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A Nice BreakDateline: 18th July, 2004"Have a nice break," the taxi driver said as I got out at the station, ready to set off on a three day/two night visit to London. "Mind, I hear the weather's pretty awful down there." Cheerful chap! But I'd heard the same myself. ENO had had to cancel their free performance of La Bohème in Trafalgar Square the previous evening because of the weather, so I was pleased that I had not gone a day earlier to catch the performance, although I had been tempted. There was a reason for my visit. I was going to see a young friend, the daughter of my oldest friends, in her first professional production. She was in Simon Stephens' Country Music at the Royal Court, which is a brilliant start for anyone, particularly someone who was just (officially) leaving college the next day. Arriving in London mid-afternoon, after a superb lunch on the train (GNER: excellent meal, good wine, not too expensive), after basically just dumping out bags at the hotel (King's Cross), we set off for Covent Garden where we began as we meant to go on - relaxing and enjoying! And that meant sitting outside the Crusting Pipe, drinking wine and listening to the classical buskers. For me, that's an important part of any Lonfon trip and I certainly made the most of it. Then a stroll down to Embankment tube station (picking up a sandwich at Prêt à Manger on the way - well, it is a holiday!) to head across to the Royal Court. I loved the play and, of course, Laura was brilliant. Well, I would say that, wouldn't I? which is why I wouldn't review it. I really couldn't be objective about a performance by somene I've known since the day she was born, could I? But what is worth reporting is that there was an after-show talk with Stephens, the director and the company, so I took the opportunity of asking how he reacted to Billington's dare. (For those who missed it, Guardian critic Michael Billington, in his review, dared him to write a full-length, two-act play.) Essentially what he said - and he is absolutely right, in my ever so 'umble opnion - is that a play is as long as it needs to be. The criticism I have heard levelled at the play, both by ordinary audience members and by some critics, is that Stephens leaves out too much, as the play jumps forward ten years in the second scene, then a further ten in the third, then back to before the first scene in the final one. We have, the critical voices say, to supply too much ourselves. But that's not so: what we need to know unfolds during the scenes themselves and anything else is extraneous, irrelevant. Anyway, after the play and talk, a drink the the bar (with Laura being dragged off to meet people. She was embarrassed by it: we were just pleased that it was happening), and then a dash down to Chinatown and a meal.
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