5 March - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

In February we read Lady Windermere's Fan - I was delighted that so many of you enjoyed it, as I said I was less impressed when reading it. However, when read aloud the humour came out more and brought the play more alive.

It was another sad meeting with another farewell.  Can we please stop this?!

Goodbye Jane - it has been wonderful having you in the group and we are all going to miss you.  Please coincide your visits (with those of Cathy and Deborah maybe?) and come and see us again!

Bye Jane! We are going to miss you.

There seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm for reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time in March.

I think several of us have read the book, which is a murder mystery like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's Syndrome. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour's dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down.

The book was turned into a very successful National Theatre play, with a most amazing set - the stage was a lightbox ... well, it's hard to explain. Here are some pictures:

In this scene the street and house numbers are shown on the stage

This is a link to the NT Live page for the play: http://www.cineworld.co.uk/whatson/nt-live-encore-the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time

And the official trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O704ld5WQnk

As for the encore ... it was possibly the most incredible encore I have ever seen.  Words won't do it justice so I've tried, without success, to find a link to a video of it.  All I can say is, if you ever have the chance to see this play performed - go for it!

What Does The Future Hold?

Some ideas for future plays to be read.  I'd truly welcome your input - positive or negative!

But firstly ...

Future Dates

5th February

5th March

2nd April

7th May

4th June

2nd July

6th August ? TBC.  I may well be on holiday ... but there is NO reason why you should not meet elsewhere!

3rd September 

1st October

5th November

3rd December

Future Ideas

Before you consider any of the below you might want to look into them further. These are just ideas I'm throwing out and I only know Dog in the Night and Journey's End. Possibly Waiting in the Wings too!

Waiting in the Wings by Noel Coward.  Set in a retirement home for thesps, it addresses the feud between two leading ladies who once loved the same man.  This play is familiar to me, but maybe we read it at the ECC Play Reading, as it's not on my list of plays we have read!

The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter.  Often described as a "Comedy of Menace".  A birthday party turns into a nightmare.

The Caretaker by Harold Pinter. Well, you get one idea and others follow!  A tragi-comedy psychological study.

Angels in America by Tony Kushner.  A modern masterpiece speaking to us of an entire era of life and death as no other play within memory. Through the gay community in America it explores life, death, religion .... I understand it is heavy but humorous.  Part One of Angels in America, subtitled Millennium Approaches, erupted on to the stage of the National Theatre in January 1992. Part Two, Perestroika, followed in November 1993. Since then Angels in America has become one of the most studied American plays.  This will require some editing as I believe both plays are very long.  

Red by John Logan. Highly recommended by my reliable friend Malinda.  Very similar to Art. An artist exploring his art.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon.  Based on the book.  I saw it at NT Live and thought it was amazing.

Peter and Alice by John Logan.  Sheer coincidence!  Found this before Red whilst browsing online.  Highly acclaimed film about the real Alice and Peter Pan.

This is what Amazon has to say:

'Of course that's how it begins: a harmless fairy tale to pass the hours' 
When Alice Liddell Hargreaves met Peter Llewelyn Davies at the opening of a Lewis Carroll exhibition in 1932, the original Alice in Wonderland came face to face with the original Peter Pan. In John Logan's remarkable new play, enchantment and reality collide as this brief encounter lays bare the lives of these two extraordinary characters. 
This is the first new play from Academy Award winning screenwriter and playwright, John Logan since his RED went on to sell thousands of copies, played London to great acclaim before transferring to a smash hit Broadway run where it won 6 Tony Awards including Best New Play.

The Ackrington Pals by Peter Whelan.  I believe Sheila first suggested this last year?  Lancashire life for the men and women caught up in WW1.

Journey's End by Robert Cedric Sherriff.  WW1 masterpiece set in the trenches.

The History Boys by Alan Bennett.  We like Bennett don't we, and this is one of his best.

Thoughts please!!!

February 5th - Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde

We met in January and read Our Man in Havana - and thank goodness we had a good turn out as there were an awful lot of roles to fill!  With some jumping about I think everyone had a fair turn at reading, and with so many characters coming and going it kept us on our toes!

And talking of characters going ... this really was Cathy's last official Play Reading, but we truly hope that she will fit in her return trips to Brussels with a visit to us!

Lady Windermere's Fan

It was suggested in January that we read a Wilde in February.  As the ECC is about to put on An Ideal Husband I was tempted to do that ... but as I am helping out with props and will be heartily sick of the play by March, I hope you won't mind if we read Lady Windermere's Fan instead.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars

Lady Windermere is a 'Good Woman' who comes to believe that her husband is having an affair.  He forces the presence of this other woman upon her, and she turns to another man.  But who is the mysterious Mrs. Erlynne who Lord W denies he is having an illicit relationship with?

