The last few days have been such a whirlwind! Miriam and I saw Othello on Thursday night. It was, indeed, a less than perfect production but Hugh Quarshie was brilliant as Othello and playing against a black Iago quite changed the traditional interpretation of the script. It was more brutal, the troops around Othello more obviously accustomed to casual violence -- very post 9/11. That made me uncomfortable but it also gave the play an unusual narrative. The less said about the costumes the better.
On Friday, I took the train to London, meeting Ellen Wallach at the Women's University Club. We took off immediately for the a bit of lunch in Shepherd Market and then to the British Library to see the wonderful new exhibit celebrating 800 years of Magna Carta. The surviving copies of Magna Carta are a bit of a disappointment because they are so seriously deteriorated, but the history of the ideals embodied in the document through English Common Law, the American Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights and then the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man was explained beautifully. There were so many stunning original documents, including Thomas Jefferson's own copy of the Declaration of Independence -- the one he submitted to the Continental Congress (not the one they adopted) -- which included a ban on slavery. Something we had never known or long since forgotten. After a spot of tea, we walked through Bloomsbury to Russell Square. I lived in a Friend's hostel for students near there when I first came to London in 1966 and I was able to find the address on Gordon Square where Virginia Wolfe, Vanessa Bell and their brothers first lived together in 1907 after the death of their parents -- the beginning of the Bloomsbury Set, which included John Maynard Keynes, E.M Forster, Lytton Strachey and so many more.
Saturday was equally jam packed. Ellen and I spent the day with my cousins, Tom and Susanne Cambern. Our first stop was the Audrey Hepburn exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. She was such an icon of the 20th century and this collection of photos by Richard Avedon and others reminded us of what an extraordinary figure she was. Though we tended not to think of it at the time, her gamin look in the era of Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell was revolutionary.
We also stopped in at the National Gallery to see the Soundscapes exhibit. A half dozen paintings from the collection were chosen and various musicians asked to compose music that expresses them. We all found it a remarkable experiment. The rest of our afternoon was spent chatting in a pub where I discovered a new drink, a Shandy -- half beer and half lemonade. It was so refreshing, especially as the weather had turned warm (at last).
After a lovely dinner at a wine bistro with excellent food and exceptional wines, we attended a performance of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde starring David Suchet (of Poirot fame) as Lady Bracknell. The old chestnut survives because the dialogue still sparkles and David Suchet outshone a brilliant cast with his interpretation of the domineering grand dame who has some of the best lines -- including telling her nephew, Algernon: "Never speak ill of Society...only people who can't get into it do that." Yummy!
Off to Cambridge this morning!
