anef: (Default)
anef ([personal profile] anef) wrote2008-04-27 09:05 am

More Culture

Went to see Single Spies at the Arts Theatre last night with Michael and [profile] laosin.  This was two Alan Bennett plays, An Englishman Abroad about Guy Burgess in Moscow and A Question of Attribution about Anthony Blunt in his day job for the Queen.  I enjoyed them both although the theatre was very hot and I felt a bit dopy due to having had a pre-theatre dinner (with a nice Chilean rose) in the restaurant upstairs beforehand.  Oh, and Nigel Havers was playing both Burgess and Blunt. 

They were both small scale sorts of things - that you could see easily being done on TV or as student productions - and interesting in different ways.  I don't think Bennett was was particularly saying anything with either, but just looking at the two particular situations.  The horror of Burgess' existence in a small flat in Moscow, exiled from the things that made life worth living.  A Question of Attribution was more complex, full of double entendres about fraud, forgery and attribution, and a painting possibly by Titian in which third and fourth men appeared after cleaning/x-raying.  I think I'll try to get hold of the script (Oh, and I see Amazon has it as an audio-book as well).