Betrayal – Donmar theatre, London – review

thegirlinthecafe 2 Comments

Yesterday I saw Harold Pinter‘s Betrayal in the Donmar. And even though I am getting more and more depressed about the fact that people in the books I read and the people in the plays I watch don’t seem to be able to not betray their partners (what’s going on in the world!) – I quite liked the play. The play was structured backwards, which meant that you more or less saw the last scene first and the first scene last. I liked the fact that it was a modern story to which I could relate, and the actors did well on the nearly naked stage.

The Donmar theatre, close to Covent Garden, is one of my favourite theatres in London. It is not fantasically huge, but they run an interesting program, and you get to sit very close to the stage, so you have a good view on what’s going on.

Roger Michell directed it, and if you read his personal quotes you know why you should like him. I know I do.

Anyone famous in Betrayal?
Well, Samuel West had a tiny role as Anna’s co-star in Notting Hill, and Toby Stephens played the baddie in James Bond – Die Another Day.

[rating:4/5]

Pirates in the theatre

thegirlinthecafe 9 Comments


Was 12 times enough? Well, forrr now-uh.

First I saw Davy Jones on stage in New York. He was awesome. He was great. And cool. And nice. And handsome. And voicilicious.

Then I saw Lord Beckett in the National Theatre in London. He was fantastic too.

16 days from now I will see Captain Will Turner in the Duke of York theatre in London. Which is good, there is a pirate living here who wants his ship back, so we need to have a talk with him.

What have those three men in common?
I’m afraid they are in a film together I have seen too much of recently … »

Love Actually, in a tree

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Love Actually, in a tree on the heath

They still exist, the true romantics.

“Ah love, a dreaded bond, yet so easily severed …”

And then there are those that are more sceptical.

This picture is taken on Hampstead Heath, and I expect the carvings to be several years old.
Did they live happily ever after I wonder.

Have you ever carved the name of your loved one in a tree?

Why does it always rain on me

thegirlinthecafe 7 Comments

Manchester is a great place to be. If you love rain. Which of course I’ve always said I did. It does get a bit annoying though when you have to stand out in the rain for a couple of hours.

Just to let you know how exiting it is to be involved in a film shoot: you have to stand up at 6am. You have to be ready at 6.45am. And then it just pours down so much that it is to no use whatsoever to do any filming. So you eat a breakfast in the hotel and wait till it clears up a bit. It did after an hour or so, so we went off. And ended up standing in the wind and the rain for hours anyway …

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2 years later

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Today it is exactly 2 years ago I saw it. It might sound silly to you to actually remember that date but it will always be an important date to me. The film set me thinking and lots has happened after that.

When I read last years post on this exact day I was amused. I had just run into Bill Nighy on Leicester Square around that time, Pirates II was out in the cinemas (I was still sane then and only saw it twice!), I was waiting for my film course to start at the London Film Academy and I had a somewhat vague plan of doing a screen writing class.

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This makes me very sad

thegirlinthecafe 10 Comments

The end of the New Piccadilly Cafe seem to be nigh now. Nigh means 22nd or 23rd of September 2007.

All I can say is: go visit it if you haven’t done so.

I can’t imagine any other place in London where I would go when having a writers block, feeling depressed, wanting to read or just to drink a coke with a pink straw. News like this makes me hate London.

A spot of bother

thegirlinthecafe


A spot of bother

After a long talk with Davy (yes he is still my editor) I decided to remove yesterday’s post. People were starting to read things in it that weren’t there when I wrote it, which must mean that it was badly written.
I removed it because the post was on it’s way to being misinterpreted and it was turning into a very delicate matter. Nothing wrong with delicate matters, but if I write about them I want to make sure that things are clear.

I apologize to those who took the time to comment on it.

You know you’ve found some of it when

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

You meet this nice street cleaner who asks you how you are while passing him. Good, thank you, and you?
Your busdrive to work passes The Royal Albert Hall, Kensington park, Hyde Park and Knightbridge.
You like the book you are reading.
The sun shines when you decide to go for lunch.
You work only a few hundred meters from Portobello Road where it is market day today.
You wander around on the market and it is indeed a nice market to wander on. (I had never been in Notting Hill on a market day (Friday and Saturday) before).
You find a cool vintage Levi’s jacket in one of the stalls with 2nd hand clothing, it’s exactly your size, it’s a girls jacket and it only costs a tenner.
You buy some sweet cherries in one of the fruit stalls with very nice people helping you.
You feel like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill again.
You realize that you are one lucky pirate, living in a city like this.

