Subtitles Tennessee Williams

Last night I went to see a Stagetext captioned performance of Spring Storm by Tennessee Williams, and I enjoyed it so much that I'm still grinning from ear to ear over 12 hours later.

Tennessee Williams is my favourite poet and playwright you see. In my final year at uni, I lived, breathed and even spent all my beer money on that man, ordering rare books from America, soaking up the poignant mix of tragic characters and humorous lines, and generally falling in love with him. He’s even on my dream dinner party list, along with Jeremy Clarkson, Clive James and Katie Fforde.

When I saw there was a performance of one of the few plays of his I hadn't dissected through lengthy study sessions, I jumped at the chance to see some of his work from a fresh perspective.

Now, I'm still quite out of practice at going to the theatre and when I read that the performance was 2 hours and 45 minutes long, I was slightly concerned that I might fall asleep or get bored. But what I was forgetting was that I would be watching it as a hearing person. I would be able to follow every single little thing.

And not only was it magical, it was also the quickest 2 hours and 45 minutes of my life. I didn't want it to end. And even though I know Tennessee rarely gifts his characters with happy endings, I couldn't help hoping that this time he would.

One hilarious moment was when Hertha, the dowdy bookish underdog declares that at 28 she's an old maid. At 29 and 30, and both single, Miss K and I burst out laughing. It was a fascinating perspective of Deep South attitudes of that period, and how one mistake could leave you sat rocking on the porch until the end of your days waiting for your man to come back.

If that's the case, I'd better start looking for a house with a porch! Teehee!

These are a few of my favourite things…

In the light of no post on Friday, today is thankful Monday!

Today I am thankful for the wonderful weekend I had with Penthouse Flatmate and her growing brood. I am godmother to her eldest daughter, and this weekend we celebrated her 4th birthday and her little brother's 2nd birthday, as they were born two years and one day apart.

Penthouse Flatmate had an incredible vision for the birthday cake, so armed with all my baking tools I descended upon her on Saturday morning. First Uni Housemate was also there and together with their husbands we created the fairy castle of all fairy castles. It was great being able to help make this masterpiece, but all credit has to go to Penthouse Flatmate for her incredible idea.

I am also thankful that I got to see Jose Gonzalez live at the Royal Festival Hall on Friday night. He was breathtaking. With his low voice and captivating across-all-octaves guitar playing, I really do forget I am deaf when I listen to him play.

And it's obviously the month for seeing my favourite things, as tonight I am going to see a captioned showing of a Tennessee Williams play. Having done my dissertation on Williams at uni, he will always have a place in my heart and, this is the first captioned performance of one of his plays I have ever seen, which makes it doubly exciting.

Wonder what the favourite thing hat trick is going to be this week...

Looks like we're just gonna have to wait and see!