"You're only a doll with the paint flaking off" (Serafina to the Virgin)

Just seen an excellent production of The Rose Tattoo at the National.

An emotional note in the programme by Nicholas Hytner about the director Steven Pimlott, who died during the rehearsals, says "When [Pimlott's cancer] went into remission last autumn, it was to The Rose Tattoo that we returned. Neither of us said it, but it seemed an urgent necessity to stage one of the twentieth century's most life-affirming plays." Well, I'm an old cynic so, with all due respect to Pimlottt and Hytner, I'm afraid that reading that just before the curtain went up just made me determined not to fall for any of that "life-affirming" nonsense.

But in the event my resolution went by the board as I was quite won over by the performances of Zoe Wanamaker and Darrell D'Silva. My cynicism went the same way as Serafina's shrine to the Virgin.