… I went to see Uncle Vanya in London and met Richard Armitage again at the stage door. It was my second Vanya night, I had also seen the play (and Richard at the stage door) the night before. I didn’t realize that today was that date but Jan over on Twitter did. Today she tweeted some images of that night, as she had been there that second night as well and we briefly met her then. In these images, which are new to me, I see myself standing there next to Jan, grinning like an idiot at Richard signing something for her.
In another picture the lovely Anna Calder-Marshall was signing autographs, I’m sort of in that picture too, but hidden beside Jan. Rachel and Michele are visible, though, the two ladies I had the pleasure of meeting that night.
It’s been a very dark day in world history today as Russia continues to fight in Ukraine, so it was great to be reminded of such a wonderful evening in lovely company and to see the evidence of that as well! Thank you, Jan, for cheering me up!
Guylty has announced the results of the #HoHoHolidayFundRAiser and they are even better than I expected: € 4.452,29 for the LOROS hospice! What a lovely Richard Armitage Christmas gift this is. I had a thank you card made to accompany the socks with red wine tea set and the magnets I have donated and sent out. As a thank you to all you donors and bidders and winners and signal boosters and likers and just general enthusiasts, here is the front of that card for your viewing pleasure.
Thanks to all for helping to raise such an excellent sum!
In other Richard news, Uncle Vanya has picked up a few ‘What’s on Stage’ award nominations. I’m so very pleased that Richard has been nominated too…
Tough competition! I’ve got say I’d also be partial to James McAvoy winning this (I saw his Cyrano in the cinema and thought he was so excellent in it) but first and foremost I really hope that Richard wins. He gave such a poignant performance which gained extra significance during this pandemic, something that became even more clear in the filmed version. His Dr Astrov proved to me yet again why he still remains my favourite actor. So yes, congratulations to Richard on this recognition! It is well deserved.
I’ve got to say I’m surprised Toby Jones wasn’t nominated because I thought he was just as good as Richard was. Just for that, I think he at least deserves a picture here…
Via the links in the tweets above you can vote for Richard and Aimee Lou and the Uncle Vanya play, so please do so if you are so inclined.
The other day I blogged about the Uncle Vanya framed collage I had made needing another frame. As I have other things hanging on that wall with black frames, I figured black would be the way to go. So, I bought a new black frame and decided to keep the red background of the old frame for the collage. The end result looks like this…
Not only does this look better than the old, thick, light wooden frame, suddenly everything hanging on that wall pulls together nicely and I now have a complete Richard Armitage theatre wall in our dining area. My mother’s The Crucible painting now replaces a (pretty standard) Audrey Hepburn canvas I had hanging above that window, and the Uncle Vanya collage now hangs on the The Crucible poster’s old spot. I really like my themed wall.
The extra bonus is that the red background in the Uncle Vanya collage actually matches very nicely with the antique old Dutch children’s chair we have standing there. As a child I actually sat in that chair to eat. It is now used to store the cats’ food and is the spot where our black cat eats.
I start work again on Monday and the best thing of my working day will be that I can look at that Richard Armitage theatre wall. 🙂
The charity auctions for Richard Armitage’s 50th birthday ended almost two weeks ago and Guylty has already apprised us of the overwhelmingly wonderful result. The funds have been transferred to LOROS Hospice and all was long done and dusted when I arrived home from my holiday last Sunday. Once I walked through the door and glanced at the accumulated mail, I found that the fun wasn’t over by any means as my own haul from the auctions had already arrived! All bills and boring mail were thrown to one side as I unwrapped my little treasures.
I was extremely happy to receive the The Martian Invasion Of Earth cd from Nokisuu that I had won in the auction, accompanied by a very lovely hand-crafted card. I think it’s the first time I have ever received mail from Finland.
I had another envelope waiting for me from Guylty, which contained a lovely Richard Armitage special delivery tag from Kate that I had bought and plan to use as a bookmark and other small goodies were included as well, such as a few stickers and a lovely Urban and the Shed Crew shrine card…
I had also bought a textile collage with a quote from Uncle Vanya from Guylty’s fixed-price sale and I had bought that for a very specific reason. For about a year and a half I’ve treasured my Uncle Vanya programme booklet that most of the cast had signed for me at the stage door last year. It was sitting in a case and what I really wanted to do was frame those two pages with signatures. However, framing just the pictures with signatures seemed meaningless without mention of what play it is from. So, I had already planned to cut up the booklet and also use the title page but as it’s not that easy to find an (affordable) elongated narrow picture frame to fit 3 pages side by side, I knew I had to use something bigger in a standard size. This meant that I would have a huge gap in my planned picture frame and what to fill that with? Then the auctions came and when I saw the fixed-price items I finally knew what to do with that gap.
Today I found an old wooden frame in the attic with a background I had once painted dark red way back in the 1990s. I finally cut up the booklet and, in addition to the signed pages, I used the title page, my own ticket to the play and that textile quote collage to fill the frame. This is the end result and I’m quite pleased…
I may yet decide to get another frame because this one, along with the red background, looks a bit dated, but then again Dr. Astrov is all about wood, so it does seem somewhat fitting in a way. In any case, I’m very pleased to have that quote collage to complete my little framed Uncle Vanya collection! Now finally those signatures are not hidden away anymore.
So, yes, I’ve been having my own private #RA50Auctions afterparty and it’s been fun. I’m also already getting ideas for the Christmas auction, if there is to be one…
After the whole US election certifying crap and mobs breaking into the Capitol in Washington, I needed a little break. TV was switched off this evening and I threw myself into screencapping Richard Armitage in Uncle Vanya. Not too bad a way to self-soothe. I might as well share my screencapping results with you all before I pick some fave images to add to my screensaver. So, here goes, first the beginning of the play with Nana (Anna Calder-Marshall). By the way, for a better look you can click on each of these images to enlarge them…
Then Vanya (Toby Jones) and Sonya (Aimee Lou Wood) join Dr Astrov. I always love Richard’s hand acting..
We get the Astrov, Vanya and Telegin (Peter Wight) drunk scenes at night which are quite funny and a bit sad too…
… followed by Sonya trying to figure out if Astrov returns her romantic feelings.
Then we have the whole Astrov showing his passion for the woods and his maps and flirting with Yelena (Rosalind Eleazar) scene. That’s all quite sexy, the man sure knows how to flirt on stage!
Astrov and Vanya talk things out…
Astrov and Yelena have their last goodbyes…
And then it’s time for Astrov to reluctantly leave as well…
This screen adaptation of Uncle Vanya also had nice impressions of the actors coming into the theatre at the very beginning and these two images of Toby and Richard (who is only seen from behind) were my favourites…
At the very end, after the play had ended, the actors all came on stage to hug each other. I especially loved the Anna and Richard hug. Anna Calder-Marshall was lovely at the stage door when she signed my programme last February and she was gushing about how she loved doing the play and how she loved Toby and Richard in it. The Richard love is quite apparent in these pictures.
Now I got all that out of my system I think I am done with Vanya for a bit. Although, I will never get tired of looking at Richard with long hair and beard, that is just about my fave Richard look.
The Book of Esther 