Wednesday 31 January 2018

Theatrics and drama, real and otherwise

What can I say, just because the calendar rolls over from one year to the next doesn't mean life's about to let up on the pace front, is it? :) A new year brings new excitements and challenges! And this one's starting strong!


First things first though, the things I really ought to write about, because, after all, a big part of this blog is being a space for my thoughts on books and such. I don't think I can call them reviews, the bits I write about things I've read or watched. They're more impressions, I think. Anyway, firstly, the play!

Yes!! I went to watch a play! For the first time in I can't even remember how long!! I used to love plays! I used to even act and help direct plays! But that's more than a decade ago now, even before I started with this blog :). But yes, very excited about the opportunity to watch a play. Should definitely do that again.

On to the actual thing then, it was a fantastic production called Teddy at The Watermill Theater in Newbury. (Which is, well, somewhere in England, let's not get too distracted.) And the reason why it felt so awesome was in part the pace of the production, but also, and I think to a much greater extent, our proximity to and unique angle of view of the stage! We were on these balcony type seats practically on top of the stage on one side :).

There's something about plays, the sense that you are watching something unique, which may have been performed and practiced and honed again and again for days on end, yet each particular performance is not quite like any other. Especially this one as it entertained a fair bit of audience interaction. And rather cleverly played with the boundaries that lie between the audience, the narrator and the players.

The story itself seemed to be of much greater interest to those who have had some experience with (or understanding of) the post war years in the UK, but seeing how I'm about as far as you can get from that, I can confidently say that it was pretty nice even without any background, simply as an interesting story being presented very cleverly. And of course there was the choreography and music!

So there we have it. Why did we end up in England watching a play, well, all I can say is that birthday cakes were involved and a loooot of chocolate :D.


Might get easier to plan 'weekend trips' in a few days though! Looking forward to a reasonably long break. The first this size since before I moved to Norway!! Don't feel like I can say more about that just yet, but watch this space. Maybe, after all, my update rate will spike :D.

In the mean time, the snow continues!! Although there has been some injection of unwelcome rain and brief patches of above freezing weather that turns the white into ice. But thus far those stretches have been brief and more often than not quickly followed by more of the good stuff! Looking forward to pulling down the snowboard off the top of the cupboard some time soon.


Ha. I realize I had thought about writing something about the last book I read too. But seeing how it's a trilogy, and I didn't go completely ga-ga over the first book, maybe we give it another book or two before spending more keystrokes on it :).