" Scandalous Doings at The Royal Exchange"

I took a trip on Saturday...yes, literally, a trip.

Hm: not THAT kind of trip but a trip over an invisible matchbox ( or scrap of shopping list) on a pavement outside a Manchester nightclub. I'd been watching two big-boy Bouncers who were watching a dusky-skinned girl ( legs:gazelle-like, mini dress:leopard-print) and I'd been wondering JUST how many clubbers that night had sidled in on freebies ...while the Big Bouncers gorged themselves on passing street beauties..

And then I'd landed in the gore of said street, one arm in a puddle, my bag in a muddle...

We'd been to a matinee ( visiting the M/Ch Exchange Theatre, in itself a treat) to Sarah Frankcomb's production:" The Children's Hour"; this is Lillian Hellmann's 1934 play,which has a gay theme, once eminently shockable. The play was banned in Chicago, Boston, London, New York...finally shown in France, but with a new title:" The Innocents". And later, in 1961, the film appeared, starring Audrey Hepburn, Shirley Maclaine ( see above) with James Garner.

The story is set in a girl's Scottish boarding school. There are schoolgirls, who whisper and giggle ( often sitting, almost in the audience, around the edge of Exchange's circular stage) ...girls who make friends, gang up, tell tales...(the usual girly stuff ) and there are teachers, two in particular who started the school, who have a friendship teetering on the brink of something else, and then there is schoolgirl Mary, who picks out her victims, who blackmails, who terrifies...Mary, whose final dreadful lie carries everyone into disaster...

It's a great production: the snatches of music, the set with its swirling chairs, the perfect placing of characters on the circular stage, the costumes..

Maxine Peake with Charlotte Emmerson gave us strong and moving pictures of the teachers.

BUT STAR OF THE PLAY was Kate O'Flynn as Mary. At school, we met girls who "stir", who "scare" ( a tad) ..but O'Flynn ignited Mary's character; her takeover of both this evil young character AND the production was superb.

*** " The Children's Hour" is at Manchester Royal Exchange until April 5th.

OTHER fun stuff:

On Monday, to 1st Birthday celebrations of Zest! ...

Zest! is the poetry-child of 3 local women poets, including Gill McEvoy. They meet every few weeks at Alexander's, a friendly, cosy bar in our city, where an intriguing band of folk share a vast variety of poetry. Good fun, with some pretty wonderful contributions. These included poems from 2 ex-Cheshire Poet Laureates, John Lindley and Andrew Rudd.

On Wednesday, to Chester Theatre Club at the Little Theatre: Margery Alexander's production of Bob Larbey's " A Month Of Sundays". It sounds gloomy ( set in a nursing home) but the two main characters, Cooper ( John Turner) and Aylott ( Tony Kemp) provided humour along with much food for thought....which reminds me to mention the talented Barbara Jemmett, who as Nurse Wilson, provided tears, cuddles and curling-at-edge sandwiches! A fine evening out!