Portrait Cafe

This evening we went to see the new Tom Stoppard play, "Leopoldstadt", documenting the story of a fictional Jewish family living in Vienna, covering the period  1899 to 1955.  It appears to be heavily based on the story of Stoppard's own family.  It is a very powerful and moving play.  I can fully endorse the excellent reviews it has received and thoroughly recommend it. Although there is plenty of humour in the play, it tells a serious and terrible story of a dreadful period in recent Jewish history and the audience was spellbound and silent in the final scenes.

See it if you can.

On a lighter note, earlier in the afternoon my wife spotted that there was to be a candlelit concert in St Martin in the Fields this evening, and she suggested we go into the church as there are sometimes rehearsals before the concert.  It proved to be an inspired suggestion, as we were treated to a free performance by the Ukrainian born pianist Dinara Klinton, who was rehearsing pieces by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and others.  30 minutes of sheer pleasure before dinner and the play.

When we first arrived in London, we headed to the Portrait Cafe in the basement of the National Portrait Gallery - a regular haunt for a good cup of tea, prepared for us by the lady in my blip.

An excellent afternoon (with very little pain from my back).