The V&A: Part 2

3rd March 2013

Screening of ‘The Recruiting Officer’

 

On the afternoon of our visit to the V&A there was a screening of ‘The Recruiting Officer’ (1706, George Farquhar) in the Hoehhauser Auditorium. It was one of a series of plays recorded and screened as part of the V & A’s National Video Archive of Performance screening’s programme. This particular play was recorded at the Donmar Warehouse in 2012 and was directed by Josie Rourke.

Tobias Menzies plays Captain Plume, the rakish, lovelorn and somewhat misunderstood recruiting officer of the play’s title. He’s sent to Shrewsbury with his sergeant, Kite (Mackenzie Crook) to drum up a company of men. He’s in love with his benefactor’s daughter (Justice Balance – Gawn Grainger, Silvia – Nancy Carroll) but despairs of ever getting her.

Meanwhile, the captain’s friend Mr. Worthy (Nicholas Burns) is in love with Silvia’s cousin Melinda, who since inheriting £20,000 has become haughty and too high for him. Into this group comes Captain Brazen (Mark Gatiss) to cause a stir by courting Melinda.

With double-crossing servants, cross-dressing daughter’s, conniving sergeants, musical townsmen and jokes about syphilis the play amuses and yet still remains poignant as disputes are resolved and the men go off to war.

Firstly let me say that I had no expectations of this play. I went because it was the centre piece of our group’s plans for the day (we followed it up with a visit to The Queen’s Head, Kensington – nice food, bit expensive, very busy/noisy/small). I knew nothing about the plot, the playwright or the majority of the cast.

That all being said, I enjoyed it immensely and left with the intention of seeking out a copy of the play to read (which is exactly what I shall do, just as soon as I’ve got all the blog posts from last weekend online – Gutenberg Project here I come). The cast were all excellent, the comic scenes played perfectly and the more emotional scenes tugged at heartstrings (the woman two seats away from me cried and I couldn’t help singing along to ‘Over the Hills’). The 143 minutes passed quickly. Particular highlights were Mark Gatiss’s portrayal of Captain Brazen, witty and cheeky, passing his cane to an audience member during his ‘fight’ with Captain Plume, and Katheryn Drysdale’s ‘Lucy’ is very funny as she attempts to catch herself a captain and rise from Melinda’s maid to a Captain’s lady. All the cast were great. I really enjoyed the music that laced the play; it acted as a unifying force as the action moves away from the trials and tribulations of recruiting men for the war effort, to the complicated love lives of the characters and then back to war.

I would have loved to have seen it on stage, but the recording was excellent. There was a moment just before the interval where there was a technical problem, but that was quickly fixed and didn’t mar enjoyment of the screening overall. I would certainly like to be able to get a DVD of the recording, although I don’t think that they are available. The staff members at the auditorium were friendly and helpful, and engaged with and informed the audience in a cheerful manner.

The remaining screenings are

  • Butley by Simon Gray 10th March
  • Tusk Tusk by Polly Stenham 17th March
  • A View from The Bridge by Arthur Miller 24th March

All start at 14:00 – see the V & A website for details

www.vam.ac.uk/whatson

Take a look at the V&A’s website, it’s quite interesting,

Bye for now,

Rose

I’ve got to an internet connection

WARNING! WARNING!

I have an internet connection and I know how to use it.

There will be six blog entries up in very quick succession. They are mostly about the places I went on my trip to London. I seriously need to get internet at home, it would make life a lot easier. So I have to thank my daddy for the use of his WiFi before I throw the posts at you all: thank you, love you (and your internet).

I hope you enjoy reading my few thoughts,

Rose.

More stuff to write…I say that like it’s a chore.

There are few advantages to working for an agency in a fish factory. One of them is that when I want a day off I take it. Major disadvantage is that fairly regular work is nonexistent and I spend a good 50% of the year broke. This time of year usually. Normally I read a lot of magazines and books to stave off the boredom and forget about the fact that I’m skint.

However this year it just so happens that I have a shed load of things to write about. What with going off on little adventures (another reason I’m broke, I have terrible timing) and then coming home to scribble about them. And now, I’ve finished a new book (finally made that choice yesterday) to add to the list. I’m probably going to get everything written up today and tomorrow and then get to an internet connection to get everything online.

Using the app on my phone is great but I can’t really see how it looks and I like to use it just to make quick posts and do a bit of editing rather than writing long post. Also my thumbs hurt if I write more than a couple of hundred words. So now I’m going again. Lots to do, and places to be in a few hours.

Bye.

Rose

There will be a flurry of posts soon.

Once I get to an internet connection there will be a flurry of posts about my trip to London. Right now I’m still too exhausted to try to write, so I’m going to read instead. Trying to decide between two of the books I bought yesterday at the British Library. Do I read ‘The Horologicon’ by Mark Forsyth or ‘Happily ever after’ by Susannah Fullerton? Either way, I’ll probably be entertained.

