Film Festival: Unrestricted View, Cloak & Dagger Immersive History Tour, & Storytelling: Day of the Dead

On Sunday.. Halloween itself.. I finally came up with something to do! One of my cheap ticket groups (CT) finally sent me an email with good suggestions - one of which was the Cloak & Dagger Immersive History Tour (yes, with actors). Starting and ending at The George, and yes, running on Sunday. Sadly, all their ticket allocation had gone - I just booked one direct with the company.

On the same email, they advertised the Unrestricted View Horror Film Festival, at the Hen & Chickens Theatre! I found tickets even cheaper with my other cheap ticket group, TAC, however.. They had three sessions of short films on Sunday, the last of which finished an hour before my walk, giving me time to get there. So I booked the first - but when I tried to book the others, the system wouldn't let me, saying they were too close together! I had to contact the box office direct to book them for me - which they promptly did. So, three 1.5-hour short horror film sessions, lasting all that afternoon, should set me up nicely for the walk, I figured!

So I got up early enough to eat at The Upper Crust, then took a couple of buses - unproblematically - to Highbury Corner. It had rained heavily in the morning - wasn't I lucky it hadn't the night before! but mercifully, it had stopped by now, and the day was beautifully sunny.

As a pedestrian, I love the changes to Highbury Corner - it used to be a square roundabout, one side of which is now pedestrianised. Which makes it so much easier to cross! particularly when the Hen & Chickens was right on the other side from where I was.

It was a bit after 12 when I arrived - and the pub was empty. She assured me that yes, it was open - and so began my day of drinking wine. I also had a packet of the ever-excellent Tyrrell's sweet chilli crisps. Picked a nice booth by the window, and perused one of the programmes, liberally scattered about:

They'd done well with the Hallowe'en decorations:

As I waited for the house to open, eventually people started to arrive - and apparently knew the owner, who came to greet them. I got to eavesdrop on them chatting about the festival, and how they're carrying it on for one extra day afterwards at the Screen on the Green, which he also apparently owns.. he made them feel so comfortable that when the bell rang to announce that the house was open, it was kind of hard to get them off their seats and upstairs! Mind you, despite the sign to the contrary, on this day at least we were ok to bring glasses, and several did, over the course of the day. Oh, and as I had my name checked off, I was asked to pay for membership - £1.50 for life didn't seem too high a price.

Mostly UK films were shown, with a smattering from Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, North America - and Iran and Iraq! This first session started with a film called Smiles, from Spain - earning a round of applause from the audience, it's a funny piece about a guy meeting his girlfriend's family for the first time. And yes, he's wise to be nervous! This was followed by The Stain - a rather sweet piece from Iran about a cinema cleaner who can't seem to remove a stain from the screen - it keeps coming back. No applause for this one, but I liked it. Hangnail had to be the shortest film of the festival - one single theme, it made people laugh. Set in a bathroom, is about all I can say without giving the game away. I did like Stay Alert, a Covid-inspired piece about a young woman who goes jogging in her local cemetery every day, carefully wearing her mask and thinking disparaging thoughts about the people around her who don't. RKLSS was the only animated film of the day - excellent animation, but it isn't really a horror film. My favourite of the session was the UK's Don't Walk, a cute piece centred around a couple who love to hike, but don't appreciate the jeers of the "cooler" hiking group. So they decide to try a new route.. and ending the session was The Lake Parasite, an American offering about which the less said, the better. Think The Blob. In blue.

Down for another glass of wine, and a trip to the loo, and to play my phone game. We had half an hour between sessions, and it was 3pm by the time Session 2 started. First up was Room 217, a time-slip film from Iraq. Good effort, nothing at all new though. Wich is yet another US comedy - better than the last one, well-acted. On Air is a curious little thing, another kind of reality shift, in a recording studio. Sibilum - the Italian offering - is one of those "crying child, but mother's child isn't crying" films - absolutely unoriginal, don't know why they bothered. Fat Camp - gross, some funny scenes. And a couple more films were so forgettable that I can remember nothing about them. All in all, a session I could have skipped - the standout piece for me was the last - The Killer in Cursed Water, a B-movie after which we see a clapping crowd, and realise we've been watching a film within a film. A member of this onscreen audience - obviously, at a film festival - is as unimpressed with the film as I was (and spoke for me, after the session I'd had), and vents about it to her friend. Unfortunately, the filmmakers turn out to be sitting right behind them! What happens next is really funny.. French, excellent.

