Tracey and I visited Norwich at the weekend. Having dropped the kids off at Vauxhall Caravan Park in Great Yarmouth to spend a week with their Nan, we thought we'd make the most of it and find somewhere nice to stay and then mooch around Norwich.
Last time we'd visited Norwich, we got soaked by torrential rain, but this time we were lucky.
The first picture here is Norwich Cathedral that we passed by on Saturday. We quite wanted to go in, but one of the security people was sending people away from the entrance we were heading towards and we didn't fancy a trek to find another door... (Lazy sods, I know).
Oops - I said we'd find somewhere nice to stay, didn't I? Well, we did : Catton Old Hall. A lovely place, well tucked away but only 5-10 minutes drive from the City Centre. This is a picture from their website, and I think it's the room we stayed in. Lovely family-run B&B, but with a hotel feel because of the number of rooms, which makes it feel more organised than your typical B&B. Unlike last time we visited Norfolk, this double bed didn't tip us off the sides! The breakfast was hearty, the heating pretty good, and the bathroom large (although a little bit of TLC on the bath surround wouldn't go amiss!) We paid £90 per night as we stayed two nights. We'd definitely visit again.
On Saturday night, we returned to the Maddermarket Theatre where we had seen, a couple of years ago, a rather magnificent production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. This time around, it was The Tempest, again by Shakespeare. The director (Peter Sowerbutts) had taken two big decisions. First of all, instead of a tropical island, it was set on an iceberg! I took a sneaky picture of the set during the interval so you can see what I mean. That's Prospero's shipwreck in the centre.
As you can see, they use the traditional 'pillars' that used to be there in Shakesperian theatres (ostensibly to hold the roof up!)
The second big decision by the director was to have all the non-romantic male roles being portrayed by women. This included (but was not limited to) Prospero, Antonio, Alonso and Gonzalo. I had my doubts when I read the programme but, I was glad not to be proved right! All the cast portrayed their roles with gusto, seriousness and should be commended. Most notable were Prospero (noble, but with an air of hopelessness and despair caused by isolation) and Gonzalo (on the verge of, but never falling into, the wizened doddering old fool.) Perhaps women are just better at playing nobility, men not exactly overwhelming the world with noble actions at the moment, or perhaps these were just first-class actors having a rare opportunity.
We thoroughly enjoyed the play and I would recommend anyone in Norwich, or visiting, to seek out this high-quality and, I think, very important group of players.
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