June 2 - A Day in London - Books, "1536"

 June 2

     Today, after breakfast at the flat, Jecca and Barbara took 2 busses with the destination Daunt Books on Marylebone Road. Due to the tube strike, the traffic was thick and it took over an hour to get there, but they had front seats in the top row of the second bus which was fun. Lots of interesting architecture.

     It was a weird weather day. Rain in mid-morning, a thunderstorm in mid-afternoon and sun. 

      Daunt bookstore was a revelation as Barbara had not been there. She was looking for a book from an Icelandic writer which has not yet been released in the U.S. The store has it organized by country, so it was easy and she bought it.  A woman asked, for example, for books from Uzbekistan! He said they had "a few."

      They had lunch at Gail's, a chain of bakeries known for its good food. They split a sandwich and a scone.

   

 After the bookstore, they decided they would walk to the Covent Garden area to meet up with Mark for dinner and theater. As they walked through expensive Mayfair, they saw showrooms for luxury cars - Rolls Royce, Lambergini etc, as well as very high-end stores, including a jewelry store selling estate jewelry including tiaras.

      En route, they saw thunderclouds and hastily found a coffee shop before crowds would be seeking shelter. It was a good thing, as several minutes later, there was a downpour complete with thunder and lightning.

     Meanwhile, Mark stayed home and caught up the blog and iced and rested his knee. He took an Uber and we all met up at Dishoom, an Indian restaurant.

It was excellent and beautiful, too. The food was good, but Jecca had a serious reaction to a lamb kabob where she found it impossible to breathe for a minute. Luckily, it passed as she was ready to call for an Epi pen. It was a joint celebration of Jecca's birthday and Mark's. As it started to rain, we lingered which meant ordering desserts and coffee. (Mark's rice pudding came with a candle.) The restaurant took umbrellas and chai to the patrons lined up outside in the rain. We had a terrific waitress.

      Then, it was a short walk to the Ambassador Theatre where we had tickets for 1536, a play about three women in a village with the ominous backdrop of the arrest, and later beheading, of Anne Boleyn. The play was written by Ava Pickett, her first play, which is amazing. It was played by three amazing young actors, the lead, Anna, who was a woman with no money and who used her beauty and got the reputation for being a whore as the play unfolded. (Liv Hill) Conservative attitudes toward women hardened as Anne Boleyn was portrayed as an evil woman. Jane, the more innocent of the three, gets engaged, and then married, to a man who has slept with Anna, unbeknownst to her. (Sienna Kelly)The third character was Mariella, a midwife, who was in love with the local estate owner, but their marriage would have been impossible. (Tanya Reynolds)

There was a lot of humor in the early part of the play, but the looming violence grew. Jane's husband, Richard (Oliver Johnstone) abuses her, but she has succumbed to the notion that women obey their husbands. Mariella delivers the baby of William, the man she loves and the woman dies, putting Mariella in the position of being accused of murder. (George Kemp) William played by And, then, Anna kills Jane's husband who was threatening them all. 

     We all praised the acting and the intensity.

It is hard to imagine those women going through that emotional ringer at every performance.

     Then, an Uber home.