is back after the summer! Not that you'd know it from their Meetup group, whose next advertised Meetup is next month! Anyway, on Sunday, Tuup is telling the tale of The King and the Corpse, at the British Museum, accompanied by Sheema Mukherjee.
On Monday, back with UITCS - all the way to the Orange Tree, in Richmond, for Losing Venice.
On Tuesday, my £3.60 club has a ticket for me to hear Professor Rana Mitter speak about China for an hour in the China Exchange.
Next Wednesday, well, London Literary Walks is back on - but I'd already booked with UITCS for Natalia Osipova in Sadler's Wells. Then I'm back to Ireland for a long weekend.
On the 17th, Crick Crack is back.. again! Just as well I'm on the main club mailing list. This time, it's Aye, Coyote! in Soho Theatre.
And on the 18th, back with UITCS for Pinter at the Pinter.. Pinter plays at the Pinter Theatre! Our particular combination is One for the Road / New World Order / Ashes to Ashes / Mountain Language. I bought my ticket for this one from another member who couldn't go - Ticketmaster, so hopefully there won't be a problem with me picking up the ticket.
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