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Prayers and thoughts: The Inseparables @Finboroughtheatre

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The Inseparables brings Simone de Beauvoir’s posthumously published novel to life. It traces a lifelong friendship between Sylve and Andrée, two unconventional girls who grew up in a stifling world where being a woman meant getting married or entering a convent. With a quick pace and engaging performances from the two leads, it is a journey back into the 20th century that captures two unconventional women trapped in a conventional world that will have you reflecting on how much or little things have moved on in the last century. It’s currently playing at the Finborough Theatre .  We’re introduced to Sylve praying for her country, France, to be saved from the war and indoctrinated into the world of faith and obedience. But too smart for all that, her life was full of detached guilt and boredom. But when she meets Andrée, a new arrival at her school, she is struck by how different she is from everyone else. She was burned in a fire and had a passion for life that nobody else she knew...

Theatre: Rose and other adventures...

In the month it took to get my internet put up I did get up to the following:
  • Caught The Rose Tattoo with Zoe Wanamaker. Great play and well worth the £10 tix. It is great to see more Tennessee Williams plays in London and here is hoping that the fashion for reviving his work continues... It wasn't hard to resist doing ones best impersonation of Sicilian impersonator with colleague AW. It sort of goes, "Naw naw naw naw naw... Naht mah Rrrrose!" Perhaps it was the fine wine, but after the play AW and I photographed the grass on the theatre and groped a cast iron statue on Waterloo Bridge... It was a great night...
  • Saw Pelléas et Mélisande (translated: Pelléas and Mélisande) at the Royal Opera. I had been warned that the opera was boring so sat in the cheap seats but it turned out to be all rather exciting and dramatic. Sure it all ends in tears but what a way to go... The champagne at interval cost more than the ticket but it was all rather worth it... Particularly when Sir Simon Rattle was conducting...
  • Performed in London Gay Mens Chorus concerts in Edinburgh and Glasgow. It was music for bad boys that included Relax (don't do it) and the march and chorus from Carmen. I had a reading to do from Larry Kramer's lovely novel Faggots which went down like a treat too. Maybe it was in the intonation, my lovely dulcet tones, I just don't know. The choir will not be so much under the influence of Irn-Bru as well... I relied on it to get through the weekend concerts (particularly after arriving in Edinburgh having had not much sleep)...I won't be in the concert when it gets to London's Cadogan Hall in July but it is well worth booking for asap as it should sell out...

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Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

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Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

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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.
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