Thanks to Jonathan for this review of Friday night’s entertainment at Quay Arts. Ed
Every few years Valentine’s Day falls on a Friday or Saturday, perfect for a romantic evening out with your loved one, and hopefully no work the following day. This year Quay Arts took full advantage of this, pulling out all the stops to provide a special evening’s entertainment.
The lucky couples who’d booked were treated to a candle-lit light dinner of antipasti to share with a Moroccan emphasis, while a Spanish guitar played melodiously in the background. Afterwards we all trooped upstairs to watch Casablanca, the ultimate film for romantics.
Setting the scene
While it’s impossible to recreate Rick’s American Bar because of the absence of black marketeers, charming but corrupt French officials, freedom fighters, gunrunners, pickpockets and Gestapo officers, the ambiance was helped by the flickering flames of the candles and the arches within the Quay Arts cafe, and several couples dressed for the occasion in dinner suits and dresses that wouldn’t have been out of place in Morocco in 1942.
The staff at Quay Arts were welcoming and friendly, the service efficient and helpful, and the drinks flowed just like in Rick’s Bar.
An unforgettable tale of complex love
Casablanca the film is an intriguing concept. It attempts to tell several stories at the same time, and works so well perhaps because of this.
On the one hand it’s a complex thriller about escaping from the advancing German threat; it’s a call to arms addressed to America; it’s a meditation on displacement and loneliness and failure; it’s a picaresque portrait of a town where everyone goes when there’s nowhere else left; above all, it’s an unforgettable tale of complex love between three people. And it has some of the greatest lines in the history of film, even though nobody actually says – ‘Play it again, Sam’.
A splendid and memorable evening
I must have seen Casablanca at least five times, but like all great works of art, each time reveals more layers and different things to appreciate. The version we watched was a crisp digital remastered version, and everyone loved it.
Thank you Quay Arts for a splendid and memorable evening, and I hope you provide the same occasion every year. There are lots more great films to see too.
Image: Public Domain
