The Accidental Death of an Anarchist

I occaisionally forget that the Jellicle Cat is just a disguised Theatre Studies student. Not so last night! He took me down to the Dukes to watch The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, a play written in the fifties about Italian state corruption. Apparently it’s the sort of play that everyone adapts and gets translated and retranslated quite a bit – presumably this makes it perfect for Theatre Studies at most levels. It’s an incredibly funny play, whilst also being rather saddening (lots of jokes about corrupt governments will do that to me).

The lead was incredibly physical, and it has to be said, even I found him funny though appreciating physical humour not my strong point! I did wonder how he can keep that level of activity up night after night though and came to the conclusion that he couldn’t possibly.

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After the levels of anarchism rose throughout the play I was sadly dissapointed by the end as it seemed somewhat weak but on the way home the Jellicle explained that when he’d studied it there were two alternate endings – one where everyone is killed by the lead and one where, when left to freedom the officials on stage band together and kill one of their number – this seemed a lot stronger than everyone just wandering away in the smoke left from the instrument of change blowing himself up. Also, slightly more positive – ie. a product of a time when people actually believed things could be changed rather than this weak, uncertain ending which is possibly truer to the spirit of the times – after all what can really be changed? Even Anarchism which seemed such a strong force in the fifties just blew itself up in the end…

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It was a great deal of fun to go out with The Jellicle, it has to be said when left to our own devices our idea of having a good time is renting a movie and getting take-out. Hey, it’s a treat! We are planning on going away for the weekend of our anniversary but it does occaisionally strike me that that’s not far off torture for him given he travels as well as he does…
In anycase, this wasn’t too far away for him and so I got dressed up and put on make-up and that always makes me feel like its special and lovely. I think though, I have inherited from my time growing up in a small village the urge to wear ‘special’ clothes in slightly inappropriate ways, I just want to wear my nice clothes every so often and if I haven’t in a while I will end up going to the Dukes dressed as if I expected Covent Garden.

I’m not convinced that the Jellicle appreciates me wearing my nice clothes and make-up actually, but given that I’m not wearing them to impress him I think I’m ok there. It’s about looking nice because theres a small girl inside me who spent most of her childhood wearing sensible clothes so she could climb trees and who liked dressing up but always had something better to do, well now I get to dress up dammit!

Actually, its the same with underwear, that’s for when i have to wear sensible clothes on top, I suspect that’s why I started wearing underwear really, for most of my adolescence I didn’t bother (yes that’s bra and knickers for those wondering) and yet when I hit a midway point through uni I started to. Sensible clothes all covered in paint, actually, everything I wore ended up covered in paint, and me with my really nice silky undies on so I could feel all dressed up underneath. By the time I was through with the first term of my PGCE I had special teaching underwear which I consider the poshest of my undies, three sets from M&S black, cream and white so that I could cheer myself up even on my worst days!

It’s no good, I might be a girl who can survive with one set of clothes on a nine day hike in Scotland but I’m also a girl who really likes to be able to take time to appreciate luxuries. I don’t think I could ever be a completely frivolous person (or at least I hope not) but I do enjoy lifes frivolities when I’m able to.