Yellow Face

Well yes, I finally made it! Took half an hour on the Tube, and should have been easy to find my way to the Park Theatre once I got there. Except it wasn't, really! Somehow, I automatically went left to leave the station, when I should have gone right, and ended up at the wrong exit. I can't remember any signs pointing right.. I only know that's the way I should have gone because I recognised it on the way back. And I only figured out I was at the wrong exit by carefully studying the map they were considerate enough to place outside.

So I figured, if I walked around the outside of the station, I should get to the other side - and, after a bit of confusion, I got to where I should have been, and started down the right street. And then couldn't see the blasted theatre! Now, you'd think, especially for a new theatre, they'd advertise a bit more prominently.. turned out it was just past the scaffolding... and yes! there it is.

Then she was a bit confused that I wanted to buy a ticket on the spot, not collect one. Bless. Anyway, this venue has two stages - Park 200 and Park 90, referring to the seating capacity. I was in Park 90. Unallocated seating, which is nice. Folding chairs, we had, but nice comfy ones for a change. The stage was in the round, and I must say, they really did play to all sides, which is nice to see. Minimalist set - looked very well. Some seats were reserved - we would later discover why.

Yellow Face is a hilarious, and an extremely clever, play. The linked review says it better than I could. It explores the idea of race, and our perceptions of it and reactions to it, through the partly autobiographical story of the author mistakenly casting a Caucasian actor in an Asian role. Sounds a lot more po-faced than it is - this is great, and terrifically acted. Oh, and the reserved seats? The actors sit in them, and pop up, with a spotlight on them, to say their piece, when their bit doesn't require them to be onstage.

This play is award-winning, and made its author, David Henry Hwang, a third-time finalist for the Pulitzer prize for drama. Need I say more? Seriously recommended. Runs until the 16th.

Oh, and nice staff here. An elderly audience member was confused, at the interval, when he returned to his seat, about where he had been sitting. He couldn't find the book he'd had with him (he was looking in the wrong place). An usher found it for him, and when he got flustered about having forgotten where he was sitting, she reassured him with, "Oh, quite understandable. You see, we don't have a safety curtain, so we actually turn the whole theatre around at the interval." ;-)

And so home, noting with interest how I had got on before the train got crowded, watched it fill and empty as we moved through the centre, and it was quite uncrowded by the time I got off again. Interesting, moving right along the length of a Tube line.

Tomorrow is looking like Blue Velvet in the Prince Charles cinema. Not on until 9, so I could nip to Chinatown for a bite beforehand. But we shall see, as ever..