culture vulture

The moment I was free of work, I stepped on the tube to go see the film Coco avant Chanel.

Even though while I was working, I continued to read - more than normal actually, with the commute providing hours to read; write; watch 'hard-hitting TV drama', such as a rather dreamily shot history of Penicillin and TV series The Street.

But all these things are things which can fit in neatly to a tight timeframe: a lunch hour, a train ride, a couple of hours in the evening.

Now I am free to allow my activities to fill up time, and so I headed off to the cinema, where I was treated to a great film. Although I can see the flaws in the film, with its slightly disjointed ending, it was a pleasure to watch. Today, of course, I am sporting monochrome, and tomorrow probably stripes too.

However today's matinee adventure was much more exciting. On the optimistic off-chance last weekend, I typed in my membership details to the National Theatre to see if any of the sold out dates of sell-out production Phèdre would become available to me. To my intense surprise, I found two seats in the second row, which with my under-25s membership made the tickets cheaper than dinner out. I got them before even finding someone to take the other seat.

Wow. As my friend said to me afterwards: you always wonder why some actors become so famous. It's because they're actually really good.

Of course, there are some exceptions, whose faults are only highlighted onstage (read: Josh Hartnett). But there are also certain things you can only appreciate when you are literally a couple of metres away from them (read: Dominic Cooper's arms).

I noted that this play is touring first to Greece then Washington D.C. If you're lucky enough to be near either of those two locations, I recommend you book yourself a ticket!