During Paul’s stay, we went to the Hampstead Theatre and the Old Vic, two of our favorite theatres, each for the last time during our current stay here. We will certainly be back and will see productions at both venues, but we will never have the chance again to religiously attend every performance they produce.

“Filthy Business”: First, we went to the Hampstead Theatre (after dinner at Bradley’s, our favorite restaurant in an area surprisingly devoid of good places to eat). We saw what I am pretty sure was the first performance ever of a new play, “Filthy Business”, by Ryan Craig. It is a story about a family that owns a shop in East London that sells scrap rubber products. The matriarch of the family has her two boys in the business and wants to keep them there. And there is another generation that she has her eye on to continue the business. Sara Kestelman (who we saw in the “Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide….” last fall) was stunning as the conniving matriarch, Yetta. She dominated the stage in much the same way that Yetta dominates her family. Yetta is a Jewish immigrant and a survivor and an archetype of all of the hard-working immigrants who built London (and, as such, has a relevancy in the era of Brexit) and Kestelmen gives an award-winning performance. Dorian Lough was wonderful as Leo, the son who wanted to get out of the business but could never escape Yetta’s manipulations. And Callum Woodhouse (seen in “The Durrels” on TV), as Leo’s son Mickey, who clearly doesn’t belong in the shop, becomes the real focus of the play in the second act. The real dramatic tension in both acts is whether Leo or Mickey can escape the business and Yetta. Leo can’t but Mickey ultimately does after some entertaining twists, turns and surprises. The supporting cast of family and shop employees is typically first-rate. The set is interesting (although the turntable broke own briefly) and the scene changes were a bit clunky in the first preview performance. Judie complained that she didn’t find any of the characters likable. I’m not sure I agree with that, but even if it is true, I think it is far more important for a play to set up a situation with plausible dramatic tension involving well-developed characters. I think “Filthy Business” clearly accomplished this. I enjoyed myself. (It opened to great reviews.) I am going to miss the Hampstead Theatre a lot.

“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”: It is the 50th anniversary of this play, which burst onto the scene and made Tom Stoppard famous, beginning his remarkable career. For the occasion, The Old Vic cast Daniel Radcliffe and Joshua McGuire as the title characters, with David Haig as the Player. The writing is stupendously clever, so densely packed that you feel pressed to keep up with the flow of words. The conceit of having the two characters and the Player occasionally finding themselves in the middle of “Hamlet” and then, just as suddenly, on their own again is brilliant. It was interesting that Radcliffe chose to play (or was cast as) Rosencrantz, as he is the slower and less glib of the two leads. Guildenstern gets much more of the clever and funny lines. It is not that Radcliffe wasn’t very good. He just seemed to be playing against type or at least eschewing the flashier part. I also don’t recall the Player as being as powerful a character as Haig played him. He is an important balance to the confused and somewhat helpless pair. Indeed, one of the thoughts which I had as the play progressed (which I’m sure is not an original insight) is how much the play owes to “Waiting for Godot”. Both feature a bewildered couple, waiting for something to happen to them–probably death. Sporadic busts of activity fail to clarify anything and only lead to a sort of despair, although Stoppard’s existential losers are far funnier than Becket’s. I’ve been wondering since seeing this play whether it is one of those plays that is somewhat foolproof–so clever that it will aways be good if you can maintain the pace. I’ve concluded that it would be pretty easy to do an unsatisfying production. Director David Levaux and the cast deserve credit for a production that seems as fresh and shockingly inventive as it must have seemed fifty years ago.

St. Paul’s Cathedral: Paul and I decided to go to St. Paul’s Cathedral. I’d been once before with someone who was visiting (Peter and Andrea?) We got the audio guide, which does a surprising amount of proselytizing until you figure out which parts to skip. The original St.Paul’s, which was made of wood, with a lead roof, burned to the ground in the Great Fire. (The nearby booksellers all moved their merchandise there in the face of the inferno, which couldn’t have helped.) Wren’s design for the new cathedral was controversial, not the least because it was reminiscent of the hated Vatican. Wren had to do away with much of the ornamentation that he wanted because it was seen as too Catholic. Much of the current mosaics and painting was not added until the Victorian Era. The whole thing is very impressive. You can climb to the top of the dome, if you like doing that. I made it up to the Whisper gallery that looks down into the cathedral. (There are better view points in London that the top of St. Paul’s, partly because in other view points, you get to see St. Paul’s.)

I though that the best part of St. Paul’s was the crypt. It contains all kinds of interesting tombs. They were mostly of dead military officers for a while, but then it was apparently opened to enlisted men (in plaques) and artists and politicians and others. The biggest displays were for Lord Nelson, The Duke of Wellington and Winston Churchill, the only three people to have state funerals in the Cathedral (although Winston is actually buried elsewhere). The one with the best story is Nelson’s. Nelson, as every British school child knows, was killed by a French sniper, just as his victory at the Battle of Trafalgar was assured. At the end of a spectacular hero’s funeral, Nelson’s sarcophagus, which was under the dome of St; Paul’s, was lowered through a hole cut in the marble floor to its current resting place. The sarcophagus itself was designed for Cardinal Woolsey, when he was still in Henry VIII’s good graces. Woolsey fell very much out of favor and among the many things he lost (including his life), was the vessel for his burial, which Henry appropriated. Henry was planning to adapt it for his use, but he died before it was finished and succeeding monarchs never got around to doing anything with it either. So the thing ended up sitting in Windsor Castle, losing bits of ornamentation along the way, until it was donated by the crown to be used for Nelson’s funeral.

Bunhill Cemetery: Continuing in the same vein, we took Paul to see Bunhill Cemetery, which is near our flat and across the street from where John Wesley lived. (It is possible I wrote about this place before.) Bunhill is short of Bone Hill and it is where the non-conformists, i.e., the people  who weren’t Anglican, were buried (if they were sufficinetly important). (It was illegal for Anglicans to be buried in The City and Bunhill is just outside where the wall had been and where the line of the City ends.) Lots of famous folks are buried there, including DeFoe, Blake, Bunyan and Richard Price, the radical Unitarian Minister who preached at our New Unity church at Newington Green. In early spring it is beautiful with daffodils and other flowers profusely blooming. The most interesting tomb in Bunhill is for Dame Mary Page, not because of who she was, but because the inscription on the back, which says “In 67 months, she was tapped 66 times. Had taken away 240 gallons of water without ever repining at her case or ever fearing the operation.” It is thought that she had Meig’s Syndrome, which caused water to build up around her lungs. Stop for a second and think about 240 gallons of water and just how much that is. Photos follow.