we show you pictures from the time The Baker was made and released.
please enjoy:-))
Monday, 29 September 2014
Pic of the day
please enjoy this weeks pics of the day.we see pictures from 2005 and 2006...
we show you pictures from the time The Baker was made and released.
please enjoy:-))
we show you pictures from the time The Baker was made and released.
please enjoy:-))
Wales...
Wales (
i/ˈweɪlz/; Welsh: Cymru [ˈkəm.rɨ] (
)) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers part of the island of Great Britain,[6] bordered by England to its east, the Irish Sea to its north and west, and the Bristol Channel to its south. It had a population in 2011 of 3,082,400 and has a total area of 20,779 km2
(8,023 sq mi). Wales has over 1,680 miles (2,700 km) of coastline and
is largely mountainous, with its highest peaks in the north and central
areas, including Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), its highest summit. The country lies within the north temperate zone and has a changeable, maritime climate.
Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and Wales is regarded as one of the modern Celtic nations. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd's death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of England's conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to what was to become modern Wales, in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542. Distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism and the Labour Party. Welsh national feeling grew over the century; Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters.
At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, development of the mining and metallurgical industries transformed the country from an agricultural society into an industrial nation; the South Wales coalfield's exploitation caused a rapid expansion of Wales' population. Two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff (the capital), Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the country's traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales' economy depends on the public sector, light and service industries and tourism. Wales' 2010 Gross Value Added (GVA) was £45.5 billion (£15,145 per head, 74.0% of the average for the UK, and the lowest GVA per head in Britain).
Although Wales closely shares its political and social history with the rest of Great Britain, and the vast majority of the population speaks English, the country has retained a distinct cultural identity and is officially bilingual. Over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the "land of song", in part due to the eisteddfod tradition. At many international sporting events, such as the FIFA World Cup, Rugby World Cup and the Commonwealth Games, Wales has its own national teams, though at the Olympic Games, Welsh athletes compete as part of a Great Britain team. Rugby Union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness.
i/ˈweɪlz/; Welsh: Cymru [ˈkəm.rɨ] ( )) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers part of the island of Great Britain,[6] bordered by England to its east, the Irish Sea to its north and west, and the Bristol Channel to its south. It had a population in 2011 of 3,082,400 and has a total area of 20,779 km2
(8,023 sq mi). Wales has over 1,680 miles (2,700 km) of coastline and
is largely mountainous, with its highest peaks in the north and central
areas, including Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), its highest summit. The country lies within the north temperate zone and has a changeable, maritime climate.Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and Wales is regarded as one of the modern Celtic nations. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd's death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of England's conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to what was to become modern Wales, in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542. Distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism and the Labour Party. Welsh national feeling grew over the century; Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters.
At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, development of the mining and metallurgical industries transformed the country from an agricultural society into an industrial nation; the South Wales coalfield's exploitation caused a rapid expansion of Wales' population. Two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff (the capital), Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the country's traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales' economy depends on the public sector, light and service industries and tourism. Wales' 2010 Gross Value Added (GVA) was £45.5 billion (£15,145 per head, 74.0% of the average for the UK, and the lowest GVA per head in Britain).
Although Wales closely shares its political and social history with the rest of Great Britain, and the vast majority of the population speaks English, the country has retained a distinct cultural identity and is officially bilingual. Over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the "land of song", in part due to the eisteddfod tradition. At many international sporting events, such as the FIFA World Cup, Rugby World Cup and the Commonwealth Games, Wales has its own national teams, though at the Olympic Games, Welsh athletes compete as part of a Great Britain team. Rugby Union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness.
The Baker...
Milo (Damian Lewis)
is a dissatisfied professional assassin. Cornering his latest target at
his home, Milo has a change of heart and offers the man the chance to
escape and assume a new identity, only for Bjorn (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau),
a rival assassin working for the same organization, to arrive and kill
the man anyway. Bjorn makes it clear that he plans to use Milo's lapse
in protocol to have his bosses order Milo's termination; they do so,
assigning the kill to Bjorn. Milo narrowly escapes Bjorn's first attack,
and after a conversation with his fellow assassin and friend Leo (Michael Gambon) heads to Leo's country property in Gwynfyd, Wales to hide out while Leo works on making things safe for Milo.
When attempting to bury his case of weapons, Milo is knocked out by the remains of an exploding sheep, detonated by the unseen Eggs (Dyfan Dwyfor), a young conspiracy theorist who steals Milo's weapons while he is still out. The unconscious Milo is found and taken home by Rhiannon (Kate Ashfield), the town veterinarian, who ensures he's healthy before returning him to his car. In town Milo meets town barkeep Bryn Morgan (Steve Spiers), who mistakes Milo for the town's new baker, as Leo's property is a former bakery. Not wanting to raise suspicion Milo goes along with this, and adopts the alias "Milo Shakespeare", inspired by a bust of William Shakespeare found in the pub.
