Reviews
Monday 21st November 2011
First up: ‘Nutcracker!’
It was good – very good in fact. It was also very exciting that Matthew Bourne himself (praise be to Matthew) was there. This chap just wandered onto the stage before it started looking as if he was going to ask to turn off our phones, and said: hello, my name is Matthew Bourne…to which the entire audience made a collective and involuntary ‘ooooo’ noise, a cross between sharply sucked in breath and a proper coo. Anyway, he was there to introduce a ‘curtain raiser’ in which a group of local school children who had been rehearsed with his leading dancers for some weeks, did a short dance as a ‘starter’, really. Very moving it was too.
Then they served up the main ballet, which I did love. However… it wasn’t quite as amazing as Cinderella. I really wish Mark had seen that first, as I did. Nonetheless, we really enjoyed it, it was dark (ish), funny and very clever. Now, I am going to make a statement that I never expected to make: it was slightly too
pink. I know! I adore pink as you know and normally, anything pink makes me happy – and it did, don’t let’s over-react. But oh my, there was an awful lot of pink, mainly hot pink, again, my preferred end of the pink spectrum, and in the end, it was just a tad too much. Meh.
The Millenium Cntre is an amazing building, really beautiful:
Breathtaking, inside and out, with sweeping stairs and masses of open space giving the feeling of being on a huge liner, or in a very modern ball-room. The theatre space itself is impressive and the acoustics (though no live orchestra of course so not able to judge that) and the overall vision of the stage were superb. We had front row seats on the first balcony. As we sat down I felt the stage was going to be much too far away – I am used to the Bristol Hippodrome, you see. But in fact, once the lights were down and the curtain was up, it was fine.
I did feel a little
frisson, just a whiff, of ‘Colston Hall’ as we went into the auditorium…Colston Hall is a venue in Bristol that, despite the recent foyer face-lift remains, for me, one of the deadliest venues ever. Think sixth form college lecture theatre…I rarely go there anymore because the atmosphere is almost non-existent in the performing space and the wooden seats plus an odd, jumbled lay-out really detract from the performances, I think. The ‘stalls’ (completely flat with movable seating so quite impossible to see the stage if anyone even vaguely normal in size sits in front of you) is even worse than the upper levels which are better. And yet we have seen some lovely shows there, it’s such a shame. I always feel the performers must have to make an even greater effort to overcome the setting. Incidentally, having seen bands, solo performers, choral works and full orchestras there, the latter works best because although I couldn’t see the solo violinist or the conductor, it matters less with things like that.
Inside the Millennium Centre auditorium, there is a lot of wood. A forest (I assume sustainably grown!) of trees must have been used to clad the place, which therefore murmurs ‘sauna…?’ as you walk in. And it makes it feel slightly chilly, not literally. However, it just works. Very comfy, Mark’s legs were able to stretch out, no loo-queues, no blasts of hot and then cold air. And, the car-park was right next door and Nandos was 500 meters away. Sweet!
Next my review – more of a ponder, really – of our next book club read. It’s The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
Yes, I am still in the book club though I have missed the last 2 meetings due to a mixture of work and not reading one of the books because it was set in a concentration camp. The Alchemist is certainly not a book I’d a) ever heard of, yet I now realise it is famous, apparently; and b) ever have read, voluntarily. It is described as ‘inspirational’ and ‘life-changing’. In fact 2 friends to whom I mentioned it both said: this book changed my life. Wow. OK. I’d better read it too!
It is a short story about a boy who dreams of finding his ‘treasure’ and follows his heart and his destiny to find it. Along the way, he meets with strangers and teachers, robbers and warriors, love and loss. And chiefly, the alchemist. His ‘treasure’ which I assumed all along would be symbolic, for, say, love is in fact
actual treasure– a chest of Spanish gold, though he does also find love – in the desert. It’s an atmospheric little book, quite evocative of the places he visits and it is sweetly and childishly written making it feel very open and easy. The translation is rather American.
In fact, sadly, I just don’t think I get it. Maybe it is less open and easy than I thought. Maybe it is because I can’t accept it as just so simple. I think I could accept it as a simple allegorical tale, were it not for the fact that 2 people I know and respect told me that it changed their lives. I have read it through, it’s very short and took about 3 hours to read from cover to cover with a further hour of back-tracking to make sure I hadn’t missed something. It’s quite a gentle and sweet fable, really, or fairy story. I do get that it is supposed to be illustrative rather than ‘real’. I think I understand that its stages – his journey – represent breaching personal barriers and having the courage to follow a dream. I just have an uneasy ’emperor’s new clothes’ feeling about it all. I did enjoy it more than I expected to, having read the preface. I was really turned off by the book’s obsession, throughout, with money, gold and treasure. It is very focused on the acquisition of wealth. This may be an extended metaphore, but the fact that he does, in the end, dig up a chest of gold before going back to claim his love, makes me doubt it.
