Culture Vultures

One of our neighbours has his fingers in many media pies - from a local newspaper, to a local radio station, to the local theatre.

And thus it was that Favourite Man and I found ourselves down at The Playhouse in Somerset West on the final night of "Play Misty For Me", his first foray into directing.

I've only ever been to The Playhouse once - many, many years ago. It was just as I remembered it. It's not huge, it's not fancy. The old fogies are manning the cash bar, snacks and tea tables. The walls are lined with posters from years gone by, with accolades and awards many and varied. We walked in to a distinct buzz of what appeared to be regulars - including an amazing number of young people for a Friday night!

At the appropriate time, after a pre-show drink, we found our seats a few rows from the front - not too difficult to achieve considering there aren't an infinite number of rows! You can sit in the back and still eyeball the lead on stage pretty effectively.

Norman had indeed chosen a very hard story to portray, adapted by himself for stage and actually pulled off pretty well. So it's not Broadway - but the actors were good, the story easy to follow, alternatively dramatic and funny.

It was a definite change of scene for us old homebodies. We ran into a few people we knew, Favourite Man got chatted/felt up by one (...eish!) and we could honestly tell Norman he'd done a good job of it.

We haven't really explored the local cultural scene beyond a random drink at the Old Bridge Tavern every couple of months - if that can be considered "culture". But if our community newspaper is anything to go by, there's quite a bit happening around here.

May be time to go have a more regular look-see.