Wet Cat

And again, I have more reasons to curse the squirrels. They're back -- and they've brought fleas. Argh.

New Jane Quiet

Elena's been drawing again!

How I Went to Readercon and Became a Broad

No, cat milk has nothing to do with my time at Readercon. I stopped in the pet store to get some flea spray (sigh) and a new tag for Kipper. When I saw this, I kept picturing a very low stool ;-) and couldn't stop giggling.

Readercon was a busy time: right away Thursday night. I was an "extra discussant" for Barry Longyear's "Imagine or Die" panel. Unfortunately, I didn't get much of a chance to add anything, so it was a bit frustrating. That night I stayed with pal Michael Draine (thanks!) and we had time to chat that night and over breakfast at Bickford's.

Friday I ran into Liz Hand right away at "The Fiction of A. Merritt" panel, which did its best to resurrect the career of this now sadly neglected writer. I made sure to tell Liz I had a copy of my book for her (since she was so nice to write me that lovely intro to Pelzmantel), but I couldn't give it to her until after my reading.

Next I had to run off for the reading of A Midsummer Night's Dream; in the first hour, I played Peter Quince. It was quite delightful and fun, not least for Faye's fabulous fairy singing. I ran out for the next hour to catch the "New England: At Home to the Unheimlich?" discussion which ranged far beyond New England to explore Southern Gothic and even European influences. Then it was back to the Bard. I was pleased to play Puck; not so many lines in the last act, but I did get to end the play. The play within the play certainly led to a lot of laughter. Much fun.

Cecilia Tan led a great discussion on how ebooks and ebook readers are changing the shape of publishing but also the habits of readers. It was one of those panels that could have easily gone on much longer. Much fun to hear Liz read from her forthcoming Available Dark, the sequel or continuation of Generation Loss. This narrative heads off to Finland and Iceland, so you know I'm eager to read it!  The last event of the day was the "Meet the Pros(e) Party" where writers give out stickers with a line of their prose on it. Fun idea.

Saturday morning kicked off with the Broad Universe Group Reading. I had known a few Broads before, but after seeing the fun of the reading and chatting with Morven and Inanna, I decided I really needed to join. The difficulties of promotion are hard and it's no fun on your own. worrying whether anyone will come to your reading that afternoon at Readercon :-/ as some might do. If you're Liz Hand, you don't have to worry about those things. Her talk on "Crypto-Aviation" was standing room only. Many people looked in and decided not to join the throng. They missed out! It was great fun not only seeing the bizarre models, but also hearing about her adventures working for the Smithsonian.

The Fan Fiction panel was a lot of fun. I really can't understand writers who get upset at fanfic -- it seems like a wonderful compliment and likely to increase a book, series or film's reputation. Yes, it can act as a criticism, but no one's immune from that. A few of the writers, like Victoria Janssen, have gone on to write professionally. It can be a good training ground! After that, I had my reading in the afternoon: I played my kantele and read from the zombie western. Small audience, but at least I had one!

The Nalo Hopkinson interview was wonderful: interesting, entertaining and ultimately, very moving -- hard to hear again the tragedy of Octavia Butler's unexpected death, worse to hear that Hopkinson herself has been homeless and living hand to mouth for the last two years. Illness without insurance: the shame of this nation is that it does not offer simple health care to all.

Saturday night is the traditional Bad Prose Competition. Silliness and fun, and a whole lot of bad writing (on purpose). Hands down, the Readercon book I'm most looking forward to is by second place finisher in the contest, Mary Robinette Kowal. The most amazing thing -- in part -- is that this paranormal Regency is coming out from Tor:




Sunday was the town meeting for the Interstitial Arts Foundation, the Shirley Jackson Awards and then my final panel on Sex and Gender in F&SF. Despite being the last session of the day, we had a lively discussion and much (cordial!) disagreement and questions from the audience. I will propose a continuation for next year!

Thursday I'm off to Necon. Crazy.

