12 June 2015. Rough for theatre and Act without words at the Barbican

More Beckett tramp duos, this time held outside across the lake from the Barbican Centre. The first piece featured a blind tramp and another more malevolent one in a wheelchair. For me, it conveyed a sense of the essential selfishness that is the backdrop to human interactions, as well as the lurking threat. This was so even when there is a co-dependency. It is not difficult t extrapolate this idea to romantic relationships that are one thing on the surface but can degenerate to quite another because of a mere change or acknowledgement of feelings.

The second piece had two tramps going through their daily routine of getting out of and back into their sleeping bags. One was slow and arthritic with every movement an effort; the other lept out of his bag to do his press-ups. They shared the same set of clothes and a filthy old banana. Each moved the sleeping other along a notch in the position in which they were sleeping. They were woken for their day by an anonymous rod that poked them into life and the performance was against the backdrop of a sign declaring that “The only sin is the sin of being born”.

The backdrop was a fittingly a dull London sky that produced quite persistent rain for much of the performances. The only detraction of this was the distraction from the words of Rough for Theatre which were, of course, not to be missed. 

11 June 2015. We want you to watch at the National.

I didn't really get on with this production. It struck me as a bit of a mess. The cause is fair enough - a confrontation with the unreality of porn and the reality of the porn industry. But I doubt that this really scratched the surface of the complexity of the matter. Having the Queen get excited at describing the pleasures of ‘real’ sex just seemed weird to me, However, it got a great review on Front Row, with the presenter urging parents to encourage their 16 year olds to go and see it. So perhaps I missed the point but I really don’t see that this production represents much of a threat to those satisfying a seemingly insatiable demand for porn.

11 June 2015. All that fall at the Barbican

Part of the Beckett season, this presentation of a radio play was held in the Pit. The play itself requires one's full attention - something not often given when listening to the radio at home. So it was something of a treat to sit in the Pit in rocking chairs and just listen – supported by an intricate light installation which changed in intensity until it reached its almost solar effect at the end. The story itself was set in Ireland and centred on the issue of meeting a train; and the train was late. What delayed it? The play can be found on YouTube – but without the Barbican setting and the enforced attention is afforded. 

9 June 2015. Gypsy at the Savoy Theatre.

I went to see this on the basis of the reviews of Imelda Staunton's performance. It was indeed powerful and earned her great applause. But so too were other performances, notably her daughters

I’m not really one for musicals and this didn’t convert me to the genre. However, it is an intrinsically interesting story featuring the essentially tigress mother determined to do the best for her daughters during the depression. The contrasting personalities of the daughters – the natural extravert who left home and the introvert who came into her own doing striptease – was very well captured and acted. 

8 June 2015. Lessness at the Barbican

Held in one of the smaller cinemas, I was lucky to be in the second row which felt very intimate. It was a bit of a happening with the text recited by the ‘actress’ with studies theatricality to the backdrop of a screen with a grey noise that matched her dress and look. The words washed over me and are, I found later, hard to focus on in print but I came out feeling I had been part of the troupe of true Beckett devotees.

6 June 2015. Agnes Martin at Tate Modern

This exhibition followed close on the heels for me of Shirazeh Houshiary at the Lisson. Both artists provide backgrounds of detailed, painstaking and repetitive complexity to their works. Agnes Martin was schizophrenic and her works of subtle simplicity have a studied calm and obsessiveness. I particularly liked the series of paintings towards the end of the exhibition which challenged the viewer to identify the differences within the superficial similarity. 

5 June 2015. Waiting for Godot at The Barbican

A stunning opening with the two characters lit in a colourless landscape. It had a nuclear quality to it. The two main actors complemented each other well, one with a slightly more Australian twang; the other slightly grander. The entry of Pozo and Lucky was played for all it was worth with both actors again providing memorable performance, particularly the moment when poor Lucky is commanded to ‘think’. For me, it was all a really excellent opening to the Beckett season

2 June 2015. Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Mahler's 5th at the Barbican

The evening commenced with Edward Rushton's 'I nearly went, there' before moving on to the more familiar territory of Mendelssohn's violin concerto. The soloist was Janine Jansen and one could almost feel the LSO relax as they turned to this work, led by a safe star. For the encore, she elected to play with the leader, Roman Simovic - a nice touch.

After the interval, we were treated to Mahler's 5th, an extraordinary piece written at the time of his having survived a haemorrhage and fallen in love with his future wife. The movements move from the funereal to the joyful and the third movement stood out for me as encapsulating madness. Although 75 minutes in length, the time passed effortlessly, the old gentleman in front of me following it all in his copy of the score.

1 June 2015. The Father at the Tricycle

This play depicting dementia came with very strong reviews from a run in Bath last year.

It is very cleverly written and staged and the acting, particularly by Kenneth Cranham, was excellent. The play evokes the confusion of dementia with discontinuity in the shifting scenes and actors so that the audience, like the main character, hardly knows where they are or who they are with. The play convincingly portrays the unintentional cruelty by the demented - he continually compares the caring daughter to her much preferred but presumably dead sister. It also conveyed the unintended humour in the condition - he is convinced his watch has been stolen, when he has actually hidden it.

This was a play to make one think and count one's fortune. I was particularly struck by how dementia could be seen partly as a role - and one over which the script has quite general consensus. Of course, it is not all a matter of playing a part but I wonder if the existence of the role helps nudge people down the path of disengagement with the 'normal' world.

The stage hands are also worthy of special mention with the room gradually emptied of contents as we stared at the blank space, listening to fractured piano music, as one scene gave way to the next. Each time this came as a shock to me, it having been done most quietly and in apparent darkness.