Inter Alia

Rosamund Pike is the absolute heart of this new play by Suzie Miller, the writer behind Prima Facie.  This play is mining related ground and can definitely be seen as a partner piece.  Although I guessed the way things were going to go, this was beautifully executed by all the cast.

Jess (Pike) is a successful and compassionate judge, and she is also a good wife to Michael (Jamie Glover) who she has beaten in the race to KC and then the bench.   As in Prima Facie, Jess is confronted with a situation that she sees every day at work but this time it is personal.  A feminist force at work, Jess is not so forceful at home, also being the sexy and accomodating wife to the lazy but self absorbed Michael, and she is also trying to be a good mother to Harry who is now 18, played well by Jasper Talbot as that uniquely teenage mix of confidence and independence mixed with clutziness and neediness.  The accomodations she makes for her different roles are clearly laid out, as are the times she fails to deliver as the perfect woman in any of her roles. It was also pretty funny about the impossibilities of perfection.  The cultural, emotional and moral issues are explored with a fair amount of delicacy, and although the ending was maybe a bit soft, I think it worked.  As well as picking up the failings of the legal system, particularly for women and victims, this also touches on the themes that were so powerfully covered in the Adolescence tv series. It struck home in many ways, particularly in how to parent in today’s world with toxic masculinity in all its forms, and also what that means for women and girls.  I loved the very funny ‘porn talk', but it was also telling how Michael abdicates his responsibilities to others, including that of a father.  I thought it was also very thoughtful in showing how Jess’s grown up young man is still her little boy and how that threatens her judgement.  

The first half of this was mainly Jess at tornado speed balancing her different roles, and it was a bit exhausting to watch.  The second half, as the moralities, legalities and emotional nuances are revealed is at a more considered pace, and it gives a chance for the complexities to come out.   We had a technical hitch which stopped the performance for a couple of minutes, but it was also just before that switch when we begin to see the underlying tensions more clearly - we were talking earlier in the day about the lack of an interval as is the fashion these days, but one could justifiably be added around there as there is a definite shift in tone towards the end.  I like that our sympathies are torn, and there is no easy answer here, even when doing the 'right' thing. Rosamund Pike is brilliant as are her accompanying cast and this is well written to bring out lots of subtleties in tiny ways - definitely worth a watch.

 'Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road' - British Museum

Earlier in the day we popped into this fab exhibition which covers Hiroshige's work and also his influence.  A few things stood out for me - one how widespread and commercially successful his work was in Japan, and how we can see the influences in western art everywhere we look.  There were some great examples of Van Gogh's admiration of Hiroshige's work, but I was also struck by how familiar the imagery, style and composition felt and how many artists have drawn on aspects of his work, particularly for impressionism, but right up to modern day.  Finally the craft that went into creating each one of these wood cut works to produce high quality volume reproduction is impressive.  The exhibition is on till September .