A Midsummer Night's Dream

I was watching a couple of episodes of Quatermass and the Pit on DVD last night. That's probably the most famous and well remembered of the Quatermass serials. It's really good, and very well-written and well-acted. The show was broadcast live and so there are a few sequences were the camera loses focus, or bumps into things and in one sequence where the camera operator seems to lose control of the thing and the picture ends up going all over the place.

Work was dull today, as usual. There is a big desk move happening at the weekend, where we are all going to end up in different rooms. I was really bored. My brother works as a musician and lives in London. He's a free-lance musician and part-time teacher and naturally his income can be very erratic, whereas I have a regular income. Also he shares a house with a bunch of people, whereas I have my own place. However, I have always envied him in a way because he does something that he really loves. My brother loves music and would probably still be involved in it even if he wasn't getting paid for it. The only reason I do my job is because I need the money. I'd like to be successful like my brother, I want to do something in film, writing, performance, something creative or cultural, but I'm kind of stuck because of my own stupidity and complete lack of any talent whatsoever.

On to something much more cheerful, I left work at around quarter past six and headed into Princes Street, where I killed about quarter of an hour looking at the DVD sales in HMV. I met my mum at around seven and we headed up to the King's Theatre to see A Midsummer Night's Dream. The play is one of William Shakespeare's most famous and best loved comedies. The story is set in Athens where Lysander and Hermia are in love, but Hermia's father insists that she marries Demeter, who is in love with her bust she is not interested in him. However, Helena is in love with Demeter who is not interested in her. Lysander and Hermia decide to elope and escape into the nearby forest, closely followed by Demeter, who is in turn followed by Helena. In the forest, Oberon, King of the Fairies and his Queen, Titania, are fighting, and a group of amateur actors are rehersing a play to be performed at the wedding of the Duke of Athens. I know the plya well, I've read it and I've seen it performed a few times. This was an Indian production of the play, and was extremely lavish, featuring musicians, dancers, singers, acrobats and martial artists from all over India and Malaysia. The show was very colourful and spectacular. It mixed the English dialogue with other languages. It was a great evening.