20 minutes of inspiration from the author of Flow…. I enter my flow state being able to spell Csikszentmihályi properly, by the way.
Mihálhyi Csikszentmihályi and Flow
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Tag Archives: raves
Every good boy deserves favour
On the way home from Giraffe, facing the Savoy. What a view.
To the National Theatre to see Every Good Boy Deserves Favour by Tom Stoppard & André Previn on the recommendation of Chris who happily went to see it again with me. Brilliant. You have to call it a play because it’s in a theatre, but it’s a concert, a dance, a play, and a collaboration that doesn’t have a name yet.
There were so many coups de théâtre it made me think the piece is a justifcation for theatre itself, and to give any of them away would be to spoil the experience, so go and see it. It’s only on til Feb 25th, and not often performed.
Well, all right, I’ll give one away. At the beginning, the on-stage orchestra all start playing very quietly, and an eery, almost supernatural sound emerges. Then you realise they’re not playing, the violins are just moving bows in the air. But you could swear you can hear music. And as the play is about a schizophrenic in a prison cell who’s convinced he has an orchestra, this has already unsettled your own sanity before anyone’s spoken a word.
A Little Night Music
Boxing Day casting: Me, John, Hampson père, fils & mère.
To the Menier Chocolate Factory for dinner & Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music with Chris & parents and John from Atlanta. I can’t remember ever walking out of a theatre feeling so thrilled and moved. It was a wonderful production, brilliant cast, in a theatre intimate enough that you can hear every word, and the sound design so good, you didn’t know it was there.
I didn’t realize how many songs from this show that I knew already, but I’d never heard them in context before, and the context makes a huge difference. Hannah Waddingham’s performance of “Send in the Clowns” was one of the most moving bits of theatre I’ve ever seen (and I’m not easily moved), but the whole cast were strong and great to watch. Needless to say, Maureen Lipman as Madame Arnfeldt was heaven.
Thanks for a wonderful evening!