Monday, 19 January 2015

Review: Henry V (Parts One and Two)

It is my belief that there are two kinds of Shakespeare audiences: those who want to see a new take on an old play and those who spend the performance wishing they were in the Globe amongst the rabble watching the play unfold for the first time. The RSC’s touring production most certainly catered to the latter type with a true to form production of Henry IV Parts One and Two.

As one of the lesser studied history plays, it is always a good idea to find out the plot beforehand; unless you are fluent in Shakespearian, the language and plot are equally hard to follow. Part 1 of Henry IV juxtaposes between two different lives, with the young prince Hal (Alex Hassell) drinking his life away and enjoying his youth, supported by his best friend Falstaff (Anthony Sher). Whilst his father Henry IV (Jasper Britton) is preparing to defend his crown against the rising rebels led by the aptly nicknamed Hotspur (Trevor White), and concludes with the death of Hotspur at the hand Prince Hal who has grown into a man worthy of his title. Part Two focuses on Falstaff, and takes a very sombre tone. Partly through miscommunication and partly through deliberate deception, the plot concludes with King Henry V disowning his former dissolute life and the heart-wrenching banishment of Falstaff.

The overall staging was seamless and very clever, using traditional Globe styling, combined with modern day trappings gave Stephen Brimsom Lewis’ design a unique and versatile edge. The modern-day technology enhanced the almost minimalist set in order to create the world of Hal and Falstaff and the King in front of our very eyes. The decision to change the original traverse production into a proscenium arch setting was disappointing. Little moments such as the fight at the end of Part One would have been much more engaging if the audience was included within the action, made possible by the original use of staging and it is to be hoped that they reincorporate the original setting when they move to the Barbican later this month.

As expected, the acting from the RSC was strong, coherent and to put it simply, classical. There was none of this new Shakespearian acting, of the type where each line is spoken slowly enough that the audience can understand at the expense of the iambic pentameter and Shakespeare’s original linguistic devices. 
Many in the audience came to witness one particular actor at work, and probably would have bought a ticket if it was Hamlet, Othello or just a puppet show, which truly says something about the clientele at the Marlowe Theatre. However Anthony Sher’s performance was fabled, fantastic and ultimately fallacious, bringing Falstaff to life and although Sher undoubtedly had the longest amount of stage time, he was in no way the star of the show. Throughout Part One, his accent was unintelligible and whilst his characterisation of the drunkenly growling Falstaff was spot on, there is a fine line between being brilliantly drunk and being drunkenly incomprehensible. Within a performance relying on vocal projection instead of microphones, Shers words were rather lost amongst the grunting and slurring leaving the audience wishing he would tone it down, if only just a tad.

The show’s real stars were lesser loved actors and Jasper Britton as King Henry IV was outstanding. In just one scene he managed to do what Sher had been attempting from the start. He captured the audience’s attention, and their hearts, and did not let them go. Considering that the plays are named after him, Henry IV has very few moments on stage but the few he had were phenomenal. His dying speech was delivered with so much passion and pain that the audience found themselves shrouded in complete silence for the first time in the production. Britton transformed in front of our eyes from the level-headed, strong-willed politician and king to a helpless soul, worried for his son and desperate for the confirmation of his love and his ability to be a great heir.

As for the young Prince? He goes from vanity to valiance whilst his audience delight in his transformation from petty thief and a frequent visitor to whore houses into a princely knight commanding the battlefield and fighting for his future crown. From under the prostitutes’ covers emerges Alex Hassell, capturing the audience from the word go with his cheerful juvenility and sordid ways. Hassell has every woman in the audience sighing whilst the male population grinned, wishing themselves on the stage and into his role. Hassell took on the challenging and diverse role with all the wit and skill required to bring Prince Hal to life in front of our very eyes.


After their week-long run at The Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, the RSC returns home to The Barbican with a lengthy run from 29 November 2014 – 24 January 2015. Book tickets if you can and then sit in wonder as the world of Shakespeare’s Henry IV unfolds around you. 

