In the midst of this sea and on the edge of this desert.

 It's been a while for me since I've posted and now I find myself with lots of things I want to say. Mostly, hope you're all well!! 

( Under the cut: Canada! Renaultx! Rarewomen! )

 The Malta update is to say, I'm in Malta! I am sat in a rocking chair with a glass of red Maltese wine, very full from the beautiful food lilithilien cooked me earlier. All round we are having a Very Nice Time. We spent the day exploring the ancient walled city of Mdina (Mdina apparently meaning Walled City) which dates back 4000 years from when it was first settled. Then we explored the city outside the walls, Rabat (no guesses what Rabat means), and then the Catacombs underneath Rabat. 

Lil said she felt all Night Vale-y when we descended the steps into the Catacombs while the audio-guide voice intoned, "Do not fear the Catacombs." 

Mdina is notably very pretty and is used for filming all the things. I mostly couldn't tell though. I was just thoroughly charmed. 

We are also watching Wentworth starring Danielle Cormack of Legend of the Seeker fame as a woman who goes to prison for attempting to murder her violent husband. So far we're up to episode 5. It's awesome. Episode 5 is the episode in which everyone talks about how they like to masturbate. Basically all the women are in pretty dire situations and they're trying to cope in a violent, scary environment but enforcing a brutal loyalty amongst themselves. The "found-family" is just as dysfunctional as the home lives most of the women have escaped but it's potentially all that's keeping them going. So far my favourite character is Boomer "I used to knock a few heads together" Jenkins, long may she continue.

Has anyone else seen it? Anyone wanna place bets on how f-ed up the Franky/Erica thing could get? Any other ships people want to float by me? 

Tomorrow we're going to see the waters of the famous Blue Grotto and visit some prehistoric temples.

Hopefully I can pass on some holiday cheer to you guys! 

 I just went to the theatre! 

I saw The Pride with Hayley Atwell and Al Weaver. It was bloody glorious. It was set simultaneously in 1958 and The Now and the characters in both parts had the same names but were living slightly different lives. I think the suggestion being that the times they were living in were affecting who they were or could be. Obvs it was about two gay blokes. In the 1958 side Hayley's character, Sylvia is married to one - Philip - but introduces her husband to her author friend in an attempt to pinpoint the loneliness in all their lives. The two men start an affair but Philip's self-disgust leads it to end in tragedy and betrayal. In the modern times Sylvia is a friend to the semi-suicidal Oliver who's boyfriend, Philip, can't put up with Oliver's need to have anonymous sex sometimes - casually referred to as "the slut thing".

The staging was utterly fantastic, the way they slipped back and forth through time was inventive and served to highlight both sides so well. I really loved the impression that even though things had improved for Philip and Oliver in their second lives, the trauma of their past continued to haunt them and inform their behaviours and psychology. 

Hayley was incandescent as the modern girl, gay's best friend who had to extricate herself from her friend's life in order to live her own. Al Weaver was phenomenal as Oliver in both settings, the 1950s author who thinks he's finally found a kindred spirit only to have the hope beaten out of him, and as the modern queer journalist trying to come to terms with who he is and keep his boyfriend around at the same time! 

It was super funny, I always love a good joke referencing the Victoria line. I only had one qualm, ( And here I'm cutting for potentially triggery talk on depictions of sexual assault )

The set was so good, it was like a massive rusty mirror and was a perfect reflection of the storyline and enhanced the telling in all sorts of ways. Did I mention Hayley was gorgeous and funny and sad and an excellent crier! She had all the tears, even when she had her hand in front of her eyes I could still see tears falling from her face! She was perfection. 

Have some pictures! 


Descrip: Matthew Horne as the Role-Playing Nazi-for-Hire and Al Weaver as Oliver, who thought that was a good idea.


Descrip: Hayley Atwell with the To Russia With Love placard the cast carried at curtain call.

I saw The Tempest at the Globe Theatre in London tonight. It rocked. :DD

( Thoughts and Pictures! )