“Rabbit Hole” On Tuesday night, we went to the Hampstead Theatre to see “Rabbit Hole”, a play by David Lindsay-Abaire. You may know it. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2007 (although we didn’t see it because it was at the Manhattan Theatre Club and that was not one of our subscriptions) as well as Tony Awards for Best Play and Cynthia Nixon and Tyne Daly. Then it was made into a movie starring Nicole Kidman that was nominated for a Best Picture Award in 2010. It is the story of a couple whose three-year old son was accidentally killed and their efforts to cope with that tragedy. It is wonderfully written. According to the programme, the author includes instructions in the script that it should not be played for melodrama and that the grief should not overwhelm the personalities of the characters. This is appropriate, because while the play has an undertone of nearly unbearable sadness, it is really about people trying to put their lives back together somehow. It is through their interaction with family members and doing simple things that the powerful emotions are generated. There is wonderful scene in the second act in which the mother who has recently lost her son asks her own mother about her brother’s death year’s earlier. Her mother gives this lovely, moving speech about how it is something that never goes away and that you take with you always, but that at the same time you don’t want it to go away and that you need to keep with you always. I am sure that speech is what won the Tony for Tyne Daly. The main couple has their ups and downs though the scenes, but as it ends you feel some hope that maybe, just maybe, they will get through the grief and reach the point where they are able to carry the grief. As far as I can tell, the Hampstead Theatre is incapable of presenting a play in any way that it less that great and this was no exception. The American accents were all good. Penny Downie, who was very good as the mother of the main character, is a Royal Shakespeare Company star (and a Downton Abbey alumni). But the play is ultimately about the husband and wife, played by Tom Goodman-Hill and Claire Skinner, who are both accomplished actors and were just tremendous. One of the fun things was that we had seen Claire Skinner playing the daughter in “The Father” (the play about Alzheimer’s disease) a few months ago. This was the first time that we have seen an actor playing a second role while we have been here. I’m sure it will happen again.

Super Tuesday: Democratic ex-pats had the opportunity to vote on Super Tuesday in a primary that would help choose the paltry number of delegates set aside for world-wide expats. There was three or four hour window in the evening to go somewhere near Westminster and vote. We had the tickets to “Rabbit Hole” and the timing was very difficult. It became impossible when Judie’s conference call went long and we then got delayed on the Tube. Oh well. We can still vote in New Jersey, although by June it looks like Hillary will have it sewn up. It also looks likely that Trump will be set as the Republican candidate by that time, but I do think there will be some more drama before that happens. I assume that everyone has seen John Oliver’s brilliant rant about Trump. If not, here is the link.

Our House in Montclair: As you may know, our tenant left our Montclair home a few months ago. We are entirely happy never to have anything to do with those people again, but it has been a bit of an economic blow. So we are trying to rent our house again. Our problem is that most potential tenants want a one-year lease, which means we have to face the possibility that we will be staying in London months longer than we originally intended. This is something we view with mixed feelings. London is a wonderful place to live and we really like our neighborhood, but there is a good chance that by the end of this year, we will be ready to go back to our regular life. Well, it’s another nine or ten months and a lot can happen in that period of time, so we might as well enjoy things. Who knows, we may be happy to stay another four or five months by then.

Self-Portrait: I have painted a self-portrait. It seemed like an “artist” thing to do. I decided to do it in a sort of pointillist style and then make my hair and beard three-dimensional by adding structuring compound to the paint, making those points into big blobs. Anyway, and I kind of assume that this must happen to real artists, but about halfway along, I suddenly realized that this thing was looking really good. (Can I picture Monet thinking to himself, “Boy those are some great water lilies”? Maybe not.) This feeling doesn’t happen to me too often. So I have been in a bit of an obsessive “Finishing the Hat” mode for the last few days. (All those dots take a while and I kept painting over areas to get the effect right.) I took more time that I sometimes spend, partly just because I like what it looks like. (I wasn’t as excited about the bus stop scene or even the one of our house in Montclair and just wanted to finish them by the end.) This morning, I fiddled with it a bit more and I think I am finished. Here it is: