Beaucoup de bruit pour rien

Or 'Much Ado about Nothing'.

Last night we went to the Halle to see a London theatre company perform Shakespeare. It is a beautiful setting for any performance and at this time of year the swallows swooping about are wonderful. (Him Outdoors was a bit late because we forgot that we would have to get the chickens in bed before we could go out!)

As we have now come to expect, the local British 'posh' contingent was there. The ones that we have met are very wealthy Brits and Americans who have large holiday houses here. They get dolled up and go to all the performances around. We have been to 3 or 4 and I did ask one woman last year whether it was the same people at all these things and she said 'no, but it's the same sort of people'. I quite agree. The ones we have met have been through a very kind American woman who also visits in the summer.

I didn't remember the plot - it's a film with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson (aren't they all) and also Keanu Reeves and Denzil Washington, set in a beautiful villa in Chiantishire. BUT it's stupid! You want to shout out for the heroine (Hero) to get a life and not marry the stupid bastard. As with all Shakespeare, there are some people that can speak it as though they are just chatting and you understand completely and wouldn't even know it was 400 years old, and there are the rest. Unfortunately there were quite a lot of the rest in this. Quite a lot of young actors who were only just starting being held together by some excellent people and an elderly man who had obviously been 'treading the boards darling' for years. I wonder why they do a summer season in France. I mean it's beautiful and all and it's work so maybe that's enough but it's an awful lot of work for 5 performances. Maybe they do a load more all over the place.