Workshop & Readercon

I'll be running a two-hour workshop at East Line Books, the lovely Robyn Ringler's store, on Saturday July 24th up in Clifton Park. The cost will be $35. Here's the description:

Sticking with It: Writing with a Full Time Job

How to find the motivation and discipline to keep writing when you have a full time job -- and a family, relationship, or *life*! Everyone has a great idea for a story. Why do so few people ever write that story? Sure, part of the equation is discipline, but there's also juggling different kinds of tasks, finding your writing space and luring the muse to your side when you finally find that time. This workshop will give you techniques to harness your time, wrangle your muse and still keep on speaking terms with your family and friends.

In other words, tips I've learned about being productive when you have a lot of things to do, while still managing to maintain a certain amount of laziness ;-)

This afternoon I'm off to Readercon; panels don't start until 8pm. Right at the start I wish I could be in two places at once. Sigh! It's always the way. There's either too many things going on or nothing. I'm hemming and hawing on whether to bring a kantele for the reading. If no one shows up for the reading, I can at least play some pretty music.

Who is Kit Marlowe?

My Readercon Schedule

Readercon 21 Participant Schedule: K. A. Laity

•Thursday 8:00 PM, Salon G: Talk / Discussion (90 min.)

Imagine or Die.
Barry B. Longyear with discussion by Lauren P. Burka, Gemma Files, Elaine Isaak, Mary Robinette Kowal, K. A. Laity, Resa Nelson.

A writer without a working imagination is stymied. We'll take about the care and feeding of imagination, how to unleash it and let it run.

•Friday 12:00 Noon, RI: Event (60 min.)

A Dramatic Reading of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Acts I & II.
Inanna Arthen, Ron Drummond, Greer Gilman, Adam Golaski, Caitlin R. Kiernan, K. A. Laity, John Langan, Shira Lipkin, Faye Ringel, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Sonya Taaffe, Eric M. Van. Update: I will be playing Quince.

[I'm skipping out at 1pm to go to Faye's panel]

•Friday 2:00 PM, RI: Event (60 min.)

A Dramatic Reading of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Acts IV & V.
Inanna Arthen, Ron Drummond, Scott Edelman, Jim Freund, Greer Gilman, Adam Golaski, Walter H. Hunt, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Mary Robinette Kowal, K. A. Laity, John Langan, Faye Ringel, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Sonya Taaffe, Eric M. Van. Update: I will be Puck :-D

•Friday 4:00 PM, ME/ CT: Talk / Discussion (60 min.)

How Electrons have Changed Writing and Reading.
Cecilia Tan with discussion by Inanna Arthen, Leah Bobet, K. Tempest Bradford, Barbara Krasnoff, K. A. Laity.

Ebooks, the Internet, social media networks, Paypal  --  have these really changed the writer/reader relationship forever? Not surprisingly, sf readers are early adopters of new tech and sf publishers are leading the way in new content delivery. Is it really possible with new tech for a writer to cut out the publisher and still make a living? Is the writer who wants to "just write" doomed to obscurity now? Writers, what forays into the new frontier of electronic publishing have you made and what did you find out there in the wild lands? Readers, what have you enjoyed and sought out, what would you welcome?

•Friday 10:15 PM, The Meet the Pros(e) Party

•Saturday 3:30 PM, VT: Reading (30 min.)

Reading excerpts from her novel Pelzmantel and Unikirja [or hey, I could just read the zombie western! I'll take a vote from the audience if there is one; if there isn't an audience, to the bar we go!]

•Sunday 2:00 PM, Salon F: Panel

It Is, It Is, It Really Is Fiction: Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary F&SF.
Caitlin R. Kiernan, K. A. Laity (L), Shariann Lewitt, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Catherynne M. Valente.      ** Leader (Participant / Moderator) **

Over forty years have passed since words like "frelk" and "kemmer" became part of the literature, and nearly twenty since the establishment of the Tiptree Awards -- if we have not reached the gender-fluid futures of Tanith Lee's Don't Bite the Sun or Theodore Sturgeon's Venus Plus X, where are the contemporary explorations of sexuality that is genuinely other? As it is inconceivable that there is an upper limit to the polymorphously perverse (and indeed, the internet disproves this theory on a regular basis) and on the understanding that one reader's speculative fiction may be another's day-to-day routine, we ask our panelists to consider the sexual state of the field, whether it be Simon Logan's fetishcore fiction, the transformative erotica of Caitlin R. Kiernan, or the distinct possibility that the appeal of the modern vampire is merely necrophilia with better conversation.