And now I realize I should have taken a picture of it, shouldn’t I?

(Yes I know they found a car bomb just a few meters from the cinema I often visit, but I try to ignore worrying thoughts)

You know you’ve lost it when …

thegirlinthecafe 10 Comments

You’ve seen POTC 10 times in the cinema? (That’s 1680 minutes of Pirate pleasure …)
Post silly postcards of Bill Nighy?
Yeah, also then.

But.
You know you’ve lost it when it’s gone.

When you are standing at the counter in Sainsbury’s and you want to pay for your groceries. And you pick up your wallet and start looking for your debet card. First in the front, because you always put it there right? But it’s not there. You check the other compartments, but it is nowhere to be found.

I didn’t even panic. I just knew I’d lost it, and with my head full of things I didn’t even try to remember where because that would have been useless.

The last place I could remember I had used is was in the Marks & Spencer at Victoria station yesterday. I called them, it took them quite a while to check, but no, they didn’t have a card with my last name on it.

So yes I lost it completely.
But you knew that already, didn’t you?

Like electricity

thegirlinthecafe 11 Comments
  • It’s amazing. We were 7 people, all around my age (17) and we were all so nervous for this exam, it was like being back at high school again. We all passed. I am relieved, because it was tougher than I thought, it was all new for me and it is all so different from what I used to work with.
  • The trainer I had for this course could be a brother of Michael Caine. He looked a lot like him, and his accent was rather, ehrm, voicilicious.
  • Just shortly on the explosives: they are small round flat circles that you put on the rail. They make a sound when the train drives over them and this alerts the driver that there is trouble ahead on the line and it will make him stop the train.
  • And about my electricity adventure: when I was young (13 is my guess) I was trying to be handy. I was opening and messing about with a screw driver and a power outlet/strip, while it was still connected. I got a major shock, my arm was numb for quite a while and I never ever forget it. I like to think that my mind got messed up by it, which is very useful if you want to be a writer.
  • Power on train lines: on the over rail lines (the ones above your head) : 25.000 volts. (never ever touch them). And on the 3rd rail that is an unprotected rail just running along normal rails on lots of places: 750 volts. This does cause a lot of accidents, especially when outsiders get onto the rail (kids playing or graffiti sprayers). I was quite surprised to hear that those rails are this dangerous. And I was wondering if we have the same system in the Netherlands and in Denmark. Just never ever step on or touch rails in the UK is what I’ve learned.
  • Germany has banned the makers of Tom Cruise’s new movie from filming at military sites in the country because the actor is a Scientologist.. Weird story. Bill Nighy is in Valkyrie as well.
  • I was walking around in Canary Wharf this afternoon and they were showing Henman’s amazing tennis match on a big screen outside on one of the sky scrapers. Funny to watch all the suits watching it. And I am happy for Henman.
  • I promise not to write about trains tomorrow.
  • I found out: Papa Oscar Tango Charlie: One Zero times. Because I just returned from the One Zero time. I felt I deserved some Bravo India Lima Lima after passing my exam.

Oh, fuck, wank, bugger, shitting arse head and hole

thegirlinthecafe 10 Comments

Well I got the hat and the boots, so bring it on.

Writing yesterdays post didn’t take me a lot of time. When there is (Pirate in this case) passion involved, words come easily and posts get long. Most of the time, when I read it back the next day, I feel I have written something completely ridiculous, and I feel the urge to remove it again. Weird enough those posts often get a lot of comments, so I guess I should stop worrying.

And I am afraid this is a long post again »

But I just can’t seem to get enough of

thegirlinthecafe 9 Comments

There are many transport possibilities to get to my new office, and I have been trying a few of them already this week. There are people who want to get home after work as soon as possible, and there are people who actually enjoy taking buses they’ve never taken before crossing through areas in London that were still undiscovered. It’s a great way to get to know the city.
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