Monday 31 March 2008

Equus

One of the advantages of working in a theatre is that I get sent to preview shows. Last Thursday was spent up north in Newcastle, previewing the stage production Equus at Newcastle's Theatre Royal before the show comes to the local theatre where I work. This is the same production where Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who plays Harry Potter in the movies, appeared nude in when it was playing in the West End in London. I did not know much about this show before the preview, but have heard that it involves sex and horses. Now, that may sound perverse, but having seen the show, I must say that I found it to be an intelligent who-done-it (or in this case, why-did-he-do-it), as well as a dark exploration of a teenager’s psyche. The nudity and sexual aspects of the show were definately not what some have made it out to be. The theme of the show is quite dark though, and deals with serious issues such as religion, oppression of freedom, psychological abuse and teenage angst.

Saturday 22 March 2008

Easter snow

In the entire year and a half I've been in England, I have never seen snow as thick as the layer of snow outside my window this morning. (Someone who lives in... say... Finland, would probably find this blog entry amusing).

The glass-is-half-full response:
It was beautiful! The snow was so fine that I kicked up puffs of it while walking to work, almost like smoke being blown around my feet as I walked. And since it was still early morning on a holiday weekend, people were still asleep, so the snow was clean and sparkling in the morning sun.

The glass-is-half-empty response:
IT WAS FREEZING!! It's the end of March! Why is it still snowing?

And finally, bird-prints in the snow. Isn't it great? :)