| Submitted by: Evelyn C. Leeper United States |
| Submission Date: 11 February 2005 |
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Mark and Kate had lamb cutlets, Susan and smoked salmon and eggs, and I can't remember what I had.
As time was short, we took a taxi to the theatre. It was only slightly more than the tube, considering there were four of us. It was a good thing this was the night for A WALK IN THE WOODS (with an 8 PM curtain time) rather than LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES (which had a 7:30 PM curtain), though up until dinner I was thinking we had the latter.
Our tickets were waiting for us at the box office. We got stalls again, which was a surprise. We had asked for balcony, but at the end of the phone conversation, Mark stuck his head in the booth and said people wanted stalls if possible. I had asked the person at the other end if it was too late to change and he seemed negative, so I said to let it go. But apparently he decided to go ahead and make the change after all, for which Mark in particular was glad as it gave him a much better view of Sir Alec Guinness, who played the lead. Though that is misleading, as the two roles (yes, another two-man show) are not greatly disparate in length. But even if Guinness's had been the smaller part, he would have made it seem the lead. Not that Edward Herrmann is a bad actor by any means--for he is an excellent actor--but Alec Guinness is Alec Guinness. And he was superb. I can't recall who played the roles on Broadway, but I can't imagine it being up to this cast.
I believe the show has already closed in New York, which I attribute to three reasons. First, it requires a really strong actor for Botvinnick (played here by Guinness). Somehow, it seems as if the really great actors play more in London than in New York. Second (and this is somewhat connected to the first reason), dramas don't seem to do well in New York. In any week's VARIETY listing of Broadway plays, all but one or two will be musicals, and those one or two may well be comedies rather than dramas. Off-Broadway your chances are better: theatres too small for lavish musicals may have a serious drama. But they never seem to last long. Even David Mamet's SPEED THE PLOW (a comedy praised by the critics for its wit) lasted only while Madonna was in it. Is it any wonder than Derek Jacobi and Alec Guinness head for London? Yes, they're British, but I suspect that that's not the whole reason. Pacino and Hoffman have appeared on Broadway, and their plays, though well-received by the critics, have had short runs to less than capacity crowds. (Naturally, when I checked the current listing, I find nine plays versus fifteen musicals, but I still think the proportion is usually much lower.)
And third, the script is somewhat negative toward Americans. John Honeyman (Edward Herrmann's character) is an idealist, true, but he is also at times the archetypal ugly American. This is a message that the American theatre-going public may not like, but is not so unpleasant to the British theatre-goers or to the Americans who have come to London and see the play, since they are somewhat less parochial than those who have never traveled outside the United States.
We spent our time during our after-theatre snack discussing the play and even arguing over it. But we all agreed it was excellent and strongly recommend it. (Again, Mark promises a full review.)
After our snack we took the tube back. At the base of the escalator at the station at Leicester Square was a man in a gorilla suit, complete with gorilla head, playing the trumpet. You see the oddest things in London.
One of the problems with the Underground this trip is that they are in the process of replacing the old, wooden escalators with new, non-wooden ones. So many stations have their down escalators inoperative. At least they're using the principle of having the working escalator be the up escalator, but it's still awkward.
An observation here: access for the mobility-impaired to the Underground seems exceedingly poor. It's possible there were elevators that we didn't notice, but I suspect not. This is interesting in a country which makes all its coins and bills different sizes and shapes so that the blind can count their change correctly. But then, the Underground was built over a century ago.
April 1, 1989:
Oh, to be in England now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England--now!
--Robert Browning, 'Home Thoughts, from Abroad'
This morning Kate, Mark, and I took the 'Sherlock Holmes Trail of Mystery' walk with London Citywalks while Susan went to Dickens's House. (She is evidently a real Dickens fan.) London Citywalks is an organization that offers various guided walks through London for three and a half pounds each (with discounts if you buy more than one). They have four or five different ones each day and maybe fifteen completely different ones in all. The difference is due to the fact that several tours are given more than once in a week; in particular, there seems to be a Jack the Ripper walk every day.
We started outside the Baker Street Underground station (to which we walked, since it was so close). There were about twenty of us plus the guide. The first adventure of the walk (as he put it) was crossing Baker Street and walking a half block to 221, now the home of the Abbey National Bank. In Holmes's time, this wasn't even Baker Street, but had a different name, and in any case, its proximity to the Underground station would preclude its being the correct site (one client mentions he had considered taking a cab from the station to Holmes's rooms, indicating a much longer distance). Still, this is the address to which 5000 letters a years arrive, addressed 'Sherlock Holes, 221B Baker Street, London W1.' Someone--it's unclear whether an employee of the Abbey National Bank or a member of the Baker Street Irregulars--answers each letter as 'Mr. Holmes's private secretary.' And so on this building is a plaque commemorating Holmes and Watson. (Another plaque in St. Bartholomew's Hospital commemorates their first meeting.)
