New York
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Matthew
Stibbe's Homepage
New York
New York |
Summary:
I went on tour with the Royal Shakespeare Company to New York.
Central Park - a few blocks from the hotel.
I arrived Monday 17th March on a half-empty United 777 and checked into the Empire Hotel. It's only redeeming features: it is very close to the Lincoln Center and Central Park and it was paid for by the RSC. The lifts featured carpets that read "have a happy Monday" on Monday and "have a happy Tuesday" on Tuesday and so on. The staff changed them every night at about 8.30pm which rather ruined the effect and by Thursday they just said "have a nice day." I suppose that the weekend carpets had been worn threadbare and not replaced.
The next day was a rest day so Aileen and I went to have lunch at Tony Powe's new restaurant, Topsy. Tony is evidence of the 'six degrees of separation' theory (or 'six degrees of Kevin Bacon' if you prefer). I grew up in Torquay and when I was at primary school we used to visit Kent's Cavern - a local cave system owned by Tony's parents. When Aileen was at school she performed in a promenade production of Macbeth in the caves. Topsy is the name of a donkey that worked in the caves before the first world war. None of us knew him.
After lunch we had a sombering visit to the site of the World Trade Center. I was struck by the thought that this was what we were about to do to parts of downtown Baghdad. Even though several peace rallies were held in New York, the general mood of the population seemed to be much more militant than in the UK (where I didn't know anyone who was for war). I can understand how 9/11 could have that effect. About half a dozen Americans, admirals, editors and store clerks, asked me about my views on the war and how it was perceived in the UK.
Ray Bokhur and Aileen
We met up with Ray, an old friend of Aileen's from drama school. In another example of 'six degrees' he had been in England the week before. He had written the music for a play by another friend of Aileen's, David Bridel, called "Death of an Actress." By pure coincidence, a friend of mine, Tamsin, had rearranged the music for the show and, since they hadn't met before the performance, I was able to introduce them in the interval.