Milo stays in hiding while Bjorn attempts to track his location using a photo of the bakery left behind by Milo. With Leo's efforts taking time, Milo commits to learning how to bake to fit with his inadvertent cover identity. However, unknown to him, Eggs has correctly (if illogically) concluded that Milo is really an assassin, but erroneously assumes that the bakery is really a front for his assassination business. Before long the rumor has spread throughout most of town, save for Rhiannon and a few others. Believing the rumor, local chips shop owner Rhys Edwards (Anthony O'Donnell) comes to Milo and asks him to "bake a cake" for his domineering wife Martha (Annette Badland), Milo completely missing the intended subtext.
The next day, Rhys unknowingly leaves a gas burner open and unlit before he leaves for work, and Martha is killed by the ensuing explosion when she goes to use the toaster. Gwynfyd's residents assume Milo was responsible, proving the rumors true in their minds.
Over the next weeks Milo's business picks up considerably, with several people ordering "cakes" for others in town. Eggs has started working for Milo as his assistant, wanting to become an assassin himself. One night Milo prepares for a date with Rhiannon, while Eggs prepares for a "date" with Bob (Brian Hibbard), a local man in dispute with his neighbor Stan (Robert Page) over the annual "best garden" award. Eggs arrives at Bob's house as he eats dinner and, nearly losing his nerve, fires a silenced shot into the house blindly. When Bob clutches his stomach in agony Eggs panics and flees.
Milo's date with Rhiannon goes well, but is interrupted when Eggs arrives, drunk and distraught over his first murder, though he passes out before he can explain. Milo and Rhiannon take the unconscious Eggs back to the bakery, then have sex. Afterward, Eggs regains consciousness and explains what happened to Milo, who is stunned to realize the pleasant townsfolk who visited his bakery were actually ordering assassinations on each other. Rhiannon overhears the conversation and leaves, angry; Milo later tries to apologize for his past and not telling her sooner, but is rebuffed.
The next day Milo prepares to leave town, only to see Rhys fleeing the chips shop, stripped to his underwear and covered in various condiments; Milo and Eggs follow him to the pub. After a brief interruption at the arrival of Bob, who explains to a stunned Eggs that he merely burned his stomach when something knocked his hot dinner onto it, Rhys tells Milo and the rest of the town that a blond man - Bjorn - tortured him for information on Milo, and has now kidnapped Rhiannon to draw Milo out. Milo explains the truth behind Martha's death and his ignorance of their intent when placing cake orders with him to the now-ashamed townsfolk, then goes on to say that he wanted to get away from his life as an assassin and vows to rescue Rhiannon. He burns the list of "cake" orders in front of the townsfolk, explaining that "everyone deserves a second chance".
Milo confronts Bjorn, who reveals that his hatred of Milo stems from him rejecting Bjorn's desire to run away together with him, which Milo reminds him, not for the first time, "is not possible for so many reasons." Milo challenges Bjorn to fight "properly" rather than just killing Rhiannon; the two duel with foils, which seems to reach a climax until they discover the weapons are safety-tipped and unable to wound. They then switch to staffs, which quickly break, then bare hand-to-hand, where Milo bests Bjorn. As he goes to free Rhiannon, Bjorn pulls a gun, but stops when the townsfolk appear and surround him, demanding he release "our baker". After some talking Bjorn finally decides to let Milo be in the hopes that Rhiannon will break his heart, whereupon Eggs knocks him out with a shovel.
Some time later Milo is preparing a cake at the bakery, assisted by Eggs who has developed significant skills as a baker, eclipsing Milo's own. Leo arrives while Milo is alone in the kitchen; he explains that he used Milo's exile as an opportunity to stage a "hostile takeover" of the company, and as he is now in charge Milo is free to return to work without fear of being killed. To Leo's surprise Milo turns him down, saying he intends to remain a baker and will pay him fair price for the shop. Leo is confused until he sees Rhiannon enter the shop, and leaves silently when Milo steps away to greet her. The two then go out to greet the entire town, there to enjoy the grand opening of Milo's bakery, "Shakespeare's Cake".
When attempting to bury his case of weapons, Milo is knocked out by the remains of an exploding sheep, detonated by the unseen Eggs (Dyfan Dwyfor), a young conspiracy theorist who steals Milo's weapons while he is still out. The unconscious Milo is found and taken home by Rhiannon (Kate Ashfield), the town veterinarian, who ensures he's healthy before returning him to his car. In town Milo meets town barkeep Bryn Morgan (Steve Spiers), who mistakes Milo for the town's new baker, as Leo's property is a former bakery. Not wanting to raise suspicion Milo goes along with this, and adopts the alias "Milo Shakespeare", inspired by a bust of William Shakespeare found in the pub.
