The theater and my new friend James! (#26)

• We booked tickets to 3 different theater productions in London.  We looked for plays we had not seen already (yes, Lion King and The Mousetrap that we saw in 2000 are still playing here!).
  
  
  And we wanted 3 different types of theater experiences.  Our first Play was Operation Mincemeat which was a fun and campy musical.  Based a true story of an event during WW2 where the British planned a deception operation to disguise the Allied invasion Sicily.  2 British Intelligence officers obtained the body a homeless man who had died, dressed him up as an officer in the Marines and placed (fake) "official" documents on him suggesting that the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia.  With a submarine, they released his body off the coast of Spain (knowing the Spaniards would leak the info to the Nazis).  A far fetched plan, but it worked; the Nazis removed troops from Sicily and moved them to Sardinia. And Allies moved into Sicily as planned.   I really enjoyed the play - and I'm not the only one who did...it was declared Best New Musical in 2024 and has won some Tonys on Broadway.  It has a small cast, most of whom play two roles.  There are more women in the cast (playing male characters).  This was in the Fortune Theater which was is one of the smaller West End theaters and seats about 400.  Highly enjoyable evening!
  
  
  
• Next up was Inter Alia, starring Rosamund Pike at the Wyndham Theater.  She won "Best Actress" award for this role...and she was phenominal! Rosamund plays a London judge who is sharp and determined to change a system that she realizes is not always fair.  In the opening scene she is overseeing a rape case and she is not taking any of what the defense attorney is presenting...she is all about protecting the rape victim.  Rosamund's character balances motherhood, work, friendship, marriage...she seems to "have it all".  But when her son is accused of rape her world turns upside down.  The staging was so creative in this play and there were so many "laugh out loud" humorous parts...but the end left me with tears rolling down my face - I think if you are the mother of sons this play will really hit hard.  I am a total Rosamund Pike fan now - she was on stage for the entire 2 hr (no intermission) show, talking almost the whole time.  In a way it was a one-woman-show, with a few other characters who had small roles.  See this play if you ever get a chance.  And oh my...the Wyndham theater is gorgeous!

• And our final play was The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.  This is based on a true story of a 13 year old boy in Malawi who dares to dream.  His country is drought stricken and crops and hope both fail.  He turns scraps and junk into a windmill and saves his village. I understand there is a movie by the same name.  The play was colorful, loud, joyous (lots of African song and dance), and very uplifting at the end. Gary and I both had some trouble understanding some of the lines so missed some of the humor.  There were several scenes when many characters were talking at once, and with their Malawi accents, the words were hard for us to grasp.  I enjoyed it, the staging was super creative, but I'm not sure I would recommend it to everyone.  I do think I'll watch the movie though to see how true the play was to the story. I also understand the boy (William Kamkwamba has done a TEDTalk about his windmill.  The Soho Palace Theater is the only new theater built in the past 50 years.  I think it is just 5 years old.  The seating is on 3 full sides of the stage (almost like theater in the round).  The 2 balconies are only one row of seats each.  They say there is no seat farther than 6 rows away from the stage. I don't think there were more than 200 seats in the place.  We sat directly in the center in the first balcony so had perfect seats
  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  

And now on to James, the Cabbie!

We have taken numerous black cabs while we have been in London (we have also taken UBERS).  The cabs fascinate me though...or more accurately the cab drivers do.  This is a huge city...and the cabbies do not use GPS...all their routes are memorized.  I had known this fact for a long time, but while we have been gone, Anderson Cooper did a piece on "60 Minutes" about London cabbies and, although I have not seen the episode yet, I have read about it.  And reading about it left me with more questions than answers!

So when we hailed a cab after the theater last night (no easy feat!).  Our driver looked like a young guy (it was dark and he had long shoulder length hair so I assumed he was younger than he actually turned out to be!).  Now all the cabbies we have had have been delightful, very chatty, love to talk about their city, curious about where we are from, etc.  But this guy seemed extra chatty, so I thought this was my opportunity to learn more (much to Gary's chagrin!!)  I asked him about "The Knowledge", the name of the test they all must take before earning their cabbie badge.  James (as it turns out was his name) spilled all the beans!

It turns out James was 51.  He had graduated from University and had a job in IT which he did not like; liked helping people, liked the people he worked with, but hated coding.  He was laid off, or as he said "made redundant".  He had always wanted to be a cabbie (his dad was a London cabbie) so this was his chance to live his dream.  So he began the study process.

He said anybody could pass it...you don't need to be extra smart or clever, or have an exceptional memory...with enough study anybody could do it he said (I'm not convinced though!).  You study as long as you want...I think he said he studied at home at "my mum's kitchen table", with his mom quizzing him.  He did this for 3 years and was getting nowhere.  Then he linked up with another person also studying for The Knowledge (I think he called him "his dedicated quiz-mate") and they studied and quizzed each other for 3 years...I'm happy to report they both ended up passing their tests.  James said he memorized each neighborhood in London individually, and then it all just became one in his mind.

The Knowledge exam requires showing up in a suit and tie, like a job interview.  Seated across the table from the examiner, you must verbally give directions for 3 random routes the examiner gives you.  For example you might be asked "The R.A.F. Club to 10 Bramham Gardens".  And without any hesitation (if you hesitate at all you get points deducted)  you must immediately give the directions. "head toward A1, left onto Down Street, left onto Hertford St, continue straight at roundabout onto Park Lane, left on Park Lane, stay in right lane on Park Lane, turn left onto Piccadilly, then straight on Duke of Wellington Place, use left lane to turn right on Grosvenor Place, left onto Knightsbridge, left on Brompton Rd, left on Gloucester Rd, right onto Courtfield Rd, left at the roundabout at Washburn Place, take 3rd exit onto Harrington Gardens, etc."  No looking at notes or a map...all from your memory - and quickly!  You must also know the locations of 10,000 monuments and public sights. Yikes...it makes my head spin!

He owns his cab (it was beautiful, new and spotlessly clean.)  I think he said it was made in China for Volvo.  Before the pandemic there were 24K cabs...after the pandemic the number dropped to 7-8K.  He originally started out leasing his cab from the cab company for £300/month.  He described the day when Covid shut down all cabs, the cab companies did not have room to store all the rental cabs that were suddenly all off the road at once, as up to that point, they were never all off the road at the same time.  So when James got off his shift that day he was told to take the cab home and park in front of his house.  He said black cabs were parked all over the residential streets for 6 months.  After Covid, he purchased he cab and he is very proud of it! I just loved James...he was SO chatty and had such funny stories to tell.

London is easy to navigate, between the Underground, double decker busses, UBER, black cabs, and our trusty GPS on our phones for walking directions  we feel quite confident.