Yes. I did it. I took the plunge and I've gone back to school. An MA in fact. I'm currently afraid - well that excited afraid like wow all these cool new people who can maybe be my new friends but wait, in order to be in their company week in and week out, I'll have to actually do work in an acedemic matter. Now, you may be thinking I did badly in school or am afraid of it, but that actually isn't the case. I got honours in school and frankly I was bored most of the time. I need entertainment people not chalkboards.
So the first day was Monday and i'm thinking, damn I'm going to be bored here. Heather, I say, Heather - keep an open mind and everthing will work out. So I go to class again today and presto! It's awesome. Of course I haven't done any work yet but we got to know everyone more and my classmates actually seem really down to earth. I still got nervous motor mouth myself when I'm chatting one to one so I don't know what they think of me but thank god for the rest! Let's see what happens next week shall we?
Wednesday, 20 September 2006
Thursday, 14 September 2006
New nails!!!
It's an exciting time folks. I've got something to share with you - something I've never ever said in my whole life...I've GOT NEW NAILS! Something you may or may not know about me is that I have a chronic problem. I'm a nail biter. It's a fact. One I am ashamed of but I've always found it impossible to stop. When you've been doing something since you were a baby (that's right, I've not only chewed them but gummed them as well), it's darn hard to stop.
Sooooo a friend of a friend suggested fake nails - she tried them and it seemed to work. I was slightly doubtful but now it's been a week and I gots bea-ut-iful nails. Now I love them but it's weird to have nails when you've never had them before. Even washing my hair is bizarre - I'm managing though. And those nails, they hopefully will be for life. Or at least until my regular ones grow back.
Sooooo a friend of a friend suggested fake nails - she tried them and it seemed to work. I was slightly doubtful but now it's been a week and I gots bea-ut-iful nails. Now I love them but it's weird to have nails when you've never had them before. Even washing my hair is bizarre - I'm managing though. And those nails, they hopefully will be for life. Or at least until my regular ones grow back.
Sunday, 10 September 2006
Review of Eden’s Empire
Review of Eden’s Empire by James Graham
Finborough Theatre, 8 - 30 September, 2006
Branded as a political thriller, I expected more thrills and less of a history lesson in over 2 1/2 hours of dense theatre. Recipient of the Pearson Playwright’s Scheme, James Graham created Eden’s Empire as homage to the least successful Prime Minister in the history of Britain, Anthony Eden. Beginning at the end of World War II, this play shows him as a superb foreign minister living under Churchill’s shadow for 10 years until Eden finally has a chance and takes the reigns as Prime Minister. Here begins his downfall from successful politician to laudable fool as he pushes Britain into the Suez crisis.
All in all, the production values of Eden’s Empire were superb : fine acting, top directing, beautiful set : but I find issue with the structure of the play itself. While scene by scene the dialogue worked to drive the story and other than the character of Eden’s wife, Clarissa Eden (unfortunately), all the main characters were well developed, I would ask the playwright : what story do you want to tell? Instead of witnessing a hard hitting play, the audience was given over 10 years of British politics played out on stage. This made for a long and slightly dry evening as eventually my brain shut off to the barrage of facts, dates, times and people that wove through this part of time. Granted Graham did use the political undertones of the 50s to parallel the going-ons in number 10 today, they were too far between to be effective and a few times were over played in order to give a bit of a nudge nudge wink wink to the audience.
If the playwright cut to the core of the piece and chose one element of the story i.e. living under Churchill’s shadow or the clash of politics with Eden’s domestic life or even the Suez crisis itself, I think I would’ve got the political thriller I was promised. Though I did walk out knowing more about Eden then I ever thought possible, I think I’d rather leave his epic journey to another BBC mini-series and save myself the price of a ticket.
Finborough Theatre, 8 - 30 September, 2006
Branded as a political thriller, I expected more thrills and less of a history lesson in over 2 1/2 hours of dense theatre. Recipient of the Pearson Playwright’s Scheme, James Graham created Eden’s Empire as homage to the least successful Prime Minister in the history of Britain, Anthony Eden. Beginning at the end of World War II, this play shows him as a superb foreign minister living under Churchill’s shadow for 10 years until Eden finally has a chance and takes the reigns as Prime Minister. Here begins his downfall from successful politician to laudable fool as he pushes Britain into the Suez crisis.
All in all, the production values of Eden’s Empire were superb : fine acting, top directing, beautiful set : but I find issue with the structure of the play itself. While scene by scene the dialogue worked to drive the story and other than the character of Eden’s wife, Clarissa Eden (unfortunately), all the main characters were well developed, I would ask the playwright : what story do you want to tell? Instead of witnessing a hard hitting play, the audience was given over 10 years of British politics played out on stage. This made for a long and slightly dry evening as eventually my brain shut off to the barrage of facts, dates, times and people that wove through this part of time. Granted Graham did use the political undertones of the 50s to parallel the going-ons in number 10 today, they were too far between to be effective and a few times were over played in order to give a bit of a nudge nudge wink wink to the audience.
If the playwright cut to the core of the piece and chose one element of the story i.e. living under Churchill’s shadow or the clash of politics with Eden’s domestic life or even the Suez crisis itself, I think I would’ve got the political thriller I was promised. Though I did walk out knowing more about Eden then I ever thought possible, I think I’d rather leave his epic journey to another BBC mini-series and save myself the price of a ticket.
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