Theatre: Silver Lining.........

An English Touring Theatre and Rose Theatre Kingston co-production
     On one dark and stormy night in the upper day room of the Silver Retirement Home, five elderly ladies are trading stories of their remarkable lives. With the storm floods rising and no rescue team in sight, the ladies are faced with the sudden realisation that in order to survive they are going to have to do what they have done for their entire lives – do it themselves!
     Silver Lining is the hilarious new comedy by writer, actor, presenter and political activist Sandi Toksvig. Starring Sheila Reid, Joanna Monro, Amanda Walker, Rachel Davies and Maggie McCarthy. It tells the tale of five extraordinary yet forgotten women, who come together one treacherous night to recreate The Great Escape – senior citizen style!

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This was hilariously brilliant. The script was brilliant because it rang true of cantankerous old people (scary as I head towards it), the cast as you can see are all much loved very talented actresses we've all seen on tv. My only criticism is I found the young actress who arrived as a carer was very shouty but I'm sure she will improve by working alongside such seasoned performers. Totally recommend this if it comes your way. 
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Theatre: Bang Bang......

A Made in Colchester production
     “You know, some husbands pretend to love hunting, but when they leave home they set their sights on other prey.”
     In a brand new adaption by John Cleese, Georges Feydeau’s hysterical farce Bang Bang erupts onto the stage in our first Made in Colchester production of 2017.
     Leontine, a respectable lady of high society, is in danger of being hoodwinked by her husband Duchotel. When Duchotel goes hunting, his prey is not four-legged animals!
     While he is away (“bang bang!”), back at home his lifelong friend comes calling – and he’s on the hunt too. Will Leontine get caught in his sights, or instead set a trap of her own?
      Saucy secrets unravel as the devilish Duchotel finds himself snared in a door-slamming, trouser-dropping, lover-hiding, balcony-climbing night of chaos set in the stylish apartments of Paris.

     John Cleese collaborates with the Mercury Theatre Colchester to bring this rarely performed comedy classic to the stage, directed by veteran of theatre, television and radio, Nicky Henson.
     Banish the winter blues and join us for a sizzling summer evening in France!
Based on a translation of Georges Feydeau’s Monsieur Chasse!

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What a lovely surprise visit to the theatre. Daughter phoned to say she had theatre tickets she'd only got today for today and she was taking R and had a spare ticket, was I free, and I was yaay!

I do like farce if it's done well and mostly this was done well. It was well cast apart from the doctor who got a bit shouty a few times. Loved the maid but didn't like her little stint as a policeman. The costumes were all lovely. The funny snappy typical hiding running around farce bits were really good but actually the script was far too wordy and slowed the action down so some of it took too long to get to the funny snappy bits you knew were coming.

Guess I'm being over critical as I've seen so many great farce, but overall we did all enjoy it and all the more for a sudden extra night at the theatre.
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Another mixed bag......

More delay in adding to this, probably as each thing isn't newsy enough for its own post and not many photos to pad things out, but actually when I think back quite a bit has been going on.

Eventually cleared all the washing from before and during our holiday, haven't done much of the ironing though as I'm very good at finding alternative employment, even to the point of completely defrosting the freezer rather than plug the iron in, did need it though, and Daughter, O and R arrived just as I'd started that job so understandably it took longer as I kept stopping to chat.

My niece and her new man had an engagement party which was noisy disco fun with lots of dancing. Hubby and I took Daughter and O so just the one car. Unfortunately many family members couldn't make it but it was lovely seeing the ones that could. My brother took this opportunity to tell me that he was now separated from his wife, he said that they have now settled into an amicable friendship. The next day I messaged them both with my support.

Hubby has had lots of SERV (blood runners) charity meetings. He has also bought both a new car and a new bike

Well he is getting his pension now so guess it's another late mid-life crisis hahaha. 

After picking up the car we had a lovely run out to Southwold for some lunch. 

I've had another craft day at Acorn Village. Each time we attend we add just £2 each to the kitty tin and this time we saw what to donate it to as the recent Storm Doris had done some irreparable damage to the cover of their polytunnel, hopefully our donation will get them a little nearer replacing it. 

We've had all our usual social stuff, eating out with friends, hubby ten pin bowling and I'm filling up the diary with future meet ups with friends too. At this rate we will never catch up with all the tv we've recorded! 

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