The V&A Museum: part 1

Today we’re visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum. I’ve only had a couple of hours to wander around. Choices, choices, where to go first?

I chose to visit the exhibits from China, Japan, and Korea. The exhibits were well designed and artifacts well chosen to illustrate the periods and cultures highlighted. I especially loved the textiles on display.

Next I visited the 3rd floor with the religious silverware and stained glass. This was fascinating. And busy.

After a detour through one of the small shops dotted about the Museum (I only bought 1 book – honestly) I visited the fashion exhibit.

All through the museum there are areas to explore and study.

There is a pleasant garden in the centre of the museum with a large water feature in which paddling is allowed but clothes mustn’t be removed. It’s probably a relaxing place to sit in the summer but in March it’s far too chilly, although we did briefly consider a paddle.

I wish I had had more time; I could have done with an entire day to see everything.

The Museum was fairly busy but didn’t feel crowded. The staff were friendly, even when inspecting my bag. The suggested donation of £3 is more than fair considering the size and quality of the Museum and its exhibits. The shops are a bit expensive though.

I didn’t eat in the Cafe but other members of my group have given me there opinion on the Cafe: it’s too bloody expensive. Nice but ‘too gourmet for my tastes’ according to one. And another said ‘I nearly fainted at the price of a can of coke’. Another said that their ham and cheese baguette had mustard in and it wasn’t mentioned on the menu.

So that’s my review of the V & A Museum.

Well, London’s fun.

Hello, it’s been a while I know, but I’ve had stuff going on that’s been getting in the way of any writing. I’m in London this weekend. Got here yesterday, I’m still adjusting to how different it is from home.

We’re spending the weekend visiting museums. The first we’ve been to is The Sherlock Holmes Museum in Baker Street. I really liked it.

It was quite busy and it’s very small, being housed in a terrace as it is, but it has some interesting artifacts. The wax figures illustrating various characters and stories were creepy but diverting. I got distracted by a beadwork tray mat and a sampler from 1826. I don’t think they were meant to be noticed but I was inspecting everything closely, while people were taking photographs.

There are displays of books, pipes, weapons, anything and everything relating to the Sherlock Holmes stories and the museum is sent up as 221B is described in the books.

I’d definitely recommend going if you’re interested in the books or tv adaptations. Or even if you just want to see a Victorian house. It’s £6 (£4 for kids) to enter and really easy to get to (Baker Street is on the Jubilee Line).

Time to go, getting ready for today’s adventures. Bye.

Rose

‘Sense and Sensibility’, or, Jane Austen has a wicked sense of humour

I’ve just finished reading ‘Sense and Sensibility’ for the first time in about 15 years. It struck me as I finished reading it how funny Jane Austen was. I’d heard that her letters to her sister Cassandra were full of wit, but I didn’t know how witty she was until I read the last few pages of the book. Her closing paragraphs discussing the ‘happiness’ of Mr and Mrs John Dashwood, Mr and Mrs Robert Ferrers and Mrs Ferrers struck me especially. She could have said the same things more bluntly but the eloquence and wry tone only added to the reader’s impression that they all ended less than happily.

I’ve read many of Austen’s novels, but most of them I haven’t read in a very long time. Going back to them I have found humour that I missed in the past, either because I was too young to understand the joke when I last read them or because I read them too quickly and didn’t pay enough attention. There are many good reasons to re-read books one has only read in youth, or where a number of years has passed. New appreciation of the same words, coloured by greater age and experience, and finding a new perspective on the same, is one of the best. Along with, ‘I like that book, so I’m reading it again’.

That being said, sometimes it is disappointing to go back to a book much loved as a teenager and realise that it’s shallow or badly written. The image it throws upon your younger self, in choosing to read something like that, can be painful.

Best be off, things to do and all that,

Rose

200 years of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ – A reflection, or, why I love Jane Austen’s work

I’m reliably informed that ‘Pride and Prejudice’ was first published on 28th January 1813.

It was a novel long in composition. ‘First Impressions’ – the original title – made its first appearance in late 1796, when Miss Austen was 21 and living at Steventon, Hampshire. In 1812 it was radically altered and finally saw publication in 1813. Much had changed between 1796 and 1813 – the war against Napoleon was practically over, for a start. Jane herself was thirty-eight and had already had ‘Sense and Sensibility’ published. She was living at Chawton, Hampshire, with her mother and sister Cassandra. They had moved there in 1807 when her brother Edward offered them the former stewards cottage as a permanent home. It was here that she revised the novels of her youth and wrote the novels of her maturity.

