Featured Post

Same but indifferent: Laughing Boy @JStheatre

Image
Stephen Unwin's Laughing Boy, adapted for the stage from Sara Ryan's Justice for Laughing Boy, is a powerful and moving story about a mother and a family that keeps asking questions despite the victimisation and harassment from the institution - the NHS - that was supposed to protect her son. It's a moving, celebratory account of a life cut short due to indifference held together by a remarkable performance by Janie Dee as Sara. It's currently playing at the Jermyn Street Theatre .  Sara's son, Connor, is a little different to others. He is fascinated by buses and doesn't like things like loud noises. But as he becomes an adult, his seizures and unexpected outbursts mean the family turn to their local NHS for support. Little did they realise they would receive such little care from a service that was institutionally incompetent and covered up thousands of unexplained deaths of people with disabilities, including Connor's. The search for answers about why he
Travel: Getting to Lyon

Spent the bank holiday weekend out of London - went to Lyon by Eurostar and TGV. That meant that half the fun was getting there. Well at 6-8 hours you would want it to be fun. I am typing this on the return leg from Paris Nord to Lille Flanders on the TGV to pass the time by. I have seen this part of the countryside before.

Friday's journey involved leaving London at 14:00 and making a connection at Lille and arriving at Lyon around 9pm - enough time for dinner at a sensible bouchon - or something like that.

It was a hot day, and so was the Eurostar as it left Waterloo. In the section I was travelling there was an American businessman, a woman from Manchester, a French businessman and myself. Shortly after leaving London the woman started complaining about the heat. It was over 30 degrees in London Friday so when that happens the city becomes a sauna anyway... She could speak French so the crew were sympathetic but explained there wasn't anything we could do. It picked up a little after leaving London - enough so I ordered a hot meal - but approaching Ashford International station in Kent the driver explained we were going to make an unscheduled stop there while they attempted to fix a "mechanical problem".

I was watching the clock noting that I had a 20 minute window to make the connection to Lyon and that was fast closing. The others seemed more worried than I was but I figured I was on vacation and there was nothing I could do so I should just go with the flow.

All the food was taken away from us which was an ominous sign. The woman from Manchester - Betty - was most annoyed about not getting a cup of coffee so I taunted her with an outrageous French accent saying: "Ah neooo coffee for yoo. You have ad enouf!"

After about ten minutes of witty repartee with my travel companions - overlooking the lull when Richard informed everyone he was American and he lived in Texas (he might as well have said he was prisoner on day release) - the driver announced the train could not proceed, but that in 10 minutes time a train coming from France would be able to be swapped for our dodgy train to continue the journey to Lille. It is okay for the train to limp along in England with no air-conditioning but they don't want it limping in the chunnel or in France - which is probably a good thing.

As we alight the conversation went something like:
Betty:Oh aren't we all being terribly British about this, just not minding all the inconvenience.
Paul:Well actually I am Australian..
Betty:Really?
Richard:Isn't that sorta the same thing?

I wondered about that. Later that night French news played scenes of Australians distressed over the fact that some woman who was found with 4kg of dope on her, was sent to jail for 20 years. One woman was particularly hysterical that the girl won't be able to have children. At this point I realised as an Australian I wasn't getting hysterical enough.

But back to Ashford International Station. Waiting on the platform for the replacement train seemed to take forever. And then the people on the train seemed reluctant to leave - it could have been that some were still eating lunch. But Betty and I kept telling the people as they alighted that they would love our train - nice and cosy and warm. And they would enjoy the Kent countryside all that extra since the train could not reach top speed...

Finally on board and realising that my train to Lyon had departed Lille already I knew that it was going to be a longer night than planned. There was no coffee on the new train, but the airconditioning worked and they kept handing out the fruit juice.

Finally arriving a Lille an hour later, I bid farewell to my travel companions and told them this was definitely one of the more memorable trips.

I just assumed that trains from Lille to Lyon were a dime a dozen - or at least there were several ways to get to Lyon - and it turned out there was. It didn't help however that it was a hot day in France on Friday and tempers were short, sweat marks were long and I had to get downgraded to second class on the leg from Lille to Paris. Everyone was given a card to explain their rights for compensation however so I figured I can deal with that little matter later. Right now I am on vacation.

I arrived at Lyon at midnight practically and found that the metro had already shut down. Unperturbed I hopped on a tram which sort of took me in the right direction. I got a taxi for the last half kilometre since by then I just wanted to sleep...

But don't let that deter you from travelling on the Eurostar. It is fabulous and so relaxing (particularly when there is air conditioning and the trains run on time which is the usual case)... And travelling 1st class is the best way to go... As I can attest on my return journey... The story continues...

Popular posts from this blog

Opera and full frontal nudity: Rigoletto

Image
David McVicar's oddly modern production of Rigoletto is back at the Royal Opera House . This modern and minimalist dark production has evolved over the years. It is better lit now but there is still an orgy and full frontal nudity within the first thirty minutes. This enables anyone not in the stalls an excellent view of a flaccid penis and a nicely shaved bush. But as time goes it seems more and more superfluous to the main focus of this tragedy of a court jester who seeks revenge. Here is hoping that the production continues to evolve... Conductor John Eliot Gardiner keeps the music well paced. Dimitri Platanias in the title role sounded great and received a rapturous applause for his interpretation of the role. You get a sense more of the doting father rather than the court jester or cursed man here. Vittorio Grigolo plays the Duke and sounds too lovely to be the cad the role calls for, but it is hard not to like when he is on stage anyway. And it is easier to understan
Read more...

Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

Image
Nowadays no self-respecting gay play can be staged without full frontal nudity of some kind. It feels like the default response for the modern gay play now that gay rights are no longer an issue .   Afterglow, currently playing at Southwark Playhouse , serves it up in spades. From the beginning, three men are in a bed, naked. There’s what appears to be a very brief exhalation of ecstasy, before the obligatory rush to the shower. But the gratuitous nudity and excellent performances can’t conceal this is a pretty conventional and predictable story about a fantasy couple.  The three men in the simultaneous orgasm at the start of the piece are Josh, Alex and Darius. Josh and Alex seem to live in a New York world where they can afford a rooftop apartment in Manhattan while holding jobs as a theatre director and a grad student in chemistry. As writer S. Asher Gelman based it on his own experiences, perhaps gay plays with full frontal nudity are the way to achieve financial security
Read more...

Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

Image
Damn Yankees at the Landor Theatre is one hell of a fun, sexy show. A great cast of dancers and singers give this show about a man who sells his soul to get on his beloved baseball team (and give them a chance of winning) new legs and balls. It also helps to up the ante with the sexiness with some healthy doses of cleavage and legs (and that's just the men). The musical is a retelling of the Faust story set in the 1950s when the New York Yankees dominated the game.
Read more...