Hamlet

Back in August, was it? Grace and Jess went to the Barbican to see Benedict Cumberbatch in "Hamlet". Last night, they both saw it again. Jess in Bedford with a friend, and Grace in Rugby Cineworld with me. It was being streamed live from the Barbican to over 300 cinemas in the UK, and across the world. And it was superb!

OK, we did suffer some technical problems which meant that the pre-film documentary and the first scene of the play were seen in a squashed, wide screen, with Cumberbatch looking more like ET with head injuries than the Prince of Denmark. But the picture jumped into correct proportions at the opening of scene 2, and all was well after that. The production is brilliant, Cumberbatch outstanding, Sian Brooke's Ophelia wonderful.

 

 

There was some pretty poor acting, it has to be said, not least from Ciaran Hinds, playing Claudius. Guildenstern was pretty wooden, too. And I felt that the deaths in the last scene were pretty hammy, looking more like a school production than the National Theatre. But the weaknesses faded into insignificance in the sheer wonder of the whole production. It was so totally absorbing that I completely forgot that I was being forced to sit still for a total of three hours, something I hadn't been looking forward to, with just a 20-minute break before the final act.

The ice-cream was pretty special, too! It was a great evening out.

What's next?

Well, we had planned to go straight from the GU cruise up to Peak Forest on the Macclesfield Canal. The return trip from Yelvertoft would be about five weeks long. But Lockie John at Watford Locks put us off that idea a bit, with stories of the visitors' centre at Whaley Bridge not being finished yet, and people he knows being stoned by morons as they passed through a nearby urban area. On top of that, though, Grace has won a pair of tickets to see Benedict Cumberbatch playing Hamlet at the Barbican Theatre. Performance choices were limited, so she chose the August 9th. That put the kibosh on a five-week trip.

No matter. We would have stopped in at the marina anyway, to get shopping, do washing, collect mail and suchlike. And instead of the Peak Forest cruise, we'll trip up the River Trent, via Nottingham, to Cromwell Weir, the furthest one can go in non-tidal waters. On our way back, we'll do the whole length of the Erewash. We had to turn back before getting half-way a couple of years back. That trip should take just three weeks, which means we can do it in a leisurely manner, with no time pressures.

Cromwell Weir

So, we were going to set off today. But we awoke to a strong wind which got stronger as time passed. Sarah and Trevor took NB AtLast off on their annual visit to Sharpness, braving the wind, and leaving the marina in style. Trevor 1 - Weather 0. But then came the rain, so we looked at the weather forecast, saw that things were not going to improve today, and stayed put. The rain stopped. The wind didn't.

Tomorrow, then. Early!