Storytelling: UniVerse

Goodee, the Crick Crack Club was in action again last night, with a show called UniVerse, by Clare Muireann Murphy, at Soho Theatre. No-brainer, I was going - love my storytelling. No-brainer, I booked - they always sell out.

Blessedly light traffic coming back yesterday evening - third time's the charm, eh? So I was in loads of time for my regular route - train to Vauxhall or Victoria, Victoria Line to Oxford Circus, leave by Exit 5, hang a right. Right again just past the building works. I arrived at the theatre with a bit of time to spare.. after the long, long climb to the upstairs space, I passed the (other) man with the hat, waiting at the head of the stairs. And I was in.

It was almost full when I arrived - I got a decent seat though, facing the stage in the first elevated row. Pretty central. And after the customary "Crick!" "Crack!" etc., we were introduced to our performer.. Irish, as it happens, and who had composed her own work - unusually for the storytellers I see. She began by remarking how hot it was.. and it was! and anticipating the "Soho striptease", a bit later.

Her story - a new one - is of the creation of the universe. And with it, she explains her method of "myth-ience" - the crossover of myth and science. What followed was an enchanting 70 minutes or so, where she kind of moved to our left for the science-y bits; we got Einstein, we got gluons and quarks, we got the formation of primitive atoms..

And then she hopped over to our right, and told us a lot about turtles. And this slipped into Greek legend..

Which gave her a nice intro to talk about Pythagoras (back on our left). After getting us to recite his infamous theorem, she explained how he related maths to music. And then told us to look under our chairs, under some of which sticks had been placed, and under the others, various metal household items. And the idea was that the metal items had strings attached to the edges, and we had to wind the other ends round our fingers, and stick those fingers in our ears, while the people with sticks beat the metal things. And thus we could hear the music that obsessed Pythagoras.. (sadly, there was nothing under my chair - perhaps one of the people beside me picked it up by mistake - but someone gave me some sticks. And then I had nothing to hit them off of! Aww.. sad to be alone when the exercise is for pairs..)

She's a fantastic, animated storyteller. You've never seen subatomic particles acted out like this, nor heard Greek legends made so funny. A little bit of Irish reference made it in too.. the man with the hat had said he always anxiously anticipates new work by this artist, and I can see why - she's one of the best I've seen, and to know this is an original work makes it all the better.

Also nice to be home in time to grab a quick bite to eat. Not to blog, though.. Tonight, I'm with the main Man with the Hat again, with Let's Do London - for Less! again, as they head to Cyrano de Bergerac at Southwark Playhouse - one of his preferred venues, and a good one.

Tomorrow, I got a cheap ticket to a concert by the Coppell High School Band, at the Central Hall, Westminster. A new venue for me! Cool, I do like to keep discovering them. On Thursday, Kensington Classical Music is off to a concert by the Trio Isimsiz - you had to get your own ticket, though, then pay extra to join the group at the concert. Huh. I'll avoid them, and the extra charge - have to be discreet though, I believe it's a small room! It's at the 1901 Arts Club - another first for me.


On Friday, I was supposed to join Spooky London for their monthly spooky pub night - but the venue was never announced, and now it's been cancelled.. Instead, I'm off with the London European Club, to an excellent-sounding event, entitled French Chanson and Swing, at Jamboree. Third new place in a row.. And on Saturday, I'm back with the Crick Crack Club, for an event entitled Seven Princesses - at Rich Mix, which will be my first event there with them. There was mention of an event next month, but it doesn't seem to have been advertised on Meetup yet..