Leaving London

I knew it wasn't going to be easy leaving London, but I wasn't quite prepared for the way it did happen. It was meant to be simple: tube to Bank, DLR to London City Airport. My cheap flight took me from London to Amsterdam to NYC and then Albany. Not a day I was looking forward to by any means, but prices this summer were horrendous and my hopes to get the trip paid for by leading students didn't happen.

I'd never been to City Airport; I've been to Heathrow many times, Gatwick a few and even Stansted, though I've never actually flown out of it. The light rail went direct to the airport terminal, so it ought to have been easy. After waking up at four, afraid I'd miss my alarm at five, I rolled out and got ready. There was plenty of time and hardly anyone about so early. Smooth sailing on the tube and fortunately, steps down to get to the DLR. The train waiting was for Lewiston, but the next one went to the airport.

However, the train that was sitting there suddenly shut down and everybody got out. What? No DLR today, some kind of problem, the man said. So how to get to the airport? Back to London Bridge, change to the Jubilee line, go to Canning Town... and then what?! Argh, time for a taxi. I was fortunate to have help or I never would have got my one bag, full of six weeks of clothes and presents, up the many stairs. Panic setting in, but actually it didn't take too long for a cab to come along.

The fare ended up being over £20 (ouch) but I suppose it might have been more to Heathrow. City Airport is quite small, so I should be forgiven for thinking it might be easy to get through security quickly. Ha! In the end I had to take everything out of my carry on and my 'suspicious' items had to be scanned again -- yes, that dangerous tea towel and my jewelry case. Reassembling everything at least killed the time waiting in the lounge. The small jet was packed to capacity, at least a third of which was a Chinese tour group of Chinese almost all women.

We had begun our descent into Amsterdam and of course, the seat belt sign was on, but a few of the tour group decided to get up to use the toilets. Suddenly the plane rolled swiftly to the left and just as swiftly to the right. I'd never felt anything quite like that. The little Chinese women went flying. Fortunately no one got hurt. The pilot explained, once we were on the ground, that we had hit the wake of another flight. We should have cleared it easily, but the wind carried it up. Bizarre.

The Amsterdam airport is huge! If you want tulips, you can get them. I nearly missed my connecting flight because my phone didn't pick up the local time and I was an hour behind, strolling along thinking I had all the time in the world, until I saw the listing which said it was boarding now. Oops! The flight on the whole was good: KLM treats you a lot better than the American airlines, including the food and drinks. The flight back always seems endless, but we got a little surprise a couple hours before landing. There was turbulence off and on, nothing much, but all of the sudden there was a huge thump that sounded like we had hit something.

Guess what? As the pilot told us right away, we had hit the wake of another plane ("if you look out the window behind us you should be able to see..."). What're the odds? From the relative luxury of KLM I headed next to purgatory: terminal 2 at JFK, the one that's so run down they don't have a recording of all the things you need to do at security (yes, I had to go through passport control and customs and back through security), they have a guy repeating over and over and over the requirements. Fun!

Well, it could be worse.

A lot to get caught up on, but it's hard to keep from wishing I were back in England. Sigh.

Returned

Here's the endlessly crying Kipper and the new giant size Pelzmantel cover. Much cleaning to do...

The Scottish Play, the Russian Play and Lowe in Basingstoke

Ah, it's always fun to hit the Globe; I had missed their Macbeth earlier, so was glad to have a chance to catch it before it ended. The staging was a bit more elaborate than the usual plain stage: there was a double ring with chains and drapery over the stage, and a kind of bib stretching out from the stage itself, which had holes cut in it to allow the mostly young groundlings to put their heads through. It also allowed the three witches (pictured left) to sneak up behind them and make them shriek. This set the tone: it was a gruesomely bloody production that emphasized the violence. I liked that the witches were always around, so you had more of a sense of their orchestrating all the events. A very enjoyable production that seldom lagged.

