15, for the win

Yeah, the rest of yesterday was a continuous stream of me walking someplace in the cold and wet, and then going inside to warm up on the outside and inside. 

It was also "See Doctor Who Actors On Stage Day," with a matinee of "The Duchess (of Malfi)" starring Jodie Whittaker, followed up by "The Importance of Being Earnest," with Ncuti Gatwa as Algie.

I had real hopes for "The Duchess," largely based on how Whittaker had devastated me in "Broadchurch."  But this particular adaptation didn't ask for Beth Latimer levels of quiet despair.  Duchess starts with her circling the drain and it's only a matter of time before she well and fully realizes it's full of sewage.  I was more impressed by the dude playing Bosola (Jude Owulu), as he actually got to play some inner conflict (although the script gives him a real clunker of a line at the end - show, not tell, people).  Production was interrupted by a medical emergency in the audience, handled by all with complete professionalism.

And then I got rained on - walking around another place with lots of food and beverage stalls I didn't go to because of the rain.  Instead, I walked into a restaurant.  The guy at the desk gives me the, "can I help you?" face, and I just say, "I need food and a dry place to eat it."  Sometimes, being direct is best. 

That night was "Earnest," and, you know, if you're going to "gay up" a play, I'm pretty sure Oscar Wilde would give you posthumous permission to go crazy.  (And yet, they gave Lady Bracknell back to a woman - Sharon D. Clarke, who played it with the imperiousness of an African queen.)  But before the action even starts, a little prologue assures us that this is just Gatwa's playground, and gender is just another social construct we might as well poke fun at, too.  It's fresh and delicious (and the pacing drags considerably when he's off stage.  I nearly nodded off in the bits with Gwendolyn and Cecily; the Gwendolyn actress had a handle on an intelligence burning beneath her exterior, but the Cecily hadn't found it yet - making her a ridiculously unsuitable match for the incendiary brains of Gatwa's Algernon.)  I think it's still in previews and perhaps they'll fix the pacing before opening.  It'll come to NT Live and will likely make Gatwa more of a star than he already is.