Around & Straight Through London

May 25

After our morning bus endeavors, we traveled down to the Tube. We started at Piccadilly Circus and made our way to Kings Cross. I have ridden the New York Subway many times and can say without a doubt (I mean, as of right now) that I prefer the Tube. While in the stations, I felt as if there was an overall deplete of clutter caused by people within the station. In NYC, the subways are filled with people performing, sleeping, and sometimes doing their business in a bucket (an unpleasant experience to witness to say the least). And while I have only been on two lines thus far, there seemed like a lot less room to do stuff like that and more of a sense of directness from everyone using the Tube. In addition, it was a lot quieter than the subway, which I found wonderful.

Later that evening, we went and saw Straight Line Crazy by David Hare, at the Bridge Theatre. The play is about the rise and the fall of Robert Moses, the architect who landscaped the metropolitan area of New York and brought expressways into the city. Moses was played by Ralph Fiennes, most recognizable in his role as Voldemort in the Harry Potter series. The show is split into two acts, the early days of Moses’ urban planning, and thirty years later as we see his initial ambitious drive transform into arrogant refusal to understand change. In my honest opinion, I preferred the second act to that of the first. My reasoning being, I liked the conflict that the second act carried. While the first act dazzled with Governor Al Smith, performed by Danny Webb (who was incredible), there was a direct struggle of power, change, and resilience to understand others. Moses was unwilling to listen to the people who he claimed to work for, nor the people he worked with. I also thought that Alisha Bailey, who played Mariah, was phenomenal and stood out to me. She had a radiant stage presence and clearly displayed the inner tension of working for the man directly destroying parts of the city, and being of the opposing view. My only complaint leaving the show was, why was Jane Jacobs, played by Helen Schlesinger, incredibly underutilized? Jane is said to be the downfall of Robert Moses, yet makes brief appearances throughout the show. It would have been neat to possibly have seen Jane watching some of the events take place from the sides, or to have an interaction with Moses at some point. I would have loved to see more from Jane as it even features her presence and conflict that she, in a way, creates. Overall, I enjoyed The Bridge Theatres production of Straight Line Crazy, and would recommend seeing it.