Righting the Balance

I can't stand being bored and, as I have made all too clear previously, I reserve the right to walk out of theatres. I am sorry to say that I am also a harsh critic of plays or other artistic offerings that I find wanting. It is great, therefore to be able to be positive and complimentary about about something.

First there was Robert LePage's House of Cards at the Roundhouse. Four of us went. The women  found it exciting and stimulating. One of the husbands was totally bored throughout, the other thought it didn't add up to anything. All were agreed that it was technically quite astonishing

Next, a totally sold out Saturday afternoon performance of Argo, the film about the 1980s hostage rescue operation in Iran. Quite extraordinarily good. Can't remember when the tension created has been as great. Also some hilarious scenes set in Hollywood, where the rescue mission is dreamed up.

And then yesterday, we went to the Tate to see the Kurt Schwitters exhibition. Not one I had particularly wanted to see but we had been friends for decades with one of the people interned with Schwitters on the Isle of Man, in 1940, who had championed Schwitters in a big way. Himself an art historian, he had written about him, organised exhibitions and his portrait, which we have seen hanging in his sitting room for many years, has pride of place at the Tate.

Loved the exhibition. Just shows you should not have preconceived prejudices. Judge afterwards not before. One of the things that endeared Schwitters to me was that, of the many collages he made, he said that the component parts didn't necessarily have a theme. He just thought they went well together.