All will be revealed!  And in the process Wilde will turn his attention to the behaviour of the ladies of his era.

Interesting Fact:  There is a condition known as Lady Windermere Syndrome.  This is named after this play, to suggest the fastidiousness of Victorian genteel ladies.  It is a syndrome where the patient involuntarily suppresses coughing, causing internal difficulties.

Our Man in Havanna

In January we will be reading Our Man in Havanna, based on the Graham Greene novel.

It might be interesting for you to know that this play, a dark but light-hearted comedy of spying in the Cold War, is based on fact!  While working in counter-espionage for MI6, Greene came across the story of a German agents in Portugal who were feeding fictitious reports to their masters back home in order to benefit financially.  One Spanish double agent, Garbo, pretended to have a ring of agents all over England and became the inspiration for Wormold: the 'hero' of the play.

Greene wrote his version of the play in 1946, set in Estonia: but it was never published.  He then felt the Cold War would be a better background for the storyline, and it was finally published in 1958.  The following year it was turned into a film starring Alec Guinness, and in 1963 into an opera!

You can hear an excerpt from the opera on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-4F7nGkS9Y

Clive Francis adapted the book into a play in 2007.

The Film

Although the revolutionary Cuban Government allowed the film to be shot in the capital, Fidel Castro complained that the novel did not accurately portray the brutality of the Batista (the cruel former dictator who fled the country €300 million of the country's money with him) regime.

Wikipedia reports Greene as commenting:

Alas, the book did me little good with the new rulers in Havana. In poking fun at the British Secret Service, I had minimized the terror of Batista's rule. I had not wanted too black a background for a light-hearted comedy, but those who suffered during the years of dictatorship could hardly be expected to appreciate that my real subject was the absurdity of the British agent and not the justice of a revolution.

Greene's work is not celebrated in Cuba having fallen out with them due to his disapproval of aspects of the new regime's policies against certain peoples (eg Catholics, homosexuals).

The cast is huge!  It will be interesting to see how we cope with it!

December 2013 - The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie

Thank You Ladies

Firstly, my most sincere thanks to you lovely ladies for your incredibly generous gift.  I was really quite overwhelmed at your kindness - especially as I enjoy the group so much!  You are such a nice group that it really is a pleasure to have you here each month.  So, many many thanks, and those of you who walk with me will be dismayed when I tell you that I'll probably put the voucher towards a new camera that I have my eye on .....

However, I would also like to express on the blog how grateful I am to Rina for her help - I do the fun things: the planning, the suggesting, the baking - and she does the more mundane side of the readings! So thank you Rina.  Without your help the group would not be so easy for me to organise.

Thank you too to Dawn, Miriam, Margaret and Rina for their contributions to the nibbles today.  I am delighted that you enjoyed the mulled wine.  For those of you who asked, the recipe was:

• A couple of bottles of Shiraz and a fair amount of water.
• A large shake out of a bag of sugar (brown)
• 3 large cinnamon sticks
• A generous shake of ground cloves (I would have used whole cloves if I'd not run out - but if you use these don't leave them in for hours as they will otherwise drown all other flavours)
• A generous length of orange peel.  You could put in a whole orange studded with some cloves.
• The secret ingredient was a generous splash of a Polish liqueur which was a gift and too sweet for our taste - but you could use anything really!  Brandy is more traditional, but Cherry Brandy or some such liqueur would probably work well too.

Then I just heated it all up to below boiling point, and popped it in the slow cooker for about 1 1/2 hours. Or just leave it on a low light for 30 mins or so and don't allow it to boil.



Goodbye Cathy!

I feel dreadful that I hadn't realised that this would be Cathy's last play reading session.  I knew of course that Cathy was leaving, but had assumed she would still be here in January.  

Cathy - it has been wonderful having you in the group, and we are really going to miss you.  We wish you much happiness in your new home back in the UK, and hope that you will come along if ever your visits back to Brussels happen to coincide with the first Wednesday of the month.

Farewell Cathy!  We wish you much happiness and hope to see you again one day

The Mousetrap

I think you all agreed that it was worth outlining the set, as the play's complicated with lots of entrances and exits.  

Here's a picture of a set to remind us of the comings and goings!

Characters

Lifted from Wikipedia:

• Mollie Ralston – Proprietor of Monkswell Manor, and wife of Giles.
• Giles Ralston – Husband of Mollie who runs Monkswell Manor with his wife.
• Christopher Wren – The first guest to arrive at the hotel, Wren is a hyperactive young man who acts in a very peculiar manner. He admits he is running away from something, but refuses to say what. Wren claims to have been named after the architect of the same name by his parents.
• Mrs Boyle – A critical older woman who is pleased by nothing she observes.
• Major Metcalf – Retired from the army, little is known about Major Metcalf.
• Miss Casewell – A strange, aloof, masculine woman who speaks offhandedly about the horrific experiences of her childhood.
• Mr Paravicini – A man of unknown provenance, who turns up claiming his car has overturned in a snowdrift. He appears to be affecting a foreign accent and artificially aged with make-up.
• Detective Sergeant Trotter – The detective role during the play. He arrives in a snow storm and questions the proprietors and guests.

