Culture fix: Shakespeare, R.S Sherriffs, New Model Army and more...

Oh dear!
I was supposed to write this blog last Monday, but got caught up in stuff: ie freelance work and the preparations for yesterday's Christmas edition of The Secret Vintage Fair. 

We started last weekend with the first (well, second really if, unlike us, you follow the chronology) of The Southend Shakespeare Company's marathon performances of The Romans: Antony and Cleopatra (We saw Julius Caesar this Thursday). The two plays were terrific; we love seeing productions by the SSC as their productions are so professionally done and the acting always excellent. We try to go to as many of them as possible, and their programme for 2014 is fantastic: some Shakespeare, of course, but also Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward, so hopefully we will get tickets for all of them! 

Of course, going to the theatre in the West End is a wonderful, not-to-be-missed experience, and therefore, on the Saturday, we made our way to the Gielgud theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue and bought our tickets to see Strangers On a Train in early January. I can't wait! 

The queue at the London Transport Museum was a bit too long for our taste and it was not particularly early - we always spend ages in exhibitions and thought that we'd like to see Poster Art 150 - London Underground's Greatest Designs without having to rush, so we opted for a tea at their lovely cafe instead and decided to go back to see the exhibition later in December. 

Refreshed, we trotted off to The Cartoon Museum to see another of the exhibitions on our list: the utterly fabulous The Age of Glamour: R.S. Sherriffs's stars of stage and screen. We did spend ages in this gorgeous little exhibition, marvelling at the illustrator's skills and humourous depiction of the stars of the era. I did laugh out loud quite a few times! I have instantly become a fan of his work and would love to find out more about him - unfortunately, the museum didn't produce any book or postcards to go with the exhibition... 
A bit (a lot) of browsing in Pleasures of Past Times in Cecil Court is in order... 
The Guardian have a slide show of the exhibition HERE. 
Read my partner in crime Matt ArtPix's blog about the exhibition HERE. 

Then at the end of the day, there was some music... 
Despite London's ridiculous transport system - the WHOLE of the Northern Line closed ON A SATURDAY EVENING, no comment...), we managed to make our way to The Forum to see one of our favourite bands, New Model Army. 
Still going strong, as relevant as ever - especially in the current social and political climate - and with a brand new, absolutely fantastic new album (Between Dog and Wolf) just out, current sold out tour and a feature film being made about them, New Model Army is one of those bands whose work is essential to thousands of people around the world without the mainstream media being interested in the slightest. Which, thinking about it, is a bit of a mistake as they understand and chronicle the evolution of our society better than anyone else and translate them into powerful songs that have a thrillingly  poetic and poignantly philosophical quality to them.