Frankenstein (play)

What a fantastic play! I went to see this with only a vague idea of the storyline, so every moment was a surprise.
It was a visual spectacle like nothing I have ever seen. There was a rigging of about a thousand light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, a very loud bell amongst the audience, a pillar of real water for rain, a revolve and some quite complex, stylised sets. All these elements came together to create an incredible

Benedict Cumberbatch is a brilliant actor, and he played the Creature perfectly. The two actors for Frankenstein and the Creature (Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller) swapped roles on alternate nights. This was a great idea. Interestingly, I had no particular preference as to which way round I saw them, but I was very happy to see Cumberbatch as the Creature. Miller was also fantastic, just slightly less interesting.

I am likely to write about Frankenstein for my Drama AS exam, as it was such a brilliant play.

I also love the philosophical side to it. It present ideas about what defines a human, is God responsible for man's evils, prejudice, and the dangers of playing God.

"If I'm a murderer, you made me one"
"I was cast out, like Satan, though I do no wrong"

Blithe Spirit

A wonderfully light and humorous play. It takes the fantastical idea of a man's dead wife returning as a ghost to haunt him and his new wife, but with a comedic touch. The medium that brings the ghost to the house was played particularly well, with an air of complete insanity. The plot reaches a dramatic climax, but still very light and entertaining.
Not the pay of the year, but a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Catcher In The Rye

I read this book under direction from friends who highly recommended it after studying it for their GCSE (I studied the fantastic To Kill a Mockingbird). I had high expectations and hopes. Catcher In The Rye is a good book. It just didn't grab me the way I felt it should. It is essentially 200 pages of complaining, criticising, hypocritical behaviour and repetition. Yes, Salinger captures a very unique form of narration. The characterisation is excellent. But, there needed to be some plot behind it. Boy gets expelled and complains about it. That's not enough for me. I could understand what Salinger was trying to do, and he did it excellently, but I found it slightly irritating. It would have been equally as good as a short story.

Put Out More Flags - Evelyn Waugh

I was intrigued to read more of Waugh's books after reading A Handful of Dust. Without much knowledge of which were the best, I chose this Put Out More Flags. It depicts the period of the phoney war, when WW2 had broken out but there was little to no fighting. Basil Seal is a wonderful character; adventurous and imaginative.
I like the idea of characters recurring throughout his novels, without them being in a series as such. Decline and Fall is next on my Waugh-list, and contains some of the same characters. I look forward to reading it.
Funny, satirical, insightful.
A Handful of Dust is clearly the better book, but I thoroughly enjoyed this.

When We Are Married - J.B. Priestly

I was never impressed with a production of An Inspector Calls I saw a year or two ago, but was still hopeful this would be entertaining. And it was! This Garrick Theatre production, whilst generally lightly amusing, had its moments of laugh-out-loud comedy.
Three couples get together to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary, only to discover that they were never officially married. Priestly cleverly reveals the façade that was marriage at the time, where the couples only stayed together because they were  married and didn't want to ruin their name. The truths of their relationships are revealed.
I wasn't blown away with this, but it was entertaining none-the-less.

Season's Greetings - Alan Ayckbourn

I found this production very entertaining. It was my introduction to Alan Ayckbourn, and I highly enjoyed it. Hilariously funny but with incredibly powerful and emotional moments. These relationships are totally believable and devastating, but provide genius comedic situations. The idea of a family at Christmas turning into chaos is fairly obvious, but was executed in superb fashion.
One of the main attractions to this performance was the fantastic cast (most of whom had been in various BBC dramas). Catherine Tate and Mark Gatiss starred, to name a few. All the characters were played to perfection.
However, a mess up in the ticket office meant that our school party were all given tickets for that days matinee (which we of course missed). The performance was entirely sold out, so we had to stand at the back. Not ideal, but bearable nonetheless.
The production was good enough to not mind the standing up. It really was superb.

P.S. The National Theatre is the coolest building ever.

A Handful of Dust

I was introduced to Evelyn Waugh's 'masterpiece' for A-level English. Simply put, I'm a fan. It is a unexpectedly emotional novel, depicting the character Tony Last's failed marriage. The ending in particular, with Tony trapped in a remote village in Brazil , doomed to read Dickens until he dies was surprisingly tragic.
Waugh's level of satire is very subtle, but still effective. All the characters (Tony included) are criticised, but in clever ways. The narrator is emotionally detached from the events, describing them bluntly, but the phrasing of key moments shed's light on the immoral nature of English society between the wars.
I've already got 'Put Out More Flags' and 'Decline and Fall' on my reading list.