Had a lovely day. The weather has suddenly taken a turn for the better and humans are smiling again. After a very busy day sorting out the Mikado Programme, taking the guinea pigs to the vet for their shots, taking Jas to the shops and buying stuff for out picnic, we went to Brownsea to see BOAT's Merchant of Venice.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and equally hated it. The last time I saw this play was a school outing to Stratford. I can honestly say I don't recall it being so racist. Now I am the last person to be PC - in fact, I probably go out of my way to be non PC, but there was something deeply offensive about the whole play. The idea of enforcing a religion on another, was one that needed very subtle handling and I didn't feel that this was achieved. The audience gave out an audible groan on that line and it seemed to me the cast themselves squirmed.

The director certainly relied too heavily on the individual performers own interpretation of their roles - there was no cohesion in the production, which resulted in the audience themselves trying to decide where their sympathies should lie. An admirable decision, but one that probably did not have the desired result.

Shylock was certainly played for sympathy, but he could have taken it much further. The wonderful "do we not bleed" speech was somewhat thrown away - it could have the audience in tears and probably should have. But it was Shylock's hatred of Antonio that needed work. The opening scenes helped, with Shylock spat on (I can't remember if it was Antonio, but I assume it must have been) and clearly reviled. But Shylock's crescendo of hatred, spiralling out of control and his finally wanting to kill Antonio, just did not happen.

But this production's problem must surely have been the lacklustre performance of the title role of Antonio. Interestingly played as a foolish father figure, the friendship (I seem to have swallowed an alliteration pill) with Bassanio (which could have been resoundingly and electrically homosexual) just didn't seem true. And it needed it. Antonio's initial sadness and possible unrequited love, was never explained or resolved - if not for Bassanio, then for whom?

All the other roles were well performed, with no one really standing out apart from Chaz Davenport as Solanio, who has the undoubted gift of making the archaic language entirely natural and understood by the audience. Julian Brown's Bassanio had the stunning profile of the beautiful perfect Renaissance man, which would have surely had Raphael and Michelangelo following him down the street. He really would have been very good as a man torn between his sexuality and would have made some sense of the lead casket's warning that marriage to Portia would mean renouncing everything! But all the characters are thoroughly unpleasant, from Bassanio's mercenary approach to marriage, Antonio's horrific cruelty, Shylock's hatred of Christians, to Portia's unneccessary trick on her future husband and vile justice for Shylock. The final scene leaves us realising that these 3 marriages are doomed to failure.

Oh well. The play's the thing. And the play, if taken from last night's performance with the audience as a whole hating the hero, is not so much anti Semitic as anti Christian.

Poor randy greasy little piggy

I managed to separate the guinea pigs run with a nice bit of wood and some crafty brickwork, so that LJ could go in with his family and not make them pregnant! LJ quickly saw that this was pathetically easy to jump over and did so.

Realising my rookie mistake, I remade it, this time with the big wire grill from the bbq. I went back to my bookand turned back to glance happily at the guinea pigs who were now ALL TOGETHER. I think LJ had actually laughed out loud when he crawled underneath it. Realising we were now in Colditz territory I put in more bricks and sealed off every nook and cranny. This time our randy little piggy was going to stay put. And he did. But boy, did he try to say hello to the girls. Which is where I realised I should have cleaned the grill, as the poor little fellow quickly became covered in grease. So at the end of the day, the girls went back to their hutch and LJ had a bath!

Where do I begin?

I thought that it might be interesting to start up the old blog again. I did have my lovely own blog, but doing the html was doing my head in, so that will have to stay where it is. This is easier. It does of course mean that a whole chunk of my life is now missing, but take it from me, you haven't missed much. Just a couple of shows I directed, our month in South Africa, getting engaged - doh!

So let's just start afresh.

This is now a blog about getting married and putting on a show. Lord help me. So quick update...

Re ENGAGEMENT

Kat proposed to me on last night of The Mikado. I was waiting in the wings, minding my own business, when I got called out on to the stage to take a bow. I hate doing it, but it's nice that the audience enjoyed the show, so I only do it on last nights. Jasmine presented me with a bag of nice red wine, which made me very happy!

The applause continued and I worried that the audience had no idea who this strange creature dressed as a stage hand was. So when Kat moved forward and held up his arms to the crowd, I thought thank goodness, he's going to introduce me. But he said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I have one more presentation to make". (So now I'm thinking Oh Goody, some flowers too and they'll know who I am at least). Kat gets on one knee. (And now I'm thinking OMG). "Penny, will you marry me?" (And now I'm speechless). I think I said yes, somewhere, sometime.

Re MARRIAGE

Have organised quite a lot. The castle is booked for Monday 5th January 2009. The dress is sort of organised. Mum and I are going to start with the fabric and see where it leads us. The registrar is booked. Not bothering with flowers (waste of money) and cars aren't needed either. Have not sent out all invites, but nearly done. Will try to do that this weekend. Not sure about wedding presents and if we should do the store list thingy. I always think it's crap and hate being told what to buy, but I can see the advantages. Probably will just let people surprise us - that will be funny. Am sure P & P will give us hideous picture of some sort as revenge for my hideous (well, I thought it was good) portrait I gave them. Kat has found several outfits he likes in the Sutlers Stalls website, so we need to go to our local shop and see what we can find.

Re MIKADO

The show went extremely well, but now we have lost a lot of our cast (particularly orchestra and chorus), so it's going to be tricky to get it organised in time. Last Monday's rehearsal went well though, so I am feeling a lot more positive about it. Have organised for some of the new principals to come round here and rehearse today.

Re ANIMALS

The guinea pigs number four now. Yesterday had to separate the baby boy from mum, Aunt and sister. He was sooo sad and squealed like he was dying. Today he just sits in his empty cage looking miserable. Will try to put some separation into the run so they can all see each other when I put them out in the garden. It's only for 4 - 5 weeks, then he can be done and go back in with them all.

The cats are 6 still. Although Jay is talking about taking Tigger with them. Poppy has turned into my lap cat, which can be very irritating.

RE WORK

I am surviving on my teaching, which is a bit of a problem. I am going to finish of mum's War Child artwork, which will pay off my credit cards and give me a small amount of cash to last for Summer. Then I'm concentrating on the G & S website - that needs to be up and ready to go before I go back to work in Sept - there's got to be some cash in that, but it's a hell of a lot of work. After that, I need to get my portrait of Claire finished. So quite a lot to do this Summer. I've kept one course going, a new one, Beginners Acrylic, which should be fun to do and only 6 weeks. Might be able to carry that on if enough people are interested.

Re FAMILY

Tom has just finished his A levels, so we wait with baited breath. He seems very confident and fully intends to go to Cardiff University (the better of the 2, I'm told).
Jay and Claire are still living with us, but actively trying to find a new home to stay.
Jas has finally cleaned her room with 98% help from me.

So that's the update. Let the fun commence..