When Peter Pan met Alice in Wonderland

I’d booked tickets to Peter and Alice at the Noel Coward Theatre two months ago and had been eagerly awaiting to see the show since then. This stars the magnificent Judi Dench and her equally impressive co-star Ben Whishaw (you may recognise these partners-in-crime from the latest Bond film) as Alice Liddell Hargreaves and Peter Llewlyn, better known to us as Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan.

In my typical cheap-theatre-going fashion I booked myself the cheapest seats possible (£12). These put me in a restricted viewing area - which usually means something a bit minimal but these seats you literally had to lean so far forward I thought I might topple off the balcony! A sore back was well worth it though.

View from my seat if I didn't lean forward

Dench and Whishaw are both broken people when we meet them. They retrace their lives through fantasy, reality we see their former youth that captivated Caroll and Barrie’s attention and sparked two of the greatest children’s stories ever written. But the two writers fascination with childhood and never growing up has impacted both their lives disastrously. It’s starts off with quite a lot of black comedy, Dench’s character displaying a sharp witty tongue. Peter Pan comes flying down and Alice pops her head from under the floor. These young, vibrant characters contrast harshly with the reality of what has become of their inspirations. But as the stories progress, and the themes of pedophilia, aging and lonlieness begin to push the comedy to the back burner. In the end you are left with an extremely sad, despondent and hopeless feeling. I spent the good last half hour of the show attempting to stifle my sobs.

The set is brilliant, the theatre itself beautiful and although I’ve heard complaints of it being too wordy, I thought the long passages of speech were so beautifully written (John Logan) and delivered so brilliantly that it didn’t feel long. I don’t really have a bad word to say about it except that I thought that the boy playing Peter Pan was slightly weak (especially in vocal quality) compared to his fellow cast members, though he did have an air or springy youthfulness.

We went for cocktails afterwards and sat there debriefing about the show for a few hours, and kept talking about it the next morning, and the next night too. It’s a piece that will stay with me for a while to come.

Quick Review: Merrily We Roll Along

Last night a good friend was nice enough to arrange free tickets for us to go see the musical Merrily We Roll Along at the Harold Pinter Theatre.  In reverse chronological order it tells the demise of a group of artist friends, a composer, a lyricist, and a writer from the sixties to through to the seventies. I’d never even heard of this musical before yesterday so I was surprised that I enjoyed it so much.

It definitely explored themes I’m particularly interested in as an artist myself – how do you balance between doing art for yourself and for the public? When do you pick money over art? As well as the themes that as you grow older and wiser (or less so in some cases) the dream that you can change the world slowly fades. Jenna Russell as Mary the writer, really stole the show for me - funny and heart breaking at the same time. Every line was a 'if I wasn't laughing I'd been crying' feeling.

I found the second half to be much stronger then the first, as it dealt with the younger parts of the friends lives but the whole show lacked any show stopping songs. Although they were upbeat  (and at times quite witty – one especially about the Kennedy’s) at the time, I couldn’t remember a single tune from the minute I walked out of the theatre!

The theatre itself was rather unimpressive but a good space nonetheless. A tip if you are looking for a pre-show drink - keep walking up the stairs to the top and there is a lovelier (and perhaps a little bit fancier) bar where less people seem to go – probably because of all the flights of stairs. The line’s are shorter and there are arm chairs to sink into.

Good company, a few laughs and theatre - All in all, a great night.

A Night at the Ballet

Yesterday I had a long awaited day off! After a much needed sleep in, my housemate Rach and I spent the day together.

After a surprise thunderstorm (something all to rare over here – a lot of drizzle, no thunder!) the sun gods blessed us with a brilliant, if windy day. We made our way into Covent Garden to go to a little Vegetarian restaurant that Rach had been raving about for months. And now I see why. 

The place is called Food for Thought – a hole in the wall and completely unassuming. No need for fancy tables, chairs or menus the food speaks for itself. Rach chose the Kashmiri Gobi with Eggplant and coriander raita and brown rice, and I had the Quiche of the day which was sweet potato and sweet corn with salad on the side. Both were to die for. You would think a quiche and salad to be pretty standard, but it was delicious, with four different side salads and MASSIVE servings.

 We cleared the plates cleaned and managed to fit in dessert.

Banana and strawberry scrunch and apple and plum crumble.

It was a chore, but someone had to get through it all.

The food was simple, delicious, quick, healthy and cheap. The best thing about this place is that the menu changes everyday, and you can get their cookbook for £9.99.

I had gotten us ticket’s to see the English National Ballet at the London Coliseum, so after recovering from our food comas, we walked down to the theatre. Which was absolutely breath taking.

Cheap ticket’s up in the Balcony only cost £10 if you nab the seats early enough, and being organized it definitely worth it. We saw Ecstasy and Death, a collection of three short contrasting ballet’s. The first Petite Mort was my favourite. Only about half an hour long, with six dance partners on stage, all in simple flesh coloured costumes. They seemed like ephemeral beings, almost like they were swimming in water. Their skill and strength made the hardest movements seem effortless, and the dancers exuded a passion and raw energy.

The second, Le Jeune Homme et la Mort, was a short piece also which was a little reminiscent of Street Car Named Desire. Perhaps it was just the raw brute of a man in overalls, stamping around the set of a run down apartment. A beautiful woman manipulates him and her love drives him to suicide after which she reappears to him as Death. It was a highly erotically charged piece with a lot of force, but for me the costuming and set didn’t quite work.
 The third and final piece, Etudes, took the audience through the rigorous training of a ballet student from bar work to the final performance with the skill needed to be a classically trained ballet dancer. The large cast were dressed in simple black and white costumes with stereotypical tutu’s with the men in tights made for some striking images. There were some beautifully crafted moments excellently staged lighting, using silhouette to highlight the dancers skill and elegance. It amy be missing the point with this piece but I didn’t connect emotionally with the piece and for me the final two were ruined by the perfection of the first. All in all, highly recommended though there are only 5 performances left. Rach and I headed home, a perfect ending to a perfect day off.