All that aside, I have almost never read any ‘self-help’ or self discovery books, though I do like books about running, for example, so maybe it depends on being very personally bound up in the things the author is exploring. Finding my inner goddess, exploring my higher earth-mother-self, letting the child within me have a play in the park of my unconscious psyche – none of these appeal. The Alchemist, however, isn’t really like that. It’s much more simple. It doesn’t ask anything, there are no ‘excercises’ or tasks or lists. It seems too simple. Which is why I feel as if I might be the only one who thinks: how can
this change your life? Maybe I’ll read it again.
This led me to think if any books had changed
my life. Well, Anne of Green Gables did because it taught me that my love of puffed sleeves and dislike of my own freckles were normal and also, even more importantly, it taught me that books are a magical gateway to other worlds and with a book in your hand, you can escape your earthly life and fly. Oh my, that was rather Alchemistic! Sorry. Many books and poems have had a powerful impact on me and may even have caused me to make changes – but I do not think one has changed my whole life, no. Apart from anything else, what a responsibility for the author.
If you have read it, I’d be interested in what you think. And, if there are any books that have changed
your life – what are they? and why? I’m assuming it won’t be a book about making perfect pasta or how to grow straight carrots, but if that is your Alchemist, why not? Go for it!
Hurray – someone else who didn’t get the Alchemist – I thought it was only me! I also had friends who raved over it – and I really didn’t get it either…
I think the book that changed my life was ‘Persuasion’ – showed me that sometimes you have to have hope even when all hope appears to have gone – and one day love will return!
Otters, it’s a bit isolating, isn’t it, when one feels one is the ‘only one’? but now, yay! we have each other! I kind of wish I did get it – but there we are, I don’t.
I love Persuasion too and now, when I read it again (an event that happens about every 5 years and is overdue), I will do so with your thoughts in my heart!X
Holding my hand up as another who didn’t get The Alchemist… I really don’t like fables though, so perhaps it was never going to be a favourite! I think there’s also something in the hype aspect though: once you’ve been told by lots of friends that a book/film/CD is amaaaaaaazing, darling your expectations skyrocket, and then said book/film/CD is usually a disappointment.
Life-changing book for me: Anna Karenina. Not really sure why, but I keep coming back to it because it’s just perfect.
I’ve never read it but it isn’t the kind of thing I’d read either.
I hate it when people tell me they love a book and I think it is a waste of paper and then they drop just a little in my estimation…
Right, Anna Karenina is now on my list, never read it (in fact, what I’ll do is get it as an Audible download, hurrah).
The book club has been a bit of a disappointment. I have faithfully read all of them except one (concentration camp book), though two so far have been books I’d already read. By and large, none of us really likes the books the others choose (concentration camp book proved to be an exception,I am told. Typical!)
We are a very different group of friends, with a big span of ages, backgrounds, tastes etc – who happen to love spending time together and having fun (this is very firmly, by the way, a non-knitting group, I think only one member CAN knit and no-one but me does).
I wanted to be challenged – a bit. I have read books I didn’t think I’d have bought and one or two have been, meh, OK. One or two have been utter howlers. And no-one liked Miss Pettigrew…but I haven’t been bowled over by any, so far – though the NEXT one, Sister by Rosamund Lupton (I’m reading ahead! I told you I’m nerdy) is shaping up rather well…early days but really well written and unusually for me, it has a plot – and I like it!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
I like the idea of going to a book club, but have never quite managed it. There was one here, but it seemed a bit highbrow and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to contribute anything other than the fact that I had liked or disliked the books!!! Glad to hear that the next book is looking good 🙂
I am enjoying The Group btw – different in style to The Best of Everything (a bit more serious and addresses Issues). I am now fascinated by books set in that era in New York/USA – this may be my new obsession…
One boa done, the other in progress – hope to have them with you before Christmas.
xxx
How exciting, thank you! Millington is here this Saturday, BTW, just knitting, cake-eating, having a roast – you’re very welcome…! X
I love that era too, as you know, glad it’s enjoyable.
XX
Oh, that sounds like a lovely way to spend a Saturday – I would love to join you but I think I am a little too far away! Will be with you in spirit as I see knitting (started my star-crossed kit – OMG how amazing is that pattern?!) and baking in my future this weekend 🙂
xx