A sage with very little patience

Good week, bad week By Roxanne Sorooshian

It’s been a good week for ... philistines

A YOUNG theatre director has challenged thespian convention by suggesting it’s OK to walk out of a show if you’re not enjoying it.

Robert Icke, who’s about to make his debut at London’s National Theatre, reckons “most theatre” is boring but audiences are too polite to vote with their feet.

Icke himself frequently walks out of shows at the interval. “I let myself be honest about when I think it’s not going to be worth sitting through,” he says, urging others to do the same.

He has a point. Why spend precious leisure time on a tedious play when you could be watching Strictly on catch-up?

I recall enduring an excruciating modern opera, whose name I have erased from memory. At half-time (rejecting the term “interval” was a mild form of protest) my fellow opera-goer said he’d “rather have his fingernails pulled out with rusty pliers” than endure the rest and was going to the pub. I appreciated his line of thought but, surrounded by the great and the good sipping G&Ts and murmuring about the exquisiteness of the performance, I hadn’t the guts to break for freedom.

At least I endured the second half unencumbered by the guilt of subjecting a third party to the experience. And the rusty pliers stayed in their box.

It’s been a bad week for ... philosophers

Forget Plato and Confucius. Winniethe-Pooh has been voted our favourite philosopher.

One-quarter of people think AA Milne’s honey-loving bear is the world’s greatest sage. And almost one-third say they have been influenced by his advice, with his wisest saying being: “A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference.”

The survey, by Fly Research, was carried out to mark Pooh Bear’s 90th anniversary. Dr Catherine McCall from The Philosophy Foundation said: “Poohisms encapsulate the thinking of many famous philosophers in beautiful, memorable sayings that have inspired generations.”

Other nuggets of wisdom include: “If the string breaks, try another piece of string” and “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day”.

One question. If a Poohstick falls in a forest and no-one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?