... the most exciting thing to happen in London today (albeit still overshadowed by "Sachsgate", although I prefer "Manuelgate") was the opening of the Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd's Bush, Europe's largest urban shopping centre. It's true that not all retail, and not everyone in London, is suffering as a result of the credit crunch (or what the media is now calling "recession") yet I can't help think how superfluous and ill-timed this opening is. Aside from propagating the same tired high street names, this centre will probably increase traffic congestion in that part of the city too, which is just what West London doesn't need.
The most exciting thing to happen to me today was going to the Menier Chocolate Factory on Southwark Street for their dinner plus theatre package. Perhaps unfortunately, the cafe does not serve dishes only made with chocolate: instead the name comes from the building being a chocolate factory before being turned into its current incarnation. The play this evening was The White Devil, John Webster's Jacobean drama. The fashion for Jacobean dramas at the moment seems to be to camp them up (eg Revengers' Tragedy at the National Theatre over the summer), and this was no exception. I think the ambiguous sexuality of the characters that this lends adds to the deception running through the play. The actor playing Flamineo was particularly good, the rest were moderate and there were too many over-the-top performances, which did not really bring out the drama enough. My companion for the evening, a friend known to avoid paying for anything whenever possible (even now that he has a very well paying job) remarked on how expensive theatre tickets are: these had cost £25 for an off West End, non-National Theatre production. Coupled with the dinner deal, the whole package came to a fair amount, but alone it was a credit crunch price. Evidently, as my trip to the National Theatre at 9.45am today in an attempt to get their £10 day tickets showed, you have to be up early in the morning to get affordable art.
The most exciting thing to happen to me today was going to the Menier Chocolate Factory on Southwark Street for their dinner plus theatre package. Perhaps unfortunately, the cafe does not serve dishes only made with chocolate: instead the name comes from the building being a chocolate factory before being turned into its current incarnation. The play this evening was The White Devil, John Webster's Jacobean drama. The fashion for Jacobean dramas at the moment seems to be to camp them up (eg Revengers' Tragedy at the National Theatre over the summer), and this was no exception. I think the ambiguous sexuality of the characters that this lends adds to the deception running through the play. The actor playing Flamineo was particularly good, the rest were moderate and there were too many over-the-top performances, which did not really bring out the drama enough. My companion for the evening, a friend known to avoid paying for anything whenever possible (even now that he has a very well paying job) remarked on how expensive theatre tickets are: these had cost £25 for an off West End, non-National Theatre production. Coupled with the dinner deal, the whole package came to a fair amount, but alone it was a credit crunch price. Evidently, as my trip to the National Theatre at 9.45am today in an attempt to get their £10 day tickets showed, you have to be up early in the morning to get affordable art.
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