Monday, 12 January 2015

Review: Pride and Prejudice

Date Seen: 12/10/14

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man, in possession of a great fortune, must be in want of a wife”. It should also be universally acknowledged that adapting a novel for stage is a tough task, especially such a well-loved English classic as Pride and Prejudice.  To do so for a cast of two ought not be possible. It is much to their credit that ‘Two Bit Classics’, a company founded by Joannah Tincey and Nick Underwood in 2013, has done exactly that. Lovers of Jane Austen’s classic would be mad to miss it.
To steal a phrase from Mr Darcy, Pride and Prejudice was “open, cheerful and engaging”. Tincey has transferred the book to stage with aplomb. Using only lines from the original prose, Tincey has successfully re-created Austen’s charming world and done it with only two actors playing 18 roles.
Before the performance at a renovated Stag Theatre in Sevenoaks, many in the audience were expecting an ‘Under Milk Wood’ style interpretation with silly accents and a confusingly muddled narrative. What they actually got was a fast-paced and accessible piece of drama. Using simple props and costumes, Tincey and Underwood performed each of their many characters with clarity and a wonderful charm.
Tincey’s Elizabeth Bennet warmed the audience with her sweet smiles and soft tones. The dialogue was witty and Tincey’s movements were graceful, yet she still retained Lizzie’s sharp-tongued wit and pride. It was Nick Underwood who stole the show with his flawless changes between characters. Underwood’s stage presence, combined with Austen’s words, had us believe that Darcy had stepped out from the pages of the book and onto the stage.

The production was witty, engaging and true to the original. This clever adaptation of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is playing at theatres around the UK until November 2014. 

Monday, 5 January 2015

Homemade Exfoliator


Sometimes late at night I get really bored, when I get bored late at night I do stupid things. Sometimes I start a movie marathon and sometimes I decide to make my own concoctions - This time I tried to make my own face scrub and surprisingly it turned out rather well!
I will admit I looked at a lot of peoples recipes before trying this out, after all I wanted to know what to use! Plus I really didn't want my face to turn green or worse!

Here's a quick list of everything I used and why! Then I just mixed it all together and rubbed it on my face in circular motions, rinsing with luke warm water and applying a Nivea moisturiser afterwards!

3 Tablespoons of Sugar
1/2 Tablespoon of Cinnamon
Juice from 1 Lemon
1/2 Tablespoon of Ground Almonds
3/4 Tablespoon of Baking Soda



Sugar - It's a gentler version of salt, the rough granules break down the dead skin cells which basically means you'll get lovely soft cheeks.

Lemon Juice - It does the same as the sugar and wait for it... more! Not only does it remove the top layer of skin cells it also acts as a moisturiser and helps to heal acne and ageing! Plus like the cinnamon it smells really good!

Ground Almonds - I don't know why I added this, I think it's meant to be hydrating but at this point I just thought "what the heck, how bad can it be?"

Cinnamon - It just smelt good when I opened the jar I felt like I might as well add it in!

Baking Soda - Ok, so this I was dubious about using but it actually worked nicely to mix everything together. It was a tad alarming when it frothed up and started to overflow the small bowl I was using though! So make sure you use a big bowl if adding Baking Soda! As for the benefits? It's the main ingredient in loads of the expensive face scrubs you see, it's really good at exfoliation so definitely worth trying. Apparently it also works as a tooth whiter - think I'll try that next!

Overall? This has left my skin so wonderfully and beautifully smooth. All week I've been feeling my clogged pores growing and my skin becoming really dry and flaky, so this wondrous combination really helped with that and I've woken up this morning with really fresh feeling skin! However it is quite harsh, so I wouldn't advise using this everyday, but for a once or twice a week to freshen up your skin then this is perfect!

