Octopolis, The Tate Britain, and A Big Win for Fulham

Octopolis

Cover of the programme from the Hamstead Theatre

I’ve had many interesting theatre experiences over the years that I have been coming to London. I’ve seen some shows about unusual topics too. I don’t think I would have anticipated seen one about a woman, a man, being brought together by their shared interest in an octopus. But I did, and the two actors were amazing. Last year, I had the great luck to meet Jemma Redgrave. She is an actress of some renown and a member of the well-known acting dynasty. We had a mutual friend (my friend Jacquie) and they kindly invited me to stay when Jemma arrived for a quick visit with Jacquie. Anyway, she seemed to me to be a lovely genuine person and I was happy to have met her. When Jacquie and her husband Tom mentioned that Jemma was in this unusual show by a very promising young playwright, I wanted to see it. While I have seen a few high school classmates who have had successful careers in film and TV, seeing a person I had met, now on stage, was intriguing to me. Gemma plays a scientist at a university, grieving the loss of her fellow

Jemma Redgrave and Ewan Miller from Hampstead Theatre

scientist husband, who had died. Together they had studied the behavior of octopuses/octopi with their resident tanked octopus (Frances) being their main object of study. The university sent a young anthropologist played by Ewan Miller to the university-owned home that the Jemma shares with the octopus. By the end of the play, the two characters and Frances have gone through a complex set of emotional events that change all of their lives. Ms. Redgrave and Mr. Miller were absolutely luminous in their performance. The small theatre only holds an audience of a few hundred seated on three sides. The performance took place directly in front of us. I was in the front row and the actors were just feet away from me. It was an amazing experience.

The Tate Britain

The Tate Britain is an interesting museum, covering British art from 1500 to the present. Like the Tate Modern across the River Thames, it seems to change what it exhibits from its vast collection quite often. I visit to get surprised and to be delighted by old friends. If you follow me, you know that I have been trying to get the National Portrait Gallery to acquire and display a portrait of Her Majesty, Queen Camilla. My constant focus at the Tate Modern is whether the elevator to the Members’ Lounge is working, as it has done so rarely in recent years. I am pleased to say that it was working on this visit.

Here are some pieces from the grand hallway on the first floor of the Tate. The exhibit is called: Material As Message.

Monument-Susan Hiller replicates 40 of the plaques from the Postman’s Park, recognizing people who died saving others.
Third Chair-Lydia Ourahmane 20 echoing oil barrels stand in place of 20 Algerian migrants, having taken the same route across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
Object for Kitchen-Phyllida Barrow Placed in the exhibit as a memorial to the artist.
Preserve Beauty-Anya Gallaccio red gerbera flowers were installed fresh, wilt and die.
Untitled (Staircase)-Rachel Whiteread The inside of a building that had been a church a synagogue and a factory.

Then, of course, I visited Henry Moore, oh the simple joy of brilliant sculpture.

Finally, two cool paintings I really like.

Gift Wrap-Richard Smith
Artist Versus Machine-Vera Spencer

Fulham Wins, Fulham Wins, Fulham Wins!

Two SUNY Oneonta OGs having lunch in SOHO

My friend and fellow SUNY Oneonta alumnus, Dave Daly, who deservedly claims responsibility for making me a Fulham fan, still can’t believe, it just took one match at Craven Cottage to do it, but it did. It took a bit of doing to get my ticket this time. Who knew Fulham vs Sheffield tickets would be so hard to find? I had been saving the day for one of two favorite kids in Tooting Broadway’s birthday party, but her folks chose to have it on Sunday this year, so my Saturday opened up. But by then I had to go the ticket resellers route. Unfortunately, Stub Hub prices seemed a bit astronomical, so I went with another purveyor. Initially, they sent me a ticket several days in advance, but it was for the Fulham-Chelsea match that had just taken place. It took several emails before things were straightened out and on game day, through the kind assistance of the local post office, I even got the ticket printed before I left Bloomsbury.

As you can see from the picture above and the picture below, it was a beautiful October day for a football match along the River Thames. The band was playing below the statue of Fulham great, Johnny Haynes, for whom the historic stand behind his likeness is named. All the fans were in a great mood.

The first period of the match ended in a nil-nil draw, and a Sheffield United player had gone down with a serious leg injury that led to a total of over 14 minutes of added time. Fulham’s manager must have said the right things at the half because they came out rejuvinated and scored three goals to Sheffield United’s one. It made for a glorious walk back through Bishopsgate Park to the Putney Bridge Tube station for the trip back across town. In my view, Fulham is still not recovered from losing its main scorer to the Middle Eastern league that shall remain nameless. But they will get better each week and with a little luck will pick up a good solid scoring machine or learn how good they are without the one they had. In any case, I am so glad that I got to see three matches live at the cottage and will be looking forward to seeing many more on the TV when I get back across the pond next month.

Next blog will include a visit to a very cool museum that brought back memories of my happy years at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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