London take 2

Back in town, with theatre tickets aplenty to see me through the week before we go to France.  First event is at The Globe, the Shakespeare theatre on the banks of the Thames..seeing Twelfth Night. This is a rowdier production than one may be used to with plenty of song and dance and I enjoy it thoroughly from perfect seats behind the pit of hoi polloi audience standing between us and the stage. Fortunately it does not rain as they would certainly get wet if that occurred.
I spend my last few days wandering or cycling around the place and my evenings in town. I saw a second Moliere play, though a modern adaption,  Don Juan in Soho with David Tennant wonderful in the title role. He is more than ably supported by Adrian Scarborough as his factotum Stan. I am so glad I went.
The same applies to the other shows, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour and The Barbershop Chronicles. The first has already been to Melbourne and how did I not see it there? Perhaps I was not there. It is a musical about a group of teenage Scottish girls on a school outing to participate in a choir competition. That is how they get to Edinburgh but they have very different personal plans. As the night and the following day evolve so do the girls revealing themselves to the audience with raucous behaviour and deeper personal layers masked by it. I hope it comes back to Oz.
Finally the National Theatre production, The Barbershop Chronicles, performed in the round in the smallest theatre in the complex. I once more have a wonderful seat, first row of the circle with a full view of the stage floor below on which several barbers' chairs are set of and lots of chairs and couches surrounding the performance space.  The action moves between shops in London, Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra. There is a connection between all, and the play looks at masculinity, relationships between men, between fathers and sons and atbthe political scenes in the various countries. The ensemble cast is top notch and i go home happy that I have seen all the plays I wanted to and not ended up with a dud anywhere.
I have spent almost my last full day in London with Terry, whom I have not seen for a few years. It is another good day, we meet at Waterloo and after coffee head for the John Soanes Museum which houses the architect's enormous collection of art, furniture and architectural pieces. Spread across three houses which he has built or modified to ensure light enters all the spaces are amazing buts from plaster samples of ancient architectural effects, through a collection of paintings which includes Hogarth's series The Rake's Progress to an alabaster sarcophagus which was wrapped in mattresses during WWII to protect it as it could not be moved. Then lunch in the park nearby, another small museum and talking over a cup of tea until I realise I have to rush off to make the theatre. A good ending.