Can’t stay away at the moment, another trip to London yesterday, second time in six days. Until these recent visits, we hadn’t been down to ‘the smoke’ for quite a while. Same format as the week before, a visit to an exhibition followed by a matinee and then a bite to eat.
Went to the National Gallery first (after a coffee, naturally) to check out Maggi Hambling’s large seascapes in her World of Water exhibition. Semi extract in nature, the overwhelming sensation is one of vitality as the sea pounds the shore with ever increasing ferocity. The media attention, though, will perhaps focus on one of Hambling’s paintings in particular: Wall of Water, Amy Winehouse, which doubles as an ode to the late singer. Those who look hard enough will make out her features in the waves. It seems a bit of a gimmick, however well intentioned and the other paintings are outstanding enough not to need this added ‘attraction’. The National Gallery suggests a visit to the more traditional seascapes by 19th-century Norwegian, Peder Balke as a sort of compare and contrast exercise. So we obliged.
Quick lunch in the Gallery café and onto the Duke of York to catch a matinee of “Neville’s Island”, Tim Firth’s play about four middle managers on a team-building exercise in the Lake District that goes badly wrong when they get marooned on an island. Very enjoyable and extremely pleased we went to see it without reading some of the critics beforehand. Most of them appear very mean-spirited and typically elitist in tone – if its not Beckett, then forget it! Whereas the revival of Firth’s comedy was often very funny, occasionally poignant and very well played by Adrian Edmondson, Neil Morrisey, Miles Jupp and Robert Webb – four comedic actors who know how to time a laugh for maximum impact. It’s not the sharpest play on the planet, it might occasionally be a little glib and it doesn’t necessarily hold the greatest insight into the human condition, but overall well worth a trip before it closes early in the new year.
Fish and chips and some alcohol after the theatre and then the train home.