Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night

Our last trip to the Globe this season. One we were dead lucky with. Soon after BLISS booked the tickets, on the day they were made available, the news leaked that Stephen Fry was in the cast and suddenly they were gold dust.

Fantastic job by the all-male cast.

Here's where the brilliance comes in. A mere mortal would be crying at this brief: “right. You're a bloke, but you're playing a woman. For a bit. Then you're going to be playing a woman, dressed as a man, and pretending to be a man.” That'd be enough for most to say “stuff that for a game of soldiers, they need someone to play the butler. In The Mousetrap. He does it, you know.”

Fry is great, as are Rylance, Trigger, Toby and Mary, everyone else and the musicians.

The cast is 95% the same as that for Richard III, so they must've been rehearsing these in parallel.

Why I love the library (number umpteen)

Not only did I pre-order Will Self's Umbrella, newly published, for the sum of 60p, when I emailed to question why it had mysteriously disappeared from my reservations list, they got a copy ready for collection within two days, and waived the reservation fee. So, I'm now happily ploughing through a brand new, untouched, hardback copy of a book I would've bought otherwise (if not right now, certainly when the paperback was published). For free. Please don't destroy the illusion. I know I pay taxes and stuff, and that nothing's free. This I don't mind paying taxes for. What I do mind paying taxes for is...just about everything else, really.

Hands off the libraries, I say.

Umbrella

Seamlessly jumping between 1918, when the encephalitis lethargica epidemic occurred, 1971 when the dolpamine treatment happened, and 2010, Self's is the second book on the subject I've read.

The first I'd recommend. Oliver Sack's Awakenings, unlike so many non-fiction books that believe their subject matter is sufficient and the writing can be substandard, is beautifully written, well paced and brilliantly human.

Self on ageing: “it deprives you of your identity and supplies another, simpler one, it takes away your clothing and issues you with a uniform of slack-waisted trousers, threadbare jackets and moth-eaten cardigans, togs that are either coming from or going to charity shops...[it] takes your food and purees it, takes your drink and reverses the distillation...”

On the running of the institution: “the bureaucrats have taken over the asylum...”

I find Self like Amis, in that whatever he writes about, it's worth reading.

Pizza Express

Secret shopper feedback:

Charge £1.20 for a tiny bit of garlic bread, a dozen olives, and the like, and people will fill the table with starters to nibble at and share.

Charge £3.50 and more for starters that arrive in decent quantities, and that's fine too.

Charge £3.50 and above for a dozen olives or a microscopic piece of garlic bread, and you'll not be getting much return custom.