“The Gay Divorce” and other dramas
Yes, Noel Coward comes to Circa! This time in the form of Blithe Spirit. Normally, we’d go when Nicola was on ushering duty, but for reasons she wasn’t able to take her allocated shift, so we had to *gasp!* buy two tickets to the show.
As always, dinner first. Circa Theatre have opened their new restaurant Chouchou, but so far it’s only serving…breakfast. Lunch and dinner are “coming soon”. Instead, we decided to give Wellington’s newest venture, A High Dining, a go. This is sited in the former Apaché space – Apaché have now moved to Tory Street.
A High Dining promises much, but unfortunately just misses the mark. We started with cocktails: Nicola had an Elderflower Rose French, and I asked for a Negroni. I say “asked for” because two minutes later, the waiter returned and, regrettably, they cannot make a Negroni. “No matter” I replied, “I’ll have a Martini instead”. Guess what? This time it was the barman who came to explain, regrettably, they had no vermouth. I had a gin & tonic. The barman, I hope, will be off shopping for these bar basics tomorrow.
We started with venison carpaccio and salmon tataki, both of which were good. For mains, we had the tagorashi fish and prawn dumpling and duck leg. The fish turned out to be a fish fillet with a prawn dumpling accompanying it, which wasn’t quite what was expected…a slightly better wording on the menu would avoid any ambiguity here. The duck leg was a bit on the tough side. Cooking medium-rare is fine for duck breast, but not so successful on leg meat. There was an overabundance of different vegetables served with it – beetroot, green (sic), chewy (sic) red cabbage, Moroccan brassica, cherries, buckwheat. Less is more, folks! I didn’t think it quite worked. We stuck around for puddings as well, having the chocolate caramel delice and the apple and almond pudding. Both good. It’s the mains that need a bit of work, I reckon. I was a bit disappointed, especially as they’re charging Logan Brown prices for distinctly sub-Logan Brown food.
We were in plenty of time to take our seats in the theatre, up high in the penultimate row as I’d only booked the tickets a couple of days before, and this is a popular show. A lot of the audience looked like they might have seen the original West End production, but I guess that’s just the demographic that keeps Circa Theatre going.
Circa stalwart Simon Leary led as Rudi, and Ginette McDonald as Madame Arcati, the medium. I’m sure we’ve also seen a lot of the other cast in various productions over the years. The story (spoilers!) involves Charles, an author, inviting a medium round for dinner as a laugh, and ostensibly to gather information for a forthcoming novel; only to be horrified when the ghost of Elvira (Laura Hill), his dead first wife, contacts Charles…and only Charles. The others can’t hear, or later, see, the ghost, but Charles can. They can, however, see her manifestations, when she moves items around, but they think it’s just Charles trying to fool them. In keeping with modern times, Charles is now living with Rudi rather than the original second wife, Ruth.
It’s all jolly good fun and you should go and see it if you can.
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