Play: Drawing the Line

Today, Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) is watching Hampstead Theatre's weekly offering on its last day, again - and so am I, a bit earlier. This week, it's Drawing the Line. The subject is the post-war partition of the Indian subcontinent - predictably highly charged.

It's beautifully acted, attractively staged, with an ornate screen providing backdrop to the Indian scenes that provide most of the setting. And we get to see all sides of the unfolding drama - Andrew Havill plays Dickie Mountbatten, Viceroy of India: but it's the late Tom Beard, as the unfortunate Cyril Radcliffe, tasked with drawing the map, that has the most to do.

Of course, the mission was doomed from the start. Britain shouldn't have been there in the first place, and shouldn't have been the ones to partition a place that shouldn't have been partitioned. How could you split a region along religious / ethnic lines, when all groups were mixed up with each other? The arguments fly back and forth, between the Hindu / Indian side, under Nehru, and the Muslim / Pakistani side, under Jinnah, about which parts of disputed areas should end up in which country.

Enter the unfortunate Radcliffe - a legal man, but untravelled, and with no interest even in maps, he was thrown in with a five-week deadline. An obvious scapegoat for an impossible task, he didn't make things easier for himself when, in the interests of fairness, he asked for submissions from all interested parties. Heh. Add to that a nasty bout of Delhi belly.. you can't help but pity the man.

So, a potted history of the events of 1947 then. Light relief is supplied - apart from Radcliffe's frequent dashes to the loo - by the affair between Nehru and Mountbatten's wife, Edwina: guessed at in real life, and attested to by her daughter. We don't know for sure, but it's certain they were close. And indeed, not all the British come out of this badly - Radcliffe refused his salary when he saw the mayhem caused by the partition. According to the play, he also wanted to refuse his knighthood, but was told he couldn't - it would look bad. And Edwina, in real life, organised the massive relief efforts needed after partition. Sometimes it's the ones you wouldn't expect that do the most good..

Hugely recommended. Only available for the next few hours.

Tomorrow, the end of entries for this week's London Literary Walks quiz, and the start of another - I'm currently leading the individual rankings, yay!

On Saturday, speaking of quizzes, London Social Detours (LSD) has one - in the afternoon, so I've signed up.

Next Sunday, as usual, I'm following UITCS' lead in watching Hampstead Theatre's weekly offering, which that week is the currently topical Tiger Country, set in the NHS.

On the 2nd, behold, LSD has my attention again - they're doing an online murder mystery, where everyone chooses a character and (optionally) dresses up. Small fee. Cool! We get scripts, it seems.. And I've just been chosen to be Sierra Tango, police constable! Seems it's been booking heavily, and that was all that was left. Fine by me.

On the 3rd, back with Hampstead Theatre for The Arrest of Ai Weiwei. UITCS is, of course, seeing it that evening.

Now, the 8th is a bank holiday - so I'll need something to do that day as well. And I'm thinking I'll follow UITCS' lead from earlier in the week, and have a look at a livestreamed Showstopper! show, filmed in the Lyric a month ago without an audience (!), now available on Facebook..