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Jul. 23rd, 2009 10:36 pmBack to work this morning. Lots of people asked how my family tree tracing went; more than one was a devotee of Who Do You Think You Are? and asked if I watched.
The week's supply of death reports ran out around 11.40 am so I was back on postcodes for the rest of today and tomorrow. We all got to take an extended break from lunch time to visit 'Fun Day', basically a summer fete set up in the car park. The canteen was closed; instead the staff were serving barbecue grub as part of the festivities. I went for jerk chicken in a bun with salad, then moseyed over to the 'Pompey Ices' ice cream van for a large 99. Wandering around, I met a few people I used to know from telephone unit days. At the main second hand stall I picked up seven Tom Holt books for 25p each (including a free one for bulk buying) and a few bargains among the CDs and DVDs.
Then it was back on the postcodes.
Went to see The Villagers' performance of Much Ado About Nothing tonight. Carol was at the entrance when I arrived; when we said hello she said how much she'd enjoyed the Global Alternative Song Contest. I told her about my Finnish holiday until we were distracted by the arrival of Diane, the Mayor. As Diane and I greeted each other, Carol said that since we knew each other we could sit together. I noticed Diane was on her own so said "Your Escort's not with you tonight?"
"No, Ken's not into Shakespeare."
As we began to make our way to our seats, Carol said to me "You'll enjoy this one. We've got a great new Beatrice."
Charlene Lomas was indeed very good as the sharp-tongued lady. She and Rob Spraggs, as Benedick, really got into their 'merry war' and, once they realised their mutual attraction, touched each other flirtatiously as they spoke. Throughout, the cast peppered the script with appropriate flourishes, such as Borachio adding a macho 'Wooooh!' with upward arm gesture when he said he'd been wooing Margaret. A couple of the leading players stumbled over the odd line, bless them, but all the good performances made up for it. Nigel Dean and Ted Fitzgerald were fantastic and very funny as Dogberry and Verges.
The Villagers' male/female ratio is more weighted towards women than are many of the Bard's casts, which usually results in the odd male character being made a female one. That worked out well, because Don John was transformed into 'The Lady', played by Cris Lewis who gave the best performance of them all. Resplendent in a red, gold and black dress, she oozed wickedness, portrayed a perfect combination of haughty disdain and smirking mischief, and all the time made her character extremely sexy! While she was getting increasing boos and hisses as the play went on I found myself rooting for her.
I talked to Glyn during the interval. She filled me in on how Mark's getting on in London; he's mostly working in a 'freak show', a kind of human Madame Tussauds, but he's also doing the odd spot of theatre and has done some TV extra work. I remarked on Cris's superb performance, and Glyn agreed "She's brilliant. She's been getting so many boos and hisses!"
The week's supply of death reports ran out around 11.40 am so I was back on postcodes for the rest of today and tomorrow. We all got to take an extended break from lunch time to visit 'Fun Day', basically a summer fete set up in the car park. The canteen was closed; instead the staff were serving barbecue grub as part of the festivities. I went for jerk chicken in a bun with salad, then moseyed over to the 'Pompey Ices' ice cream van for a large 99. Wandering around, I met a few people I used to know from telephone unit days. At the main second hand stall I picked up seven Tom Holt books for 25p each (including a free one for bulk buying) and a few bargains among the CDs and DVDs.
Then it was back on the postcodes.
Went to see The Villagers' performance of Much Ado About Nothing tonight. Carol was at the entrance when I arrived; when we said hello she said how much she'd enjoyed the Global Alternative Song Contest. I told her about my Finnish holiday until we were distracted by the arrival of Diane, the Mayor. As Diane and I greeted each other, Carol said that since we knew each other we could sit together. I noticed Diane was on her own so said "Your Escort's not with you tonight?"
"No, Ken's not into Shakespeare."
As we began to make our way to our seats, Carol said to me "You'll enjoy this one. We've got a great new Beatrice."
Charlene Lomas was indeed very good as the sharp-tongued lady. She and Rob Spraggs, as Benedick, really got into their 'merry war' and, once they realised their mutual attraction, touched each other flirtatiously as they spoke. Throughout, the cast peppered the script with appropriate flourishes, such as Borachio adding a macho 'Wooooh!' with upward arm gesture when he said he'd been wooing Margaret. A couple of the leading players stumbled over the odd line, bless them, but all the good performances made up for it. Nigel Dean and Ted Fitzgerald were fantastic and very funny as Dogberry and Verges.
The Villagers' male/female ratio is more weighted towards women than are many of the Bard's casts, which usually results in the odd male character being made a female one. That worked out well, because Don John was transformed into 'The Lady', played by Cris Lewis who gave the best performance of them all. Resplendent in a red, gold and black dress, she oozed wickedness, portrayed a perfect combination of haughty disdain and smirking mischief, and all the time made her character extremely sexy! While she was getting increasing boos and hisses as the play went on I found myself rooting for her.
I talked to Glyn during the interval. She filled me in on how Mark's getting on in London; he's mostly working in a 'freak show', a kind of human Madame Tussauds, but he's also doing the odd spot of theatre and has done some TV extra work. I remarked on Cris's superb performance, and Glyn agreed "She's brilliant. She's been getting so many boos and hisses!"