Milo stays in hiding while Bjorn attempts to track his location using a photo of the bakery left behind by Milo. With Leo's efforts taking time, Milo commits to learning how to bake to fit with his inadvertent cover identity. However, unknown to him, Eggs has correctly (if illogically) concluded that Milo is really an assassin, but erroneously assumes that the bakery is really a front for his assassination business. Before long the rumor has spread throughout most of town, save for Rhiannon and a few others. Believing the rumor, local chips shop owner Rhys Edwards (Anthony O'Donnell) comes to Milo and asks him to "bake a cake" for his domineering wife Martha (Annette Badland), Milo completely missing the intended subtext.
The next day, Rhys unknowingly leaves a gas burner open and unlit before he leaves for work, and Martha is killed by the ensuing explosion when she goes to use the toaster. Gwynfyd's residents assume Milo was responsible, proving the rumors true in their minds.
Over the next weeks Milo's business picks up considerably, with several people ordering "cakes" for others in town. Eggs has started working for Milo as his assistant, wanting to become an assassin himself. One night Milo prepares for a date with Rhiannon, while Eggs prepares for a "date" with Bob (Brian Hibbard), a local man in dispute with his neighbor Stan (Robert Page) over the annual "best garden" award. Eggs arrives at Bob's house as he eats dinner and, nearly losing his nerve, fires a silenced shot into the house blindly. When Bob clutches his stomach in agony Eggs panics and flees.
Milo's date with Rhiannon goes well, but is interrupted when Eggs arrives, drunk and distraught over his first murder, though he passes out before he can explain. Milo and Rhiannon take the unconscious Eggs back to the bakery, then have sex. Afterward, Eggs regains consciousness and explains what happened to Milo, who is stunned to realize the pleasant townsfolk who visited his bakery were actually ordering assassinations on each other. Rhiannon overhears the conversation and leaves, angry; Milo later tries to apologize for his past and not telling her sooner, but is rebuffed.
The next day Milo prepares to leave town, only to see Rhys fleeing the chips shop, stripped to his underwear and covered in various condiments; Milo and Eggs follow him to the pub. After a brief interruption at the arrival of Bob, who explains to a stunned Eggs that he merely burned his stomach when something knocked his hot dinner onto it, Rhys tells Milo and the rest of the town that a blond man - Bjorn - tortured him for information on Milo, and has now kidnapped Rhiannon to draw Milo out. Milo explains the truth behind Martha's death and his ignorance of their intent when placing cake orders with him to the now-ashamed townsfolk, then goes on to say that he wanted to get away from his life as an assassin and vows to rescue Rhiannon. He burns the list of "cake" orders in front of the townsfolk, explaining that "everyone deserves a second chance".
Milo confronts Bjorn, who reveals that his hatred of Milo stems from him rejecting Bjorn's desire to run away together with him, which Milo reminds him, not for the first time, "is not possible for so many reasons." Milo challenges Bjorn to fight "properly" rather than just killing Rhiannon; the two duel with foils, which seems to reach a climax until they discover the weapons are safety-tipped and unable to wound. They then switch to staffs, which quickly break, then bare hand-to-hand, where Milo bests Bjorn. As he goes to free Rhiannon, Bjorn pulls a gun, but stops when the townsfolk appear and surround him, demanding he release "our baker". After some talking Bjorn finally decides to let Milo be in the hopes that Rhiannon will break his heart, whereupon Eggs knocks him out with a shovel.
Some time later Milo is preparing a cake at the bakery, assisted by Eggs who has developed significant skills as a baker, eclipsing Milo's own. Leo arrives while Milo is alone in the kitchen; he explains that he used Milo's exile as an opportunity to stage a "hostile takeover" of the company, and as he is now in charge Milo is free to return to work without fear of being killed. To Leo's surprise Milo turns him down, saying he intends to remain a baker and will pay him fair price for the shop. Leo is confused until he sees Rhiannon enter the shop, and leaves silently when Milo steps away to greet her. The two then go out to greet the entire town, there to enjoy the grand opening of Milo's bakery, "Shakespeare's Cake".
Welcome to Wales and Baker Week
Croeso Mawr.... a warm welcome to our Wales and Baker week!!
Come with us and discover a wonderful landscape and one of the most charming projects Damian Lewis ever did.
Hope you enjoy beautiful pictures, clips and information.
Wish you all a perfect start to the week!!
the pictures for this week's adventure are from:
damian-lewis.com, citytrips,telegraph.co.uk, walespics.com,travelpod.com
tripadvisor.com and irondonkey.com
thank you!!
Come with us and discover a wonderful landscape and one of the most charming projects Damian Lewis ever did.
