Day 9: Blackwork and King John

Today's post is a bit short. This is because it is the first day of our second project, and my concentration was on my stitching until we finished at 4.15pm. Our evening meal was at 5pm so we could be at the Theatre for King John at 7.30.  This left little time for blogging.

Our room for this project is not as pleasant as Nicola's room but we have excellent lamps and plenty of room to move. It is a small, pleasant group and Kate Barlow is an attentive and well organised teacher.



The kit is lovely and the instruction booklet very clear, supplemented by a large, clear and detailed diagram.

We began on the Blackwork. The linen is 32 count which I don't usually work, but it was lovely to work with and fine with magnification and light.

There is much hilarity about the Australian toilet paper crisis. During this afternoon's session I received an email from the CEO of Woolworths explaining how hard Woolworths and their suppliers are working to replenish supplies of toilet paper. It seems it's a boom for a couple of rural towns, with the Kleenex factory in Millicent working 24 hours a day 7 days a week to meet demand. My fellow retreaters are offering to fill my suitcase with toilet paper to help out.

The world really seems to be off-kilter.

We had pre-theatre dinner at 5pm, I only 4 hours after our very substantial lunch - so we can be at the Theatre just after 7pm.  It's a 2 minute walk from our hotel. There was a lot of atmosphere and anticipation in the foyer.

We had very good seats. It was fairly full - though not a sellout house.

I thought it was an excellent production, directed by Eleanor Rhode, with King John played by Rosie Sheehy.

There is a food fight in the first half which takes most of interval time clean up.

I was not familiar with the play, but neither Shakespeare nor the production disappointed. I liked the modern costumes and sets carrying the words of Shakespeare, The stylisation of costume and use of dance movement carried the message of power, corruption and self-interest as universal. It left me, at least, feeling strengthened even in the face of such evil - a far cry from the impact of reading news reports every day and emails explaining shortages.

I'm very glad I went and grateful to Phillipa for thinking to organise it.

Our world seems less awry - or no more so than other times- after the play.