Have you made any of your own beauty/health products? I'd love to hear all about them as I'm always looking for new things to try at Midnight!
Love y'all
Harriet
xx

Review: "One Man, Two Guvnors"

Date Written: 2/10/14

It’s 1963 and there’s a bloody revolution in the theatre. Between writer Richard Bean and the National Theatre Company, “One Man, Two Guvnors” feels like a mash up between witty
Commedia dell'arte and a bad British pantomime, with slapstick moments and underhand jokes at British culture of the time the show may appeal to a certain type of audience, of which I am not am member. Based on Carlo Goldoni’s “A servant to two masters”, the show has taken all of the best elements from the original and tactfully turned them tacky.
With a complex plot adapted from the 1746 original Commedia Dell Arte “A Servant to Two Masters”, the play features Francis Henshall, the minder to Roscoe Crabb who is in fact dead. Roscoe, otherwise known as Rachel, has disguised herself as her brother who was killed by her lover Stanley Stubbers in order to con Roscoe’s ex-future father in law out of a small fortune. Henshall is driven by his intense hunger to take on a second job in the service of one Stanley Stubbers and, in the process, causes a whole host of misfortunes, hilarity, bad cover-ups and two near deaths.
Upon arriving at the theatre the atmosphere is immediately set by the fantastic skiffle bad, arguably one of the best parts of the production, whose frequent performances throughout the show eliminates the usual boredom of waiting around for set changes, of which there were many. The addition of the live band boosts the performance and gives the production an added edge.
The real saving grace of the production came from the star-studded cast of B List actors, mainly consisting of ex-EastEnders.  Lead man Gavin Spokes came across fantastically; his presentation of Francis Henshaw was both funny and endearing, his comedic timing was brilliantly honed and the perfectly choreographed fight with himself left the audience doubled over with laughter. His “motivation” for the second act, Dolly (played by Emma Barton), was an over the top, cocky and surprisingly effective caricature of the original Smereldina, complete with an obscenely large bosom. Barton played the role well despite corpsing onstage letting her down at a key comedic moment.
“One Man, Two Guvnors” balances on the thin line between theatrical genius and every theatre-goer’s nightmare. With sections made to seem ad libbed and spontaneous, the company manipulates the audience into feeling sorry for the actors though use of staged audience participation, which results in the total derailment of the play. Although it was totally believable at the time, hindsight is a wonderful thing and instead the lasting impression is that the charade added very little to the play. 

So - if you’re easily amused, a fan of “EastEnders”, or want to see a fantastic skiffle band, then this production certainly is for you. Fans of the original “A Servant to Two Masters”, however would do well to steer clear of this particular adaptation, which is continuing its tour around the UK until March 2015. 

Sunday, 4 January 2015

The Hummingbird Challenge: Lemon Bars


I have to start this post saying I'm sorry. I've not got many photos from my making process of these, since whilst baking I wast planning what I'd like to write and how I'd like to describe it and by the time I'd decided what I wanted to say I was finished and I'd not taken any photos! So I'm very sorry!
Nonetheless onwards and upwards!

This time I decided to "use up" the last of my lemons from the other day, after all when I skim-read the ingredients list I thought I didn't need any zest and so would get away with just using the juice from the already grated lemons, but I was wrong and I only realised after I'd mixed most of the other ingredients. Whooops!

The recipe for these Lemon Bars are pretty simple, you mix everything into one and then you bake it for 20 minutes, mix everything else for the topping and then bake it for another 20 minutes. I have to admit the result was the yummiest gooiest Lemon Bar I've ever tasted, and that's with me changing the recipe! So I've decided I simply have to try and make these again before the year is out!

Making the base was rather easy, despite the fact I had to substitute 290g plain flower with 260g of plain flour and 30g of self raising flour (Although this didn't seem to matter too much, the bars were just deeper than expected). Then, being the fool I am, I had to forsake the Lemon zest and instead use lots of fresh lemon juice. I obviously can't compare between the real recipe and this concoction I created but I'm fairly certain the use of lemon juice just made the base more tangy as you could definitely taste the lemon and the consistency seemed about right!
I found the mixture to be overly sticky in the end, probably due to the lemon juice, and it was incredibly hard to spread the dough into the baking tray! There was a lot of cursing and spoon throwing, to the point where my kitten ran away in fear!

