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!