Ghosts on a bench somewhere.

I don’t know very much about Ibsen.

In fact, shame on me, I don’t know ANYthing about Ibsen – so I thought I’d better learn SOMEthing.

You never can tell when it might come up in conversation.

Thank God for Wikipedia eh?!

Or Google.

Or some of those folk.

Norway.

That’s what I learnt – he came from Norway.

Ibsen, not Larry Page.

And………. and this is where my shame deepens………… he is considered to be the father of modern theatre.

I should know that.

Being as I have worked in more than one.

Though, to be honest, not a lot of them were modern.

Some were almost medieval.

I also learnt that he wrote Pierre Gyn, Peter Gwyn, Per Gwn but obviously not how to spell it.

The Hall of the Mountain King!

I know that – phew.

If I ever find myself on a bench with a beautiful stranger and she - it would have to be a she – starts up a conversation about Ibsen I’ll be able to say something about the mountain king and his hall.

And the Asparagus Valley Cultural association.

Who are not as famous as Penn and Teller the magicians who made up two-thirds of the troupe.

They were pretty modern come to think about it.

And i was lucky to see them perform, oh, yonks ago in San Francisco.

They started the show by walking into the audience and picking up three straitjackets that were hanging on the wall, and asking audience members to strap them in.

The Hall of the Mountain King was playing softly as they did this.

Once they were securely strapped they took a position on the stage and Penn – it was he – drew our attention both to the music that was now building both in urgency and volume, and to the instruments on the stage behind the trio.

“The music you hear is the Hall of The Mountain King suite from Peer Gynt. Before it finishes we will escape from these straitjackets and pick up the instruments behind us to join in the final bar.”

Then one of them started cavorting like a maniac (Penn) one sensually (Teller) and the other – who looked like Hank Marvin from the Shadows if you remember them (if you don’t click here) – just stood stock still and stared at us.

Ibsen would have liked it.

It would have made him laugh, though some say he was a miserable fellow.