Good Things

24. The Internet 
I include this one reservedly, for it's a Pandora's Box of possibilities. As much of a hindrance as a help, most significantly it brings information to those who would not otherwise be able to access it.....which brings me on to the Internet's great antecedent:

25. Libraries 

"Powerhouses of knowledge", as Stephen Fry once memorably put it, and along with churches and countryside, one of the few places for quiet reflection and thought.

Empty tables and chairs

It is indicative of the hype surrounding Team GB that people should be so surprised at their lack of success in the Olympic medals table so far.

Only slightly less surprising is the sight of empty seats in some of the venues. As those of us who've attended major sporting events will know all too well from bitter experience, a good.number of the tickets are by corporate allocation, with the result being that most of those guests fail to show up. As to the lack of Olympic success, perhaps we can put it down to that noble British tradition of bringing sport to the world - and now the world pays back.

Bravo to the tireless (Lord) Sebastian Coe however, for speedily organising a ticketing system for spectators on the day.

Richard the Rotten

Such a novel idea, in this unbearably over-hyped Jubilee season, to stage Richard III in the punk era of the previous Silver Jubilee in 1977. Blighted by the atrocious weather, the company continued on fearlessly at the Harwich Redoubt, and now it has moved on to Colchester Castle. 

The result is another quaint but challenging Priory Players production in foreign surroundings, out of their old Trinity Square setting. Interesting to watch, though like many modern dress Shakespeares the use of the modern costume can be a little distracting, and lacks restraint - where Ian McKellen's 1930's version brought in the fascist clothing gradually as the symbol of Richard's sinister rise to power, this version has everybody in punk fashions, from the word go.

As a result actors like Will Parrick and David Elliott look comfortable in the DM boots, while the rest look in fancy dress. In the title role Kevin Topple - modelled on Johnny Rotten - bravely hurls himself into the part, although it lacks emotional depth and only comes into his own when the ghosts of his victims return. The performances, despite one or two wooden contributions, were all hard working, although lacking chemistry between the characters, except briefly between Gloucester and Buckingham. 

The most brilliant moment was when the excellent Chrissie Kettle looked up to the window of Colchester Castle - a Norman castle, just like the Tower of London. After a while I forgot about the costumes and got into the history, once Shakespeare took over - occasionally interrupted by that infernal music.

Nice idea, it could have been done better.

d: Lorraine Dunt
s: Kevin Topple, Will Parrick, Chrissie Kettle, Brian Malone, Liz Mullen, David Elliott, Ben Field, Nigel Walford, and others
 

King David

A few years, I wrote on this very blogpage about the sad passing of a local actor Brian Moore, who played the Fool in the Headgate Theatre's production of King Lear. Now, Lear himself has unexpectedly died, at a not very elderly age after a massive stroke following extensive hip operations.

It's a terrible loss. In many ways, David Knight was looked upon as Colchester's Olivier - certainly in local amateur theatre circles. I first remembered him in Julius Caesar as Brutus (one of his many Shakespeare performances for Priory Players), where during rehearsals sometimes I just took the sheer pleasure of sitting and listen to him and Cassius (George Flint) doing their stuff so compellingly.

I last saw him in March, in the audience at the Village Players production of The Real Inspector Hound in Nayland (another of the groups to which he was devoted), facing up to his condition quite stoically (with no real thought of what was to come), having enjoyed the show with his usual consideration and good humour.

Urbane, beautifully spoken (yet to my amazement, never actually a professional actor), but also generous to a fault, he was the quintessential example of how to act and act well with others. Sympathies must go out to his widow Sara and his family.

Water, water, everywhere...

...but not a drop to drink, so it appears, with hosepipe bans and reservoirs emptying to dangerously low levels. With the local area of East Anglia semi-flooded, and the River Colne outside looking rather brown to near-overflowing, the underlying question is, where is all this water going? My suspicious gaze wanders towards the huge numbers of houses - many  of them empty - being built, all of which of course, have water mains. Demand is exceeding supply.

Maybe voluntary water rationing will be the answer? On which irreverent note, my mind strays towards this amusing WWII information short.

Beware the beast Man

...so said Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) in Planet of the Apes.

Two prime examples of this: at Liverpool Street station at the weekend, three middle aged blokes just stepped over a limp (possibly pregnant) pigeon after some ginger footwork. One of them however, took it upon himself to stamp on the poor creature.

Almost as moronic and even more violent, an American soldier in Afghanistan has also now mown down 16 civilians, to whatever reprisals the Taliban may well inflict.

"I now pronounce you man and ... ?"

Or, as two women at a wedding in The Birdcage ask each other, "Which one's the mother?", "I don't know!"

The term 'gay marriage' seems rather an anachronism - particularly as in many of these couples there is usually the one who is the more fastidious and takes on the attributes of a female and the other the more aggressive male-asserted partner. There is also the simple matter of biological reproduction, which is only possible through adoption or the further dabbling into science.

The legality for this kind of union already exists in the form of civil partnerships: to extend it further to actual legal marriage is less a campaign for gay rights than another attempt by the opportunistic David Cameron to make his mark over his predecessors.