Hope you enjoy beautiful pictures, clips and information.
Wish you all a perfect start to the week!!
the pictures for this week's adventure are from:
damian-lewis.com, citytrips,telegraph.co.uk, walespics.com,travelpod.com
tripadvisor.com and irondonkey.com
thank you!!
Friday, 26 September 2014
The Column....
today: Acting Heroes....
And everyone I talked around the theatre told me how shy and reserved Fiennes is and that he dislikes such things. But I stayed… brave and with weak knees.
And a more recent work: Grand Budapest Hotel is beyond words. Just an excellent film!!
If you have a lazy Sunday coming and no idea what to do….go and watch a Fiennes movie.
Acting Heroes…
Since I am a Damian Lewis fan I should have
excellent taste when it comes to actors… :)) But really, one of my all-time acting
hero’s was and is Ralph Fiennes. The British born actor is for sure on of
the best English actors ever!!
I owe him my first theatre experience in London.
I was a young girl when I came to the city
and being utterly alone in such a place can be quite scary but even if I am
normally full of doubts and anxiety thinking back, I felt like a hero myself to travel alone
and unexperienced….
So I discovered the city on my own and made
friends with a wonderful woman, from the States, she was an actress herself
and came all the way to celebrate her birthday in
London and to see Fiennes on stage.
We spent the week together and when I say
we spent then I mean it.
Every minute we were together from
sightseeing to shopping and talking. I had never seen her before and never after
but the week was incredible.
And we enjoyed Ralph Fiennes on stage. He
played the title role in an Ibsen play called Brand, a priest with strict views and a suppressed
wife and unhappy with himself. A role made for Fiennes. He entered the
stage with an intensity that captured audience and critics. It was a three hour play and Fiennes filled
every minute with life and the sadness and broken illusions Brand had to deal with. I will never forget
my first play in London.
After the play we went to the stage door
because I was so flashed by the play that I wanted an autograph …a thing I
almost never do because it seems a bit silly to me.
And everyone I talked around the theatre told me how shy and reserved Fiennes is and that he dislikes such things. But I stayed… brave and with weak knees.
Ralph Fiennes came out and was friendly,
shy and a bit reserved to everyone but nice all over. I remember that I stood a bit beside the
rest of the crowd not sure what to do…. When Fiennes passed me I said politely
Hello and asked for an autograph. He smiled at me and during he signed the
program I mumbled that it was my first play in London ever! He stopped his signing looked at me and
said: „your first play in London ever?! and you came to see me ?” I said yes
and before I could say how much I loved the play he said: “well then I hope it
was alright" and smiled again his shy but really beautiful smile.
I laughed and told him that I enjoyed every
minute and he thanked me and said: "well
then I hope you will come again” I assured him I will (and I did) and thanked
him for his time. I
almost float back to my hotel, the first
week in London were entirely fantastic and unforgettable and I will also never
forget how this nice man with the difficult reputation made my day by being so
nice to me.
Ralph Fiennes gave the world a lot of
brilliant moments on stage and screen. He made himself a household name with
Spielberg’s Schindler's List and his amazing performance. As chilling Amon Göth which made him an
international star and earned him his first Oscar nomination. He made me crying
in Red Dragon as the serial killer Francis Dollarhyde. He made him extremely likable and
vulnerable…one of my all-time favourites.
And a more recent work: Grand Budapest Hotel is beyond words. Just an excellent film!!
If you have a lazy Sunday coming and no idea what to do….go and watch a Fiennes movie.
You will never regret it.
It's Friday again...
And, we here from the blog, wish you a great weekend and hope you enjoy our way to end the week :-))
Wednesday, 24 September 2014
Followup...Homeland
We really have two camps here about Homeland..
while I get terribly bored about the fact Brody is back for whatever reason my Blog.Prof
jumps up and down with joy and excitement and I guess a lot of people do do for all fans of Homeland and Brody today a little more about his appearence in SA
while I get terribly bored about the fact Brody is back for whatever reason my Blog.Prof
jumps up and down with joy and excitement and I guess a lot of people do do for all fans of Homeland and Brody today a little more about his appearence in SA
Brody's back! Homeland
fans speculate about executed character's return after Damian Lewis
is spotted on the South African set
The third series of Homeland ended with Nicholas Brody being executed after spending a considerable amount of time on the run.
But
now it appears that the popular character might be back from the dead,
after Damian Lewis was spotted shooting scenes on the show's current set
in Cape Town, South Africa, recently.
The
British actor was spotted wearing a navy button-down shirt, teamed with
matching trousers and black shoes as he exited a trailer in preparation
for shooting scenes.
Emma about... Aquascutum History
Established in 1851, Aquascutum was founded by tailor and entrepreneur, John Emary. The first store opened in Regent Street, selling high quality tailoring for Men and Women, after the success of producing the first waterproof wool in 1853 he renamed the company to Aquascutum which translates in Latin to “Watershield”.
