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Thoroughly enjoyed the CAST production of the Two Gentleman of Verona. It was performed this afternoon on the lawn in the Tennis Court Garden of Sidney Sussex College. It was a strong cast, and a well balanced one. Josh Higgott had great comic timing as Lance, a laconic, drunken, Chaplin-esk figure with a good helping of slapstick. Costume was good and in the programme the Production Designer (Siân Docksey) admits to spending much of her time under kilos of face paint—time well spent). Jack Monagham and Joe Bannister made good leads as the two Gentlemen—I could mention all the cast in this way, they were all great.

The production now goes on tour round the USA: glad I had an opportunity to see it before they go. Good luck on tour!

From the ADC Web site:

The scene is Italy: hot, energetic and unrelentingly romantic. Valentine and Proteus are the closest of friends. Valentine leaves Verona to seek his fortune in Milan, where he falls in love with Silvia. Proteus is made by his father to leave his lover Julia and to go to Milan, where he too instantly falls in love with Silvia.

Suddenly an unbreakable friendship and four people’s happiness is threatened by the course of young love running none too smoothly. The meandering journeys of these lovers bring them into contact with several servants, two clowns, three forest-dwelling outlaws and a small dog: Two Gentlemen of Verona is a heart-warming and hilarious story about the universal experience of being young, confused and in love.

Catch this exciting production of Shakespeare’s earliest and funniest comedy in Cambridge before anyone else – previews take place in the beautiful surroundings of Sidney Sussex college, before CAST take it to venues across the Eastern United States as part of their tenth anniversary tour in September. Then, there is a final opportunity to see the company perform the show in October, as Two Gentlemen of Verona kicks off the ADC Theatre’s autumn season.

• Heading over for a night in Southwold at the lovely Swan Hotel, looking forward to the break and the lovely Adnams Beer http://bit.ly/937zL #
• Stopped at the Bear Inn near Bury St Edmunds. Enjoyed the beer, but don’t do lunch any more! http://www.suffolkcamra.co.uk/pubs/pub/57 #
• People swimming in the sea at Southwold—lovely day. Taken row-boat ferry to Walberswick and a pint at the Bell Inn. http://twitpic.com/f3v9b #
• We’re visiting the ship burials at Sutton Hoo http://bit.ly/T6YXS #
• Enjoyed the film version of Nicholas Nickleby—great cast (incl. Jamie Bell), but Charlie Hunnam was much better when he was ‘really doin it’ #
• The last of the Redheads http://www.lastoftheredheads.com/ #
• Autumn leaves, earlier evenings…. Come back summer #
• The star anise that I put in the slow cooker beef stew has come through more than I thought—interesting flavour! #
• Really like the new facebook iPhone app, it’s taken a lot from Twitter clients & the threading of replies is better. Lovely app, well done! #
• Enjoying an aptly-named bottle of Pissotte, a present from Craig and Jenna—it’s tasty! http://twitpic.com/fltu8 #
• RT @LDN: The Apple store is the most profitable shop per square foot in London http://bit.ly/3i1DvN – wow! (via @MikeyCbg) #
• At Sidney Sussex College to see The Two Gentlemen of Verona before it begins a big tour of the USA http://bit.ly/UYQcR
  http://bit.ly/2Txdg #
• Excellent fun production of the Two Gentlemen of Verona in the gardens of Sidney Sussex College: lots of humour. http://schmap.me/n3jjuj #
• *Two Gentleman of Verona* blog post http://bit.ly/13MdQ4 #
• Michael’s opened a lovely, lovely bottle of Veronese, reflecting on my afternoon at the theatre. http://twitpic.com/fve7r #
• Blissing out to Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone on BBC Radio 6. #

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Michael and I grabbed a night in Southwold at the lovely Swan Hotel run by Adnams Brewery. It’s a gorgeous hotel, apparently founded 350 years ago. Great dining room and grand, in a laid back way. Our room was huge with a nice view over the red rooftops, facing East. We had a wander down to the beach, in great sunshine, but a bit blowy. There were people in the sea swimming (and screaming lots) and people lying fully clothed on the sand—typical british seaside! Also saw a few ‘lobsters’—sun and wind a dangerous combination.

