Lost in Stratford

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s headquarters loom large by the river, surrounded by the dwarf architecture of the showcase upon Avon. The building itself is probably the ugliest theatre building in Europe (number one being the South Bank Centre in London).

Despite any aesthetic objections, tourists and theatre lovers invariably invade this deep countryside town to see whatever RSC production happens to be staged at the time. The 2006/07 season sees the biggest projest the RSC has ever undertaken – Complete Works Festival, to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Part of the project is “Merry Wives: the musical”, based on “The Merry Wives of Windsor” – a spectacular show played to full houses, incorporating the play, top notch acting (led by Judi Dench and Simon Callow) and the best tricks musical theatre can offer.

For those unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s comedy here is the shortest possible synopsis.

Sir John Falstaff and his companions, Bardolph, Pistol and Nym, have been outraging Windsor society with their rowdy behaviour. Parson Evans, Justice Shallow and his nephew Slender – newly arrived from Gloucestershire – discuss what can be done about Falstaff.

Another hot topic is who will marry Anne Page, the daughter of a wealthy local family. Slender is one of the suitors and the one favoured by Anne’s father. Parson, Evans and Shallow engage Mistress Quickly to help; she is housekeeper to the French Dr Caius and a friend of Anne. Dr Caius, however, is himself a suitor – the favourite of Anne’s mother – and Quickly is already acting on his behalf. When Dr Caius hears of Evans’ interference, he challenges him to duel. Fenton, a young aristocrat, makes up the trio of hopeful suitors but both parents oppose him. The duel between Dr Caius and Parson Evans is averted when the host of the Gartner Inn plays a trick on them.

Being down on his luck, Sir John plans to restore his fortunes by seducing the wife of one of Windsor’s wealthy citizens. Convinced that Alice Ford is already attracted to him, he sends her a love letter and, for good measure, sends another, identical letter to Meg, George Page’s wife. Unfortunately for him, Meg and Alice are close friends and when they compare their letters they soon discover his double-dealing. They set about turning the tables on Sir John, employing Mistress Quickly as their go-between, summon him to Mistress Ford’s house.

When the two husbands hear of Falstaff’s intentions, Page dismisses the idea but Ford, who is jealous, immeadiately resolves to test his wife’s fidelity. Introducing himself to Falstaff as Master Brook he begs Sir John to woo Mistress Ford on his behalf. Gaining his confidence, he hears of Falstaff’s arrangements with Mistress Ford. Ford almost catches Sir John and his wife together on two ocassions.

In Windsor Great Park Falstaff receives his final punishment – and one of Anne Page’s suitors is successful.

It slumps down your stomach

In our ongoing series devoted to quality British food we revel today in bread and butter pudding. Once a staple in school canteens, these days it has been revived as a sumptuous dish, celebrated both in posh restaurants and Marks and Spencer’s food halls. The egg and cream element has increased and the bread content reduced to produce a set custard that is equally delicious hot or cold. This is the perfect way of using up day-old white bread or ‘bulka’. Simple enough to give it a try when you feel like warming yourself up on a windy Saturday. This recipe is from Baker and Spice.

Marmalade bread and butter pudding

• 575ml milk
• 575ml single or double cream
• 1 vanilla pod, split open
• 115g unsalted butter, softened
• 8 slices white bread, crusts removed
• 115g orange marmalade or any jam
• 4 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 200g sugar
• icing sugar for dusting

Put the milk and cream in a saucepan. Scrape the sticky black seeds from the split vanilla pod into the pan and add the pod too. Set over low heat and bring slowly to the boil. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, butter the slices of bread and make 4 marmalade sandwiches. Cut them across to make triangles and arrange in a generously buttered ovenproof dish, slightly overlapping the triangles.

Beat the eggs and egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl until they form a smooth, foaming mixture. Pour the milk and cream mixture through a sieve on to the eggs and sugar, whisking to make a smooth custard. Ladle this carefully over the bread and leave to soak for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Place the dish in another larger dish and pour in hot water to come half-way up the sides of the baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes or until the pudding is firm but still with some give to the gentle pressure of a finger.

Serve warm or refrigerate overnight and serve very cold. In both cases, dust the top with icing sugar before serving. Blueberries or raspberries go well with this.

Weird words

A gizmo is a device or machine which performs a particular task, usually in a new and efficient way. Gizmo is a placeholder name for any small technological item. People often use gizmo to refer to a device or machine when they do not know what it is really called.

1. The gizmo merges new ways to make and receive calls, listen to music, watch videos, surf the Internet and perform other functions on the go.
2. Gizmo fever is getting out of hand.

Will this little gizmo save us from the greedy hands of “tepsa”?

Paperless school

We all know the daunting and frustrating task of controlling the flood of printed matter – unsolicited post filling up letter-boxes, piles of newspapers and magazines pushing into every scrap of living space, letters, bills and bank statements silently cramming cabinets and drawers. Enough!

Teachers’ working spaces don’t seem to be spared from the avalanche of paper either. What makes it even worse is that they create so much clutter themselves. All those lesson plans, notes, hundreds of unreferenced photocopies, snippets and press cuttings kept in hope to be re-used one day. They seldom are. And the backlog of unsorted low-quality materials grows and threatens to clutter the mind as well. Enough! But how to stop the dominance of ineffectively used paper.

A solution has arrived. This month we are testing a beta version of DEVONthink Pro Office. It has been around for some time, but the latest incarnation finally makes teachers’ dreams come true.

This is just a small list of jobs DEVON does:

• Keeps an impressive range of text and other files in one database.
• Within the database it allows groups of files and links between them.
• Uses Artificial Intelligence to classify new documents added to the database.
• Searches the database in an instant.
• Runs its own web server and publishes the database as a searchable website on a local network or the Internet.
• Gives distant users the possibility to search for documents, view and download them. Simply speaking, it turns the database into a mini-Google.

Ghosts of the past

Seldom do we observe the media more frenzied than today. It was a bit farcical to hear the usual radio mix of anglo-saxon pop being interrupted every 15 minutes or so with bits of ‘live coverage’ from Warsaw Cathedral. As the day closes, the news still confirms its singular meaning.

For a change, a more balanced view, written for a more politically balanced audience.

Warsaw’s new archbishop resigned Sunday over his involvement with the communist-era secret police, and the Vatican said his past actions had ”gravely compromised his authority” in the Roman Catholic homeland of the late Pope John Paul II.
Stanislaw Wielgus announced his decision at the capital’s St. John’s Cathedral, packed with worshippers gathered for a Mass that was to have marked his formal installation. The congregation included President Lech Kaczynski.
A forlorn-looking Wielgus read from a letter to Pope Benedict XVI in which he offered his resignation ”after reflecting deeply and assessing my personal situation.”
Though Kaczynski and some others applauded, many in the church and a large crowd packed outside in the rain shouted, ”We welcome you,” ”Stay with us,” and ”No, No!”

2006

2006 pros and cons