Dallas Part Two

L leaves for work early and I'm left to placate Doggo. He's not happy at being left and tries to join me in the car. I return him to the house and try to cheer him up by telling him that the reason I'm in the car is so that I can be home nice and early for him tonight. He doesn't seem convinced. What I don't tell him is that this is so that we go out without him in the evening again.

I borrow a monitor from work but would you credit it, when I get it home, the old one starts working again.

I take Doggo out as promised. We do a run but my legs are still sore and I'm almost as slow as him.

Then we head off to part two of Dallas, sorry War And Peace, which opens with a hunting trip and a man pretending to be a dog. I guess they couldn't talk any of the female cast members in to taking on this role.

There's a lot of war tonight as Napoleon rampages through Russia. Oddly our 'hero' Pierre decides to go and spectate on the battlefield, as a Freemason he can't join in, which is convenient. The battle seems to end in a victory for the Russians but their General doesn't seem to realise this and retreats, enabling Napoleon to push on towards Moscow where everyone is getting ready to flee in anticipation of the French army arriving.

Elsewhere Andrei’s father is dieing but won't see the doctor because he is French and he hates all things French. That is apart from Madame Bourienne, his Daughter's, the miserable religious one, woman-in-waiting, who he wants to be his 'special friend'. When he finally dies, the religious one has problems with the local peasants but Nikolai turns up and saves her from them and from having to throw herself on the mercy of the French. I bet the French are relieved about that. Nikolai is obviously suffering from the traumas of war bacause he finds her attractive. Either that or he finds her inheritance money attractive. The only snag is he's promised himself to the 'scheming hussy', that his mother's pet name for Sonya.

Meanwhile the Rostova's are at the opera where they run into the rampant Helene and her brother Anatole. Anatole is the latest to take a liking to Natasha, you'll have to join the queue mate, but in his case he's another one who's probably more interested in the money. At least this money comes in a nice package unlike with the religious one. He ruthlessly queue jumps and attempts to seduce her. With Andrei still having his 'year out' Natasha goes all glassy-eyed and agrees to elope with him. Fortunately it all goes awry when Sonya finds one of his letters and puts a stop to their plan. Although, as it turns out, Anatole is already married to another girl, who he had abandoned.

All of this reflects badly on Natasha, who's now effectively classed as damaged goods. Her engagement with Andrei falls through and she poisons herself. She survives but is sure that no one will want her now. As if. Pierre for one disagrees; he tells her that he'd have her and all the men in the audience nod in agreement. He's suddenly realised he's in love with her. I think the rest of us worked this out in act one.

The fighting sees an end to Andrei. Anatole gets injured and they saw his leg off. Whether this is a necessity or just to stop him running off with another girl I'm not sure.

Pierre is gradually getting even more loopy and decides to assassinate Napoleon with what looks like a very small penknife. It's hardly surprising he fails and he ends up being captured but is later freed as the French having gone to all the trouble of taking Moscow, decide to withdraw.

Pierre's wife Helene dies. Hurray. Regrettably this isn't shown on stage, which is a shame, a long lingering death would have been most appropriate. This frees Pierre to go after Natasha. Go for it my Son. Regrettably no great seduction scene involving Kylie-esk poses in her nightdress atop the piano. They just get married. A bit of a let down this.

Nikolai marries the miserable one; they turn out to be well matched. Although he seems to keep Sonya on as well, as a friend. We know what his game is.

To be honest I though the story petered out towards the end and L had to nudge my eyes open a couple of times. It's been a long day.

Tolstoy left it open at the end, leaving hints that Pierre might be involved in the upcoming Decembrist Uprising. If he's working on a sequel, he's taking his time.

One downer this evening is when we order a red wine each for the interval they serve them to us in plastic half pints glasses. Very classy, not. Well what do you expect for only £3 a glass.