The Wikipedia article states:  Christie was always upset by the plots of her works being revealed in reviews, and in 2010 her grandson Matthew Prichard, who receives the royalties from the play, was "dismayed" to learn from The Independent that the ending to The Mousetrap was revealed online in the play's Wikipedia article.   And it does!

Many Congratulations to Jane, Rina & Margaret who guessed Who Done It!

I think it was a fun play to do at this time of year, although it was slightly longer than I had anticipated!  Given that it is the longest running play of all time, I hope that those of you who had never seen it feel you have partaken of a small piece of history!

FINALLY

Many famous actors have appeared in this play at sometime in their lives.  However, in November 2012 a star-studded cast gave a one-off performance of The Mousetrap to celebrate its 60th anniversary.  

Pictured left to right are Harry Lloyd, Nicholas Farrell, Iain Glen (back) Tamsin Greig, Miranda Hart, Julie Walters, Patrick Stewart and Hugh Bonneville  (The Daily Mail)

The Mousetrap

We will be reading The Mousetrap on Wednesday 4 December.  Please remember that the identity of the murder is a closely guarded secret, and never revealed by anyone who has seen the play.  I suggest we maintain this tradition after our reading!

November 2013: To Kill A Mockingbird

Thank you to everyone who turned out on this dreary and wet afternoon.  Special thanks to Margaret and Dawn (welcome Dawn, we all hope you enjoyed your first afternoon with us) for hot-footing it from the WIC Newcomers Coffee Morning, and to Naomi for re-arranging her day to be with us.

It was Naomi's last playreading, as she returns to the UK next week: we are truly sorry to lose you Naomi and hope that if ever your return visits coincide with the first Wednesday of the month you will come back and visit us.

Bye bye Naomi - come back and see us some time!

Today's play was a bit of a challenge - and my apologies to anyone who found it confusing with so many characters coming and going!  However, I think we all enjoyed revisiting (or visiting for the first time) this famous book which so many of us hold dear.  I think we all agreed that it is a wonderful work although somewhat emotionally draining.  I was wondering after whether she has read The Help, and, if so, what she made of it.

Harper Lee

After our discussions about Harper Lee and her reluctance to give interviews, I did a google.  I found this wonderful article which I have lifted directly from The Guardian's website. 

Article by Paula Cocozza, 28 June 2010 (link: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/28/harper-lee-interview-mockingbird)  Do read this, it's wonderful (Brits will particularly enjoy the fact that the interview was with the Mail on Sunday):

It's nearly 50 years since the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's Pulitzer prize-winning novel. Famously, Lee has spent most of the time since living a quiet life, which journalists commonly describe as reclusive, chiefly because although Lee is known in her Alabaman home town, she won't speak to the press, and has never published another novel.

So imagine the excitement when the Mail on Sunday devoted two pages to the story of a meeting between its writer Sharon Churcher and the legendarily silent novelist. "When [Harper Lee's] friends agreed to give our reporter an introduction, it was on one strict condition . . . Don't mention the Mockingbird" ran the preamble. This is how the meeting went (read it slowly, to make it last):

"Nervously, I approach the novelist, carrying the best box of chocolates I could find in the small Alabama town of Monroeville, a Hershey's selection costing a few dollars. I start to apologise that I hadn't brought more but a beaming Nelle – as her friends and family call her – extends her hand.

"'Thank you so much,' she told me. 'You are most kind. We're just going to feed the ducks but call me the next time you are here. We have a lot of history here. You will enjoy it.'"

Here's the original article, which is a bit longer than the interview!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1289793/Dont-mention-mockingbird-Meet-Harper-Lee-reclusive-novelist-wrote-classic-novel-mesmerised-40-million-readers.html

However ...

I think what Jane had read was about the lawsuit Harper Lee against a small (not for profit) museum she claims is using Mockingbird to boost their profits:  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/01/harper-lee-monroeville-museum-lawsuit-mockingbird

Earlier this year she also sued her literary agent, claiming he has tricked her into handing copyright over to him: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/04/harper-lee-sues-agent-copyright.  The Daily Mail reported in September that this has been settled and that Lee is happy.

Links on the right of both those Guardian articles will take you to further articles about the famous recluse.

I finish with this photo of her taken in 2007.  I think it's rather cute!

Lee is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, November 5, 2007