Design Recollections

He was, he was wonderful, he was perfectly cast and he pulled it off with great sophistication and style. I loved ‘The Vortex’. It was set in an era I should have been born in, the 20’s,  (and so should he lol). The first half had me laughing in the aisles, it was full of little quips, wonderful lines full of  great drama , and from every character, they were all brilliant. The second half came as quite a shock, very dramatic and very intense. I was enthralled by it. The last scene is Nicky (Will) and his Mother, Florence (Diane Hardcastle)  in an emotional head to head, where Nicky needs his Mother to be honest with herself and then with him. She is a middle aged woman, once a beauty but not any more, she has had a string of lovers and is selfish and vain. He is the saddest he has ever been in his life and he now needs the woman he calls Mother to behave like his Mother. He needs this to save himself from ‘tipping over the edge’, he is a drug user and sexually confused. He rages and ignores her pleas to leave her be, he speaks from the heart, 24 years worth of hurt and wanting come spilling to her ears, she hates it, she hates him for speaking the truth. He demands she changes her ways and with his own set of confessions then told, she bends and in the last few emotionally charges minutes of the play she promises to try and change, she holds him close as he now sobs uncontrollably in her arms.

This play caused a controversy when it first hit the stage, it broke many social rules for its time (and this would not be the only time Coward would do this) but it set Noel Coward on a journey of notoriety, fame and fortune. It was brilliant.

Watching Will in this was a new experience for many I knew there. I must have said Hello to 100+ people , hugged half of them, all people I knew from the world of Fandom. I have seen many plays over the years, I love the theatre and don’t get nearly enough these days but that will change as the children get older. A lot of the fans had never been and he brought them into this world to a experience live theatre, a play and all the wonderful drama that it brings. Everyone I spoke too loved it, not all for the same reasons mind you haha but still, getting so many non theatre goers through the doors was a real boon for this production, a stroke of genius casting. I am thrilled it was such a success over its run and the standing ovation for all was well deserved.

The Royal Exchange Theatre is a magnificent ornate building but what lies behind the sandstone facade was quite a surprise. The Theatre itself is set within the main hall of the building, it is a glass and metal framed dome. The seating  is set around the circular stage. The ground level front row setting is but a meter away from the set and actors, you could reach out and touch them (I am sure some fans were tempted lol).

The company enter and exit via the aisles, it was superb, I loved the intimacy of it and I would do the 500 mile round trip to see another performance there for sure. Although next time I will try not to do that in one day! I have spent the day half asleep as I did not get home until the middle of the night and Andrew left for work early this morning. It was worth it.

Ok if anyone is still reading, BRAVO lol and so to my little stash giveaway. I enlisted the help of a little person early this evening to draw two names for me.

 Bless his cotton socks, he had no idea why he was doing this but he just got on and did it.

Congratulations to Shirl and Anso, if you email me, using the link on the right, your address I will get your stash off to you next week. Thank you for taking part to all who did. I have a few more things like this to come, so watch this square space

Now to put this little one to bed and catch up around the WWW and watch last night Ice dancing.

Until later xx………..