The Family Reunion

In preparation for my own festive family reunion over the coming days, I went to see TS Eliot's The Family Reunion at the Donmar Warehouse on Monday with lovely Nick who buys lots of theatre tickets and sometimes invites me along.  Now isn't that nice of him? 

The cast was a fairly impressive who's who of British acting, including Sam West, Una Stubbs, Penelope Wilton and Sir William Lucas from the BBC Pride and Prejudice (kept expecting him to clap his hands and exclaim "Capital, capital!".  But he did not.)

I wasn't really sure what to expect from it:  it's written in verse of sorts, and has Greek Chorus sections - both of which facts I found slightly daunting.  Nick had sent me a crib sheet in advance which was pretty useful for keeping track of all the various dusty uncles and aunts.  But couldn't help much with the language.

However, the first half I found to be completely fabulous - the poetry of the words was glorious (I could mostly work out what people were getting at), and the atmosphere tremendous.  Unfortunately it got more and more bizarre as time went on, with lots of talk along the lines of '..and the crosses shall be uncrossed... and the circle shall be broken...'  or somesuch.

So when the matriarch started complaining about everyone leaving her alone in the house, it all became just a little too Cold Comfort Farm (something narsty in the woodshed!) and then slipped from tantalisingly ambiguous into slightly opaque.  However, given the heavyweightitude of the cast, it was an exceedingly well-delivered opacity. 

That's the end of culture vulturedom for now.  Although I confess I am typing this while listening to myself on the (only slightly dodgy) EC4 Music recording of Mozart Mass in C Minor.  But tomorrow will be subjecting myself to the hell that is South West Trains, armed with lots of Christmas presents that I haven't wrapped yet as I keep forgetting to buy tape.  Ahem.

Oooh - I've just reached the Et Incarnatus Est.  Big oboe bit!  I'm sure someone cleverer than me would be able to post a snippet.  But there you go, I'm not that smart at this technology lark.  Imagine a tremendously fabulous sound and pretend that it's me...  And not at all out of tune.  No sir.