A NUTTY PLAY — 1967-1968: Diary of a Posh Schoolgirl

Nov 30

Nov 30 A NUTTY PLAY

1960s Culture

T H U R S D A Y, 3 0 N O V

Anya's got German measles.

A fuss at dinner break over dividing us into groups of eight for dinner in the Unit. I think it’s a bad idea sticking to the same eight people all the time, but Martha doesn’t seem to realise - I’m sick of our little non-talking ‘group’.

In R.I. we got onto the gulf between the generations. Owl disagrees with what Richie-Calder said at Speech Day (and so does everyone else) that the gulf is greater than ever. She also thinks that when people say, “oh I can’t talk to my parents, they don’t understand” that they don’t know what they’re talking about. I agree - it’s practically become a habit..

After school we stayed for the French film about La Fontaine. I understood most of it. It was in colour, and really beautiful. There were the most gorgeous shots of woods and of animals, and of his beautiful house.

We worked until quarter to five, when Lucy, Pam, Diana and me left for the chip-shop. (This time I got two packets all to myself.) Got very giggly on the coach - most of our hilarious remarks were about the chips. The theatre (somewhere in London) was even smaller than Leatherhead's, but more modern.

“At 7.30 ‘The Tempest’ began. What a nutty play!”

The scenery was quite effective: three ‘curtains’ of sticks with different coloured backgrounds for the different scenes. Pam didn’t like the costumes but actually the only character that didn't look right was Ariel: he hardly wore anything and his body was painted white. He wasn't fairy-ish enough. Trinculo the jester was hilarious. He had a Kenneth Williams’ voice so at the end of every sentence I wanted to go, “oooh, ducky”! When the three ‘godesses’ came on it was a bit like Miss World. Got Kit-Kat and orange juice in the interval. Saw some snazz boys.

The journey home was even funnier than the journey coming. Pam is super fun when she gets into these mad moods. Me on devaluation: “oh, I must have got hold of the wrong end of the stick.” Pam: “what stick?” Me: “???!!!” Pam: “the penny minus 14% has not dropped, it’s still suspended in the air - like Mr Callaghan." Roars of laughter from all!