Another stop at the NT is hard to resist when they have the Travelx £10 tickets. I had already seen the set for Mikhail Bulgakov's The White Guard during the back stage tour and was looking forward to seeing it in action. I had no idea that there were a few sets between which the action switched. The main location, the Turbin's home, was a wonderful evocation of early 20th century Russia, but I had no idea how quickly the entire set could roll away and be replaced with succeeding sets, even an underground bunker. Bulgakov's play deals with the horrors of war and its pointlessness, but with a great deal of humour and tenderness as well as anger. Very enjoyable. Even more enjoyable was coming out of the theatre in the midst of the England-Slovenia match, so the streets were completely empty and there was no traffic to fight while cycling through Waterloo. Whoo hoo!

Thursday was Basingstoke and Nick Lowe. His opening act was part of his band: Geraint Watkins. The good-natured singer and keyboardist ambled through a few songs accompanied by clarinet and saxophonist Martin Willing (I think?) that really pleased the audience. Later Lowe dueted with Watkins on "Only a Rose." Lowe was his usual low key self with the big shock of white hair and thick horn-rimmed glasses. He hit songs old and new like the yearning "Long Limbed Girl" and "I Trained Her to Love Me" (which he called "evil") from At My Age and older songs like acoustic versions of "Heart" and "The Beast in Me" as well as a really romping version of "I Knew the Bride" and wonderfully moving rendition of "What's so Funny 'bout Peace Love and Understanding?" Wonderful show -- worth the trip!

Yesterday, of course, was the disastrous loss of the England team, or as the Express headline I saw on the Tube said, "YOU LET YOUR COUNTRY DOWN." Worse, I lost £10 betting on them and Germany was just a much much better team. At least I got treated to a drink to make up for losing :-)

It's outrageously hot in London. I cam back in the middle of the afternoon and took a bath I felt so grotty. Where are my grey skies and cool breezes?

Fairy Tales with Cate Masters

Join me at fellow writer Cate Masters' blog to talk about fairy tales: what's your fave and why? Yes, of course -- this is another chance to talk about PELZMANTEL!

By the by, because a few people have asked: if you are not within signing distance, send me your address and I will be happy to send you one of the promo postcards signed that you can tuck into your book.

Of course, if I end up anywhere near you, I can replace that with a real signature :-D

By the by: Nick Lowe was WONDERFUL!! of course :-D

On Tour

I'm off to Basingstoke to see Nick Lowe tonight; I'm also going to be the featured writer at Cate Masters' blog tomorrow, talking about Pelzmantel, so be sure to stop by and say hello. The difficult task for all writers is getting the word out: I need all the help I can get!

Zombie Land

I came out of The White Guard today, hopped on my bike and thought I had landed in 28 Days Later. I had misgivings about the Waterloo roundabout, always an insane mess of cars, bikes and other vehicles and there was --

no one.

I have never seen the streets of London so empty (at least not since the zombie flick). Yeah, it was the England v Slovenia match of the World Cup. I cycled off to meet a friend at the Black Prince, where we had a beer before the crowds started gathering for the next match (Germany v Ghana). Who knew there were so many Germans in south London? They came to the Black Prince because "the other German pub was full." Har!

Reviews of the Russian play and the Scottish one to come --

A Dandy, Van and Rude Britannia

No time for anything but a quick recap in reverse time order: last night saw Dandy in the Underworld, the one man play at the Soho Theatre about Sebastian Horsley. It was quite good and alternately funny and sad, particularly with the fact of his death last week hanging over the production -- though Horsley was apparently delighted by the play based on his autobiography of the same name. With Soho likely to go the same way as Times Square as the forces of gentrification take hold, it's sad to think Horsley may be the last of the true eccentrics of the city. We stopped by his building which is just around the corner on Meard Street, still bearing its famous sign. Flowers, especially his beloved sunflowers, were gathered in remembrance, often with accompanying cards speaking to the fondness people had for his flamboyant life.