As for the topping - I will warn you, before it is cooked it looks absolutely disgusting, an unappetising mix of foam and strong lemony scents. This would not usually have made it into my baking, however I decided to trust the recipe and give it a go! Word of advice, when you place the tray back into the oven with the topping on DO NOT place it on a slant, this was my stupid mistake which meant the covering on the bars was really uneven.
Despite this when I took it out of the oven I was rewarded with a heavenly smell and the greeting of a lovely golden lemony bake! The hardest part was then putting these in the fridge to set, all I thought about from that point on was how good they were going to taste - so when I finally cut them up and had one with a cup of tea I'm proud to say they didn't disappoint.

They were the most delicious, gooey, scrumy, lemony bars I have ever tasted. My family highly enjoyed them and as I said at the beginning these are definitely something I would consider making again (With the right ingredients!)

Saturday, 3 January 2015

Review: Barry M - Atlantis


It's review time!

As you may have seen in my "What I bought" post the other day I picked up three of the slightly new-er Barry M nail varnishes (you can see how long it's been since I've bought Nail Varnish) in various shades of glitter. I have never loved glitter so much.
Whenever I buy a new glittery nail varnish I immediately use it with just a nude base underneath, my reasoning for this is I can then see if it can be called a 'stand alone' product or, like most, you have to combine it with a colour for it to produce any results.

Atlantis, the latest in their Aquarium collection, is an absolute dream. As you can see from the above image even on it's own it gives a rather dazzling effect. Within this tiny pot of joy there is a multitude of colours and shapes which when combined create a treasure-trove of colour and glitter.

Full of tiny silver dots, purple and blue diamonds and silver hexagons along with oddly shaped pink confetti this nail varnish can, and will, give you hours of entertainment as no two nails come out the same - Warning OCD's stay clear!

When applying this to my nails I was highly apprehensive, I'd heard lots of good and bad about this particular varnish, with one of the worst criticism being that you had to painstakingly place each of the individual pieces. This was far from the truth! Yes, if you wanted your nails to match perfectly then you'd have to spend a bit more time than I did, but for a quick and dazzling effect this was perfect.
It went on quickly and the density of the polish meant I only needed one coat! So with a base coat, Atlantis and a top coat to fix the pieces in place this was one of the most hassle-free nail varnishes I own!

So would I recommend it? Gosh yes! Would I buy it again? I'm going to town tomorrow to buy the other shades (Mermaid 1 and Treasure Chest 2). Will you try the rest of the collection? I'm not so keen on the mirror two-tone polishes but I may pick up Arabian as it does look rather lovely!

Let me know if you've got any of the other and what you think, along with which your favourite base coats to use are!
Lots of love
Harriet
xxo

Ps. I bought this product myself from Superdrug for £3.99 and part of the "Pay more than £6, get a free limited edition Christmas Polish"

Friday, 2 January 2015

Looking Forward: 2015

Image Source: Etsy: SimplyKiKisToo
I had promised you that I would stop rambling on about myself on my blog... which is impossible since I've often been diagnosed by friends and family as self-obsessed. I don't bother to argue it any more. However I have wanted to do a "Looking Forward" post, as this year is set to be a pretty bloomin' big one for me and if I'm being completely honest with you all I'm petrified!

Nice loving, it'll be ok comments would be very much appreciated right now.

