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Romeo Had Juliette
Jul. 30th, 2011 09:53 pmWalked up to the Nicholson Gardens last night to see The Villagers' production of Romeo & Juliet. Carol met me at the entrance, justifiably gushing with pride that it's The Villagers' Silver Jubilee year, but adding that while she's proud to have been an original member of the group, it shows her age. I advised her to tell people that she was one of the child stars at the beginning.
Aussie came over to say hello and asked if I'd like to order a Villagers Silver Jubilee commemorative T-shirt, and pointed to one of the crew who was walking around in one. It was a handsome garment, in black with silver text, and I can't say enough how much I love this particular am-dram group, so I put my name down for one. When I asked if they came in XXL, Aussie said they could do a 3XL if I wanted. Sorted.
The performance was superb as usual. Carol, as the Nurse, stole every scene she was in, doing a brilliant Dorset accent that added a lot of warmth to her portrayal and enhanced the humour of her funny lines. Elspeth White gave a magnificently impassioned performance as Juliet. Mark Butler was a good Romeo : during the interval a group of ladies in the audience remarked that Romeo was a 'wimp' and a 'wuss'; others, me included, pointed out that in the play Romeo is only 15, so Mark's portrayal of him as a gloomy moody teenager, driven to extremes of emotion by love, was spot on. The Villagers have so many ladies in the company that one or two male parts usually become female in their productions, and this year Romeo's cousin Benvolio became Benvolia, portrayed excellently and with deep sympathy by Samantha Dight. The seats were portable wooden ones, not exactly comfortable for a two-and-a-half hour play - even one with an interval. Remind me to bring my cricket cushion next year.
Ian Wright (Friar Lawrence), one of the group's organisers, gave the thank you speech at the end. After a few words about how glad they were to be celebrating their Silver Jubilee, he concluded "We hope you'll join us in 25 years' time for our special Golden Jubilee performance - A Winter's Fuel Allowance!"
Co-operative Party meeting this morning. It ended comfortably on time for me to hop on the train to London for Skolars v Swinton Lions. With the visitors being comfortably top of the table I expected a tough match, but it still came as a shock when Swinton scored a converted try in the first minute. I was sat just a few seats away from Skolars' most vocal fan, who early in the game shouted "Top of the league? How? They look lethargic to me" and spent much of the match asserting that Swinton had been "watching Wigan - forward passes and lying on". Skolars looked good in the first half and went in only 18-10 down at the break, but during the second half Swinton accelerated up a gear and the final score was 42-14. By the last ten minutes, the vocal fan had resorted to giving out updates on the Test cricket.
At the bus stop I met a friendly couple from Swinton who were staying on in a London hotel tonight and going off on a touring holiday of Germany and Scandinavia via Eurostar tomorrow. We chatted about rugby league all through the bus and Tube ride until they got off at St Pancras. The wife had insisted at the bus stop that her husband hide his scarf, as it was blue and white and had 'Lions' on it so she'd thought people would take it for a Millwall scarf; when a horde of Arsenal fans, obviously coming from a pre-season friendly, piled onto the tube at Arsenal station, he admitted it had been a smart move.
Aussie came over to say hello and asked if I'd like to order a Villagers Silver Jubilee commemorative T-shirt, and pointed to one of the crew who was walking around in one. It was a handsome garment, in black with silver text, and I can't say enough how much I love this particular am-dram group, so I put my name down for one. When I asked if they came in XXL, Aussie said they could do a 3XL if I wanted. Sorted.
The performance was superb as usual. Carol, as the Nurse, stole every scene she was in, doing a brilliant Dorset accent that added a lot of warmth to her portrayal and enhanced the humour of her funny lines. Elspeth White gave a magnificently impassioned performance as Juliet. Mark Butler was a good Romeo : during the interval a group of ladies in the audience remarked that Romeo was a 'wimp' and a 'wuss'; others, me included, pointed out that in the play Romeo is only 15, so Mark's portrayal of him as a gloomy moody teenager, driven to extremes of emotion by love, was spot on. The Villagers have so many ladies in the company that one or two male parts usually become female in their productions, and this year Romeo's cousin Benvolio became Benvolia, portrayed excellently and with deep sympathy by Samantha Dight. The seats were portable wooden ones, not exactly comfortable for a two-and-a-half hour play - even one with an interval. Remind me to bring my cricket cushion next year.
Ian Wright (Friar Lawrence), one of the group's organisers, gave the thank you speech at the end. After a few words about how glad they were to be celebrating their Silver Jubilee, he concluded "We hope you'll join us in 25 years' time for our special Golden Jubilee performance - A Winter's Fuel Allowance!"
Co-operative Party meeting this morning. It ended comfortably on time for me to hop on the train to London for Skolars v Swinton Lions. With the visitors being comfortably top of the table I expected a tough match, but it still came as a shock when Swinton scored a converted try in the first minute. I was sat just a few seats away from Skolars' most vocal fan, who early in the game shouted "Top of the league? How? They look lethargic to me" and spent much of the match asserting that Swinton had been "watching Wigan - forward passes and lying on". Skolars looked good in the first half and went in only 18-10 down at the break, but during the second half Swinton accelerated up a gear and the final score was 42-14. By the last ten minutes, the vocal fan had resorted to giving out updates on the Test cricket.
At the bus stop I met a friendly couple from Swinton who were staying on in a London hotel tonight and going off on a touring holiday of Germany and Scandinavia via Eurostar tomorrow. We chatted about rugby league all through the bus and Tube ride until they got off at St Pancras. The wife had insisted at the bus stop that her husband hide his scarf, as it was blue and white and had 'Lions' on it so she'd thought people would take it for a Millwall scarf; when a horde of Arsenal fans, obviously coming from a pre-season friendly, piled onto the tube at Arsenal station, he admitted it had been a smart move.