Saturday was the Rude Britannia exhibit at the Tate Britain, which was very fun, although as Brad said, it could have used a lot more cartoons. There was a lot of fun stuff along with the expected Gillrays and Hogarths, including GIANT versions of Viz pages, Roger Mellie offering the text for the art, an anvil hanging over a doorway and perhaps my fave, Eddie Adams' recreations of famous incendiary photojournalist shots with old age pensioners (think Ruby, napalm, the Viet Cong execution). Morbidly funny. I was surprised to see that the Ally Sloper offerings were courtesy of pal Roger Sabin. I texted him, "You're in the Tate!" Hee hee.

Friday night was the wonderful concert, another part of the Meltdown Festival curated by Richard Thompson. The opening band Clare and the Reasons were quite delightful. Headliner Van Dyke Parks came out to play the lovely Harry Nilsson song "He Needs Me" from the Popeye soundtrack, where Parks was musical arranger (and played the piano player on film). Thompson introduced Parks' solo set -- clearly they are old friends -- as being like "Mark Twain if he could sing". Lots of old friends apparently turned up for the show. Parks is a legend among musicians, but not well known to the general public. He has an unusual style and was quite jokey and relaxed. Hard to describe but wonderful to enjoy. Parks clearly felt gratified by the enthusiastic audience in the end, hopping out into the audience to shake hands and soak up the love. Wonderful!

Meanwhile the vuvuzelas fill London with their hum. Every pub is filled with flags -- mostly England flags, but considering the broad swath of people in this city, you'll find fans for every team cheering loudly. You can't help but be caught up in it enough to know who's doing well and what calls have been decried. Summer in England. Hope everyone had a great solstice yesterday and made the most of the longest day.

Pelzmantel Book Trailer

BitchBuzz: Shakespeare Lunch

My latest column for BitchBuzz takes up another theatre experience:

Shakespeare for Lunch at the Bridewell Theatre

If you like your Bard on the light side, C Company and the Bridewell Theatre offer you the chance for a taste of the Elizabethan drama cut down for lunchtime viewing in the intimate surroundings of the tiny theatre. Tucked behind the historic St Bride's Church just off Fleet street, it's a magical little spot. Eat a sandwich in the churchyard, then pop down into the bar for a matinée drink before the performance starts.
This month it's Cymbeline, Shakespeare's confection about lovers parted, tokens given and true love bedeviled by the envious and unloved. Director Susan Bracken has a tight team of players who whip round the kerchief-sized stage with quick efficiency despite the constant changes. The entire cavalcade of characters is played by a cast of just four. Kate Brazel-Wood's simple but clever set makes it possible to change locations visually with only a small effect (which inevitably provokes laughter) while keeping the central conceit of a bedtime story believably present...

Read the rest at BBHQ: http://culture.bitchbuzz.com/shakespeare-for-lunch-at-the-bridewell-theatre.html#ixzz0rC9K0Imx

Van Dyke Parks tonight at another Meltdown event; if all goes according to plan, Rude Britannia tomorrow. I should be working on my press release, but I may need to wander around town for a bit (always, always).

PELZMANTEL Publication & Review Copies

Yes, it's true! Pelzmantel is available for order (or should be any minute now) at Immanion. Let the champagne corks fly! Or perhaps prosecco, as I prefer the Italian sparkler to the French. Whoohoo!

I'll be doing signings and cons next month in the States. Not sure I have time to put something together here. We shall see -- pop up book signing, anyone?!

If you bought the original edition, let me tempt you with some of the extras. Not only is there a brand new introduction by the wonderful Liz Hand, but there are also three additional stories included, one which I can assure none of you has seen. I've also written an introductory overview to medieval magic which shows how much of the story is drawn from real magic from the Middle Ages.

After all, it would be worth buying just to have the lovely cover by Ruby! I do still think it's utterly gorgeous. I am so very pleased with everything at Immanion; Storm has been wonderful to work with -- insightful, too!

