Picking the long Corpus Christi weekend during a period of great weather to go to London turned out to be not such a grand idea in terms of travelling. The usually vast and empty P&R parking at the station in Welkenraedt was completely clogged with a great many cars bearing German license plates, their owners probably en route to the Belgian coast. The (finally reopened) Channel Terminal at Bruxelles-Midi was equally clogged, so much so that the Eurostar left ten minutes late because people couldn't make it through the slow-as-molasses passport control in time. But at least the train DID wait. Once in London I headed on to Southwark where the local Travelodge presented me with a room with this fairly amazing view. While I don't really like the Shard as a building, it was quite amazing to watch it at different day and night times.
Having checked in I walked along the South Bank to the National Theatre to pick up a programme of Angels in America, then crossed the river for a stroll around the West End and my usual visit to Foyle's for new books. Finally I returned to the South Bank to enjoy a lovely al-fresco dinner at Wagamama, followed by a coffee in one of the nice beach loungers in front of the National Theatre, where I passed the time until it was time to head for the Old Vic for my first show of the trip.
"Woyzeck" is one of Germany's best-known dramas, done to death with varying degrees of Regietheater nonsense in Germany and a favorite torture device of school teachers all over the country. We had once been forced to attend a performance by a regional touring theatre that stopped in our shitty little town, but we were so bored that my friend and I fled during intermission. So I had never thought, I'd ever be willing to voluntarily watch "Woyzeck" done on stage - until the Old Vic tossed out irresistible bait in the form of John Boyega, whose marvellous young stormtrooper Finn was for me one of the highlights of the last new Star Wars movie. Besides, the Old Vic does these fairly decent £16 restricted view-pillar seats in the Dress Circle from which I had already enjoyed Kevin Spacey's Richard III., so I booked. But when I came to the Old Vic, my heart sank like a stone by that worst of all theatre notices "At this performance the part of..." - yup, John Boyega, the only reason for booking, was out being unwell with understudy Theo Solomon filling his army boots. At least they had sweetened the blow by upgrading my ticket from that pillar seat in row C to the middle of Row A in the Dress Circle with an utter prime view onto the stage.
At least the first act was still promising. Writer Georg Büchner had written an early draft consisting of fragments in 1836, based on the true story of one Johann Christian Woyzeck, who in 1780 had murdered a widow and despite being clearly not in his right mind, had been sentenced to death. But before Büchner had been able to do more with his fragments, he died at the early age of 23 the next year. So it's been left for directors to find their own way through the existing fragments (which, in German directors' hands is like handing a basket of grenades to playing children). Now Director Jack Thorne had "updated" the show to make Woyzeck a British soldier in early 80s West-Berlin, coming there from the trauma of the Northern Irish unrests in Belfast that left him with PSTD. We see Woyzeck trying to do right by his girlfriend Marie (the lovely Sarah Greene) and, in his struggle to earn money, agreeing to taking part in the medical trial of a fairly mad German doctor (Darrell D'Silva), while his only friend Andrews (Ben Batt) is using Woyzeck's flat for a tryst with officer's wife Maggie (Nancy Carroll). I was intrigued and decided to stay beyond intermission, but sadly it all went downhill fast as Woyzeck starts to disintegrate and there are long typically heady German dialogues which school children are tortured into analyzing over several hours at school while seeming just blether on stage when hearing them once. So I mostly amused myself with the thought of being one of the few in the house who could actually understand the doctor's long rambling speech in German (and props to D'Silva, whose German was excellent). Ben Batt in his birthday suit wasn't too shabby to look at either. As for Theo Solomon, he did a fine job and I don't know if Boyega had done more with the part, but somehow I don't really think so. But either way, at least I can say for myself that I've added knowledge of one of the best-known works in the German canon to the stuff I've seen live now.
In the morning I checked out of the Travelodge and wandered on foot to Holborn to dump my stuff at the Citadines Holborn where I had been too stingy to pay for three nights, then took the tube down to Victoria Station.
I like to do some daytripping, especially in summer and this time decided to head out to Chatham, where the Historic Dockyards had long tickled my curiosity. This summer they were commemorating the 350th anniversary of the Battle of Medway in which the Dutch navy under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter snuck down the Medway one night, overcame the British blockade at Upnor Castle and burnt down most of the Britsh navy ships in Chatham - except for the flag ship, The Royal Charles, which they nicked and took home to Holland.
But with entry to the Dockyards (and the exhibition) costing a whopping £22, I changed plans and decided to get off the train in historic Rochester instead where river cruises on the Medway to Chatham and Upnor Castle are offered, so I'd see everything for much less, plus Rochester itself, which has quite a lot to offer. Here's the main street (right) as well as Rochester Cathedral and Rochester Castle, which the Normans built in 11th century to guard the crossing over the Medway (and look out for enemies coming from the sea):
The cruise started from the foot of the castle and went past Chatham and the Historical Dockyards to Upnor Castle (left), which Queen Elizabeth I. had added in 16th century to protect the (then new) dockyards at Chatham and stop potential enemies from getting further upriver. There the boat turned aroud and returned to Rochester, where I paused for a light lunch before visiting the local Guildhall Museum. It has a little exhibition on the Battle of Medway as well as something of a replica of the infamous prison hulks - decommissioned ships that anchored around Chatham and Rochester permanently to be used as prisons for felons and POWs in ye olden days, where prisoners suffered in appalling conditions. An annex of the museum has been turned into a lovely Victorian house depicting life as Charles Dickens - who had grown up around Rochester - would have known it. Overall it was a really interesting outing with lots to see and do despite not entering the actual dockyards.
