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With a successful outing in the English countryside behind us, we decided it was time to get back into London and see a musical. London’s theatre district, known as the West End, is the largest in the world with over 100 productions going on in the city at any one time. A dizzying choice to be sure! Relying on our colleagues for advice once again, we opted for a production of Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theatre.

The musical was first staged in 1950 on Broadway. Based on a series of short stories by Damon Runyon, it tells the stories of gamblers and con artists of 1930s America and the eventual reformation of its lead character through the power of love. The 1955 film with Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra was a huge success and the musical has been revived numerous times since then.

The Bridge Theatre is an innovative theatre in the round with movable floor sections on tracks and hydraulic hoists so that scene changes happen dynamically while the actors move about. The audience is invited to watch the production from the stage floor and become part of the play as various characters interact with the audience.

We had good seats from which to see the action, and Steve couldn’t resist going down to the stage floor to buy some salted pretzels being sold before the show and the audience milled about on the stage floor. This was all part of the director’s design to get the audience connected to the play and city life of the time that it portrayed.

Nicholas Hytner, former artistic director of the National Theatre, is the force behind the Bridge Theatre, and is determined to revitalize British theatre. This musical certainly was evidence of that. The energy, style, wit, and exuberance of this production was exhilarating and had us all on our feet whooping and cheering along with the final song. It was a thoroughly entertaining day and another wonderful outing to encourage our return to England.

Aug 2023

On our return to England we were determined to use our time more wisely to see more of this lovely country. We had long heard from the colleagues we work with that the nearby Seven Sisters would be worth a visit. So we packed up a picnic lunch and headed on down to Seaford in East Sussex to have a look.

As with most nature walks in this country, there was plenty of parking available nearby and clearly marked signs down to the waterfront. It was a longish walk across a pleasant pasture down to the sea, but the day was sunny and bright and the views on the way did not disappoint.

The cliffs run for nearly nine miles along the Sussex coast, from Seaford all the way to Eastbourne. Like the more famous cliffs at Dover, the Seven Sisters are also chalk, the sedimentary remains of sea creatures of an ancient seabed lifted by tectonic activity. They are often used as a stand-ins for the cliffs at Dover, featured in films like Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

We walked a mile or so down the pebble beach in the gusty wind to where we could find a sheltered nook in the cliff wall and had a coffee and a light picnic lunch while we watched the tide roll in and the terns and seagulls riding the wind above the waves. It reminded us a little of a day at the Bay of Fundy on a trip to Canada’s east coast. Though the tides were not nearly as pronounced here, the cliffs themselves we stunning.

Rather than walk the length of the cliffs, we opted to drive into Eastbourne to see the farthest end of the Seven Sisters. As with most English seaside towns, there was the obligatory pier with its cheesy entertainment, and a scattering of brave souls on the pebbled beach huddled in blankets. But the cliffs were just as dramatic and certainly well worth the visit.

Aug 2023