The mysteries to be presented on this tour turned out to be the cases themselves. I was the only one who both knew the answers and was willing to raise my hand to give them, so I was almost always the one 'solving' them. This walk seemed to be Holmes 101. Now I admit it would be difficult for a walking tour to show you many authentic Sherlockian sites, since they are spread out over all of London and indeed all of England. Yet I had hoped for something more substantial than this, something along the lines of BaringGould' s annotations. The walk was through Dorset Square, across Marlybone Road (with a look toward the Marlybone Library, which boasts a complete collection of all Sherlockian books), through various mews, and down George and Blandford Streets. The mews (or is it mewses?) were chosen for their similarity to those in Victorian times. Because the gas lamps are still in place (though now wired for that 'new-fangled electricity') and the chimneys remain intact, mute reminders to the famous London fogs which were actually London smogs and disappeared with the Clean Air legislation in the 1950s, these mews are often used for filming stories set in Victorian times. Of course, there are pitfalls. THE WRONG BOX used an aerial shot of these rooftops, but not until it was released to the theaters did someone notice that they had failed to remove or conceal the television antennas.
George Street is another street often used for filming, providing an entire block of house fronts of the Victorian period. As I said, the settings were reminiscent of Holmes without having any actual connections.
I have to say I wouldn't actually recommend this walk.
Some asides here, this being as good a place as any. I can't recommend that anyone travel with us. We tend to start early, go steadily, do a lot of walking, and require few rest or food stops. The result on this trip is that Susan and Kate found themselves tired out while we still wanted to keep going (e.g., at Harrod's). And we also have a problem in that we usually write our logs while waiting for dinner or waiting for a play or whatever. This trip we've been spending those times talking to Kate and Susan, so I have fallen well behind in my log. In fact, most of this is being written on the flight home.
The walk ended about noon and we returned to the hotel for lunch. I had the eggs and salmon this time and a cider. Then we walked to the Ambassador Theatre for LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, stopping at Foyles on the way for some last-minute bookshopping. We couldn't find either THE SECRET OF SHERLOCK HOLMES or METROPOLIS. The former is due out later this year; no word is available on the latter, nor is the music available on record/tape/CD.
If you've seen the film DANGEROUS LIAISONS there is little point in seeing the play. Since the author of the play (Christopher Hampton) also did the filmscript, there are few differences, and the actors in the film are in general better than the stage actors (at least these actors). It is true that we saw the understudy of the Vicomte de Valmont, who was certainly no match for Johns Malkovitch, but I can't see how the regular actor would have bettered Malkovitch's performance. The actress playing the Marquise de Merteuil gave a more restrained performance than Glenn Close, but I think Close was much better at projecting the Machiavellian nature of the character. The film's ending was also more satisfying, though I won't say how lest I ruin the film, the play, or both for you.
I think in general I will adopt the policy of avoiding plays for which I have seen the movie, particularly if the latter is based on the former.
Having but two hours before SINGLE SPIES, we decided to eat between the two theatres. However, Susan and Kate decided that if they could get good tickets for THE SECRET OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, they would see that again and sacrifice their tickets for SINGLE SPIES. Luckily Wyndham's was on the way to dinner and they did in fact get tickets. And people think I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan!
The Akash is an Indian restaurant right off Leicester Square. We ate there last time with Kate and she was eager to get back. This was Susan's first experience with Indian food so we suggested tandoori chicken. However, she didn't want chicken on the bone, so we settled on an all-vegetarian dinner: matar paneer, bhindi bhaji, mixed vegetable curry, birani, nan, and paratha. Not bad, and with tea it came to only 21 pounds for the four of us--a major bargain in eating out.
So they went off to their play and we went off to ours.
Now, a box in the United States (from our one experience with them) seems to be seats at the far sides of the mezzanine, right next to or over the stage. Other than their location, they are much like any other seats, not set apart or anything (they may have slightly more leg room). In London, a box is like you see in the movies: a separate little room overlooking the stage, with movable chairs instead of fixed seats. Ours even had a small ante-room. Mark calls it the Royal Box and undoubtedly if royalty attends this would be the box they get.
The play was actually two one-act plays: 'An Englishman Abroad' about Guy Burgess in Moscow (Simon Callow played Burgess and Prunella Scales played Coral Browne) and 'A Question of Attribution' about Anthony Blunt (with Alan Bennett, the author, as Blunt and Scales as Her Majesty the Queen, or 'HMQ' as she was called). I had hoped for a more historical bent to the plays, but they were more character vignettes. I ended up feeling that there was probably a lot more than I was able to get on one viewing. Bennett also wrote PRICK UP YOUR EARS and TALKING HEADS (six monologues, of which the recently PBS production 'Bed Among the Lentils' is one). An unusual presentation, perhaps not to everyone's tastes, but worth at least a mild recommendation. |
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