And downstairs, and play on my phone, and a glass of wine, and upstairs for the last session of the day - and the first where they got a couple of filmmakers from the audience to say a few words! One remarked how difficult it is to make a decent horror film - well yes, obviously, from most of the films I saw that day! Yeah, I know, kudos to them for making the effort - but as I say, in some cases, you'd wonder why they bothered.

Bee-El - well, we know what that stands for, and therefore have a preview of the film's theme. Again, a few films I simply can't remember - but I couldn't forget The Glamorgan Strangler, where a serial killer turns to social media. Standout for the day for me though, and an idea I haven't seen before - can't imagine why - is the UK's Split, where we have a split screen with the killer's POV on one side, the victim's on the other. Simple, but very effective. First up for the day from Ireland was A Short Horror Film, pretty forgettable, I'm afraid. Viola, whose maker was one of those who spoke beforehand, has a good idea, basing the horror around a voice-activated, Alexa-like virtual assistant device.. but the next, What Next?, whose filmmaker also made a little speech, is another quite unoriginal film. She spoke about transforming it into a feature - I don't see where she could really go with it. Prank is decent.

So, a somewhat frustrating festival - not many really good offerings. And off I scuttled for my walk, the bus arriving in good time. Now, I know where The George is - just as well, with my phone battery nearly gone! As I arrived, a fellow in a long, black cloak was stubbing out a cigarette - sure enough, this was our guide, who asked whether I was looking for the walk. Unfortunately, he didn't have a list of participants, so I had to go search for it on my exhausted phone - happily, it lasted long enough for me to find the ticket; I hadn't thought to get it out on the way. So he then sent me to wait with the others, while he waited for the final arrivals - I'd arrived with a few minutes to spare. Which was unfortunate, as it was bitterly cold to be standing around, and indeed I was hopping around to keep warm at every stop! It's really turned cold, suddenly.

Sadly, those are the only photos I got to take - my battery then died, before the walk even started. But it isn't a sightseeing walk anyway - this one is all about the history, and indeed is one of the most historical walks I've ever been on! and with one of the most knowledgeable guides. Keen for questions at every turn, he gave the impression that he could answer anything put to him, and went far beyond every question - indeed, this is the first guided tour in years where I haven't felt that I could have taught the guide something! And I did learn a few things - I found it quite an original tour, which for me is saying something. In fact, it's quite changed my perception of Southwark. We kept a nice, slow pace, for a change. Our charming guide - in costume - is accompanied by a fellow (again, costumed), who pops up at intervals to explain contexts. And when we ended up back in The George - nice and warm, inside - he told us some more curious facts (to the appreciation of a group of drinkers, over the side). The website had advertised a re-enactment, but that didn't happen. But hey, it was a really enjoyable and informative tour! Highly recommended, and a great addition to a scene which, as he said, has lost a lot of small operators during lockdown..

Unfortunately, I couldn't blog that night, having to be up early yesterday - and was then too busy, all day! Mondays usually are. During the day, I made the mistake of eating both a baguette at The Upper Crust, and a chicken katsu curry at Wasabi - way too much, and I couldn't finish the chicken. Last night, back with the Crick Crack Club - at King's Place, this time - for their annual Day of the Dead celebration! Keeping the spooky tradition nicely alive, there. The bus arrived just as I was about to check the schedule. Strangely, Google Maps wanted me to get off a stop early, and meander through backstreets.. rubbish, it was obviously quicker just to get off at King's Cross and go straight up York Way, which is what I did.

And while I did, I had to navigate around yet another cyclist cycling on the pavement! WTF - this has become an epidemic. Thank goodness for the little green "bicycle" light they display, so you know one is coming up behind you - it's at best annoying, and potentially dangerous. The same thing happened to me twice on Friday, and I saw it three times last night - cyclists just treating the pavement like a cycle lane. Someone, please come up with a way to get rid of them..

I arrived just in time, and the place was quite full - but I followed my usual trick of heading around the far side, where sure enough, there were some free seats, at the end, near the front.

In due course, the storytellers came in - Ben Haggarty in front, strewing marigold petals to form a pathway for benevolent spirits, followed by the others, shaking maracas, Tim Ralphs strumming a ukelele - an unseen drummer accompanied them, over the side. TUUP, mind you, was his own orchestra at the side of the stage, with a xylophone, a bongo, and singing bowls.. and kept up the accompaniment all night as the others were performing. And oh, it was magical - truly soul food, the constant rhythm acting like a comfort blanket. Mind you - I can't check now, as the links have been removed - but the lineup was changed, one storyteller unable to attend as her mother died a couple of days ago, from Covid.

