Music
Travelin’ Soldier – The Chicks
A heartbreaking country ”tale-in-a-song’ chronicling the relationship via correspondence of a shy American soldier and a friendly high school girl during the Vietnam War…
Livin’ on Love – Alan Jackson
A country ballad by the talented Alan Jackson about a couple who spend their lives loving one another…
Great Balls of Fire – Jerry Lee Lewis
An energetic 1950’s rock and roll song by Jerry Lee Lewis that became one of the best-selling singles in the United States upon its release.
She’s The One – Robbie Williams
This Robbie Williams song seems straight out of the soundtrack of a romantic comedy to the likeness of ”Notting Hill” and ”When Harry Met Sally”…
Books
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
No play in the modern theater has so captured the imagination and heart of the American public as Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie. As Williams’s first popular success, it launched the brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career, of our pre-eminent lyric playwright. Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, with the legendary Laurette Taylor in the role of Amanda, Menagaerie has been the bravura piece for great actresses from Jessica Tandy to Joanne Woodward, and is studied and performed in classrooms and theatres around the world.
An Unconventional Heiress by Paula Marshall
Sarah Langley came to New South Wales to get away from her stifling English home. But she didn’t expect to mix with transported felons… Social outcast: Alan Kerr, an unjustly disgraced doctor, spends all his energy helping Sydney’s poor. He has no time for silly society women! But feelings change as they learn more about each other–and a forbidden passion starts to grow…
The Important of Being Earnest And Other Plays by Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest is a glorious comedy of mistaken identity, which ridicules codes of propriety and etiquette. Manners and morality are also victims of Wilde’s sharp wit in Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband, in which snobbery and hypocrisy are laid bare. In Salomé and A Florentine Tragedy, Wilde makes powerful use of historical settings to explore the complex relationship between sex and power. The range of these plays displays Wilde’s delight in artifice, masks and disguises, and reveals the pretentions of the social world in which he himself played such a dazzling and precarious part.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold.
When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. Set an impossible challenge by the nameless king, Miryem unwittingly spins a web that draws in a peasant girl, Wanda, and the unhappy daughter of a local lord who plots to wed his child to the dashing young tsar.
But Tsar Mirnatius is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and her two unlikely allies embark on a desperate quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power, and love.
Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
An elderly professor and his glamorous, much younger second wife, Yelena, visitt the rural estate that supports their urban lifestyle.
Two friends—Vanya, brother of the professor’s late first wife, who has long managed the estate, and Astrov, the local doctor—both fall under Yelena’s spell, while bemoaning the ennui of their provincial existence.
Sonya, the professor’s daughter by his first wife, who has worked with Vanya to keep the estate going, suffers from her unrequited feelings for Dr. Astrov.
Matters are brought to a crisis when the professor announces his intention to sell the estate, Vanya and Sonya’s home, with a view to investing the proceeds to achieve a higher income for himself and his wife…
Shops
Darling
?Dragatsi 8, Piraeus, Greece
Next to the neoclassical Municipal Theater of Piraeus lies a little café that on first glance doesn’t seem that special. Just a neighbourhood coffeeshop, you might think. Once you step in, however, you’ll find an amazing place full of delicious food options, dreamy wine selections and a most welcoming staff.
Sicario All Day Bar
?Kolokotroni 59, Athens, Greece
Sicario is a tiny café at the center of Athens that definitely deserves a visit. Not only does it’s menu offer a versatile catalogue of dishes and drinks, but the decorations of heart balloons and cute teddy bears make it a great spot for a romantic rendezvous.
Stage Plays
Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie
When elderly and wealthy spinster Emily French is found murdered, suspicion falls on Leonard Vole, the man to whom she hastily bequeathed her riches before she died.
Leonard assures his solicitor that his wife, Romaine Heilger, can provide him with an alibi. However, when questioned, Romaine informs the police that Vole returned home late that night covered in blood. During the trial, Ms. French’s housekeeper, Janet, gives damning evidence against Vole and, as Romaine’s cross-examination begins, her motives come under scrutiny in the courtroom. One question remains, will justice prevail?
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Hercule Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, a cadet (nobleman serving as a soldier) in the French Army, is a brash, strong-willed man of many talents. In addition to being a remarkable duelist, he is a gifted, joyful poet and also plays music. However, he has an obnoxiously large nose, which causes him to doubt himself. This doubt prevents him from expressing his love for his distant cousin, the beautiful and intellectual Roxane, as he believes that his ugliness would bar him from the “dream of being loved by even an ugly woman.” Roxanne loves Christian de Neuvillette, who is too tongue-tied to romance her. Cyrano famously writes love letters to Roxanne, pretending to be Christian.