London Activities

London Theater

Theater is on the agenda.  Friday we went to see Kevin Spacey in Richard II.  We planned to combine this with dinner at one of the contenders for “best fish and chips in London”–but the place wasn’t easy to find.  A friendly passer-by noted our frustrated expressions and asked us if we needed help.  In his friendly Scottish accent, he assured us that Master’s Fish Place was the best of the best and that he would lead us to it.  On the way, he asked if we were here to see Kevin Spacey.   "Our Kevin is quite the local lad," he said with several winks and a smirk–which we think means that the local gay community has embraced Kevin Spacey as one of their own while finding his American Celebrity status a bit pretentious and amusing.  At the fish shop, the Mustard-Coated Cod was fabulous, as was the classic fried cod and chips.  The play was not quite so perfect.  Actually, everything about it was fabulous except for Our Kevin.  He seemed to be putting all his effort into affecting a passable British accent, and there was no energy left for inhabiting the part–which was a problem since there’s not much there in Richard II if Richard’s psychology isn’t interesting.

Last night we saw Journey’s End, a World War I drama in realist mode, written somewhere in the twenties.  I won’t know the date until I look it up on the web because we are too shocked at the price of a program to buy one.  Can you imagine–you pay 25 pounds or about $50 for your ticket (that’s $100 for two people) and then they have the effrontery to ask for 5 pounds more for a program.  It just goes to show that once people get something for free (such as programs, in the states), it will be hell to get them to pay for it.  Anyhow, the play was moving–a study of men in the trenches, trying to behave well during a dirty, meaningless war.  It seemed apt for this moment, when the Brits have so many young men in Iraq. 

London Art Scene

Today, a Friday, we are going off to an art fair that Michael has been waiting for.  It’s called the Affordable Art Fair, and we’re about to see what the London art world thinks “affordable” means [found out--under 3000 pounds or nearly $6000--yikes; but there was lots at 250 to 400 pounds].  This should be one more great cultural pleasure–we’re awash in them!  All these art fairs, and book prize celebrations have us
giddy.

Yesterday we went to several upscale art galleries, where I learned about a neglected nightscape painter of the mid 19th c named Grimshaw and wanted so badly to buy his painting of Whitby, which was just the view that I had when I walked the piers at Whitby two weeks ago—but it was priced at 75,000 pounds, so I tried to be content with loving it for the minutes we could have with it and I joined Michael in conversation with the gallery owner, who liked our interest, even though we made clear we didn’t have that kind of money.  He showed us slowly through the whole gallery, and we talked with great animation about his Barbizon paintings, and Birmingham school paintings, etc., and at the end of it he gave us two free tickets to the Olympia art show in a few weeks, which are worth 10 pounds each.  I guess he enjoyed talking with people who love his stuff in the way he does!

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