After a weekend of Berlioz on Radio 3 it's also now time to reveal that ASoSo (as it's become to cast and crew) is itself inspired in part by Hector Berlioz. On reading the original Marivaux it rapidly became apparent to me that the male lead's romantic obsession with Araminte had a powerful resonance with the real life obsession that Berlioz had with the actress Harriet Smithson
Excellent trad Italian with impeccable service.
If you want to survive in the Italian market you've got to do better than that.
A vast improvement in food, service and atmosphere, I'd like to go back some time and try out the rest of the pizza. Alas, we didn't have the time to linger and watch some Antonioni, spontanaiety being more elusive thanks to marriage to Mrs Woof.
A weird one this - I had an excellent dining experience (that cost me a packet) yet I couldn't wait to get back to my usual milieu amongst the Pitmen of The Whippet for a digestif and a good chat about home.
The cast for A Soldier's Song is announced!
Having watched Granit Xhaka and his inept chums only just fail to sabotage a fine attacking display by Arsenal's front five in a lunchtime kick off by the time we'd reached the food part of our post-match festivities in Winchmore Hill stomachs were empty but we were bonhomie full.
Trying to remember the prices of the food (a key part of a review being the price/quality quotient) I looked at the JB's website to find that they weren't as high as I recalled. But I also discovered atrocious grammar and an insidious whiff of nostalgia-laden commercial bullshit in the copy.
Reminiscent of 1920’s nostalgia and times gone by; a charming spot to wait for your train to Paris whilst soaking up the iconic atmosphere of The Grand Terrace.
Were one of mys students to have written this guff I would have been forgiving of youthful lapses in grammar, syntax, honesty and style. The misplaced apostrophe, the redundant semi-colon, the appearance of the hideous 'i' word, and the frankly idiotic use of the word charming to describe a 'spot' usually inhabited by drunks of varied income and states of dishevelment.
Ah but that 1920's (sic) nostalgia! Who wouldn't yearn for the days of chronic unemployment, Armenian genocide, the rise of fascism and sterile, bat-dominated cricket? Really they could have gone much further back for the authentic whiff of nostalgia. Their toilets need no linguistic gloss, being truly mediaeval most of the time.
For curry in this part of town it's worth going the extra half mile to The Rusty Bike for something beyond the bog standard.
A post announcing my next theatre collaboration, working with director Victoria Welsh to put on aproduction of Marivaux's 'Les Fausses Confidences' in a new, original, translation with the Crouch End Players.
A London Journal 