Penn PAL M a Y 2 0 1 2
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The PeNN PAL M A Y 2 0 1 2 B U S I N E S S A S U S U A L I N S U M M E R O F C E L E B R A T I O N London is preparing for an exceptionally busy and enjoyable summer with HM the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in early June followed by the Olympics and Paralympics as well as all the usual summer attractions such as the Wimbledon tennis championships, the City of London Festival and the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. The central weekend in the Diamond Jubilee celebrations runs from Saturday 2 June to Tuesday 5 June, with the Monday and Tuesday being public holidays. The panoply of events includes the Jubilee Pageant on the Thames on the Sunday and the service p h of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral o t o on the Tuesday. g r a p www.thediamondjubilee.org h b y T The London Olympics opening ceremony a m is on 27 July, the closing ceremony on á s S 12 August. The Paralympics run from z a b 29 August to 9 September. The events ó are many and various, from rowing at Eton Dorney to beach volleyball on Horse Guards Parade. www.london2012.com The Penn Club will be open as usual Spring greenery in Russell Square throughout the summer and the rest of the year, and we would be delighted to see you in the coming months. While at present we still have plenty of vacancies in June, July and August, our advice to members is the same as always: we advise that you book as soon as you can because the Club often fills up. C L U B E V E N T S The advertised event on 1 April had to be re-jigged because illness caused the cancellation of the afternoon concert at St George’s Bloomsbury. We went instead to the Conway Hall to attend a superb evening concert by the Coull Quartet. The concert at St George’s Bloomsbury has been re-arranged for Sunday 24 June, when Ailsa Hunter and Mark Packwood will perform their postponed programme of violin and piano sonatas. We will have tea in the Club at 3.00pm before going to St George’s for the concert at 4.00pm. All are welcome. Then we will have the pleasure of a literary event in the Club in the evening of Thursday 5 July. Mary Shakeshaft formerly Principal Lecturer in English at Middlesex University on Shakespeare the Invisible Man The event is free to members; guests are welcome to attend with a bottle. Thursday 5 July, 7.00pm in the Edward Cadbury Room. P A G E 2 P E N N P A L M A Y 2 0 1 2 S H A K E S P E A R E I N T O W N Bottom: Get your apparel together, good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look m u o’er his part; for the short and long is, our play is preferred. In any e s u case, let Thisby have clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion M h pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion’s claws. And, most s i t i r dear actors, eat no onions nor garlick, for we are to utter sweet B e h breath; and I do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. T © No more words: away! go; away. Act V, scene I A Midsummer Night’s Dream The theatres of London will stage more of Shakespeare’s plays and more performances of the plays this year than ever before. The Globe Theatre has begun working through all 37 plays, staging each one in a different language in its Globe to Globe festival. Forthcoming performances include Julius Caesar in Italian and The Merchant of Venice in Hebrew and then Henry V in English in early June. The main (all-English) season at the Globe picks up with Henry V, continues with The Taming of the Shrew and Richard III and ends in October with Twelfth Night. Mark Rylance returns to the Globe stage in the last two plays – appearing as Richard III and as Olivia. The Royal Shakespeare Company is performing fives of the plays – Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Twelfth Night and The Comedy of Errors - from June to October at the Noël Coward Theatre and the Roundhouse. At the National Theatre, Simon Russell Beale takes the title rôle in Timon of Athens from 10 July to 9 September. Jonathan Pryce is King Lear at the Almeida Theatre from 31 August to 3 November. The Royal Opera House is performing Verdi’s Falstaff in May and Otello in July. More information on all the above productions may be found on a composite website: www.worldshakespearefesitval.org.uk The best news of all is that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is returning to the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park in this the theatre’s 80th summer season. To see this gem of a play in the most magical venue is a pure delight. Performances run from 2 June to 5 September; they alternate with the musical Ragtime. www.openairtheatre.com E X H I B I T I O N S This year brings a banquet of exhibitions in central London. We offer a selection: The British Museum: Shakespeare: staging the world; 19 July to 25 November www.britishmuseum.org The Royal Academy: Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed; to 10 June www.royalacademy.org.uk Summer Exhibition 2012; 4 June to 12 August The National Gallery: Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude; to 5 June www.nationalgallery.org.uk Tate Britain: Picasso and Modern British Art; to 15 July www.tate.org.uk The British Library: Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands; 11 May to 25 September www.bl.uk Wellcome Collection: Brains: The mind as matter; to 17 June www.wellcomecollection.org P E N N P A L M A Y 2 0 1 2 P A G E 3 The Great Hall of Lambeth Palace: Royal Devotion: Monarchy and the Book of Common Prayer; to 14 July www.lambethpalacelibrary.org The National Portrait Gallery: The Queen: Art and Image; 17 May to 21 October www.npg.org.uk The Queen’s Gallery: Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist; to 7 October www.royalcollection.org.uk A sail down the river to Greenwich will bring you to the National Maritime Musuem, where the current exhibition, to 9 September, is Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames. We also recommend seeing The Queen’s House, the Old Royal Naval College, the Royal Observatory and a famous ship, the restored and recently re-opened Cutty Sark. www.rmg.co.uk And no visit to Greenwich is complete without a plate of whitebait in one of the old taverns. The Trafalgar Tavern and the Cutty Sark Tavern © William Hustler and Georgina Hustler/ are both excellent. National Portrait Gallery, London D I N I N G O U T A frequent enquiry from members looking for somewhere near the Club to eat in the evening is, “Where can we find fish and chips?” We take this to mean traditional fish and chips: a white fish fillet, usually cod or haddock, in golden batter with chipped King Edward or Maris Piper potatoes. The traditional accompaniment is mushy peas, a semi- puréed delicacy made from marrowfat peas and always a distinctive shade of green. It is said of Peter Mandelson (Lord Mandelson), a former Cabinet Minister, that he once mistook mushy peas for guacamole in a fish-and-chip shop in his constituency; an easy mistake. The traditional condiment for fish and chips is vinegar; tartar sauce is acceptable; mayonnaise on chips is a continental habit but often allowed. Purveyors of fish and chips fall into three categories, all of them well represented in this part of London. The first is the essential fish-and-chip shop. This is the establishment specialising in simple and affordable fish and chips, serving customers wanting to eat on the premises as well as those wanting a meal to take away, wrapped in newspaper pages. Two good places of this sort may be found close together in Theobalds Road: Alen’s Fish and Chips at number 43 and the Fryer’s Delight at number 19. Then there are the more up-market establishments, the fish-and-chip restaurants. Two well-known eateries of this kind, both of them listed in restaurant guides, are the North Sea Fish Restaurant in Leigh Street, off Marchmont Street, and the Rock and Sole Plaice in Endell Street, Covent Garden. The third category is the public house. Most pubs in London serve hot food at lunchtime and in the evenings, up to 9 or 10pm, and almost every pub with a menu will offer fish and chips. Of the pubs within easy walking distance of the Club, you could try the Marquis Cornwallis in Marchmont Street, The Queen’s Larder or The Swan in Cosmo Place, off Southampton Row, or the Museum Tavern or The Plough in Museum Street. It’s a pub you need if you fancy a glass of beer with your fish and chips. If you want to treat yourself to a Dover Sole or something else from the expensive end of the sea, you should head for one of the fish- and-chip restaurants.