Ian McKellen was amazing.

Last night we went to Theatr Clwyd to see Sir Ian McKellen in his one man show to celebrate his 80th birthday.He is playing multiple venues all over the country.He wanted to do it in our theatre in Mold because he used to come to North Wales for holidays as a child.We were very lucky to get tickets and it seems there were 200 people on a waiting list for cancellations.The Theatr holds 550 in the main theatre ,250 in the smaller theatre and a film theatre holding about 100.Sir Ian was playing in the large theatre.The first half was mainly about his life and how he got into acting.Lots of quotes and he was also funny.For most of the second half he got out books of all the plays that Shakespeare had written and challenged the audience to name them all which we did.As each one was selected he got the play and then told us if he had played in it and which part.Lots of speeches were performed and he was truly magnificent.It started at 7.30pm and ran until 10.15pm with a short interval.How at 80 years of age you do this night after night and remember all those speeches.Amazing.Sir Ian is not taking any fee from any theatre he does the show in.All money taken goes to that theatre.It is his way of paying back .A truly memorable evening.

This morning was our Art Appreciation Group.The talk was on George Bellows and the Ashcan school.He was American and lived from 1882 to 1925 and was noted for his expressive portraits and seascapes and some lovely paintings of New York.Painters in the Ashcan school included Robert Henri,George Luks,John Sloan etc.They were a group best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York often in the poorer areas in the early 20th Century.
I liked George Bellows paintings.I had never heard of him before today .Always good to see something new.
We could have gone to the theatre again tonight to Jazz night.We were offered some free tickets to hear the Tina May Quartet but we passed on it as we are there again on Friday and it is a busy week.