A Holiday of Bank

What a bank holiday weekend that was! It started on Friday around lunchtime when, preparing for an evening at the Crow – I mean a night in with a discussion group on zoom – I noticed a little post on Facebook. ‘Is anyone interested in a free ticket to Withnail and I at Birmingham Rep tonight?’ it said. Was I interested? I bit the guy’s hand off, and two hours later I was on the train to Brum (you have to change at Leicester from here, which is a bit of a pain but there you go) arriving ‘into New Street’ as the announcers inexplicably say, where I paused to admire the Bull which had been a feature of the last Commonwealth Games (see pic below) before emerging onto a wet street ridged with tram lines. The trams are new since I was last there, and very impressive they are too, though I didn’t really have any use for one as I was just wandering around for an hour or two and hopefully finding a decent pub for a beer and a bite. Sadly it was cold and wet but I did indeed find a lovely little pub called the Sly Fox which had all the hallmarks of a traditional pub with some good grub and several real ales.

https://theslyoldfox.com/

I had a half of Butty Bach and a haloumi wrap, both gorgeous. After that I walked through the cold and drizzle to Birmingham Rep (I like walking through Birmingham; it’s a mixture of industry and grandeur and instead of trudging through the streets you get to walk through all the squares and admire the monuments). I arrived at the theatre and met the guy with the ticket. The performance was brilliant (see review below) though sadly I had to leave a little before the end to catch the last train or I’d have been stranded. I got home around midnight and of course didn’t sleep because I was so wired. Next morning we had a late breakfast at the pop-up vegan cafe in Fearon Hall (sausages, vegan bacon, beans, hash browns, tomatoes and mushrooms – gorgeous) and thence to the Singaround at its new venue in the church hall. I wasn’t too keen on the change of venue but there were beers available and I have to say it was a great afternoon. Then on Sunday after Meeting I went to Woodhouse Eaves Sustainability fair where I met a lot of people I knew and ate a vegan brownie before buying OH a Morsbag so that mine don’t go missing. Again. And yesterday we went to the May fair at Beacon Hill, run by Leicestershire Druids, where we got lost and ended up walking miles and missing the maypole dancing. After that the weekend caught up with me and I collapsed in a chair in the garden and didn’t move for several hours before the son came round with beers to revive me a little. And that was our Bank Holiday weekend. Hope yours was as good.

Kirk out

Free to Those That Can’t Afford it, Very Expensive to Those on Chesterfields

On Friday I was lucky enough to get a free ticket to see Withnail and I at the Rep in Birmingham.

https://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/withnail-and-i/

I’d seen this advertised and really wanted to go but I couldn’t afford it, so when a ticket was advertised on Facebook I went to see Uncle Monty and prepared to rejuvenate in Birmingham by mistake. It was brilliant to be in an audience made up exclusively of Withnail fans, and if the scenery wobbled a little that was entirely in keeping with the anarchic ethos of the play. We were in the front row apart from the very expensive Chesterfields in front of us, each with its own oaf. Steve and I were both anxious about whether they would do the film justice but we needn’t have worried; from the first moment I knew they’d hit it and from then on I didn’t stop laughing till the end. This has more than a little to do with the fact that Bruce Robinson wrote the script. Adonis Siddique’s Marwood was just as uptight and anxious as Paul McGann’s, though less good-looking: I’d have had him even if it had to be burglary – and Robert Sheehan’s Withnail more flamboyant and less enraged than Richard E Grant’s. I kind of missed the rage (how dare you?) but I went with it and thoroughly enjoyed the adaptation. If our main worry was whether they’d do it justice, I guess theirs would be that the audience would just sit and yell out all the lines. But they played it very cleverly, disrupting the script to keep us on our toes so we were never quite sure where the familiar lines would drop, though we laughed and cheered when they did. Monty was absolutely delicious – more restrained but just as camp; and nearly all the familiar scenes were there; the Mother Red Cap (they did the urinal scene beautifully) the squalid flat with ‘matter’ in the sink and coffee in bowls; Monty’s shack at Crow Crag and even the exterior scenes, all done with backdrops and clever lighting. The only bit missing was the bull though I made up for that by running at the bull in New Street station, shouting.

Withnail and I is a picaresque piece (what absolute twaddle) meaning that the same characters move through different scenes. It has become a cult partly because of its anarchic character (an unfortunate political decision) and partly because literally every line is quotable; there isn’t a duff or pedestrian line in the entire piece (and that’s what’s so essential isn’t it, the theatrical zeal in the veins.)

The piece de resistance, though, was the Jag in which Withnail and Marwood drive from London to Monty’s cottage in Crow Crag near Penrith (Penrith!) Somehow or other they managed to get the shell of a Jag onto the stage, sit the guys inside it and then project the motorway onto the surrounding screens. It was brilliant and got a well-deserved round of applause.

It was terrific to be in a theatre packed with Withnail fans as opposed to being at home with only one, and I wished OH could have been there but it was not to be. Friday was preview night, the first ever performance, and I felt very privileged to be a part of it. Unfortunately I had to leave just before the end causing half the front row to call me a terrible c**t, but I had to catch the last train or I’d have been forced to camp.

Thanks to Steve for the ticket.

Kirk out