Six Go Back to Spain.......

13th to 19th October

Sunday
We started with the 2:30am alarm and picked up by friendsM&P at 3:30am. Southend Airport and met up with friendsT&F. This is another holiday to friendM's apartment in Riviera del Sol on the Costa del Sol. 

I'll not do a detailed account, let's just say there was a lot of drinking (not me) and eating, men playing pool and very late nights with plenty to laugh about. 

We hired a car this time and friendP did all the driving, so we were out and about every day.......hopefully the photos show what a great time we had.

Cabopino to La Lonja Bar to see Stelvis then across the sand to Andy's Beach Bar for more live music.

Benalmadena marina and cable car

Ronda

There were markets and beaches but I was obviously having too much fun to take photos. And our grand finale evening was also friendT's birthday, so silver service dinner with Soul/Mowtown/Jazz singer and birthday cake dessert with candles and giant sparkler! 

A week goes very fast when you are enjoying wonderful weather and great company. 

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Theatre: Two Trains Running......

A Royal & Dergate, Nothampton and English Touring Theatre co-production

There’s a controversial new president in the White House, and racial tensions are on the rise.
It is Pittsburgh, 1969, and the regulars of Memphis Lee’s restaurant are struggling to cope with the turbulence of a rapidly changing world. The diner is in threat of being torn down, a casualty of the city’s renovation project that is sweeping away the buildings of a community, but not its spirit.
The iconic American playwright August Wilson paints a vivid portrait of everyday lives in this defining moment of American history. When Two Trains Running opened on Broadway in 1992, its legendary premiere won TONY and Drama Desk Awards. Directed by the 2018 winner of the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award, Nancy Medina, this major revival will introduce this Pulitzer Prize shortlisted modern classic to UK-wide audiences for the first time.
Supported by the Royal Theatrical Support Trust.

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Our first reaction was 'great set'. An old run down American dinner with back windows on two sides so we could see who was arriving before they came through the restaurant door. A half broken roof not only so we could be inside but showing how neighbourhood buy-up and rebuild was very close. Amongst the rubble on the roof was a red door.

The characters were very clearly defined with accents so strong that sometimes I didn't understand what they said. My friend and I both agreed that the character with  the educational disability was acted brilliantly.

However, amongst all the very heavy dialogue I never heard any mention of the new president and it's impact on these people, there was no reference to the red door. The black actors talked constantly about the white man's persecution of "niggers", a word they used so much it made me feel uncomfortable, which may have been the point.

Another odd thing is while the script often explains that the diner's jukebox has been left unrepaired for months, we frequently heard off-stage music and sound effects that serve no purpose except raise questions with the audience of 'Where is this coming from? What's it for?'

We were both exhausted and frustrated when it finally broke for the interval, exhausted by the long fusty half with the sheer volume and speed of dialogue, but frustrated because neither of us could work out what it was trying to put across or where it was going.  My friend had decided to ring her Hubby (who had driven us there) to come and collect her, leaving at half time is something I hate doing so I was going to stay to the end and ring my Hubby for my lift home.......then we found out it was a three hour play and not finishing till nearly 11pm! Life is definitely too short to put myself through another hour and a half.

So we will never know where were the two trains and were they running or not?
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Theatre: In Loyal Company.......

Hosted by Red Rose Chain

In Loyal Company is the incredible true story of missing World War II soldier and prisoner of War Arthur Robinson, written and performed by his great-nephew, David William Bryan.

May 1941. Hitler’s bombs rain on Liverpool. Local packer, Arthur Robinson, joins up becoming a private in the 18th reconnaissance division. Deployed to Singapore, his ship is destroyed by Japanese dive bombers on arrival. Arthur is declared missing. This extraordinary true story of survival is a tour-de-force war epic.

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I was so moved by this play last night. An amazing powerful emotional performance about a Liverpool lad, youngest of six, going off to war in WWll. He is captured by the Japs, shares with us the horrors of Changi and is worked hard building a railway. 

Very moving indeed. Nothing on stage but him and a chair and he made about four minor costume changes, however you were drawn in to every part of his life and his emotions. He also gave character and substance to many other people that were part of his story.  

The Liverpool Blitz is scarily brought to life by powerful sound and light effects, in fact all the way through one man on sound and light did a brilliant job from a very small technical desk at the back of the room (beside me).

This was visual storytelling at its very best.

I was the first to stand and applaud, however, I'm short and from one of the raised tiers he probably didn't notice I was standing hahaha.

It was the true story of his great uncle. Afterwards I told him it was also my dad's story who had also spent nearly five years as a POW, dad had been in Changi and built the Kawasaki Railway, David hugged me!

I didn't even know about this. It was one night only and Daughter had bought tickets for her and R but couldn't go at the last minute so I went with R. 

It was meant to be eh? 

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Theatre: The Night Watch.........

The Original Theatre Company and York Theatre Royal present
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

“I get hooked on moments. I can’t move forward. The mind has hooks in time, little hooks that trip you up and take you back to way back when."
Tender, tragic and beautifully poignant, set against the shadows of feats of heroism both epic and everyday, The Night Watch is a thrilling portrait of four ordinary people caught up in the aftermath of an extraordinary time. A time when hearts beat faster and life burned more brightly.
Sarah Waters’ award-winning story of illicit love and lost souls takes you from a dazed and shattered post-war Britain back into the heart of the Blitz, hurtling towards the secrets that are hidden there.

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Saw this with my usual two theatre friends and we also got talking to a guy sitting beside us. None of us would say we enjoyed it. But T didn't mention leaving at the interval so not bad, just slow and stage choreography that was hard to work out why.

I thought it was really well acted by them all. With just a few deep and meaningful moments. Quite liked the scene overlaps with the lighting directing our attention.  But mostly it seemed a pointless dragging out of obvious relationships with a backwards play that ended nowhere.
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