I took the train back to London and settled in at the Citadines at last. They rent out little studio apartments with kitchens and I had long been curious to try this - do cheap microwave meals instead of eating out, have breakfast in the fridge and so on. As it turned out, having a fridge in this heat was definitely a blessing and the meals I bought from the Waitrose across the street were utterly yummy. So I might just do this again. But my day wasn't over yet, as it was time to head to lovely Regent's Park and the Open Air Theatre. The weather couldn't have been better for it, so not surprisingly, the theatre was full to the last seat.
They were doing Leonard Bernstein's "On the Town" this season, now best known as the movie with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, which had tossed most of Bernstein's songs and all of Jerome Robbins' balletic choreography out. The gist remains the same though: Sailors Gabey, Chip and Ozzie have 24 hours shore leave in New York during WWII and use the time for high-jinks, with Chip meeting sassy taxi driver Hildy and Ozzie smart scientist Claire, while Gabey tries to chase down "Miss Turnstiles" Ivy. There's the odd reminder of the seriousness behind it all, most notably in Gabey's nightmare of the war and the girls' wistful "Some other time" before saying goodbye, but overall it was bright, colourful fun with amazing choreography and an incredibly talented young cast. Lizzie Connolly (Hildy) is slowly but surely making her name as London's No.1 comedienne, while newcomers Miriam-Teak Lee (Claire) and the impossibly gorgeous Siena Kelly (Ivy) are two names to look out for in future. On the male side, telly star Danny Mac off "Hollyoaks" and "Strictly come dancing" was an entirely convincing Gabey beside Samuel Edwards as Ozzie and the adorable Jacob Maynard as Chip - incredible to think he only got promoted when first cast Fred Haig was out indefinitely with an injury. Too many great songs and dancing numbers to mention here, but overall an evening of perfect entertainment in the lovely open air theatre. I also loved how nature played along: It just got dark at the start of the second act when it also became night in New York in the show.
Saturday morning was spent with a wander around the shops, followed by meeting a friend for coffee at the Theatre Cafe. It was my first visit there actually and it really IS a nice place to see, full of signed posters and memorabilia, so I'm sure I'll be back. My first show for the day was "The Girls", which sold a lot less well than everyone had anticipated, but fortunately for me as they had a good "closing offer" going with best seats at £35, which got me a great seat in Row D of the stalls. Why it failed, I do not know, the only explanation I have is fatigue as the show is based on the incredibly successful movie "Calendar Girls" which in turn was turned into a stage play that toured the country up and down for four years. The programme also mentions it's the most performed play on the am dram circuit, so perhaps understandably people didn't see the need for another version (albeit with songs) and the whole thing is way too British to appeal to the tourists that form such a large part of London's musical audiences.
Be that as it may, I hadn't had any exposure to the story until watching the movie a few weeks ago and I do like Gary Barlow as a composer, whether his Take That stuff or previous musical work like "Finding Neverland" which I had caught on Broadway. The story is that of a bunch of middle-aged ladies in Yorkshire who meet at the local Women's Institute. When Annie's husband John dies of cancer, her friend Chris has the grand idea to raise money for a new couch in the hospital (where they spent so many hours recently) in John's honour by selling a calendar for which they will pose nude (delicate bits carefully covered). At first the other women are absolutely not interested, but Chris wins them over. It's one of these quintessentially British stories about plucky underdogs overcoming the odds and a very uplifting tale of friendship to boot. And unlike the movie, which dragged on for another hour after the calendar was made, the musical had the sense to build up to the photo shoot as the grand finale. The audience, around 90% of which were women I'd say, absolutely loved it and I haven't enjoyed something as much as that finale for a long time. Only little fly in the ointment was the absence of Claire Moore, one of the grand leading ladies of the West End in the 90s when I was first getting into musicals, as Chris but understudy Shirley Jameson made it easy to forget her. At least Joanna Riding was there, playing Annie, with additional amazing performances by Sophie-Louise Dann as sassy Celia, Michelle Dotrice as Jessie and the fabulous Claire Machin as Cora. Barlow has written great songs for each of them, giving them all a chance to shine individually and as a group. I had a wonderful afternoon with this show and am so very glad I still caught it in the West End. Let's hope it will do well once it's out on tour - it deserves to be.
After a dinner break at my apartment I was off one last time - to the Trafalgar Studios, which gave me a chance to take a break in Trafalgar Square and dip my feet into the wonderfully cold fountain there. Show for the evening was "The Philantropist" by Christopher Hampton, inspired by Moliere's "Misanthrope". Where Alceste keeps getting into trouble because he's basically a nasty git, Philip ends up making a mess by being too nice to everyone all the time. Director Simon Callow (yes, him) had assembled a top notch cast of young comedians, all known "from off the telly", that tickled my interest. Tom Rosenthal, the adorable hapless Marcus from ITV's "Plebs", was my main reason for booking, but it didn't hurt to also have Matt Berry (from "The IT Crowd" and "Toast of London") or Simon Bird (Will from the "In-Betweeners") on board, as well as Charlotte Ritchie as Celia and model-turned-actress Lily Cole as Araminta. With such a cast you'd think you'd get a fabulous comedy with tons of laughs, but alas it was all faintly amusing at best. I did enjoy it, especially considering that I was about three feet away from the stage in a front row seat that had cost all of £26.50, but I had really rather dragged Tom off for some drinks somewhere.
So overall this time it were the musicals that provided me with great entertainment and some lasting memories, while the plays ranged from "meh" to "okay". Still it was a wonderful trip with great summer weather, the outing to Rochester and the evening in Regents Park.
