(no subject)

I went to see M. Butterfly at Bromley Little Theatre last night. One of the pleasures of being a member of a theatre club is that you can turn up there on your own and be reasonaby certain that you will know at least a couple of people there to chat with during the interval.

It was an interesting play, and a great departure for BLT, which has a rather staid audience demographic. The play - as one might have guessed - is based on Madam Butterfly, but was inspired by the true story of a French diplomat based in Beijing, who fell in love with a Chinese singer and ended up living with her for 20 years. She was eventually revealed to be both a man and a spy - two facts which had escaped the diplomat's notice, despite an intimate relationship lasting nearly a quarter of a century.

Apart from the subject matter, the play was interesting for the way it switched almost continuously between the present (the diplomat in prison) and his reminiscences of times in Beijing and, later, Paris - with the characters often addressing the audience directly and frequently acknowledging the fact that this was a play.

It was unusual for BLT to stage because it was a demanding piece of theatre and because it included both male and female nudity and "strong language". It was probably because of this that the theatre was only half-full last night. A great pity - because it was a very good evening of theatre.

I was marginally distracted by studying the set, which I plan to steal for Crime and Punishment. The stage at BLT is quite deep, and the designers had built a three/four foot raked platform that entirely covered the rear half of the stage. This will be perfect for the "upper rooms" in the lodging house in C&P. Hurrah!

(no subject)

I'm very pleased with Richer Sounds, a vendor of cut price high fidelity electronic equipment of this parish.

My CD player died a while ago, and though I've been playing the iPlod through the amplifier, it somehow isn't the same, so yesterday I went out to buy a new CD player and a new pair of speakers (since the ones in the back room were bought at a boot sale about 10 years ago).

Now, being a boy I did a bit of research and settled on a pair of Mordant Short speakers and a NAD cd player. Sadly, Richer Sounds didn’t have the NAD in stock, but they did have the speakers. However, during my research I discovered, by chance, that Comet also sell the Mordant Short speakers, at £50 cheaper than Richer Sounds.

I phoned RS up and they said they would honour their price promise and sell me the speakers at the same price as Comet. They also confirmed that they had my second choice CD player in stock (a Marantz).

I arrived at the shop and spoke to the manager who initially suggested that the speakers Comet were selling were the previous model and of inferior quality. He was very pleasant, and said he would check on their website and speak to their sales people. This he did and after a brief delay confirmed that the speakers were exactly the same and that he would be delighted to sell them to me for the Comet price, plus an additional £5.00 bonus award for being a clever clogs.

He also talked me out of buying the Marantz and suggested a Cambridge Audio player instead, slightly more expensive but - he said - worth it. So I bought them both and retired home to play with my toys.

The speakers are wonderful. The CD player is wonderful too - but it hums. Not through the speakers or anything but the box itself hums, quite quietly, but very distinctly. Now this would not be a problem when it's playing because it is quiet enough to be lost in the sound of the music. But it's not possible to turn the thing off - it only has "on" or "standby" and when it's in standby it hums just as loudly as when it is on.

I phoned up RS this morning to mutter darkly about humming. Not a problem, they responded cheerfully - what do you want to do? A refund? An exchange? We agreed on an exchange for the NAD that I originally wanted - they will have it in stock next week, and in the meantime I can hang on to the Humming Machine so that I can listen to music. Hurrah for RS!