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gervase_fenThanks to some holiday money from Dad we were able to book and plan a theatre trip for Sheena's birthday. I'd wanted to see something with Sheena at the National Theatre for some time, given how conveniently placed it is for our commute in to London. And so, on the first day of the four day bank holiday for the jubilee, we crammed into a train on a sunny afternoon, arriving at an even more packed Waterloo where every other family or couple seemed to be equipped with a union jack.
Records (actually the train ticket Sheena found in her wallet) show that our last Capital Break had been in January, 2020, to see Twentieth Century at the NFT. Thankfully the Gourmet Pizza Company made it through the pandemic, and indeed seems little changed - excellent food, friendly service, fantastic location.
Both the National Theatre and the NFT have had new carpet laid down. The NFT has rejigged the bookshop so it's now half the original size. It's now closer to the box office, angled so that a box office cashier can do double duty and scan any bookshop purchases. There are far fewer books on display as a result. The National Theatre (and possibly the NFT too) has gone cashless and card only, which just about makes it easier not to notice that a glass of white wine is the price of a bottle of such at the Co-op.
The Corn is Green was everything we wanted it to be - entertaining, moving, sentimental with a strikingly unsentimental lead role for Nicola Walker as Miss Moffat. This adaptation added Emlyn Williams as a character, opening with him stepping away from a Bright Young Things flapper dance to tentatively type stage directions which he then narrated, creating the drama out of his memories and imagination. He was played by Gareth David-Lloyd, whose association with Captain Jack Harkness seems to have given him similar youthful-looking longevity,
Other stand outs included Saffron Coomber as Bessie Watty, the ingenue who detonates a truth bomb in the final act. I had missed the experience of being part of a rapt audience waiting in suspense for an exquisitely timed revelation, all holding our breath together. Equally compelling was the Welsh male voice choral singing, performed live by supporting cast as emotional punctuation.
Finally, It struck me that Richard Curtis must have also enjoyed the play at some point, as the first ever episode of The Vicar of Dibley
MISS MOFFAT I want you two people. Very specially. First you. Miss Ronberry. I used to meet friends of yours at lectures in London. You live alone, you have just enough money, you're not badly educated, and time lies heavy on your hands. MISS RONBERRY The Wingroves! How mean! I should never have thought . . . MISS MOFFAT Isn't that so? MISS RONBERRY Not at all. When the right gentleman appears , , , MISS MOFFAT If you're a spinster well on in her thirties, he's lost his way and isn't coming. Why don't you face the fact and enjoy yourself, the same as I do? MISS RONBERRY But when did you give up hope? Oh, what a horrid expression.. MISS MOFFAT I can't recall ever having any hope. Visitors used to take a long look at my figure and say: "She's going to be the clever one".
