Love’s Labour’s Lost Review

Great stuff, good fun.

2007, Shakespeare’s Globe

• Director: Dominic Dromgoole
• Designer: Jonathan Fensom
• Composer: Claire van Kampen

Self-denial is in fashion at the court of Navarre where the young King and three of his courtiers solemnly forswear all pleasures in favour of serious study. But the Princess of France and her all-too-lovely entourage have other ideas and it isn’t long before young love, with its glad eyes, hesitations and embarrassments, has broken every self-imposed rule of the all-male ‘academe’.

Cast
Rosaline: Gemma Arterton
Sir Nathaniel: John Bett
Costard: Joe Caffrey
Katherine: Oona Chaplin
Moth: Seroca Davis
Holofernes: Christopher Godwin
Berowne: Trystan Gravelle
Ferdinand King of Navarre: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Maria: Cush Jumbo
Longaville: William Mannering
Dumaine: David Oakes
Jaquenetta: Rhiannon Oliver
Boyet: Paul Rider
Princess of France: Michelle Terry
Dull: Andrew Vincent
Don Armado: Timothy Walker

The Merchant of Venice Review

2007 Shakespeare’s Globe, London, UK

by William Shakespeare

• Director: Rebecca Gatward
• Designer: Liz Cooke
• Composer: Adrian Lee

Portia, a wealthy heiress of Belmont, sets her suitors a challenge. He who wins it will win her hand; those who lose it will lose her hand and much more. In Venice, city of consumption, speculation and debt, Bassanio borrows money from Antonio to finance his attempt. Antonio, in turn, takes out a loan from the moneylender Shylock. The loan will be repaid when Antonio's ships return to the city. If they should fail and the money cannot be paid Antonio shall give to Shylock a pound of his own flesh. And they do fail. And Shylock will have his ‘bond’.

Airports

Airports are good places to write. If I were a writer, I would journey to one even without a ticket, just for some inspiration. Rain slowly fell, struggling to make it to ground, like a reluctant boy dragging his feet to school after the holidays. It pretended to avoid its final destination like a man zig zagging his approach to speak to a cute girl at the bar, the droplets proceeded, pushed on only by the force of the drop behind it, like a sleepy commuter in tube people traffic.

While writing, I would of course desire good coffee, and airports, being airports would provide some pale imitation. One might peer outside at the planes, these huge flys these beasts of the air.

The grey all around the skies made it difficult to believe it was summer. One knew of course, it was a logical deduction from a calendar, but to really be, summer required more than a date. Summer is a belief that life is good and bright and happy. That it's right to drink beer and smile at being alive.

I suppose that if you had been having some poor sleep recently you might dread the prospect of a 24 hour flight. You might just wish you could sleep somewhere, or rather, knowing that you can't, you might wish for an injection that made you feel refreshed. And the prospect might daunt you, you might try to focus on the movies that you would watch and the excitement of new people or old friends newly seen that travel brings.

It is 8pm London time, that means 5am Sydney time. That means that I should stay awake for the next 12 hours. One coffee would not be enough.

3:10 to Yuma

When you go to see a Western movie these days, you expect guns, you want manliness, and a good ending. Well, two out of three aint bad.Crunching gravel and clicks of guns. Fine performances by Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. Though Russell does seem to play himself in most films.See it again rating: I'd see it again in about 10 years.From the director James Mangold of Walk the Line and the sweet romantic comedy Kate and Leopold.

Richard Branson book Screw It, Let’s Do It

 

 

Not as good as his later autobiography. Short compared to his other autobiography – Losing my Virginity. Compare 256 pages to 624.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1. Write everything down

Men are born to write… Whatever he beholds or experiences, comes to him as a model and sits for its picture. He counts it all nonsense that they say, that some things are undescribable. He believes that all that can be thought can be written, first or last; and he would report the Holy Ghost, or attempt it. Nothing so broad, so subtle, or so dear, but comes therefore commended to his pen, and he will write. In his eyes, a man is the faculty of reporting, and the universe is the possibility of being reported.