Jan Blake made up the trio of storytellers, with Ben as the MC - and all the stories were about death in some way. Lighthearted though, Tim's ukelele coming in handy for his song about earthworms. A couple I'd heard before - but not for a long time, and they were as enjoyable as ever. Tim's other tale sounded Chinese in origin. But as they said, death is one of the few truly universal experiences. At the interval, they encouraged audience members to wrote the names of deceased loved ones on strips of paper that they provided, so that they could be invited to the evening. And we spent most of our time laughing, before being sent out into the cold again. Sadly, I think that'll be my last live storytelling for the year.. their season is short.

Back to the bus stop - and the display said it'd be 23 minutes. You what?! What is it with the buses these days? The same thing happened to me as I was headed to Hampstead Heath on Saturday. Right, I said, I am not waiting around for that long in this cold - I took the Tube, which was only four stops, and nice and warm. Again, it ran too late to blog last night.. but handily, I'm WFH this week, so can do it during the day!

Tonight, I was supposed to be back with Ivan. But my weekly horoscope said that today, a friend might let me down - for example, by cancelling at the last minute. So I messaged him - I hadn't heard from him since we arranged it - and sure enough, he's busy with stuff out of town, and isn't in London at all this week. Says we'll arrange something when he gets back. Well, that leaves me free to join the London European Club for my only Meetup this week. We're off to something called The Night Shift, where the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is playing classical music - and chatting about it - in The George Tavern. So, delighted I can make it now!

Tomorrow, I'm at the National for The Normal Heart, of which I've heard good reviews.

On Thursday, finally getting to see Tina - The Tina Turner Musical, which I'd booked pre-lockdown and got a refund for! Cheapest tickets, I found, were direct from the Aldwych Theatre. Peculiar website though - I couldn't see my basket without going back into the booking section. And then I'm flying back to Ireland again - a Friday flight, for once! Just for the weekend, this time.

Play: A Tale from Transylvania

London Social Detours was supposed to be off to the Scoop today, where King Arthur is playing. Not that I'd have paid them £3 for what is a free event! However, when I checked the weather forecast yesterday.. well, it was supposed to rain all this afternoon, continuing till after this started. So I said, not really - it's outdoors, and might be cancelled anyway: and all Meetup was offering as an alternative were walks. So I consulted my £3.60 club, who had tickets to a few plays, primarily in the Hen & Chickens, on the last day of the Camden Fringe. Behold if one of the plays wasn't A Tale from Transylvania! Well now, I couldn't resist that. Their discounted tickets were sold out, so I just bought a full-price one - they were cheap anyway. (And London Social Detours duly decided to cancel for the Scoop.) And here I was, thinking I was done with the Camden Fringe for the year..

Another nice, lazy day - and yes, it poured rain all day. Freezing cold too, when I went out for food - however, in the evening, headed to the theatre, it was much milder. So I said I'd walk. Which was fun - large quantities of rain make it easy to see where the dips and hollows in the pavements and road surfaces are, as they fill with water.. and yes, some huge puddles formed right beside where I was walking. Happily, they're in the bus lane, so there wasn't much traffic through them, and the one bus that passed did so slowly. Not so the speeding van - but he missed me, I'm glad to say.

Got to the pub with minutes to spare. I noted that it was as noisy as ever, as I made my way straight to the ticket desk, where he quickly checked me off and I clambered up the stairs to the theatre. I must have been the last in - the seats were nearly full, and I took one in the front row.

The lone performer tells us straight away that his sister has gone missing. You expect that anyway, from the "Missing" poster with a woman's picture on it, which matches the picture on the desk - and from the board with all sorts of clippings and notes attached. On the other side of the stage sits a suitcase. And the show is basically a narrative about what happened next - how he found out, what he did. As the plot thickens, sure enough, the action shifts from London to Transylvania..

He's a compelling performer, and I really didn't feel the time pass - quite an achievement, for a show that lasts for an hour and 20 minutes! (No interval.) It's intimate, it's sincere.. to the point of being uncomfortable, as we deal with this man's very personal grief. He's also very visual, producing artworks on stage during the show to demonstrate his inner anguish. He finishes it all off with a flourish, as the end sees a massive twist - perhaps not one that was earned from the plot that went before, but damnit, it's done very well indeed! For such a low-budget production, this is beautifully done, and highly recommended, should you come across it.

