I returned to the Skärborgarnas Hus tonight, following yesterday’s concert. But I wasn’t there to enjoy another night of musical delight. No, tonight I was attending a screening of Dr Strangelove, the not so live stream from the West End. The screening played like it was live, but the play finished its run at the Noel Coward Theatre on January 25 so, unless the Bio had slipped through a rift in time, it was not live. Not that it mattered.
What really mattered was the extremely poor attendance. There were eight people and that included the projectionist. If that’s what they’re still called. It was sad to see so few people. Still, I think everyone enjoyed the play. I know I did.
It was written and directed very much like the original Kubrick film with Steve Coogan playing the roles that Peter Sellers made famous. And, while I’m not the most enthusiastic Coogan fan, I thought he did extremely well. His differentiation between characters was very good.
While Coogan was very good, I think the most plaudits should go to Giles Terera who played an energetic General Turgidson. I particularly liked his word play. When it was pointed out to him that the Russians would retaliate after a bombing, he said they should pretaliate before they could even think of taliating at all, delivered with utmost honesty. (Funnily enough, we saw him in the National’s production of Candide in 1999, one of the first things we saw after arriving in the UK.)
There was a huge cast and they were all excellent (Ben Turner as Bat Guano was a particularly standout). Though, my favourite was the only woman in the play, Penny Ashmore who rose from a trapdoor, glowing like an angel and singing with ethereal tones.
Afterwards, walking home through the woods, it struck me that the play is awfully current, just like it was back in 1964 during the Cold War. When you see what Trump is doing, the Doomsday Machine could easily go off and take us all with it.
I guess it shows that massive human stupidity is cyclical.
Sadly, Mirinda missed out. I think, maybe, she did a little bit too much yesterday while still not over her cold. She stayed at home and watched a movie instead.
