Theatricals

I was seduced - I forget by what, probably an advertisement somewhere - into going to the theatre a couple of weeks ago. 'Grace Pervades' at the Theatre Royal in Haymarket, a new play about the longstanding partnership between Henry Irving and Ellen Terry at the Lyceum Theatre at the end of the nineteenth century. Both of whom attract substantial entries in our ancient 'Companion to the Theatre' from Oxford. A fat book sufficiently ancient not to be stuffed full of pretty pictures of theatricals. In fact, no pictures at all, just words. Attributed words at that.

Proceedings started late morning with a walk over Clay Hill Green to the station, taking in just the one starling and no trolleys on the way.

The concourse at Waterloo was busy, including a party of cheerful ladies dressed up to the nines for an outing to Ladies Day at Ascot. Not a midriff to be seen anywhere! It turned out, as they got themselves into the news later, that they were a party of nurses on a beano. Good for them!

We opted for the 139 bus to the theatre, but not being familiar with its stops, managed to get carried nearly all the way to Piccadilly Circus. We should have got off at the stop before - not that it mattered as we had plenty of time.

I had planned to get bacon sandwiches at Duncannon Street - finding which it left as an exercise for the reader - but that plan collapsed and we actually took a snack at Olle & Steen, more or less opposite the theatre. New style junk food: we would have done better to catch the earlier train which would have given us time to take in old style junk food. That said, it was pleasant enough sitting outside Olle & Steen, watching the busy world go by. This being getting on for 14:00 on a weekday.

While inside, I noticed that some of the expensive trim was the same as that at the Wigmore Street branch, which we were using for a while. They must have a house style, and probably a specialist team to fit places out to it.

Had a quick peek at what used to be Aquavit, more or less next door, last noticed just a few weeks ago at reference 5. Further evidence in favour of the popular theory about the pervasive nature of small world networks. Now a place called Saed, which looked more or less ready to go, but we were not told why it was not open. While this morning my laptop turns up reference 6, a place decorated with higher grade waffle but which the laptop describes as being temporarily closed. Radio silence otherwise.

But, once again Gemini knows all.

He goes to explain what a hard life it is running a restaurant from such an expensive space. And the fancy makeover for this one must have soaked up a lot of money. For maybe two year's business. Was it done on tick, under the protective cover of a limited company - with the creditors taking the hit?  Gemini closes with the observation:

'... It is a brutal cycle for independent suppliers and landlords, but in the high-stakes world of West End dining, using limited companies to gamble on big locations is practically the only way operators are willing to take the risk'.

My heart bleeds for them all, not. Atherton lives on at reference 7.

Back to the theatre where, by the time we sat down, I found that my hands stank of handrail; the sort of metallic stink you get from handling dirty coins.

House more or less full for this matinee performance. A big cast, although the only one I had heard of was Ralph Fiennes. A slick enough production, with some clever staging, some clever backdrops, but I failed to connect. I failed to see what the point of it all was. Maybe you needed to be a luvvie, or at least a serious camp follower. Which last, I suppose is a bit of old fashioned slang, somewhat displaced by the groupies of my youth.

There was also a rather irritating version of Ellen Terry's son, Edward Gordon Craig. 

Out for a second encounter with the 139 bus, to carry us off to the Côte Brasserie at the South Bank, where we had done well a couple of years previously, as noticed at reference 8. Catching a glimpse of the back of the Lyceum Theatre of the play before, moved on since Irving's time to be the long-time home of the 'Lion King'.

Pleasant and cheerful staff at the Brasserie, including, I thought, the same manager as had been there two year's earlier. He was quite pleased to be remembered.

A new to me lager to get going.

Then some of their fine bread, followed by steak for him and mussels for her.

All very nicely presented and trimmed.

Probably taken with a carafe of something for him, and something ladylike for her. Followed by a tart with goo with Armagnac on the side. BH dealt with the goo.

On this occasion, unlike the last, I was a little disappointed, although BH was happy enough. Probably because the steak was not up to much. And nowhere near as good as the roast sirloin I had taken recently at the 'Wigmore'. I suppose one has to pay more for a decent steak and I wondered the next day how we would get on with the steak sold by M&S - which might have cost a tenner or so, compared with the thirty that I paid here. Probably not terribly well as we do not have a very good grill and we do not cook steak often enough to be any good at it: in fact, I can't remember when we last had beef steak at home. Let alone a cod steak - something I used to have when I was a child from time to time. Very good they were too.

Maybe a mark up factor of three is just not enough.

Stopped by RPPL on the way home, now opened after its refurbishment, which may have amounted to a roll of new flooring. Nothing much of interest, except a fat programme for the Endellion Summer Festival of 2017. The mystery object to the right of the programme is probably my outdoor glasses, removed for the purposes of turning the pages of the programme. A mainly choral affair, mainly in the church of St. Endellion. Perhaps the Endellion Quartet, whom we heard many times over the years, put in time with the festival, before they kicked off as a quartet proper?

A very small place, a little to the south of Port Isaac. A very old place, with a big church. I did not work out from reference 12 why the place was wealthy, maybe mining, but it did confirm the connection with the quartet that we knew.

Home to study the theatrical companion, the two theatrical dynasties - and to discover that I actually owned a book by Gordon Craig, reference 9. Bought for the woodcuts, rather than the theatre.

Ending with the thought that much the same ground had been rather better covered by the 'Dresser' of reference 3. Not to mention the 'Jersey Lily' of reference 4. The sad and dreary life of repertory theatre, now nearly dead. But I knew a chap for many years, a minor luvvie, who could get very nostalgic about the life of rep, which would have been his niche in life, had it lived to serve his turn.

I associate this morning to once reading something about or by a professional wrestler, active in the 1950s or 1960s: it seems that their life was sad and dreary in much the same way. Or at least, certainly could be on a bad day.

For which image see reference 11 below. According to Google Images:

Which I think is about right.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Irving.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Terry.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-dresser.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-jersey-lily.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/06/ask.html.

Reference 6: https://www.saellondon.com/.

Reference 7: https://jasonatherton.co.uk/. The parent lives to fight another day.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/12/more-madrigals.html.

Reference 9: Woodcuts and some words - Edward Gordon Craig - 1924. Just reached its century, having made the cut in every one of the many culls that there have been since I bought it.

Reference 10: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/06/laver.html. Previous, in brief, notice of reference 9.

Reference 11: https://capturingcambridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Notable-Residents-Hugh-Stanley-Buss.pdf. Concerning the likely previous owner of my copy of reference 9, one Hugh S Buss. painter.

Reference 12: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Endellion.