Haven’t had much time to visit the theatre while in London this time. But I did get to see wonderful Simon Russell Beale ( one of my favourite English actors) in the excellent play MR FOOTES OTHER LEG about Georgian London Show Biz and how Samuel Foote gained the Theatre Royal Haymarket, its Royal Charter, losing his leg along the way. Funny, clever play, which apart from anything else serves to remind us actors, who can get a bit big for our boots, now and then, that in those times we were labelled Rogues and Vagabonds by the then tax collectors and general admin of the day and sometimes it seems to me that not much has changed!
Simon Russell Beale
It’s Awards season so much time is spent going to screenings…I can’t easily get to them from Boise, they are all in LA. Saw MACBETH the other night, a difficult play under the best of circumstances, but this onscreen version is interesting, with a lot of bad Scottish weather and buckets of blood. There was a ‘Q and A’ afterwards with Michael Fassbender (magnificent as Steve Jobs) and Marion Cotillard. When asked which Shakespeare part he would like to play next, Mr Fassbender hummed and hawed…I got the feeling he would like to have said “never again”, but he was gracious and just prevaricated. I hope I read him wrong, as he is one of the best actors on the current scene.. LADY IN THE VAN is very funny with terrific performances from Dame Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings as the long suffering playwright Alan Bennett, who endured derelict, damaged Dame Maggie living in a beaten up old van, parked in his driveway for 15 years. And then wrote a play about. Nominations on the way?! See it. And last night saw an amazing film THE BIG SHORT…terrific, a bit over my head as it’s all about the financial shenanigans that led to the collapse of the US and world economy in 2008. The mind boggles at the complicated convolutions and fraud that went on. So hats off to Brad Pitt and his Company for getting the film made and the story out there.
I am enjoying being in my birthplace again and soaking up all the London atmosphere, which really doesn’t change despite the comings and goings of people various. Events in Paris have cast a dark shadow and I have had to deal with a difficult ongoing business situation, I am here and it is in the US, which has turned many of my days into 24 hour endurance tests, a problem due to modern technology and exhausted myself in the process. My dearest friend dragged me away from the dinner table the other night, practically asleep, with my face sitting in my meal, commanded that all phones and computers be turned off and ordered me to bed. Oh what a good night’s sleep will do! Take a tip from me friends…don’t do it, don’t allow other people to suck you into their issues and dictate time frames. Once our good energy is depleted, it takes real will power to get it back. Actually we do it to ourselves…”no” is one of the simplest words in the dictionary and we should use it often.
So now looking forward to the “Evening with
Jane Merrow” next Friday, a real ego booster, another week in Blighty and then back to Boise!
Coming soon!!! COUGAR