1) Graduation. 
It's been three very long years in the making, I'm not going to be found saying I wish I wasn't leaving and I want to re-start my University years again. Yes, it's been a blast and I've had some amazing times but in hindsight I wouldn't go again. I've spent more time rocking back and forth on my bed and talking myself into going to class than I have enjoying it! It's a sad truth but a truth nonetheless.
I'm definitely looking forward to my last term, studying Shakespeare (again) and Stand Up Comedy and knowing that I've got 16 weeks until I can leave for good!
I am however worrying about finding a graduation dress, a bit early to be panicking but I'm so picky and these are photos which will haunt me forever and a day! It's with this in mind that I'm going to re-join Slimming World (oh yes, forgot to mention I'd been doing that over summer) with the idea that I'm going to be 1 Stone lighter at Graduation than I am now... wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

2) Turning 21.
Help! I'm going to be a fully fledged grown-up! Not to mention that by the time I'm 21 I will have graduated from University and hopefully gotten a grown up job AND have moved across country (see next bullet point). It's scary, I've spent 21 years on this lovely little planet and I've seen a lot and done a lot and somehow, turning 21 just seems a little bit bigger than turning 18!

3) Moving to Yorkshire.
Warning: This will be soppy.
Two years ago I met the person who would be there for me through university, make me smile when I was down and enable me to become the most crazy and confident version of myself. He's my partner in crime and I couldn't live my life without him in it, he's become everything to me and I was so proud of him when he got accepted onto a Graduate scheme and it broke my heart that he had to move to Yorkshire. However since December I've had a countdown on my phone, to the date I can move up to be with him, which looks like the end of April! I am so excited to have him back in my life everyday and I can't wait for our future to start together. Let's face it, long distance is only great for getting work done, the lack of laughter and hugs and late night film watching is slightly depressing.
If you head over to my pinterest you'll see I've already started to collect ideas for our flat/house/cardboard box on the street as I'm that excited!

4) Operation Grown Up. 
I'm going to find myself a job. This is a bit hopeful of me I know, and it's proving difficult since I'm currently over 200 miles away from where I'd like to be working. My Drama degree seems to a bit of a difficulty, despite being confident and able to present and incredibly personable I don't have much else going for me. Late last night I found my dream job, On-line PR and Marketing and from the job description it seems to be largely based around Bloggers - I know! Perfect isn't it? Plus it was in Leeds meaning I'd be able to move to Yorkshire without worrying about not having a job lined up, but we shall see! Ideally I'd love to be in PR or Events Planning, neither or which I'm particularly qualified for but we shall see. Where there's a will there's a way right?

5) Iceland.
Being the fantastic girlfriend that I am, I bought a trip to Iceland for the Boyfriend's Christmas present! We fly out the Thursday before Valentines and come back the Monday afterwards, the plan at the moment is to spend our time around Reykjavik chasing the Northern Lights and Whale Watching, Husky Sled riding and general sightseeing. I am SO excited. So is the Boyfriend, following the success of our holiday to Italy in summer I can't wait to get back on a plane and go explore this icy tundra!
Image Source: Scott Dunn Ltd.
If anyone's ever been then PLEASE tell me your top tips/share your photos!

Well that's a nice little round up is it not? That's my life for the next year, can you now see why I'm so scared? I am so excited that 2015 is easily going to be the best and biggest year of my life so far, wish me luck friends!
Happy New Year to you all
love as always
Harriet
xox

Thursday, 1 January 2015

What I bought: 30/12/14

I went to the shops and I bought... Ever used to play that game? I loved it, especially on long car journeys or at work when there were no customers around!

I finally felt well enough to jump out of bed and hit the Boxing day Sales, with minimal money as I'm still saving for Iceland, so I thought I would share with you a few of the bits and pieces I picked up.

My first stop was Waterstones, it's the only voucher I had to spend and there was a certain book by miss Zoe Sugg aka 'Zoella' which I've heard both good and bad about. A lot of what I've heard has come from people who, rather pathetically, have not read her book. So in order to form my own opinion. I bought it and I'm actually very much looking forward to reading it! I've always loved Zoe and I feel like she's had a lot of bad press, which she doesn't deserve.


My second spontaneous purchase was this cute memory book from Mr Boddington's Studio - this cost me £12.99 and will enable me to document the next five years of my life. I felt like this was a fantastic idea for someone like me, who forgets to write long posts in a diary every day. The layout means that in five years time I'll be able to look at a particular date and see what I did on that day for the past five years.

