This evening, back with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) again - this time, for A Strange Loop, at the Barbican. Multi-award-winning, it seems - cheaper tickets available from WhatsOnStage (WOS), fulfilled by London Theatre Direct. Interestingly though, to get the cheaper offer, buy through WOS..
I had a yen to eat at Cote Barbican - but checked this evening, only to find they were completely booked up. Durnit! I didn't fancy eating at The Lucas Arms again so soon - and frankly, didn't leave myself much time to eat at all. So, Pret it was - and then Tube. The Northern Line promised the least walking - and my shoe was chafing - so that was how I went. Ran into one of the group as I was coming off the Tube, and together, we navigated the building works all around there, joining the rest eventually, downstairs at the Barbican. Not, perhaps, the wisest location for those of us sat in the higher levels.. Anyway, most of the bar was roped off for a conference: and wouldn't you know it, they'd literally drunk the bar dry! of white wine, at least. They had rose or prosecco, both of which give me a headache. So I passed. We were subsequently passed by a guy trundling a crate full of bottles of white wine, headed for somewhere else in the building.. I seriously considered an ambush..
And so we slogged upstairs, in due course. I then had to clamber down some more stairs, to reach my precarious seat at the edge:
There were a couple of people sitting inside me in the row - he congratulated me for making it all the way up there!
Ah, where to start. Multi-award-winning, eh? Well, someone beforehand did caution that that was in America.. Good point, and one that came back to haunt me through what I found a gruelling production. Now, I will happily concede that it's well-written - lyrically clever. The performances are top-notch. And I'm guessing the awards were mostly awarded on the basis of it being "woke". The protagonist - and author - is, by his own admission, fat, he's homosexual - of which his staunchly religious parents disapprove. He's in a dead-end job, which he hates, and his mother accuses him - with some justification - of wasting his expensive education. So he, em, decides to go off and write a musical about it.
Now, I love musical theatre as much as anyone - and as I say, this is award-winning in America - but could he not possibly have, I dunno, written a book instead? What in the name of all that's holy convinced him to write songs about this? And it's basically an autobiography - the "strange loop" of the title is an examination of the ego, as he explains to someone on the subway (actually a figment of his imagination, as are many of the characters on stage).
Someone was of the opinion that it went downhill in the second half - that there was something to applaud in the beginning, but after that, it became a feast of self-loathing. I agree about the self-loathing; I just failed to be much enthused about the first half either. As someone else pointed out, a lot of the American references were lost to a British audience - as a prime example, I was left wondering who on earth Tyler Perry was, who features so prominently! A couple of warnings, also - there's quite a graphic and disturbing sex scene, as well as a section where the lights are directed straight at the centre of the audience! A couple of our group were sat there, and one described being blinded - sure enough, that had occurred to me, sat safely over the side as I was.
This has been described in reviews as "hilarious".. well, I did laugh once. Mainly though, it came across to me as self-indulgent. And there he was on stage, with his "inner voices" telling him he had to let the audience know when to go home - and I was so tempted to yell "yes please!".. Now, some from our group absolutely loved it, and I'm happy for them. Me, I was first out of there.. Currently booking until the 9th of September, if you're curious.
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