We took the ferry—a small rowing boat—across the River Blythe to Walberswick, took about 60 seconds to get across for 80p. We had a little stroll and ended up in the in the Bell Inn, which is a lovely old pub, also run by Adnams. Sat in the windows with a sea breeze wafting in, along with the sun, and a pint of Adnams Bitter. Very relaxing.

We took the ferry back over the Blythe again and tried to find some whelks for me (failed) and Michael almost had an ice cream, but with the promise of a lovely dinner ahead we managed without and wandered on back to the hotel.

Dinner was lovely—brill carpaccio and a sea bass for me; and pressed pork and turbot for Michael. The food is quite fancy and the looked amazing—I loved my samphire and cucumber salad with the sea bass!

Headed out to the Lord Nelson for some more beer—I enjoyed Adnam’s new carbon neutral beer East Green which was on tap, and it was good, but was blown away by the rich, dark, lovely Tally Ho that Michael had, 8%.

On Tuesday we started the day with a stroll to the Pier, and I was kicking myself that I hadn’t brougha twoel and trunks on the walk. There was barely any wind and the sun was out, beach quiet and the sea felt warm to my toes. Normally we come to the seaside in the winter, so I was’t mentally prepared for a sunny, UK seaside. Back in the Swan Hotel, lovely breakfast—had even more fish, in the form of kipper and haddock, before heading out to Sutton Hoo by various ‘B’ roads. After getting through the rather pushy staff trying to sell us membership to the National Trust, we had a wander around the burial mounds (via a viewing platform) and along the circular walk. It was atmospheric being there—I’ve been keen to go for years. The exhibition was good, and it was a good short stop on the way home. Mind you, so was Waitrose at Newmarket!

• Pleased to be in Washington DC. It hot and sticky here. Yesterday we were so busy at the ChemSpider booth at #ACS http://schmap.me/p5hu8m #
• Going in to see the Darwin Exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum—it’s had great reviews. http://twitpic.com/ep8bf #
• Really enjoyed the Darwin exhibition at the Fitzwilliam. The first room outlining Darwin’s early influences particularly http://bit.ly/nUPnL #
• Bought a couple of new shirts for work from the Ede & Ravenscroft sale, *must* throw two of the old ones out! #
• Local review of the Darwin Exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum—their busiest ever exhibition. http://bit.ly/NQq0M #

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• Enjoyed fantastic homegrown raspberries as a pavlova—thanks Sarah & Jason, they were better than those from Perth! http://twitpic.com/desp3 #
• Slow morning today: must have been the late-night beers with our new neighbours—the beer was pretty strong. #
• Feeling sad after watching Grave of The Fireflies: Japanese animation set in 1945 about the fallout of war. Moving film. http://bit.ly/IIeCh #
• Had dinner and a holiday planning session (with guidebooks) at the Cambridge Blue: lovely Seafarer Cornish beer (and a fish pie!) #
• *The old man and the sea* blog post http://bit.ly/V9N9d #
• We had to beat a retreat from the kitchen—the scotch bonnet pepper that I flung into dinner is now a caustic cloud, inhabiting the room. Ow! #
• The scotch bonnet chillis are really aggressive compared with the lovely thai birds-eye chillis. Michael’s still coughing in the kitchen! #

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I was having a really good flight to Washington for the ACS meeting, been upgraded to World Traveller Plus, was working on some notes and reading cached email offline. After suspending my laptop so I could eat my dinner the hard drive died. Awful timing—not only do I need the laptop for demonstrations at the exhibition booth, but also for email and accessing our VPN (which is locked to the laptop). Ggrrrr! Hoping that when I get off the flight that a jolt of mains power might bring it back to life. If that fails I’ll give it a good shake (and at least I’ll feel better!). I’ve only lost an hours work, there are no local files, which is a relief. I’ll see how good an iPhone is as a laptop replacement (and I’ll be able to demo ChemMobi!).

Rather drastic, but maybe now’s the time to buy a MacBook Pro?!