ANAM, and The Bacchae

Yesterday morning I went to a wonderful concert at ANAM, which I nearly missed as it wasn't marked in my calendar. I'm glad I did though as it was of works for two pianos: the Afternoon of a Faun by Debussy and La Valse by Ravel, both in the composers' own arrangements, bookended two originally works, Poulenc's Sonata for two pianos and John Adams' Hallelujah Junction. The concert was the result of time spent at ANAM by Kathryn Stott working with the piano students.

This morning I dropped in to see Margaret G for coffee and chat. She's off to Ubud next week for the writers' festival, so I must remember not to visit.

Tonight I met P & B at Cicciolina for dinner before heading to Theatre Works for our final Festival show, The Bacchae, as presented by St Martin's Youth Theatre. It's a sign that something's amiss when the best thing about a production is a piece of scenery, in this case a self-inflating giant mask of Dionysus. The rest was opaque, to say the least, and frankly not very good. All performed, and one suspects developed by a group of teenage girls. I know a festival is a chance to do off-the-wall productions, but they do need to reach a certain standard. This didn't.