Circus: Timber

I saw the ad for Timber when I was at the Queen Elizabeth Hall for Alexei Sayle, and thought it looked interesting, so was glad to go tonight. And, as usual, I was to be glad I started early. I can generally count on the Tube covering two stops in five minutes, but always have to add five minutes if I'm on the District Line - and this evening, I paid attention to why that is. You can fairly well guarantee that it will take ten minutes to cover the distance between West Ken and Gloucester Road - two stops. What with red signals, unexplained stops, and long stops in Earl's Court, the station between, your journey is guaranteed to be delayed.

Anyway, I was in time this evening. Having had a chest cold that's still affecting me, I wheezed my way up the steps of the Hungerford Bridge - ooh, that was hard. Well, I survived, and even made it to the theatre in time. I had bought a cheap ticket - hard to do here, there is no obvious distinction, you have to mouse over all the seats to see what the prices are - and was in the rear stalls. O dear, I thought when I sat down, I don't like this seat much (CC5, FYI). I was kind of to the side, and realised I should have gone more central, even if I had to be further up. Not a problem, however - there was no-one else in my row on that side, and when the lights went down, I simply moved further along the row and had a fine view.

And my, but this is a fun show! Cirque Alfonse, the performers, have apparently worked with Cirque du Soleil, and it shows. There are some spectacular acrobatics, axe-juggling, log-rolling, aerial tricks, and the whole thing accompanied by a band, with plenty of traditional Québecois folk music. Ah oui, les Québecois sont arrivés... Even grandpapa gets hoisted to the rafters and spun around. And little Artur, just a toddler, gets trotted on at the end and captures everyone's hearts by his obsession with the see-saw. Witness the next generation! Highly recommended - and there's no interval, so it finishes nice and early. Hurry though - it only runs until Wednesday..

Tomorrow night is looking, so far, like a film, and that film is looking like Drive. I'd love to see this - somehow I missed it when it first came out, and every now and again it pops up again. Tomorrow only, it's showing at Greenwich Picturehouse. At 9, but it's not a long film, so it's feasible..