 It's got a very fun uni-sex cover to it with monotone doodles of everything from phones to hats. The inside has adorable cursive handwriting style dates, and the same little illustrations from the front cover on the bottom of each page! It also has a handy ribbon bookmark attached so you can easily keep track of where you are in the book! My only dislike is the bulk of it! It's definitely not a book to be carrying around with you on a daily basis. I've just had a look on the website and my list of things to buy is now huge! They've got so many colourful and fun stationary bits, along with classic books with similar covers to my new memory book - so definitely go and check out http://www.mrboddington.com

Next I ended up in Lush, anyone who knows we knows that I can't go to town without having a quick look to see what Lush have got in! Specifically I was after some of the highly coveted "Snow Fairy" in the sale, but according to the lovely sales assistant everyone had "gone a bit crazy on Boxing day, they were fighting for it" Geesh! Glad I wasn't there for that! She did however manage to find me two bars of "Snow Fairy Sparkle" which smells just like the shower gel! I've never had a Lush massage bar, but this rubbed off in my hands and felt ever so smooth and I can confirm you will be incredibly shimmery and glittery when using this product! Still, the cute angel shape and the colour and smell make up for and glitter. Not that I'm complaining, I would eat the stuff if I could. As there was a 1/2 price sale I managed to pick up both bars for just £4.95!

Finally, or so I thought, I went to MAC - Having been given the Limited Edition 'Heirloom' brushes for Christmas I decided it was about time I got rid of my Smashbox foundation, let's just say I looked like an orange when I wore it, and bought a good old fashion MAC version. I ended up getting the Studio Fix Fluid in NW10, which is an awful lot paler than I thought! Spending £21.50 on this beauty was the best thing I could have done and since I've been using it my skin has looked wonderfully fresh and the coverage is fantastic for such a light product! Not to mention the ladies in MAC are always so helpful and really take their time to make sure you're happy with your product, which always reminds me why I love their brand so much.

Having left the shopping centre, had a coffee and climbed back into the car I remembered I'd not bought any Nail Varnish since last summer, which for a nail varnish addict is a ridiculously long time. So I snuck back out of the car and ran across to Superdrug where Barry M, faithful as ever, had one of their "spend £6 and we will give you this free" offers on. I ended up leaving with three different glitter, All of which I'm in love with.
 Aquarium Collection: Atlantis 439
I'd heard a lot about the Aquarium collection, a lot of people had been having issues with the placement of the glitter flakes. I had no such issue. I find the abnormal shapes of the glitter produce an ultra-sparkley and wonderfully unique effect, I currently have this over a pale nude base and it looks as if I just stuck my nails in confetti! It was a tad tricky to apply, as making sure the pieces were smoothed down took some effort but other than that this new effect is just a complete dream!

Glitterati Collection: Socialite 441
Unfortunately I hadn't heard much about this collection and it was only when I went into the store the other day that I saw this. It's the perfect glitter, recently I've found you have to have a coloured base coat for the colour of a glitter polish to stand out. This certainly isn't the case with Glitterati instead the pigmentation is so strong you're left with a perfect intense coverage, you barely need two coats! Fantastic for New Years or any party look methinks! Currently I'm rocking this on my toes... because who doesn't want glittery toes?
Christmas Limited Edition: Jingle Bells 440
I have to admit it, I'm a bit disappointed with this as it's very similar to all the other Barry M gold glitter effects, the only difference being the added element of the gold stars and red circles which gives it a very christmassy feel and look. You definitely need a bright base coat under this one, possibly just a nice red or green! Not sure how it's going to fare as a non-Christmas nail polish but we shall see!


Finally and wearily I found my way back to the car, curled up in the back seat and tried to not think about the money I had spent!

Coming up soon should be my next Hummingbird Challenge bake and a sneak peak at my Icelandic plans!

I hope you've all had a lovely New Year
lots of love as ever,
HarrietCorey