Late October Catch-up - Part Two

My bro and sis-in-law and my 7 year old nephew were in town. We went to MADAME TUSSAUDS and the NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM. Being half term, both were unpleasantly heaving. I remember being underwhelmed by MT’s as a kid and I still feel the same way now, but what a sad indictment of our society this place really is: plastic images of plastic people; when their time is up, melt ‘em down and reform into the latest celebrity. It is the museum of modern living. The Natural History Museum is great for kids, and we managed to sneak into the Dinosaur section the back way, avoiding the hour plus queue.

THE COUTRY WIFE at THE THEATRE ROYAL HAYMARKET is a tremendous piece of work, acted in a delightfully old fashioned, exclamatory, actorly style which works much better that the naturalistic mumbly style which ruined the National’s go at the Man of Mode. CW is a filthy, wonderful play and they do it justice, albeit going for a revolving doors French farce kind of vibe which buries some of the darker and more cynical elements of the play. And it is really really funny. Acting is superb all round except for the poor dear playing the Country Wife who could not hold her awful Yorkshire accent together, often drifting over to Ireland via a number of European countries.

At the LONDON JEWISH CULTURAL CENTRE I caught the famous 1937 film of DER DYBBUK. Yiddish expressionism anyone? It really surprised me in the imagination of the camera work and the intensity of the on screen world. A silly girl behind kept sniggering at the manneristic acting (lots of hand over eyes and trembling going on), but this was part of its charm.

Finally I caught a band I have loved for a long time now, German electronic tunesmiths LAUB. It was a real thrill to hear the songs played live, and their absurdly talented enigmatic singer, AGF, seemed to really enjoy herself on stage. The gig was put on by THE WIRE, celebrating 25 years of pompous and often incomprehensible, but always essential reading. The main act were MATMOS, who I didn’t enjoy as much as their gig on the South Bank; not as much variety and little sign of the percussive and contemporary classical strains that made that gig so good.

And then there was my second visit to THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH. It was great fun, but I am still not convinced that it is quite as spectacular or rich as Faust, but it was a great night out. I managed to get into some of the secret rooms - a band and paper puppet show of an obscure Poe story, and an improvised invention of a lost Poe poem in the library. I narrowly missed out on one-on-ones about 4 times, each time the actor or actress selecting someone else. My theory that I would be more likely to be chosen if I was in black tie proved fatally flawed! Then on to RED DEATH LATES, the weekend only after show party during which masked maidens regularly poured strong liquor down my throat from a big old brown bottles, a fortune reader told me I was starting out on a new path as a writer, and to be wary of gossip ( I think they area great band) and a make-up artist painted two bleeding pustular boils on my forehead and announced that indeed I had caught the plague. I was well hammered by the end I can tell you.

Pictures of all this madness will follow… in time