nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
nineveh_uk ([personal profile] nineveh_uk) wrote2010-05-23 06:24 pm

Burda, do thy worst!

I know that it is childish to laugh at such exciting dart terminology as pivot and slide, and slash and spread, but after taping together 40 A4 sheets of a Burda pattern, and working out how to do a FBA on a bodice with no darts, but pleats, I need something to amuse me. I think I have managed to do it, but so much for a quick and easy dress - and all for half an inch. The task was not made easier by having to use kitchen greaseproof paper rather than pattern tracing paper.

I saw Oh, What a Lovely War yesterday. New production that the Grauniad commented was the first to seem like a new production, not a revivial. Actually, I think a revival would have been better. It is so very much a period piece that I spent half the time imagining the History Boys encountering its presentation of Haig, and of course the silly accents were pre-Allo' Allo'. The singing was good, though, and an even-more-than-usual-for-a-matinee elderly audience (a couple in front of me were well into their nineties, judging by the age of their daughter) had a good stab at "Goodby-ee".

[identity profile] nineveh-uk.livejournal.com 2010-05-23 08:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Start 'em young, that's the ticket!

I think I'll have to see the film of OWALW, and see if that gives more of a contemporary shock. I haven't seen the play before, so can only go on the Grauniad, which suggested that some of the staging was new - BBC News 24 scrolling bars (which were effective).

[identity profile] azdak.livejournal.com 2010-05-24 03:03 pm (UTC)(link)
The film is, um, not as good as the play. It's an attempt to find an aesthetic equivalent to the non-naturlistic stage representation of events and there are only a very few places where it works even slightly.

[identity profile] nineveh-uk.livejournal.com 2010-05-24 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah. I was hoping it was all like Maggie Smith. Maybe I'll just watch the songs on YouTube.

[identity profile] azdak.livejournal.com 2010-05-24 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Maggie Smith is one of the few bits that work - probably because it's a stage piece within the film, so they can indulge in straightforward theatricality. Watching the songs on youtube is an EXCELLENT idea.