Hello everyone,
I've been back from London for a couple of days, and am congratulating myself on how well my trip went! There were a couple of glitches but not enough to spoil what was a very significant trip. I met a couple of friends, and after a meal and a 'pint' we spent an enjoyable afternoon looking at Degas and Monet and Renoir and the rest in the Courtaulds Institute in Somerset House.
Les Miserables was wonderful and fully justified the expense of the trip; I know the show has been on for many years, and must have incurred many cast changes in that time, but I was truly delighted with the current incumbents of the respective parts. 'Eponine' had a wonderful voice, as indeed did all the cast. There was a little perky kid who nearly stole the show, and the Javeart/Jean Valjean 'duel of wills' was as arresting as ever! I could go on, but I'll be in trouble for clogging up the wrong board if I do!
Hopefully I'll be excused, for much as I loved the show, my trip was subverted, whatever the correct word is, by what was supposed to be my 'secondary' event while in town. I'm constantly aware of Heath Ledger's tragic death, so on Monday morning, I found my way to the Actors Church, St Paul's in Covent Garden, on a bright, windy, sunny cold morning; the Church's website shows the garden from which I was to enter the church, a garden replete with memorials to show biz people, so many names I knew, of actors I'd appreciated over many years, the garden actually the old graveyard, now bright with daffodils and crocus and violets, where hundreds of people rest, and including victims of the Great Plague of 1660. A quiet, rather brooding area, with sunshine escaping IN through the high buildings which surround it.
Inside the church it is very light, plenty of windows and is airy and elegant somehow, like so many of the actors whose names are remembered here. I was met not only by an attendant, but by the church's resident cat, a friendly immaculately turned out moggie determined to be noticed and fussed! As a cat lover I was delighted to be made so 'at home'.
I was struck by all the named wooden memorial plaques all around the walls, names, again so many of which I know and have admired over the years. I gather there is a comprehensive list somewhere, sadly all I can remember at the moment are Vivien Leigh, Edith Evans, Donald Wolfit, Stanley Holloway, and a handful of others, including darlin Gracie Fields, whose name maybe won't mean much to un British friends, especially the younger ones! . I'm hoping to obtain a copy of the 'little list'.
As I'd hoped there was a side chapel for remembrance, with candles and a book. I'd taken my copy of Brokeback with me, with the picture of our boys on the cover, and after I'd lit a candle and said a prayer, I read the later section by the lake, with it's anguished 'wish I knew how to quit you', and it's 'Jack leaned against the steady heartbeat......,and 'standing, he fell into sleep that was not sleep but something else drowsy and tranced' and most of all maybe 'the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger'.
As I read I became increasingly emotional, but breaking my mood to write first, simply, "For Heath Ledger, Ennis. God Bless"; then later again I added more fancifully "Goodnight Sweet Prince", and my name. Probably totally unsuitable but it was from the heart. And then serendipity took over, for as I became increasingly 'done up', thinking of Heath and all my other bereavements over the last twelve months, the CAT came purring to me, for all the world like a little comforter, urging me to calm down, and then I was able to smile.
I'll never forget that remarkable visit to the city, and especially my little 'pilgrimage for Heath', for IT was actually the highlight of my trip, not Les Mis at all.
Best Wishes
Sam
"Jack leaned against the steady heartbeat"
(This message I originally posted on IMDb, but having been urged by a good friend to attempt Bettermost again, I thought to 'give it a go'. Hope it's on the right thread etcetera)
