Make a wish
Saw Like a Fishbone at the Bush Theatre. Flawed but interesting play. An architect has designed a memorial commemorating a tragedy at a school, when the mother of one of the victims turns up at her practice with questions.
Starts off very well, with an astonishingly intense performance from Sarah Smart as the mother. About two-thirds through there's an extraordinarily powerful speech from her as she finally describes the tragedy as it happened from her perspective. Deborah Findley also puts in a good job as the deftly patronizing architect.
After that tense high point though, the script unwinds. When the characters' secrets are revealed, they start turning into stereotypes, and their speeches stop being believable. There's a brave attempt at a clash between religion and atheism, but neither point of view seems really convincing.
Overall, glad I went for the performances and the atmosphere, but the whole play doesn't quite hang together. Review, review, review, review, review.
What I'm Reading
Read another slim collection of Joseph Roth's articles.
The
Wandering Jews describes Jewish life in different places in
the mid Thirties: Berlin, Vienna, Paris,
an unnamed majority-Jewish in Eastern Europe.
There are also somewhat vague descriptions of Jewish life in
New York and the Soviet Union.
Fairly interesting, but falls in a bit of odd ground between journalism and literature: not enough detail to be really informative. The life of the Jewish refugees seems depressingly similar to that of asylum-seekers today: grim poverty and endless bureaucratic battles.
The book seems to have been written as an exposé but with the second edition published in 1938, the moderate horrors here are inevitably overshadowed.
Web
Video.
AT-AT Day Afternoon.
Kitten rides tortoise.
Dad Life.
Gandalf goes to the World Cup.
London time lapse.
Steam shovel.
Crab sloughs skin.
Politics. Interesting developments about the far right. EDL leader revealed as BNP member after factional rift. Nick Griffin grooms daughter as replacement. Charlie Brooker on Aryan Brotherhood.
Sci/Tech. Lifeguard robot. Women bail out of IT.
Economics. Hugo Chávez declares 'economic war'. "Soft" industrial policy may help developing world. Analysis of the Flash Crash recommends 50 millisecond limit to let signals cross North America. UK never had a savings culture.
News. Guinea stages first free poll. Haiti tents fall apart. Romans killed babies at Buckinghamshire brothel.
Random. Air travel.
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