Episodic assortment of poignant and sometimes funny situations explores our need for contact with others
18 December, 2020 â By Howard Loxton
Nine Lessons at the Almeida. Photo: Helen Murray
THIS has nothing to do with the annual Christmas service in Cambridge. It is a play devised by director Rebecca Frecknall and the actors and scripted by Chris Bush.
Its themes are influenced by our lives over the past year as it explores our need for contact with others and the loneliness endured by some of us.
The theatre claims it is ânot a corona playâ. But it clearly is. An introduction by veteran actress Annie Firbank (recorded because at 87 she is isolating) admits the lie in the title and this is another one, although its episodic assortment of eclectic situations has wider relevance.
Charissa Cheong
John Benjamin with his granddaughter in front of the Car Care Centre.
- Credit: Michael Benjamin
A Hackney car garage has closed its doors for the final time after a quarter of a century.
John Benjamin, alongside his wife and two sons, have worked to build the Car Care Centre on Rendlesham Road from the ground up.
The land where the Car Care Centre sits has now been bought by property developers, and John plans to move into semi-retirement.
Prior to 1994 when he set up the business, John was the manager of a company in east London; he wanted to open a garage “to serve the public and look after people in my neighbourhood”.