Unreasonable demands.

He hasn't said so, but I have made an unreasonable demand on my man. Like when my kids were small, Laurence particularly would want you to buy something that only ever existed in his imagining. Or like the 'Little Britain' sketch where the man goes in and wants something so specific it can't possibly be.

Steve had rung Kevin and asked if we wanted to go out on Saturday. I felt I should be pro-active, find somewhere I wanted to go. As I have said before, Vancouver holds a rich broth of creativity, anyone in any way involved in the performing or creative arts needs to be here at some point.
'Euripides!'
'?'
'There's a Euripides play on at the Jericho Arts centre, I love the Greeks, Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes.'
'So shall we go somewhere to eat beforehand?' ok, he may not have said beforehand, but I'm reconstructing here.
'Well, I'd prefer to go somewhere casual, relaxing, something like going to a pub in the UK.'
'Ok, we have those,'
'Like a real pub, you know, you just go in and sit down, go to the bar to get your drink, order food from the bar, no-one comes round and bothers you, no-one has to seat you, no-one makes you grin when your mouth is full of food and nod and say, 'yes, great thanks,''
'Ah.....well, I'm sure there are places like that but I don't know where... anyway, you wouldn't want it to be smoky like in Britain.'
No, too damn right I wouldn't, little aside to Tony here, Oi, Tony! rein your cabinet in, make them stop fighting with the health minister, get this fixed and pronto! Oh, btw, love what you're doing to ease Gordon Brown in, clever, very classy, keep up the good work, but get that pub smoking thing sorted.

I know, I know, hangover from last week, it'll be all gone by next week, but you know it IS nice to be able to go into a pub and not be bothered.

As luck would have it, Steve had also been thinking about Iphigeneia at Aulis, people he worked with were in the play.
What was the first clue? For Steve it was the small stage set of ruins, ready long before any harm had come to Greece. For me it was when Agammemnon strode out onto the stage in army drab, stripes carefully picked off the shirtsleeve. So passé. I remember years ago seeing 'The women of Troy' at the National, the Cottesloe I think but wouldn't swear to it. The women and their sorrows, brilliant, but the whole Apocalypse Now theme of the men, dreadful.

Agemmemnon spluttered and declaimed angrily at times when personally, I thought he should have been falling apart with grief. I felt that most of the cast didn't listen to the words they were saying, because frankly, they didn't deliver them meaningfully. Steve's first comment afterwards echoed my feelings here, 'they didn't understand the play.' Spot on. The bloke playing Achilles played it as a comedic part, whereas Clytemenstra saw hers as a melodramatic role. I asked him if the actors were professionals, it seems that some were. Now don't get me wrong, I am not against am dram. I have been entranced at some amateur productions. My friend Linda's portrayal of Alan Bennett's 'Lady of Letters' held me spellbound. The King's Players' - not really sure what the Southsea amateur group was called, but let's call them that - production of 'Into the Woods' was superb, and that's in spite of my dislike of musicals. But I do feel that amateurs should steer clear of Shakespeare and the Greeks. Let's make that law shall we?

When I got home I read the blurb on the programme and realised that fundamentally the director didn't get the play. Tom, darling, it is NOT about the futility of war. It is about the vanity, arrogance, absurdity of men. It is about the suffering of mothers because of the wrong-headedness of some of the decisions forced upon them. It is also about the suffering of men, as in the anguish faced by Abraham. It is about the dialectic itself, the psychology, the sacrifice. Not only that, he, Tom Kerr the director states baldly that he was ASKED to do it as a classical piece and he chose not to.
It was not well acted and it certainly was not well-directed - in my opinion of course. But that is not to say I enjoyed nothing about it. If you listened carefully, and avoided Agammemnon's saliva, you could still hear the words of Euripides telling the story, revealing the tensions and dilemmas.

The pub - well we had to compromise of course. We had a very nice meal in a pub which at least looked like a pub. I think this may be a low priority on things I want Harper to fix (himself being top of the list) and like I said - I'll have forgotten about it by Tuesday.