Tomorrow, I'm finally off to see Julie at the National, having got a cheaper ticket than I could have managed on earlier occasions. Would you credit it though.. the cheapest ticket I could find was from.. Ticketmaster!! Never known for their cheapness in the past.. with this, and them scrapping the Get Me In and Seatwave ticket reselling sites, maybe they're turning over a new leaf!

Plays: Allelujah & How to Be a Londoner in an Hour

All plays this week, as it happens - and most of them with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS). Last night, London Literary Walks was supposed to be back with "Brook Green" - another area near where I used to live! Actually, the first medical practice that I registered with, in London. Nice nurse - one very narky doctor. Sadly, he then cancelled - I don't know why, as his comment on the page disappeared with the page when he cancelled the event! Instead,  I booked for Allelujah at the Bridge Theatre. Well, at least it's closer. Funnily enough, I accidentally nearly booked for the matinee of this - and there was better availability for the evening performance! Odd..

Slept like a log, thankfully, what with the rain and the lower temperatures. The evening saw a last-minute release, and a project manager that didn't bother to check the documentation until release day. Despite there having been supposed to be several release days before. So then he had lots and lots of ideas for changes. Well, I did as much as I could, then drew a line under it when he said he was heading to a meeting and would resume editing afterwards. I passed the rest on to my boss (poor man ended up working till 4am!), and although I'd been meaning to take buses, it was now late enough that I said I'd take the Tube.

London Bridge Station hasn't got any less confusing with the rebuilding - although it does look impressive, walking down Tooley Street! It's the first time I've approached the theatre from this side:

Now, I knew they'd be meeting in the lobby, and had a fair idea where, as we've met here several times before. The organiser was of the opinion they'd be easy to spot, there being 30 signed up.. heh, not really! Not in this crowded place. Just as well I knew several of those attending, so it didn't take me long to find a circle to join, among those that had formed.. and over the course of the evening, I caught up with loads of people. Apologies to all those I didn't manage to speak to.

As usual, there's no really bad seat here - even though I had a restricted view, all I had to do was lean forward to see plenty. And with no-one behind me, that was just fine. Also, with the footrest, the high seats are perfectly comfortable - although the fellow in front of me seemed to think it was his armrest, and I ended up standing on him, briefly! :-) Tough.

So, this is an Alan Bennett play, set in the geriatric wing of the Bethlehem Hospital, oop nawth in Yorkshire. Like so many other small healthcare centres, it's facing closure in favour of bigger, newer, shinier "centres of excellence". So, management have organised a local tv crew to come around and make a documentary, and roped in the all-singing, all-dancing oldies in the geriatric unit, to provide the human context. The tv crew is wondering how to make the show interesting, the oldies are complaining about their aches and pains - and live in fear of angering the ward sister, who has a "list" that she puts people on if they soil themselves. Oh, and there's the young Tory hotshot, originally from around these parts, now up briefly from his high-flying life in London to visit his sick father, one of the patients here.

Well, it's Alan Bennett, so you can expect politics. And my God, they all get lambasted here - Tories, Northerners and their prejudices, Southerners and their arrogance, tv crews' cynicism, the laziness of youth, the British government's immigration policy (there's an Indian doctor on staff, whose status is in doubt, given that he overstayed his student visa some years back). A foreigner in our group later expressed amazement that, with the shortage of doctors, the government would be throwing out the ones that are here and want to stay - but as we know, politicians were never known for their common sense, eh? And this does actually happen in real life. Speaking of that Indian doctor, he also gets a soliloquy about how Britain should open its arms - an obvious reference to Brexit: ironically coming from a non-European.

So, lots to chew on there. However, it's politics lite - just mentioned casually in passing, make of it what you will. Mainly, this is a love letter to the aged, with plenty of sweet songs and some dance numbers, and it makes for a gentle and soothing evening. I liked it very much. There's a huge twist, mind, at the end of the first half - and someone was wondering what relevance that had to the rest of the play. Perhaps what we were meant to take from it wasn't that the elderly are treated this badly, but more how this mistreatment is ignored by the people who should be concerned.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it. Runs till the 29th of next month. Speaking of the elderly, there was a kerfuffle on the bus back, which was diverted - an old man wanted to know whether the bus would be turning left, which was obviously where he wanted.. considering that, as we stopped at the lights, he demanded to be let off! I've never heard such abuse as he gave to that poor bus driver, the old man even opening the doors with the emergency lock, only for the driver to shut them again! Called him every name under the sun for not letting him off in the middle of traffic. It was a relief when we finally came to a stop and he was let off - that driver was lucky to be behind a partition; I was afraid the old fellow would lay into him with his cane! No frail elderly on this bus, let me tell you. The journey was peaceful after that, and just as I turned for home, the proverbial black cat crossed my path. And stopped to say hi. 

