Off to Streatham! October 24-28

 October 24  

     I am also writing this after the fact and will consolidate the visit to Streatham to stay with Pete and Shirley in their lovely house.

 

   Pete picked us up from West Wickham and we went to see Giant at the Royal Court           Theatre

Set of Giant at the Royal Court Theatre

. It was an incredibly powerful play about Raoul Dahl after he wrote a piece in a newspaper against Israel and pro-Palestine in 1983. He devolved into anti-Semetism as the play progresses, despite the fact that his publicist of years (Richard Hope) is Jewish, but not a practicing one. His American publisher sent a woman ( Romola Garai)  to persuade him to retract/soften his stance with a statement. She is also Jewish. There were epic and visceral arguments between Dahl and his publicist and the American which sometimes made the audience gasp or squirm uncomfortably. Raoul Dahl was played by the amazing 79-year old John Lithgow. His wife was played by Rachel Stirling, the daughter of Diana Rigg. 

    We went out for several dinners. The first night we went to the Italian restaurant, Garden, in Streatham where Sue met us with Beanie, her dog. She had just flown in that day from a tour of Vietnam.

       Another day we went to a local pub and another night we got take-away fish and chips. One night Pete made spagetti a la Norma with eggplant. He has been experimenting with the recipe having spent two weeks in Sardinia recently. Yum. And, Sue joined us that night as well as joined us in the pub while she was babysitting for her grandson, 14-month old Dylan.

        One day, we went to the Dulwich Picture Gallery with Shirley to see an exhibit by three generations of the Yoshida family. It was the first exhibition of the family's block prints outside of Japan. We all loved the variety of the prints by the various family members. Wood blocks are difficult and they used more colors than most print makers.  

     

   We also walked in Dulwich Park and Shirley gave us a tour of the high street, Dulwich where she attended secondary school.

        On October 28, we had a relaxing morning with Pete and Shirley and then they drove us to Clapham North Tube Station. We went on the Northern Line to the Elizabeth Line and checked into the Hilton Garden Inn for the night.