Thursday 20th June 2024

Woke late, around 0900. Some vivid dreams last night...including watching a car reverse into mine on Sussex Way, damaging the registration plate. Aki brought me a tea. Got up and porridged at the computer. Worked through until lunch time. Slung lunch together. Watched the Serbia v Slovenia game. Tony texted to say he wouldn't be able to join us for summat to eat before the show this evening, so we decided to eat at home...which meant we got to watch the first half of England's game against Denmark. We got off to a good start, Harry Kane poking the ball in from 6 yards, but then became too passive, allowing a long-range shot to go in for Denmark...we had our dinner at half-time, then headed for the Southbank. Warm evening...very warm down in the tube station at Finsbury Park. Got out at Embankment and strolled across the Hungerford footbridge. Tony had gotten us great seats in row F of the stalls in the Lyttleton. I really enjoyed the first half...Dickens' long novel was expertly filleted by Ben Power, and I enjoyed P J Harvey's songs, but the lyrics got lost beneath the sounds of the small on-stage backing band. The lighting rig became part of the action, rows of lamps being lowered and raised in waves to suggest the tidal waters of the Thames...and bodies were fished out or fell in to the pit every now and then, accompanied by a splash sound effect. Managed to say hello to Tony at the interval, but he had to rush off to catch the Hastings train...as usual, he only audio describes the first half (I didn't tell him the woman listening to his description in the seat next to mine started snoring halfway through Act I). He said audiences had been poor, and that he'd been surprised the show hadn't closed...the NT were papering the house fairly regularly. The second half wasn't as good, as the filleting meant Dickens got watered down as the tide came in, the storyline becoming increasingly stunted...and I missed some of Dickens' comic characters, notably Mrs Boffin, and the one-legged Silas Wegg...Ben Power even got to invent a character who doesn't appear in the novel. So the question in the end, was did the songs aid the adaptation or no? I think their inclusion meant a lot of storyline had to be junked, and maybe a straight textual adaptation would have been more satisfying. However, I look forward to the cast recording of P J's songs...as there were two or three crackers; and I'd get to decipher the lyrics! We walked back over the Hungerford Bridge, and then strolled through Covent Garden, picking up the No.91 bus opposite Holborn tube station. Got to bed at 0130!