hoots of derision

In half term the family Botogol went not once but twice to the theatre. At both events the interval discussion was heated

The Winslow Boy by Terence Rattigan
starring Timothy West

Arthur Winslow is an unexceptional man but he is a patriarch in a small way - that's to say he's a patriarch to his family which I suppose is the only sort of patriarch there is.

His family depend upon him and that's quite a responsibility for any man and he has acquitted himself adequately. But when he perceives that his son's future is threatened by loss of reputation and honour he is overwhelmed and he fights in the only way he knows how: with the law.

His fight destroys his family, and himself.

In the interval the Botogol girls had trouble imagining any circumstances where the marriage and education of the one sibling might be rightly sacrificed for the benefit of the other.  "Over a postal order, no, I do see your point,"  soothed Mrs Botogol, "but perhaps", she ventured, "if your brother was faced with prison...".  Hoots of derision: their brother, chorused the girls, would undoubtedly deserve it.

Arthur Winslow is commonly supposed to be engaged in an act of principle: justice at any cost for a son he believes innocent.  I didn't see it that way at all: I saw his actions as visceral, his support unconditional: he fights for his boy, with no more than a cursory nod at the truth of the matter. Perversely, it's the QC's support which appears conditional on belief in the boy's innocence.

A view from the Bridge by Arthur Miller
starring Ken Stott.


Eddie Carbone is an unexceptional man but he is a patriarch in a small way: that's to say he's a patriarch to his family which I suppose is the only sort of patriarch there is. His family depend upon him and that's quite a responsibility for any man and he has acquitted himself adequately.

But when he seems to be losing his niece to a boy with a strange magnetism he cannot understand he is overwhelmed and he fights dirty with eventually the only effective weapon he can find:  the law.

His fight destroys his family, and himself.

At the interval the Botogol girls opined that he was a monster, they found it hard to imagine any circumstances where a father might feel it necessary to go to such great lengths to save a daughter from herself. Especially not a completely grown-up daughter all of eighteen. "I do see your point in this instance", I soothed, "but perhaps sometimes a father's experience might enable him to see something his daughter could not" . Hoots of derision: Fathers, they chorused, knew nothing about modern life.

Eddie Carbone is commonly supposed to be....well, I find I can go no further: this is a play I studied for O-Level so I have only entirely conventional opinions

Both of these plays are on tour and I recommend them - and take your family.

Shakespeare on Life Planning

The Botogol family know what's hot* and what's not, and on Saturday we eschewed the black market demand for our tickets and went to the Donmar warehouse to see Othello

Jealousy, scheming, race, deception; Yes, yes, yes, Othello is all of those, and very good indeed it is too, but the bit that struck me (perhaps the £800 we supposedly could have got for our tickets was preying on my mind) but the bit that got me was Iago's unequivocal advice to the love-lost Rodrigo:

No, don't drown yourself, says Iago, but instead:

[...] Put money in thy purse;
follow thou the wars; defeat thy favour with
an usurped beard; I say, put money in thy purse. It
cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her
love to the Moor,-- put money in thy purse,--nor he
his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou
shalt see an answerable sequestration:--put but
money in thy purse. These Moors are changeable in
their wills: fill thy purse with money:--
[...],
she will find the error of her choice: she must
have change, she must: therefore put money in thy
purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a
more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money
thou canst: if sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt
an erring barbarian and a supersubtle Venetian not
too hard for my wits and all the tribe of hell, thou
shalt enjoy her; therefore make money.
[...]

RODRIGO:
I am changed: I'll go sell all my land.

Roderigo, thou shouldst have lived at this hour! and thou shouldst have have had an indescribable job in the City, for it's the start of every City worker's plan: Moving out? moving on? moving up? Staying put? New house, extra house? Trading up? Trading down? Mid Life Crisis? New Bike? New Car? New Boat? Interior designer or writer of the great 21st Century novel? Whatever.... just two more bonuses should be enough....

"It's the only bit of honest advice Iago gives to anyone in the whole play", I remarked, sagely in the interval much to the spluttering amusement of the Botogol daughters whom I sometimes think have received a sight more education than is good for them, "Yeah, right", they said, once they had mopped up their J2O "Thus do I ever make my fool my purse"

* Ewan McGregor and Chiwetel Ejiofor, that's what's hot. Oh, yes, and Shakespeare.

Rocky Horror Plants?

Saw the Rocky Show for the umpteenth time. An excellent production with David Bedella and Suzanne Shaw, and as much fun as always.

However (and perhaps I am getting unduly cynical in my middle age), is it possible that this production includes some plants in the audience?

You'd hardly think it was necessary, to plant a heckler at the RHS, but.....but.... all the same: were one or two of the heckles just too good? but Was there sometimes a pause-for-heckle at just the right time? It made me want to see it again, just to check.