The blog was delayed by a morning meeting (so I had to get to bed), and by me doing yet another film list that I'm not using. Tonight, we were back to the Camden Fringe, with How to Be a Londoner in an Hour, at the Hen & Chickens Theatre. Arranged to meet one of the group for dinner beforehand.

I was supposed to have a later meeting this evening than I ultimately did - and with my ever-helpful boss offering to take on some of my stuff himself, because he had to work on something related anyway, I was in good time to take the bus. Same number bus as yesterday, as it happened - although the onboard entertainment this time was restricted to a toddler in a buggy singing a recognisable version of Itsy Bitsy Spider: appropriate for the rain that fell for most of the day. At Highbury Corner, I carried on to the station, where my companion was waiting. We had no real idea where we wanted to go, so carried on down St. Paul's Road - passing the theatre on the way.

There are a couple of good eateries along this stretch, methinks - but they are quite small, and were booked up, and we ended up in the Brewhouse & Kitchen, near the roundabout. It was certainly busy! They were just clearing away the oversized board games as we got there. We found a table, ordered at the bar - I had the chicken burger, my companion the risotto.. Mine was plonked down first, the server vanishing into the crowd! No cutlery, no napkins. To be fair, they were, as my companion remarked, run off their feet. When she eventually came back with the risotto, my companion asked for cutlery, which came with one napkin - which didn't end up getting used, as I had left it on the table, and the server collected it with the dirty plate. My companion remarked that perhaps they hadn't thought I'd need cutlery for a burger and chips - but I did find it handy to have a knife to cut the burger in half. Anyway - mine was quite tasty (although it didn't taste southern fried, as it was described), but my companion was scathing about the risotto, which she described as "microwaved". Certainly, gourmet it isn't, and we didn't stay for dessert.

Instead, we headed across the road to the theatre pub, where we got another drink while we waited, and were eventually joined by the rest of the group. Also busy here, and nowhere to sit - beside the bar, they have a menu for pizza, which it looks as though they order in. Turns out to be one of those places where, even though you're supposed to be able to show your ticket on your phone, you do actually have to go and get a physical ticket too.

Open seating for what is a small room above the pub - which ended up mostly full. "How to Be a Londoner in an Hour" turns out to be 55 minutes long - as they explained, it's London, so you get less than you pay for! Three performers (and a hapless chap snatched from the front row), and a madcap set of chapters in the lesson. Plenty of truths in there.. tourists and Tubes, rent prices and mice. Oh, and a new set of lyrics for Pop Goes the Weasel! I thought it was great fun - bring a sense of humour, though. Runs till Sunday. Afterwards, there was no great enthusiasm for a drink in the still-crowded pub, so we wended our ways home - and this time I walked. And again, it was all downhill!

Tomorrow, I'm down to Helen's for the weekend, for a party..

On Monday, I was back with Anthony's Cultural Events and Walking Activities Group, back to Westferry Circus.. this time it's for A Woman of No Importance. However, then I got roped into a late evening meeting, so given that this was free - and I wasn't that pushed - I'm now going to Love Lab, at the Tristan Bates Theatre. Which starts a lot later.

On Tuesday, with nothing on Meetup that I was interested in (and hadn't done), I'm headed with my £3.60 club to a play called Faith & Heresy, at The Bread & Roses in Clapham.

On Wednesday - sorry, London Literary Walks, you didn't advertise early enough! Instead, I'm off with North London Friends for Things of Dry Hours, at the Young Vic.

Next Thursday, I'm headed to Soho Theatre for The One. Then back to Ireland for the weekend, again.

On the 20th, I'm going with UITCS to the Arcola, for Elephant Steps.

On the 21st, the £3.60 club is providing me with a ticket to see Aprile Millo perform at Cadogan Hall. Gotta say, terrific value for something whose official prices start at £35!

And on the 22nd, again, off with UITCS to the Camden Fringe. We're seeing Secondhand Stories and Whimsy, two short plays at The Lion and Unicorn. I would have been missing an evening with London Literary Walks that day, but he's now moved it anyway.