Mother Courage and Her Children

I saw this performance on 28 November at the National Theatre Olivier.

An absolutely superb performance, marred only by one thing: the theatre was absolutely freezing with members of the audience shivering and putting on overcoats.
At one point we were treated to a welcome blast of hot air from an on-stage flamethrower, only once unfortunately.

That aside, Fiona Shaw as Mother Courage gave an astounding performance; Duke Special's music was perfect. The stage set was superb and gave the impression of a real war taking place.

But please National Theatre management, put the heating on!

Harry Brown

I saw this film on 23rd November at Stratford Picture House


What an excellent film. For the first fifteen minutes I thought this was going to be a depressing, look-at-the-dregs-of-society semi documentary. Then everything that had happened was pulled together in a very tight and consistent plot. All the characters were convincing. Michael Caine was superb and Emily Mortimer was a very believable detective inspector.

The performance in Stratford was not well attended although I got the impression several of the audience modelled themslves on the on-screen characters.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

I saw this film on 11th November at Stratford Picture House


The reviews of this have not been good but I thoroughly enjoyed it. For anyone who remembers the 1970s and onwards the basic story behind this is quite believable although what is shown as happened is less so.

For an early evening mid-week performance in Stratford the performance was quite well attended.

The Fourth Kind

I saw this film on 9th November at Stratford Picture House


An odd juxtoposition of supposedly original footage and real-life characters with the actors representing them. Many of the important characters still alive refused to take part in the film which surprises me not a lot. I am rather glad there is no other place like Nome (their moto!). The alien theory was almost convincing for me until the revelation of what had really happened to the dead husband. The film also provides an unfortunate if insensitive and possibly unintentional explanation of what might have happened to some of the children who have disappeared without trace in recent years, although I have not yet seen any press mention of owl sightings.

Rambert Dance Company - Insight Matinee

I saw this performance on 7th November
at Sadlers Wells Theatre

This was a cut down performance with only two rather than three pieces. It was aimed at a family audience and children with many explanations before and between performances. The speakers were Mark Baldwin Rambert's Musical Director, composer Julian Anderson and Professor Nicola Clayton a Cambridge University bird expert.

For the ballets themselves Comedy of Change came first. I found this more enjoyable the second time, although I still prefer to have more melody and less ping-plong-plink in music. The second piece, Carnival of the Animals with music by Saint-Saens was superb.

This Insight Matinee was thoroughly enjoyable for this middle-aged adult and I look forward to another one.

Prick Up Your Ears

I saw this performance on 6th November
at the Comedy Theatre

The original lead in this production was Matt Lucas but after he pulled out Con O’Neill replaced him. I did not see Lucas but O’Neill's portrayal of Kenneth Halliwell was superb.

It is a great shame that the play will be closing early, but not very surprising considering how many were in the audience. The theatre was less than half full.

Rambert Dance Company

I saw this performance on 4th November
at Sadlers Wells Theatre

The pre-performance talk was fascinating with a Q&A session involving Mark Baldwin Rambert's Musical Director, composer Julian Anderson and Professor Nicola Clayton a Cambridge University bird expert.

For the ballets themselves:
My favourite piece was Tread Softly using music by Schubert
The Carnival of the Animals with music by Saint-Saens was very enjoyble
But Comedy of Change with music by Julian Anderson I found less of a treat. The music having more plink and plonk than melody.

All together a very enjoyable evening

An Education

I saw this film on 31st October at Cineworld West India Quay

An entertaining film. Very believable characters, not just the heroine but naivete of the whole family made them easy targets for the film's main villain. It's a shame it had the usual cliches of what it took to get into Oxford.