'Utopia Avenue' by David Mitchell
25 September 2020
Regular readers may remember that I am a David Mitchell completist, having read all his novels. I was looking forward to his new book ‘Utopia Avenue’ (which I read as an unabridged audio book narrated by Andrew Wincott) – the tale of a fictional English rock band in the late 1960s. But I am sorry to say I found this David Mitchell novel a bit disappointing. I think one of the reasons I have always liked his books is that we are almost the same age (he was born just over six months after me) and we therefore seem to share many of the same cultural references. So it was a surprise to find that he had set ‘Utopia Avenue’ just before we were born, making it more of a researched period piece. It was wonderful to return to Mitchell’s beautifully written prose – deceptively simple with hidden depths. And, for David Mitchell fans, as always there are lots of very satisfyingly oblique references to his earlier novels. Indeed, the high point of ‘Utopia Avenue’ for me was a chapter which connects the universe, and some of the characters, from his fantastical epic ‘The Bone Clocks’ (reviewed here in October 2014) both with ‘Utopia Avenue’ and with the plot of his 18th century historical saga 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet’ (reviewed here in August 2011). Sadly the rest of the new novel is a fairly straightforward tale of the formation, rapid rise and decline of the eponymous band – focussing in turn on each of its four members and their manager. It’s full of period detail and slightly too full of cameo appearances by a host of real 1960s celebrities. You get the impression that David Mitchell is enjoying weaving these actual personalities into his fictional plot a little too much. And some of the cameo appearances are really quite clunky (with people saying “are you Humphrey Lyttleton the jazz trumpeter?”, “Francis Bacon the painter?” etc). I enjoyed following the lives of the five main characters as a kind a soap-opera but the plot didn’t pull the rug from under your feet in the way some of Mitchell’s earlier novels did.
Labels: Books
Surrey
25 September 2020
We were very lucky to have picked last week for our cottage holiday in the Surrey hills: we had glorious weather all week and did lots of great walks in some stunning countryside. We were staying near to the Hampshire border and visited the amazing natural amphitheatre of the Devil’s Punch Bowl – Europe's largest spring-eroded valley, as well as Alice Holt Forest and Frensham Ponds. We also did lovely walks from the home of the naturalist Gilbert White at Selborne, and from Jane Austen’s house at Chawton.
Labels: Holidays
'Twelfth Night' by William Shakespeare, adapted by Stephen Purcell
10 September 2020
It was wonderful, last Sunday afternoon, to be back at The Place in Bedford (or, more accurately, the car park of The Place) for an open air production of ‘Twelfth Night’ by The Pantaloons. As we arrived the actors were on hand, in face masks and bearing 2 metre long oars from a rowing boat which they used to make sure we positioned our folding chairs sufficiently far apart from our neighbours – so we literally couldn’t have touched other audience members with a bargepole. The show started with the audience being asked to give a cheer and a wave – but when one of the actors suggested we should give another wave, his colleagues quickly jumped in to say “No! No-one wants a second wave!”. We have seen the Pantaloons many times before, most recently their hilarious production of 'The Odyssey' at The Place (reviewed here in April 2019). They are always charmingly silly and very inventive but this production of ‘Twelfth Night’, adapted and directed by Stephen Purcell, showed them at their most innovative. Delivering Shakespeare’s play with only four actors would be a challenge at the best of times but in this case the actors were two real-life couples and the action was intricately choreographed to avoid any of the multiple characters being played by each actor to come within 2m of someone from the other of the two households. It was very slickly done, didn’t detract from the story and only served to add to the comedy. I have seen ‘Twelfth Night’ more times than any other Shakespeare play (I’ve previously reviewed ‘Twelfth Night’ here six times over the past 15 years). It’s a play that always seems to work and it was great to revisit the familiarity of this classic text, albeit in the austere surroundings of a car park, and to enjoy live theatre again after so many months without it.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
'The Merry Wives of Windsor' by William Shakespeare, adapted by Adam Nichols
4 September 2020
Last Sunday we were at the Roman Theatre of Verulamium in St Albans for our first experience of live theatre since the start of the lockdown, watching Adam Nichols’ adaptation of ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ performed by OVO Theatre as part of the Maltings Open Air Theatre Festival. This was Shakespeare as 1980s jukebox musical, with the actors forming an on-stage rock band, tenuously squeezing a huge number of iconic 80s hits into the story of Sir John Falstaff getting his comeuppance. It was very silly and lots of fun with some great singing and wonderful choreography. The production make good use of the unusual outdoor space, with the audience on pairs of seats (each 2m apart from the next pair) in the middle of the ruins of the Roman Theatre. The mixture of a very specific 1980s setting with numerous references to Coronavirus felt slightly odd, but nobody really minded. This was feelgood slapstick, impressively delivered. And the experience of being part of a live audience again was surprisingly emotional.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
Staffordshire
4 September 2020
We had a lovely week in rural Staffordshire last week, staying at a cottage outside Audley, near the Staffordshire/Cheshire border. We had mixed weather but enjoyed some great walking in the Peak District, along The Roaches and part of the Gritstone Trail. We also visited Beeston Castle and the gardens of Dunham Massey. But after five months at home it was just lovely to have a break and spend some time in a different place.
Labels: Holidays
