Today I walked over to Kensington Palace. I spent a lot longer than I planned in their special exhibition on Princess Diana (five rooms, lots of video, photographs, interviews with dress designers and photographers, gowns). I don't know why but I was drawn in. The rest of the Palace was interesting--the apartments of King William and Queen Mary, Queen Victoria's bedroom. I also got a sense of our neighbourhood in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a nice little village outside of London with clean air.

After a dinner of leftovers, we went to see another play, The Enchantment, by Swedish author and playwright Victoria Benedictsson. I love those small, intimate theatres "in the round" where you feel as though you're on stage with the actors (although I think it must be much more difficult for the actors). Not a happy play, especially given its autobiographical aspect (for one thing, the script was found and published after Benedictsson's suicide) , but I thought it was good and well acted for the most part--I wasn't so keen on the lead male though, and I felt there were a few problems in the first half with setting up the hopelessness of the relationship. Curtain calls are much simpler affairs here, no calling people back a second or third time, and, for these plays anyway, all actors (no matter how big their roles) take their bows together.

Reading: Gabriel's Gift by Hanif Kureishi