King Lear

To London with Lorraine to one of my favourite watering holes, The Salisbury on St Martin's Lane, where we met Adele and Patrick, had a bite to eat and a couple of drinks, and popped around the corner to Windham's Theatre to see King Lear, with Kenneth Branagh as the King. Also of interest to us was Dylan, who had been in some of my plays and was an old pal of Betty's and Lorraine, was The King of France, and doubled up on a few other roles. 

We four had a splendid time. The play was cut to two hours, and was a bit rushed so that  why people were busy killing each other at the end was all a bit thrown away. Still it was a wonderful spectacle, to see in the west end the stage and sound design were top notch. It helped too, that the four of us had spent an evening reading it aloud together recently. Like the Crane brothers in Frasier, there is nothing better than seeing something excellent, then picking at it afterwards.

The stage presence Dylan seemed to have been born with radiated nicely, and his verse speaking was clear and fluent. It made me very happy see him do it. He texted Lorraine during the performance to come backstage afterwards, but we didn't read the message till we were on the train home. Boo. Visions of hanging out with Dylan and Kenneth, and Lorraine's desire to hug Dylan all thwarted. 

We got the train to Lewes, and Adele drove us all back to Seaford, arriving a little before midnight.

Below a publicity shot from Lear. The stage was excellent, with the top part like a giant eye over which clouds passed looking down on the stage Dylan here is on the extreme left.