In 1901 the store relocated to
100 Regent Street, the heart of London. Coats for officers in the war
(1853–1856) were made from Aquascutum’s waterproof fabric, as were the
trench coats worn by soldiers of all ranks in both world war 1 and 2.
1900 brought women’s wear to the store, where they sold waterproof coats and capes as worn by the suffragettes.
Aquascutum
was family owned until 1990, when it was purchased by a Japanese
textile conglomerate company and, then, by Jaeger in September 2009. It
is now the property of YGM Trading, a Chinese fashion retailer, since
April 2012.
 |
| copyright: Aquascutum |
 |
| copyright: Aquascutum |
Fashion day
A stylish welcome to our Aquascutum day....
Enjoy an essay as well as the brand's history....and of course see gorgeous pics... only here on the blog:-) ready ? steady ? GO!!
Enjoy an essay as well as the brand's history....and of course see gorgeous pics... only here on the blog:-) ready ? steady ? GO!!
 |
| copyright aquascutum |
Monday, 22 September 2014
The Night of the Iguana
A couple of months ago during the Times Talks conversation in London, Damian Lewis released the news that it seems likely that he will return to Broadway next spring for the Tennesse Williams' play The Night of the Iguana...
And even though we have no further news about it let's take the chance to have a look at the summary of the play....
Maxine has been a widow for less than a month. Her husband, Fred, snagged himself with a fishhook and died of blood poisoning. Maxine has no real option but to continue running Costa Verde, a small hotel that they owned and managed, perched high above the Pacific near the remote Mexican village of Puerto Barrio. The play is set in the period shortly before the United States entered World War II. The Costa Verde has Nazi guests who cheer at the bombing of London and other German victories.
On the scene comes T. Lawrence Shannon, always called Larry, a defrocked minister whose options are running out. He is a tour guide for Blake Tours and, in this instance, is shepherding a group of female Texans through Mexico. Miss Fellowes, seemingly the organizer and mother hen of this group, is agitated because Shannon refuses to take them to the hotel for which they had contracted. She also is disturbed by Shannon’s attentions to seventeen-year-old Charlotte, the youngest person in the tour group. Fellowes is indignant that Shannon made a play for Charlotte, but the subtext suggests that she is jealous because she herself has designs on the girl.
Larry comes into the hotel to see his old friend, Maxine. It soon becomes evident that Maxine lusts after him and, with her husband recently dead, she hopes for some sort of alliance with him: marriage, or the best she could get short of marriage. Her not insubstantial physical needs are being fulfilled through purely physical acts with her bellboys, a situation that makes her fear that she is losing their respect.
On this emotionally charged scene strides Hannah Jelkes, a New England woman slightly under forty years old, who is wheeling her poet-grandfather, Jonathan Coffin, whom she always calls Nonno, around the tropics. Nonno is ninety-seven years old. The two of them are as bereft of any real future as are Larry and Maxine. They have no money and had been turned away from every hotel in town. The Costa Verde is their last hope.
Maxine assures them that she has room for them and asks for payment in advance. Hannah informs her that they have no money but that they could earn their keep, Nonno by reciting his poetry to the other guests, Hannah by doing charcoal sketches of them and possibly by selling one of her watercolors. Maxine, unimpressed, agrees to let them stay, but for only one night. Meanwhile, a native boy delivers an iguana that is tied up and left to fatten beneath the veranda. When it reaches an appropriate weight, Maxine will cook it for dinner.
It becomes increasingly clear that Larry Shannon has no reasonable future to which to look forward. He speaks of rejoining the church, but the circumstances of his leaving it were such that he would not likely be welcomed back enthusiastically. His days as a tour guide for Blake Tours are definitely numbered and, when Blake Tours replaces Larry with Jake Latta, tempers run so high that it seems reasonable that Larry will be blackballed as a tour guide anywhere.
And even though we have no further news about it let's take the chance to have a look at the summary of the play....
 |
Maxine has been a widow for less than a month. Her husband, Fred, snagged himself with a fishhook and died of blood poisoning. Maxine has no real option but to continue running Costa Verde, a small hotel that they owned and managed, perched high above the Pacific near the remote Mexican village of Puerto Barrio. The play is set in the period shortly before the United States entered World War II. The Costa Verde has Nazi guests who cheer at the bombing of London and other German victories.
On the scene comes T. Lawrence Shannon, always called Larry, a defrocked minister whose options are running out. He is a tour guide for Blake Tours and, in this instance, is shepherding a group of female Texans through Mexico. Miss Fellowes, seemingly the organizer and mother hen of this group, is agitated because Shannon refuses to take them to the hotel for which they had contracted. She also is disturbed by Shannon’s attentions to seventeen-year-old Charlotte, the youngest person in the tour group. Fellowes is indignant that Shannon made a play for Charlotte, but the subtext suggests that she is jealous because she herself has designs on the girl.
