Marathon

No, no, don't get excited - although I am quite sure that no-one did!

The marathon in question was six hours of watching theatrical performance. We went, yesterday, to see "His Dark Materials" at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

It was lovely. I had heard good reports going back to the original production at the South Bank, and then again of this co-production with Birmingham Rep, and they were quite true. The complexity of the story was dealt with superbly well, and the direction was stunning, scene moving rapidly into another scene without any confusion, even when actors were doing extremely rapid doublings back - costumes must have been flying in all directions, sometimes. (I don't think most people would have ever thought of it like that, it's just me, fascinated as ever by the staging.)

The performances were mostly outstanding (I had a few doubts about Mrs Coulter, who was a bit shouty) But almost best of all were the puppets that were the daemons. They were really very simple - as was all the staging, admirably so - but they somehow became natural extensions of the actors manipulating them, so much so that you did kind of no longer see the actors. The only exceptions were the Gallivespians, over which a decision had been made to play them for laughs. Which is, I think pretty true to the book, as was the thing in it's entirety, but for me it did jar a little.

The armoured bears were noble, and the witches magnificent. Most amazing of all, Farder Coram managed something approaching a credible East Anglian accent!!

Now I need to go back to the books and reread them.

That took care of Saturday. Today, we are in a state of flux, with the DSM manfully wrestling with the new furniture for the former spare room, soon to be new (small) workroom. It's going to be good, I think. What is more, I have already managed to Freecycle the spare beds, just like that. How nice to find that the system works!

But we also had a final visit from the website person, and - ta da! - here we go! A little minimalist as yet, but it will develop quite rapidly post-Woolfest.

Fun, no? (Although I can't quite believe in it yet.....