Fellowship of the Ring trick-taking card game

Had fun at my first go playing the Fellowship of the Ring trick-taking card game in solo mode. It's about 40 years since I've played a trick-taking card game ... Didn't score well enough to pass the opening chapter of the game, but happy getting more fluent with the cards. Great for a Tolkien/LOTR/card game fan.

One big relief with the card game try was my neurological illness hands were cooperating today! And my new folding table was big enough - just! - to accommodate the cards. Also very pleased with my William Morris designed tablecloth, which provided a good surface to play on, and a sturdy weight too.

Current watching: Nye (2024) from the National Theatre

Bumped this up my viewing list, because the play is going off streaming through National Theatre at Home at the end of this month. It can be viewed before then by people like me who subscribe to the service (I was lucky to nab a reduced price offer before Christmas), or on a short-term rental view.

The play was staged in early 2024 and is a dramatisation of the life of Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan, who spearheaded the launch of the National Health Service in the UK in 1948. The play tells Bevan's life, looking back from his final days in hospital, as sedated he dreams back to his youth as a miner's son in Wales, early political life, his courtship of his wife, Westminster politics of WW2, and then the fight to found the NHS.

The staging is creative, being set largely in a hospital ward, but repurposing the props - including beds - as well as patients and staff to take on the various roles of people Nye encountered in his life. This staging took a little getting used to, and the play runs briskly along. But it certainly grabs the viewer's attention.

The central performance of Michael Sheen as Nye Bevan is riveting, and ably matched by Sharon Small as his Scottish wife and fellow Labour politician Jenny Lee. Their relationship feels vital to the play as a whole, but is surprisingly underdeveloped after their first striking meeting.

The foundation of the NHS happens near the end of the play, and feels surprisingly rushed, and a story only partly told. There is very effective staging of a group of doctors seen above, debating whether to join the new NHS. The toing and froing here between Bevan and the doctors is gripping. But then it's over, the NHS is founded, and the play finishes soon after.

An admirable theatre experience, though I think the play script could have balanced some aspects of the story better. However the performances are gripping, and the staging held my attention throughout. Recommended.

National Theatre at Home viewing so far

Making a list of the plays I’ve watched so far using the reduced price National Theatre at Home subscription I bought before Christmas. So grateful to be able to watch these via streaming. They also now offer rentals of individual plays.

• London Tide (Our Mutual Friend)
• Prima Facie - Jodie Comer
• Present Laughter - Andrew Scott
• Nye - Michael Sheen
• (currently watching) Constellations - Peter Capaldi and Zoe Wanamaker