Larry comes into the hotel to see his old friend, Maxine. It soon becomes evident that Maxine lusts after him and, with her husband recently dead, she hopes for some sort of alliance with him: marriage, or the best she could get short of marriage. Her not insubstantial physical needs are being fulfilled through purely physical acts with her bellboys, a situation that makes her fear that she is losing their respect.
On this emotionally charged scene strides Hannah Jelkes, a New England woman slightly under forty years old, who is wheeling her poet-grandfather, Jonathan Coffin, whom she always calls Nonno, around the tropics. Nonno is ninety-seven years old. The two of them are as bereft of any real future as are Larry and Maxine. They have no money and had been turned away from every hotel in town. The Costa Verde is their last hope.
Maxine assures them that she has room for them and asks for payment in advance. Hannah informs her that they have no money but that they could earn their keep, Nonno by reciting his poetry to the other guests, Hannah by doing charcoal sketches of them and possibly by selling one of her watercolors. Maxine, unimpressed, agrees to let them stay, but for only one night. Meanwhile, a native boy delivers an iguana that is tied up and left to fatten beneath the veranda. When it reaches an appropriate weight, Maxine will cook it for dinner.
It becomes increasingly clear that Larry Shannon has no reasonable future to which to look forward. He speaks of rejoining the church, but the circumstances of his leaving it were such that he would not likely be welcomed back enthusiastically. His days as a tour guide for Blake Tours are definitely numbered and, when Blake Tours replaces Larry with Jake Latta, tempers run so high that it seems reasonable that Larry will be blackballed as a tour guide anywhere.
Larry’s problems began when his mother discovered him masturbating when he was an adolescent. She spanked him and told him that God deplored such self-abuse. Resentful of both his mother and God, Larry become an ordained minister who preached atheistic sermons and scandalized his congregations (his vengeance on God) and a lecher who sought out only girls below the age of majority (his vengeance on his mother). Now, with his options narrowing, he considers going back to preach in the church or swimming the Pacific to China, his way of threatening suicide.
Meanwhile, Hannah and Nonno are ensconced in the hotel. Hannah fears that Nonno suffered a slight stroke as they came through the Sierra. The old man is dying. Hannah says that she tried to persuade her grandfather to return to Nantucket, from which they originally came, but it is clear that she did not have the wherewithal even to get them as far as Laredo. Maxine makes arrangements for Hannah and Nonno to go to another hotel in town, one that would extend them credit. It is clear that Maxine does not appreciate Hannah’s presence because she senses a growing chemistry between Hannah and Larry. Larry has a confrontation with Charlotte during which it becomes evident that he had seduced her the previous night.
In this exchange, Larry is emotionally bankrupt. He tells Charlotte he loves her, but once he has his way with her, he turns mean and rejects any suggestion that the two of them might have more than the few hours of love they had recently experienced. Miss Fellowes, overhearing Charlotte’s encounter with Larry, immediately calls the authorities in Texas and gets them to issue a warrant for his arrest; Larry faces arrest if he crosses the border. One more option thus is closed to him.
Shortly after this encounter, Larry tells Hannah the story of how he seduced a young girl in his congregation in Pleasant Valley, Virginia. Hannah remains nonjudgmental, ever trying to see the good in people rather than dwelling on the bad. Larry is becoming intrigued by Hannah because, unlike his mother, she does not judge.
Maxine, sensing this, explodes at Hannah, but she soon realizes that jealousy is the reason for her outburst. A storm erupts, with a somewhat cleansing effect on the scene. Then Larry runs to the beach vowing to swim to China. Maxine dispatches her bellboys to drag him back. For his own protection, she has him tied up in a hammock. He has obviously lost his mind. She threatens to admit him to the Casa de Locos the following day.
Hannah comes in to comfort Larry and to try to soothe him with poppy seed tea. He begs her to undo his bonds, but she refuses. When Nonno calls Hannah away for a moment, however, Larry wiggles loose. When Hannah returns, she hears the iguana struggling to break free, at the end of his rope, as many of the play’s characters figuratively are at the ends of theirs. Hannah pleads with Larry to cut the iguana’s rope.
Shortly after that, Nonno calls Hannah, telling her that he finally finished his poem, which he dictates to her. As the play ends, Maxine urges Larry to stay with her to help manage the hotel, making it clear that their relationship could only be professional, not sexual. Larry tells Hannah that he had cut the iguana’s rope. She thanks him. She then turns to put a shawl around her grandfather’s shoulders and discovers that the old man is dead.
