Only occasional outings other than supermarket dashes - I've got out early enough twice to enjoy the specially put aside older persons shopping hour. Disappointingly moves in the Scottish Parliament to change the law to allow older drinkers to purchase booze during this early hour failed so we have to make an extra trip when we are thirsty.
I've continued to watch theatre on Youtube but not so much as previously. I enjoyed the National Theatre's Barber Shop Chronicles. I'd seen that before at the Lyceum and surprisingly enjoyed the screening at least as much if not more. The in-the-round staging improved it I thought and I appreciated its political content more.
Their A Streetcar Named Desire was also a rewarding watch. Some of the people I watched it with felt that the open framework set worked against the creation of a sultry New Orleans atmosphere and that changing the period in which it was set jarred, but I had no complaints on either point. The acting was excellent.
On the other hand Frankenstein and Antony and Cleopatra didn't appeal.
From the A Play, A Pie and A Pint team I loved Sunset Boulevard, was unimpressed by the caricatures presented in Wee Free and couldn't abide Spuds.
I tend to steer clear of one person shows but was inordinately impressed by The Encounter. It runs for more than two hours and is technically superb employing as it does an extraordinary soundscape that rewards the nuisance of wearing earphones throughout. Simon McBurney takes us intensely and questioningly through an encounter with an Indian tribe in the Brazilian jungle breaking the barriers of culture and language in an effort to engage with their world.
I enjoyed the film The Company You Keep, a fairly standard thriller of a man who's been in hiding for decades emerging to clear his name. Entertaining and undemanding. Just the thing for lockdown and for Robert Redford fans at any time.
My Italian group has met on Zoom quite successfully and a family quiz was more fun than I had expected.
Back in the land of drama I was seduced into taking out a Netflix subscription by a news item puffing a series about the trials and tribulations of running a jazz club in Paris. Called The Eddy it had 8 episodes and I watched them all. The music was good and some of the characters made an impact but the story was somewhat incoherent and not too gripping. The final episode left the way open for a sequel but I'm not looking forward eagerly.
In contrast to my attitude to Better Call Saul. The fifth season is on Netflix and I devoured it and wish the sixth and alas final season would make an early appearance. I'm now working through Narcos which is great. I'm trying not to overindulge but make it last. I've finished the first season and am holding off from jumping straight into the next one.
I came across a reference to Trollope's The Way We Live Now in something I was reading. I have a vivid but imprecise memory of immensely enjoying a TV dramatisation of it years ago (it turns out to have been in 1969) and scurried to my computer to search it out. To my delight I found it, but didn't. There's one there but it's a later version (from 2001). However I hadn't seen it so set about watching. It's on Daily Motion and I imagine from the picture quality that it's a pirate recording. Nonetheless I was enjoying episode 1 when it all of a sudden dissolved into a series of adverts and showed no signs of getting back to the show. Maybe episode 1 was finished?
I thought I'd search on my new chum Netflix and after some laborious typing the complete name sprang up and I was quite excited. But the series isn't there. Instead of just saying sorry we ain't got that a screenfull of thumbnails comes up saying "titles related to The Way We Live Now". Believe me they are not related, although I suppose parentage by the BBC counts. Anyway I've now sent for the DVD.
To finish on a happier note I rolled with laughter reading a Spectator article in which a singer was described as being in a state of advanced refreshment. This may well replace tired and emotional in my lexicon.
Here are a few snaps from my few outings:
