The AJ Platform

After my trip earlier this month I couldn't resist the temptation and I went back. The main reason to pick this weekend was the Alex Jennings platform at the National Theatre. The chance to hear Alex talk for an hour on his life and career was too good to resist. I met up with Penny before the platform started, we took a short walk along the river and had some lunch, and then sat and listened to the interview. I enjoyed it and heard some news to put up on the AJ Diaries. Always good to get Alex news firsthand. It seems like he will be working abroad for most of the year, in Japan and Paris, resuming earlier roles. I'm still hoping he's going to do some Sondheim in the not too distant future.

Then there was "The Real Thing" at the Old Vic. Toby Stephens in a Stoppard play. I had forgotten how much I like Stoppard. I think "The Real Thing" was the first Stoppard play I saw quite a few years ago, the original production, but I couldn't remember much of it. This was a lively production with all the layers coming out. Good to see Toby Stephens again after a very long time.

Time for other London pastimes too. After my visit to Manchester earlier this year I wanted to go back to the Tate to see the Pre-Raphaelites. I like the way the Tate is organised and designed, plenty of room for the paintings, and beautiful, warm colours. It is the colours in the paintings that always strike me too. Somehow reproductions in books and on postcards never get the blue quite right, you don't get the real shades unless you are looking at the original paintings. And all the detail that gets lost in reproductions too, especially when it comes to the Pre-Raphaelites, where details are so important.






And talking about details, I couldn't help wondering once or twice whether London is going Dutch....

Back in London

It feels like a very long time since I was last in London, and it probably is, but it is good to be back. The city always changes but manages to stay the same. There are sights and sounds that I love, and that make me feel at home. It is good to find old familiar bookshops, though some seem to have disappeared, and others appeared. It is good to wander round Covent Garden, to see the theatres and think of all the productions I've seen over the years.

I love to walk across Waterloo Bridge, especially late at night, after a performance at the National Theatre or the Old Vic. I don't know what it is about that bridge, the sights, the sounds, the smells, or whether it is just the associations. Memories of walking towards the National Theatre in the daylight, full of expectation, of great plays and performances, and then feeling the cool wind in your hair afterwards, seeing the City and St. Paul in the one direction, the Houses of Parliament in the other, with the play still fresh in your mind.




This time I had the rare opportunity to see both my favourites in one day. I got to see Roger Rees in the afternoon, playing opposite Ian McKellen in "Waiting for Godot" and then Alex Jennings in "The Habit of Art" in the evening at the National. Both wonderful performances. Good to be back in both the Haymarket and the Lyttelton Theatre. It was Roger Rees who first got me interested in the London Theatre, when, long ago I first saw his Nicholas Nickleby on television, and then I got to see him play Hamlet in London. It was actually his Berowne that I really loved, though I've never seen a more impressive Hamlet. Just a few years later I first saw Alex Jennings, again at the RSC, his first season. I've had many opportunities since to see Alex at work in London, but Roger has been working in the US mainly. It was good to see both of them back in London, in such different but interesting productions. More!