John Lahr’s Biography of Tennessee Williams
Here's more information about the book Damian will read to you:-)
It was 1994, and Mr. Lahr, the recently appointed drama critic for The New Yorker, had been called to the aid of Lyle Leverich, a former theater producer and Williams’s chosen biographer. Mr. Leverich had two letters attesting to that fact. But Maria St. Just, a longtime confidante of Williams’s who became his iron-fisted literary guardian after his death in 1983, had steadfastly refused to grant permission to quote from any of his letters or journals, effectively holding the project hostage.
The book has already won enthusiastic advance notice — American Theater magazine called it “as compelling a drama as any Williams himself wrote” — along with blurbs from a kick line of A-list “theatricals” (to use a favorite word of Mr. Lahr’s), including Helen Mirren, John Guare and Tony Kushner.
Among Williams scholars, it has also stirred hope that the fog of gossip and sensationalism surrounding Williams’s life, much of it stoked by the playwright’s own scandalous (and often unreliable) 1975 memoir, will finally lift.
Mr. Lahr sees Williams as a “borderline personality” and a “hysteric” who worked out in his art the conflicts that destroyed his sister, Rose, who was lobotomized in 1943. If the term “hysteric,” invoked repeatedly in the book, has a musty midcentury ring today, Mr. Lahr, who said he is himself in psychoanalysis, defends it as the playwright’s own.
Mr. Lahr said, “It was as if the critical corps were wishing him dead.”
source: New York Times, September 1, 2014, Jennifer Schuessler
The first rule of biography, the writer Justin Kaplan was known to say, is: “Shoot the widow.” But John Lahr’s new biography, “Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh,” originated with something closer to a literary commando raid.
It was 1994, and Mr. Lahr, the recently appointed drama critic for The New Yorker, had been called to the aid of Lyle Leverich, a former theater producer and Williams’s chosen biographer. Mr. Leverich had two letters attesting to that fact. But Maria St. Just, a longtime confidante of Williams’s who became his iron-fisted literary guardian after his death in 1983, had steadfastly refused to grant permission to quote from any of his letters or journals, effectively holding the project hostage.
So
Mr. Lahr started digging around. Lady St. Just — who “was neither a
lady nor a saint nor just,” Mr. Lahr wrote in the acidic first line of
his eventual 15,000-word New Yorker profile
of her — had just died, and his dogged reporting of her sometimes
comically highhanded machinations prompted the estate to cry uncle even
before the article appeared.
“They
wanted a happy ending for that embarrassing tale,” Mr. Lahr recalled
recently by telephone from his home in London. “One of the things I’ve
done that I’m most proud of is liberating Lyle’s book.”
Published in 1995, Mr. Leverich’s “Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams,” the first of two planned volumes, drew strong reviews
for its excavation of the years up to 1945, when the wild success of
“The Glass Menagerie” made Williams famous. And now, Mr. Lahr, who
inherited Leverich’s archives upon his death in 1999, has finished the
job, after a fashion, with a free-standing book that begins with that
play’s Broadway opening night but circles back to cut a fresh path
through his life.
Mr.
Lahr’s book, to be published on Sept. 22 by W. W. Norton, offers plenty
of backstage anecdotes and high private drama, if perhaps less sex than
his subtitle, taken from a 1939 letter, might suggest. But Mr. Lahr,
ever the critic, keeps the plays themselves front and center.
“I
think of this book as a club sandwich,” he said. “I wanted to explore
this synergy between the private life, the public life and the plays,
with some extra mayo of storytelling and interpretation.”
The book has already won enthusiastic advance notice — American Theater magazine called it “as compelling a drama as any Williams himself wrote” — along with blurbs from a kick line of A-list “theatricals” (to use a favorite word of Mr. Lahr’s), including Helen Mirren, John Guare and Tony Kushner.
Among Williams scholars, it has also stirred hope that the fog of gossip and sensationalism surrounding Williams’s life, much of it stoked by the playwright’s own scandalous (and often unreliable) 1975 memoir, will finally lift.
“Most previous efforts have tended to sensationalize, or have been very narrow,” said Thomas Keith, a consulting editor at New Directions,
Williams’s publisher, who contributed a chronology to Mr. Lahr’s book.
“John has really humanized the life and brought the focus back to the
work.”
Mr. Lahr, a son of the actor Bert Lahr and himself a Tony winner for his collaboration on the one-woman show “Elaine Stritch at Liberty,”,
may give the impression of knowing everyone who’s anyone in theater.
But he crossed paths with Williams only once, in 1970, when the
playwright came backstage during the Repertory Theater of Lincoln
Center’s production of “Camino Real.”
“Not that he was sober enough to remember,” Mr. Lahr, the theater’s literary manager at the time, recalled. “It was very shocking. He had to be literally lifted.”