Don't forget: if you're short on money, why not ask your local library to order a copy?

One thing I could use some suggestions for: places to send review copies. I know a few of the top of my head that would be good, but feel free to suggest what you think would be the best places to have it considered. Many thanks!

Time

I woke up with this song in my head. Tick, tick, tick; is it already the middle of June? Must find a way to stay here...

Weekend fun with the Brookses: Sophie and I played footie in the back garden because the air is full of World Cup fever here. Yes, we even watched the England-US match (very poor!); well, Liz and I drank some wine and giggled a lot while Brad watched it. Fun!

Double BitchBuzz: Tea and Fairy Tales

Busy week and I'm making good use of it! Two extra columns:

Fox's New Biscuit and Tea Tasting Guide

"I prefer a nice cup of tea to sex." - Boy George
What could need less thought than your tea and biscuit? Kettle on, package open, insert in mouth. Well, Fox's Biscuits wants you to reconsider everything and to get you to approach tea and biscuit combinations as if you were pairing wine with your dinner. I had my doubts, but I have to say I was won over.
Pearl Lowe hosted the tea party to launch Fox's new Biscuit and Tea Tasting guide, adding a touch of her particular style to the event, but it was the surprise appearance of notorious tea lover Boy George that really brought the point home: some people are just fanatical about tea. And why not? There's no indulgence quite as comforting as a big tea party. Add a little Buck Fizz if anyone feels like they're being deprived somehow...

Read more: http://home.bitchbuzz.com/foxs-new-biscuit-and-tea-tasting-guide.html#ixzz0qdBiGCcM

Joan Jonas's "The Juniper Tree" Exhibition

Joan Jonas ignites the resonant power of the fairy tale in her installation The Juniper Tree at the Tate Modern. What is it about the magic of "once upon a time" that seems so well suited to echo the tangled webs of female existence? Whatever it is, Jonas has harvested it for this piece, which memorializes a performance piece she has presented in various forms since its debut at the ICA in Philadelphia back in 1976, although like all her productions, she considers this to be a "work in progress" yet. While a static version of a performance piece may not sound ideal, as Jonas herself puts it, it captures "the shifting nature between performance, memory, and physical presence." Think of it as a 3-D scrapbook...

Read more: http://culture.bitchbuzz.com/joan-jonass-the-juniper-tree-exhibition.html#ixzz0qdBvG2QG

Check the two pieces out and be sure to retweet or post on Facebook if you want to help share them. The Jonas installation has inspired an idea for a play which I'm pecking away at while I work on ten other things (as usual). And no, Robert -- she's not related to the Jonas Brothers as far as I know.

Yesterday went to the new exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery, but I found it rather disappointing and uninspired. The only pieces I liked much were paintings by Sigrid Holmwood and Ged Quinn. I was hoping for more.

Off to the wild west today (Hanwell, that is). Fun!

BitchBuzz: Women Beware Women

My latest column for BitchBuzz is another theatre review:

"Men buy their slaves, but women buy their masters." – Isabella

Shakespeare gets all the love when it comes to Elizabethan theatre, but that's because people tend to forget that the stage was the television of its time, cheap and plentiful, aiming only to get bums on benches and crowds in the yard. They were up against bear baiting and the groundlings cried for more jokes and more violence. One of the crowd pleasers getting revived of late is Thomas Middleton.

Women Beware Women is a great example of Middleton's work. Like last years' The Revenger's Tragedy, the National Theatre gives Middleton an enthusiastic outing that makes the most of his brutal phantasmagoria. Marianne Elliott directs the production with a kind of gleeful decadence (why is it that there are more women directors at the NT than on the whole of Broadway?).

Loosely based on some of the Medici family goings-on, the plot is a bit complicated: trying to summarize it to a friend, I quickly saw his eyes glaze over...

As always, read the rest at BBHQ. I ought to have an additional piece up very soon as I attended another launch for BB yesterday with celebrities both planned and unexpected. All to be revealed soon, but now I need some more tea.

