A handbag?
Judging from the unprecedented number of "hits" Lady Bracknell's blog has received thus far today - most of them generated by persons searching Google for the term "two word question Lady Bracknell"(or similar) - it seemed likely to the Editor that some mention of her ladyship must have been made in one of our Sunday periodicals.
However, the Editor's own search of Google News has provided no answer to this conundrum.
Nevertheless, her time was not entirely wasted.
It would appear that a new production of Mr Wilde's greatest work is poised to open at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London.
This Is Local London is running a competition in which the prize is four pairs of tickets to see the production on the 16th, 17th or 18th of this month. Readers desirous of having the chance to win said tickets need not feel downhearted should their knowledge of the work in question be less than encyclopaedic: the answer is provided for them in the accompanying article.
Whilst this is not the first time that her part has been filled by a gentleman, Lady Bracknell tends to the opinion that such casting - regardless of the talents of the gentleman in question - bodes ill for the tenor of the evening as a whole. After all, this is not pantomime.
Any reader who can shed some welcome light on the mystery of the recurrent "two word question" Google search is warmly encouraged to do so by means of the useful comments facility.
However, the Editor's own search of Google News has provided no answer to this conundrum.
Nevertheless, her time was not entirely wasted.
It would appear that a new production of Mr Wilde's greatest work is poised to open at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London.
This Is Local London is running a competition in which the prize is four pairs of tickets to see the production on the 16th, 17th or 18th of this month. Readers desirous of having the chance to win said tickets need not feel downhearted should their knowledge of the work in question be less than encyclopaedic: the answer is provided for them in the accompanying article.
Whilst this is not the first time that her part has been filled by a gentleman, Lady Bracknell tends to the opinion that such casting - regardless of the talents of the gentleman in question - bodes ill for the tenor of the evening as a whole. After all, this is not pantomime.
Any reader who can shed some welcome light on the mystery of the recurrent "two word question" Google search is warmly encouraged to do so by means of the useful comments facility.
posted by
Lady Bracknell | Sunday, April 01, 2007
16 Comments:
"A HAAAAAAAAANDBAAAAAAAAAAAAG???"
Just thought I should point out I'm not having a meltdown, but "A handbag?" happens to be a two word question...
There are so few interesting parts for men in the theatre, aren't there? I suppose it's only fair to give them a chance now and again.
Sarcasm aside, there was an all-drag Earnest at the Edinburgh Festival a few years back, complete with moustachio'd ladies as Algernon, Jack, Chasuble and Lane. I didn't see it, but a friend said it was rather fun.
It is not like the sphinxqueen to be obtuse: is she quite well?
Lady Bracknell is well aware that the title of this post is a two word question: she had hoped that her deliberate use of it would be deemed to be witty and ironic.
Life is full of disappointments...
The SphinxQueen hangs her head in shame, admits that she has had a heavy cold, but clearly it is her brain that is clogged, rather than her lungs. She shall go and lie down with a cooling washcloth on her head, until she is quite herself again. She also undertakes to recalibrate her wit and irony meters.
I can't see the sense in an all-male production. Jonathan Miller tried to do one in the 1970s at the NT and everyone said "how ridiculous!"
You can make a case for pre-Restoration drama because women weren't on the stage anyway.
You can make a kind of a case for Terence Rattigan or Tennessee Williams or Noel Coward if you think that their plays are "really about" gay men and their problems, disguised for censorship.
But Wilde? He was demonstrably bisexual anyway, and none of his plays seem to be coded gay themes.
I imagine too there's a great danger of turning Lady Bracknell (the original, I mean) into a Pantomime Dame or Dame Edna Everage if the actors aren't very very careful, and that would be a travesty of Wilde's intention.
Some two word questions to which the answer might conceivably be Lady Bracknell.
Who writes?
Whose handbag?
Which part?
(One sends Sphinxqueen commiserations and wishes for a speedy recovery).
There: Lady Bracknell was sure the sphinxqueen was not well.
She hopes that the recovery is swift.
Dame Honoria, the handbag was mine!
The cause of the hits "two word question lady bracknell" - see You Magazine (Mail on Sunday 1st April) Crossword no 1015, 18 down
Lady Bracknell is most grateful to the anonymous commenter for shedding light on the mystery, and trusts that the title of this blog entry has proved useful.
I thought it had to be a crossword clue.
The idea of cheating at crosswords by using google had not previously occured to me.
Well, it clearly has occurred to at least two hundred people.
Some of whom are continuing to search two days after the crossword was published...
When one is in her Ladyship's employ, one sees much and tells little, particularly with regard to nocturnal callers and things that go bump in the night - and I'm not talking about hyperactive kittens knocking over occasional furniture here!
However I feel I must make it quite clear that if Her Ladyship's part was ever filled by a gentleman, I'm certain that neither I, nor anyone below stairs, knew anything about it.
Indeed the only time this humble chauffeur ventures "upstairs" is when the editor is about her day job. On such occasions, should Her Ladyship require a mid-morning sherry but be unable to leave her bedchamber, I normally give her one.
Dude
Dear Miss Prism,
Strictly between us, judging from conversations I have overheard when Her Ladyship has been travelling with a friend in the Rolls Canardly, Lady Bracknell is quite clearly of the opinion that most theatrical gentlemen have interesting parts. Particularly those in the ballet!
Regards
Dude
Dude: you do what???
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