“Not that he was sober enough to remember,” Mr. Lahr, the theater’s literary manager at the time, recalled. “It was very shocking. He had to be literally lifted.”
When
it came to putting legs under his biographical portrait, Mr. Lahr knew
he wanted to stick as closely as possible to Williams’s own words and
the first-person accounts of his closest professional comrades.
“Williams was a very cool customer, very detached,” he said. “Where he
really came alive was in collaboration with these equally brilliant
people.”
Since
St. Just’s death, a flood of Williams’s own words have been pouring out
of the archives, with the publication of his private diaries, two
volumes of letters, a collection of his poetry and some 50 previously
unpublished — and, some have grumbled,
often distinctly inferior — plays. “It’s been a little bit like free
love after the fall of Communism,” said John S. Bak, a Williams expert
at University-Nancy in France and the author of “Tennessee Williams: A Literary Life” (2013).
Mr.
Lahr’s book synthesizes that material while drawing on a number of
sources that he is the first to plumb. Among the 70 cassettes of
untranscribed interviews in Leverich’s papers was a long conversation
with Pancho Rodriguez, Williams’s lover from 1946 to 1948 and the model
for the brutish Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Through
an acquaintance, Mr. Lahr gained access to previously unknown letters by
Frank Merlo, Williams’s lover and frustrated helpmeet of 14 years — “I
sleep with Mr. Williams,” he once replied when asked about his
occupation — whose death in 1963 helped set the stage for the
playwright’s long years of decline.
Mr. Lahr also drew on a wealth of correspondence with Audrey Wood,
Williams’s longtime agent and a crucial dispenser of criticism, and
secured “carte blanche,” he said, with the papers of the director Elia Kazan, who significantly shaped some of Williams’s most important plays, including “Streetcar” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
The
biography certainly has its dishy moments, from Laurette Taylor’s
drunkenly throwing up between scenes on the opening night of “Menagerie”
to Bette Davis’s Godzilla-grade offstage scenery chewing during the
chaotic gestation of “Night of the Iguana” (1961), Williams’s last
Broadway hit. But Mr. Lahr devotes more space to Williams’s creative
push and pull with Kazan and Wood, and the fateful breaks with each,
which he attributes to Williams’s “artistic vanity” and rising paranoia.
“I
wanted to convey the arguments he had with them — not the gossip, but
the actual aesthetic arguments, the actual ideas they were trying to
pull out of each other,” Mr. Lahr said.
Mr.
Lahr’s own approach to Williams might be described as tough love. He is
stern in his depiction of the playwright’s involuntary psychiatric
hospitalization in 1969. Nowhere in any written account of his time in
“Spooksville,” as Williams called it, does he mention that “the medical
team he vilified gave him back his life and another decade of writing,”
Mr. Lahr writes.
He
is similarly staunch in his defense of Williams’s aborted 1957
psychoanalysis with Dr. Lawrence Kubie, pushing back against the
“unverifiable notion,” put forth by Gore Vidal and others, that Kubie
had tried to turn Williams into a heterosexual.
“They made him seem like a kind of quack,”
Mr. Lahr said. “Quite the contrary. Kubie was a most impressive man who
helped Williams see and understand and change the story of his family.”
Mr. Lahr sees Williams as a “borderline personality” and a “hysteric” who worked out in his art the conflicts that destroyed his sister, Rose, who was lobotomized in 1943. If the term “hysteric,” invoked repeatedly in the book, has a musty midcentury ring today, Mr. Lahr, who said he is himself in psychoanalysis, defends it as the playwright’s own.
“Freud
said hysterical suffering is a way of remembering the child’s
suffering, and that’s what Williams was about,” he said. Williams “would
always say about his plays they were too hysterical, that he had to
pull back the violence, the screaming.”
By
the 1960s, critics were increasingly saying the same thing, dismissing
him as a washed-up — and often embarrassingly drugged-out — relic of the
past. Two decades of nearly unrelieved critical pummeling followed,
reaching a climax with Robert Brustein’s suggestion, in a review of
“Clothes for a Summer Hotel” (1980), that Williams book “a flight to
Three-Mile Island on a one-way ticket.”
Mr. Lahr said, “It was as if the critical corps were wishing him dead.”
He makes a strong case for some of the later plays.
If he doesn’t anoint any new masterpieces, he sees a mixture of solid
works (including Williams’s last play, "A House Not Meant to Stand”) and
interesting failures that deserve to be seen in the context of his
earlier dramas, not just his personal dissolution.
“I
just hope I’m able to expand people’s appreciation of the plays by
making these connections, by giving a detailed sense of his bulldog
battle for sanity and for his art,” he said.
He added: “I’m 73 now, and I don’t want to give it up. I admire him for refusing to give up.”
source: New York Times, September 1, 2014, Jennifer Schuessler
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