Saturday, October 28, 2006

Curtain Raiser

Today

On Thursday, Paul & I went to the Theatre Royal, Bath to see a performance of "Entertaining Angels", starring Penelope Keith. It was an excellent performance of a play with just the right combination of humour, suspense and passion.

We love going to the theatre and, as part of our retirement plan, have joined the associates of the Theatre Royal in Bath.

This gives us advance booking rights, free programmes and access to an exclusive lounge bar, the 1805 rooms. So, when the prospectus arrives, we're inclined to buy ticket for most things, and take a chance on their being some good.

So, I slept through the first act of Habeus Corpus (easy to catch up with the action in the 2nd half), was enthralled by the Rambert Dance Company and enchanted by Cole Porter's Anything Goes.

In My Day

Early memories of theatre-going are more centred round the opera. When the Carl Rosa Opera company came to the Streatham Hill Theatre, Daddy bought a whole batch of tickets. The theatre was so close to us and, being south of the river, tickets were cheap. So, by the age of 10, I'd seen La Boheme and Aida certainly. We regularly used to go to see the D'Oyley Carte Gilbert & Sullivan operettas and I remember at a relatively early age seeing Tannhauser, Die Meistersingers, Rosenkavalier and Hansel & Gretel, either at Covent Garden or Sadlers Wells.

My experience was further broadened when I became friendly, at the age of about 14, with a girl at school who had an absolute theatre passion Her name was Jill Strudwick and we used to save up our paper round pocket money to travel to the West End for Saturday matinees. We saw "Oliver", "Stop the World I want to Get Off", "The Sound of Music", and many more musicals. Perhaps it was that that has made me, unlike my siblings, so fond of Cole Porter, Gershwin etc. Jill developed crushes on various actors and was one of those people that knew all the details of their lives. (She probably now adores Hello! magazine.)

My love of drama really took off when I was doing A-levels and, later, theatre design. Living in London was like being in a vast drama treasure box and students were treated very well. My friends and I queued at the Old Vic for standing only tickets and in that way saw most of the National Theatre productions (Uncle Vanya, Hedda Gabler, Hamlet, all the classics) for a tiny price.

More adventurous was the Alwych Theatre. My brother David and I joined the RSC youth association and got concessionary tickets to all their productions. And we used to go to the World Theatre festival. With the aid of instantaneous translation headphones we experienced: "The Insect Play" in Polish, Pirandelli in Italian, a Russian dramatisation of "Crime & Punishment" (put me off actually reading the book) and saw Japanese Noh and Kabuki theatre.

At the more raw end, we used to go to the Vanbrugh Theatre to see RADA productions.

I find it hard to keep away from the theatre and marvel that it's outside the experience of so many people.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Painting by numbers

Today

Yesterday Paul & I travelled up to London to see a Beryl Cook exhibition at the Portal Gallery. We've always enjoyed Beryl Cook paintings with their apparent innocence belying a very acute and enthusiastic observation of ordinary people.

They are such a celebration of late 20th and early 21st century life.

We're toying with the idea of actually buying one for the flat in Brighton - out first proper foray into buying original art.

In My Day

I was the "arty" one of the family. I drew pictures from the time I could hold a pencil (at about 15 months) on any paper I could find. My parents were uncomprehending admirers of this talent; there being little other acknowledged skill in the family (tho' when I look at my mother's freehand cake icing, there had to be something there).

Christmas and birthday presents often took the form of painting by numbers kits, some of which I dutifully completed. They were really a sort of grown up colouring book, were boring to do and flat to look at. I was given books on "how to draw". There was an artist living on the first floor who also talked to me.

I do have the priviledge of having my original work displayed. The first one of these is a pastel abstract. I did this in response to hearing "Dessins Eternel" by Messiaen at Westminster Cathedral. It's all swirly oranges and yellows and lives on the wall at my sister's flat.

The 2nd one also hangs on my sister's wall and was done while I was at art college and had mastered the craft of oil painting. It was derived from some drawings I'd done while visiting Saffron Hill in London. It's one of those pieces which says a lot, but not what you intended. The most noticeable bit of the work is a huge "No Entry" sign. It's generated a lot of passion in its time; including having my sister's 1st husband take a knife to it.

Nice to know that my work has something in common with the Mona Lisa.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Gi'us a job

Today

I've just read Becky's blog on being unemployed. She & Lizzie seem remarkably calm about it - as well they might be as they have many skills and we aren't in a time of serious unemployment.

Becky made a comment about how strange it is not to have external demands made on one and I sympathise with this. Retirement brings this sort of strangeness too. I know that I owned and ran my own company (and remember one very crass friend who thought that, as MD I simply "made it up" as I went along), but there were still a lot of pressures, many of them external. And there were a lot of people whose lives depended on my decisions.

In My Day

Once we were married, I found out that this instantly affected my grant entitlement (as though being married meant that I was now a kept woman) and I no longer received even enough to cover my bus fare to college. We struggled on for a while, with the overdraft mounting up. Then one day, while I was working at home on some sewing project, the man from the rates dept turned up. Seemed we hadn't paid any.

Something had to give and that was my college (and with it teaching) career. I got the paper and applied for the first job I could find - as an auxiliary nurse in an old people's home. Well, I'd spent one summer cleaning in an old people's home so was qualified, surely?

They weren't very exacting in the interview and the job was mine. Day after day of blanket baths, cleaning up old ladies' poo and serving meals. It was rivetting. I did it as well as I could.

The a friend of mine told me that the Inland Revenue were recruiting temporary staff to deal with the early redemption of post-war credits. Just as rivetting as the old ladies, but cleaner and more money. So off I went and was duly recruited.

This actually led to a career in the Inland Revenue which led to my joining Flare which led to my owning it which led to my selling it which led me to where I am now.........

Which just goes to show that things you don't plan sometimes work out the best. It's just a question of seizing the opportunity.