Another day - another play

I had a ticket to see King Hedley II at the Theatre Royal in Stratford tonight, so I headed there this afternoon. I originally planned to walk in the Olympic Park, but I was tired (see later for why) so I mooched around the centre of town.

This is a multicultural community but it appears to be quite poor. There are a number of advice centres, a pawn broker’s and a loan shop, all quite close to each other.

I had time to kill, so I went to the cinema. Seven of us watched Amazing Grace which is a documentary about when Arethra Franklin recorded a gospel album live at the New Temple Missionary Gospel Church in Los Angeles in 1972. It was fascinating on many levels.

I had a hot and spicy vegan pizza at Pizza Express next door, then adjourned to the theatre. It was the home of Joan Littlewood’s famous Theatre Workshop and here she is sitting in the Gerry Raffles Square outside.

The theatre has seen better days in terms of its fabric. The play is set in America where the lives of six people are inextricably intertwined. Each one tries to rationalise their past actions. It’s brilliant, but very wordy and long. The set was terrific.

Five people around me left in the interval. My famous fellow audience member tonight was Andrew Marr. I must look to see if he will be interviewing Lenny Henry about the play.

Now to why I am tired. My day started with the alarm at 0200 so that I could go to Smithfield Market. It was fascinating and I was made very welcome. I have never seen so much meat in one place. Vegetarians need not apply for work here! The butchers were friendly and I was given historical facts as well as personal stories.

One said I should apply to the office for a permit to photograph so I set off to find it. The helpful security guard told me that they no longer gave out permits on the spot, but after a phone or written application. He was sorry but I could not photograph inside the market. I didn’t tell him that I had been happily doing this for an hour already.

It did mean that I ended the photo shoot much sooner than expected. (It turns out that there is a moratorium on photography, so my email application was declined later.)

Odd things for sale? Firstly, the huge bags of lambs’ testicles and the second were the boxes of muffins. Who knew?