Underneath the Lintel

I’ve lived in London long enough now to take for granted the many cultural opportunities afforded to me here (and therefore not take advantage of them).

This fact has been brought home to me recently because of my need to make several trips into town (the Jessops photo saga). I think I’ve been in the West End more times in the past 2 weeks than I had in the whole of last year.

So, I decided recently that its time to take advantage of the cultural life that London has to offer, and my first step towards that was a trip to the National Gallery the other day (whilst waiting for my photos to be developed). My second step was a trip to the West End tonight to see “Underneath the Lintel”, a one-man play by Glen Berger starring Richard Schiff (“Toby Ziegler” from “The West Wing”). I managed to get good priced tickets from lastminute.com for my mate Jane and myself.

I hadn’t realised that it was a one-man play when I booked it. I have to admit, the reason I wanted to go was (1) because Toby Ziegler was in it – why not take the chance to see someone ‘sort of famous’ live, and (2) because the story of a library book returned 113 years overdue sounded just a little bit intriguing.

The play itself really was excellent in terms of the writing and the storyline. Its one of those philosophical sort of plays about our 'purpose' in life. Basically, the plot centres around a Dutch librarian, who has never been outside of his own town, who comes across a library book that has been returned 113 years after it was borrowed. He embarks upon an adventure to discover who borrowed the book as there is now a rather hefty overdue fine on it. This leads him on a discovery not only about the person who borrowed the book, but about the librarian himself.

I have to say that I thought Richard Schiff’s performance was absolutely amazing. You would think, being a one-act, one-man play about a librarian (who is presenting a lecture), that your attention might tend to wander in spots, but there’s just no way that happens because you are glued to Schiff. His little quirks, mannerisms, many accents, and the ability to make his eyes glisten at JUST the right moment – I was well impressed.

If you ever get the chance to see this play (and particularly this actor) - take advantage. Its well worth it. Read a review about it here.