‘Pride and Prejudice’, her second published work, is probably the most well known. I first came across in when I was 12, at secondary school. Every year we were given book tokens to spend in the library. There would be a book sale, once a year, for a fortnight, not of school library books, but of new books provided by a book club, I think. I went one evening with my sisters and was immediately attracted to two hard back, leather bound books; one was green and one blue. The pages were very thin, almost like bible pages, and the printing reminded me of eighteenth century books I’d seen in museums. If it’s possible to fall in love with books, I did. Those books were ‘Lorna Doone’ by R.D. Blackmore, first published in 1869 and set in Exmoor, and ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen, first publish 1813. It was then that I first learnt to love books in and of themselves, as well as reading.

I liked ‘Lorna Doone’, it was a great adventure; but I loved ‘Pride and Prejudice’. I was young enough that it made an indelible impression on my mind. I have read and re-read it so often that it has fallen apart. (I had to get myself a new copy on Friday. I was looking for ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and found them both in lovely hardback editions in ‘The Works’ in Grimsby. That shop is lethal.)

I remember the first time I read it, enjoying the words and the story; the characters were fascinating, and I hoped that all would resolve itself, and angry at the unfairness of the world that kept people from being happy.

I remember the excitement in 1996 when the BBC produced their, now famous, adaptation and the frenzy surrounding it – including the brief fashion for stick-on sideburns. On a Saturday night my sisters, our mother and I would gather in the sitting room to watch the latest instalment, comparing it with the book and then discussing it for days after. We compared ourselves to the different characters and how their world was different from our own. It made us grateful for the freedom we, as women, had. We had choices and an education that eighteenth and nineteenth century women didn’t, although we would have liked to learn to dance and play and sing. Over the years I have watched many film adaptations including ‘Bride and Prejudice’, which I love. It’s very funny. The story might have been adapted but the spirit is still there. I wasn’t too sure about the film starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet from 2005. In comparison the BBC series it missed so much of the story out, but they are different formats and as a film it works well enough. I just have to be careful not to have it on when my sister visits. She really disapproves of it.

I studied ‘Pride and Prejudice’ for my GCSE English Literature. And studying it didn’t make me enjoy it less, if anything because I gained a better understanding of the times in  which it had been written and of the author, as well as finding new ways to read the book, I received greater pleasure from it. Even writing an essay about pride and prejudice in the book was fun, in spite of having to write it out three times because my hand-writing was terrible. I got an A+ for it. My English teacher was very proud of me; she was a bit disappointed when I studied the sciences for my ‘A’ levels (but then so was my History teacher). I think previous knowledge and love for the book helped; I enjoyed English whereas my peers endured it.

For my ‘A’ level maths coursework I compared the word length in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and subjected them to statistical analysis. I can’t actually remember what I concluded, but I think I might have got point for originality. I was the only one in the class to think that applying statistics to literature might be interesting.

I carried my copy of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, along with my copy of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (another favourite and one of the few other books of which I have multiple copies), to university, and in times of stress and distress they were always there for me, constant companions. I can get lost in them, transported to another world or another time.

‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ have probably had the greatest effect on my own writing since I read the ‘Swallows and Amazons’ and ‘Famous Five’ books as a child. I can either write epics, with convoluted language and obscure references reminiscent of the sagas or I write Georgian novels. I’m working on finding my own style, hopefully somewhere in between that doesn’t grate so much on other people.

The book itself did have a material affect on my world-view. It encouraged a young mind to realise how lucky we actually are. It encouraged my interest in the early nineteenth century – I wanted to know why there were militia in the first place, which lead me to learn about the Napoleonic wars, and in women’s history – why were they dependant on their father, why wouldn’t they inherit? I wanted to know everything, to find a context for this magnificent book that I had had the luck to find so early in life. I went on to read many other classics, although I had already read a few while still in primary schools (I doubt there are many primary schools left where it is thought perfectly appropriate for a 10 year old to read ‘Call of the Wild’ but mine let me. I had some good teachers.) My ideas of the world were formed by books, and ‘Pride and Prejudice’ was one of the greatest teachers.

As I have grown older I have returned time and again to Austen and Tolkein for strength, inspiration and escape. When I put down the books I am better able to cope with the world, its pain and disappointments, and also its joys. My interpretation of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is not that of an innocent 12 year old with romantic notions and little knowledge of the world. I have grown up and in the process my understanding of the book has changed. I’m older, and far more cynical for a start. It has much to teach us still, about the world, about people, about ourselves; we should look beyond the surface to a persons true nature, we should never allow our own prejudices to lead us astray, and we should never allow those in a social position more respected than our own to tell us what to do.

In a few years I will buy my niece a copy of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and I will hope that she finds as much pleasure in it as I do.

Here endeth my love letter to literature.

Rose