Review: After the Dance + NT backstage tour

I love the NT! What could it be? Their wide variety of programming? Plays old and new? More female directors in this single building than on the whole of Broadway? So many reasons!

I found yet another reason when I took their backstage tour. Yes, I am so enamoured of theatre life that it was bound to be fun. Plus I got previews of the two productions I was going to see this week. Although it was the dinner break for most of the crew, there were a few people around including some of the actors warming up.

First stop was the Olivier, their largest theatre. The set for Women Beware Women was on stage and they were doing the sound check for the evening's performance. Our guide explained how in addition to turning the set around, the giant cylinder can also bring up an entire set from below while taking another down in a sort of corkscrew movement. There are over a thousand lights, some fixed, some programmable, and sight lines are fixed at 118° which matches the sight lines of the human eye, the slope of the seats making sure no one ever blocks your view (though I find it does make me knees a little wobbly looking down).

The Lyttleton is a more traditional theatre, but the proscenium can rise and lower and the sides as well, so it can be widescreen or not.  The set for After the Dance was up and a few tech people were testing things out, as it's still in previews. We went back stage and there were still sets for The Habit of Art, Alan Bennett's latest play, which I'd seen via simulcast just before I left for London. Everything was modular so it could be moved in and out easily. There are up to three plays rotating on all three stages at any given time -- amazing! We went around directly behind the stage where the set for The White Guard sits, wonderfully evoking turn of the century Russia in the winter -- there's even a real spruce for the Christmas tree.  The entire set rolls forward and then gets lowered onto the stage. Quite ingenious.

In the tiny Cottesloe, actors were warming up on stage, but our guide said they were all right with our trooping in to take a peek. I haven't been to a production in this little black box theatre, so I'm looking forward to doing so soon. Not only can the stage be reconfigured, but the seats as well. Behind the scenes, we saw the boxes of the horses from War Horse packed to be shipped to Broadway, and a giant portrait of Olivier hangs in the narrow but very long corridor between all the workshops. Among the props were things like a bloodied head and a few turtles. In the huge paintshop the floor for Moira Buffini's new play, Welcome to Thebes, were newly painted and partially assembled. The huge backdrop painted like a grey sky hung across the walls. Amazing that there's that much space.

After the tour, it was time for After the Dance and its decadence between the wars, when the sparkle of the Bright Young Things has lost most of its lustre. Thea Sharrock directs a stellar cast in Rattigan's play which allow individuals to emerge from the types and shifts our sympathies as layers are gradually revealed, even in people steadfastly determined to have only a shiny surface. Hildegard Bechtler's set effortlessly reproduces sumptuous but tasteful wealth.

We're introduced to the Scott-Fowler home by the absence of its central figure, David (Benedict Cumberbatch), who's sleeping off the effects of yet another of the endless parties. His cousin, Peter (John Heffernan), a poor relation who's paid to be a secretary for the history he's supposedly writing. His disapproval of his cousin's life comes out in conversation with John Reid, a sort of professional hanger-on played by the always wonderful Adrian Scarborough. David's wife Joan (Nancy Carroll), tries to dismiss Peter's concerns, but when Peter's fiancée, Helen (Faye Castelow) arrives with her doctor brother, it soon becomes clear that David is far worse off than a mere hangover -- and that Helen is completely smitten with him.

It's wonderful to see the ways that various characters figure it out. David is nearly the last, but finds himself drawn to the very different version of himself that Helen is briskly determined to make. Peter is of course the very last, in his youthful assumptions of clear cut answers, it simply doesn't fit. The most moving performance comes from Carroll's embodiment of Joan, who works so hard to be the superficial party girl that she finds it too difficult -- until it's too late -- to show how much she really feels. The most affecting character ends up being Scarborough's Reid, who spends most of the play being a terrible sort of scrounger and lout, yet digs out some of the most heartfelt lines by the end.

The tense final scene would have played a lot better if there were not a veritable chorus of coughing during it. Why do people save up their hacking and harrumphing for the theatre?!