She was coming into Waterloo, which made that the focus of Google Maps' instructions - and their suggestion was to take the Northern Line to Leicester Square and walk from there. She was on the earlier train she could have got, and I got a bit held up.. and when I came to Clapham Junction, behold, there were no trains leaving immediately. Plus the departure boards on the platforms had the trains arriving slightly earlier than claimed by the main board. Anyway, they sent me off to Platform 7 again - and again, after a bit, the mention of a train departing from there disappeared from the departures board on the platform. Fortunately, I dithered before giving up on that platform, and just as I was leaving, a nonstop train to Waterloo arrived.
We met by Mr. Stay Puft..
..and, on our way to the Tube, passed a little shack devoted to Ghostbusters stuff. Including travelcard holders - which was handy, because I needed one. So now I have one! with a fetching trimming of ectoplasm.
In Leicester Square, we took Exit 1 - although, since we were headed down Cranbourn Street, we should properly have used Exit 4.. for future reference. Never mind - head right down there from Exit 1 (or left from Exit 4), and at the junction, take the second left. This will take you to the notorious Seven Dials - the junction of seven roads, at one time famous for its gin shops, and for the past 200-odd years, famous for being easy to get lost in. And still is - although, as Helen remarked, it'd be worse in a car! (Traffic is manic, even down these narrow streets.) Google Maps to the rescue, and we turned off left of Matilda.
The Seven Dials Comedy Club is an unassuming black doorway to the right, at 42 Earlham Street. Just up from Donmar Warehouse, across the road, where I haven't been in an age. A very obliging lady at the desk, just inside the door, checked off my name, and upstairs we went. (There is a lift, too.) It's a lovely, modern space, a bar with tables, a rail of coathangers as you come in..
So we had wine, and as we hadn't had dinner, we had crisps.. like Southwark Playhouse, you can take drinks in with you, and in due course we were let into the performance space. Which was boiling, especially when they closed the windows to keep out the street noise. Rows of chairs, seating unassigned, so we sat in front of a fan. Which wasn't immediately turned on.
We had an MC for the night, and from what he said, it was apparent that Bare Essentials is A Thing. How did I never before hear of it..? Anyway, it fosters new playwriting (and this was their first night in their new venue) and that night was the Best Of. The idea is to strip things back pretty much to basics - they'll provide a table and chairs, basically, and off you go. Excellent! I'm a big fan of productions that use a couple of boxes and a pea, and make you use your imagination. I could name others that think that's just lazy.. well, takes all kinds. He also mentioned that we'd been provided with mini fans - also known as programmes.
Six plays, two halves. For the first - Thin Air - a rope was stretched across the stage. We were to discover why.. this was a soliloquy by a tightrope walker, before she steps onto the wire. She delivered the whole thing standing on a stool.. she told us about her history in the circus, and we wondered why she now seemed reluctant to step out.. at the end of a poignant performance, we found out why, and for me, this was the performance of the night.
The Leaving of Things, part of a full-length piece, focused on a young couple, in some kind of awkward first meeting situation, trying to get the courage to perform a transaction. And taking us to the interval was The Maltese Walter, where an unassuming chap called Walter took himself to the psychiatrist, as his fiancée wasn't too impressed with his superpower - the ability to transform any situation into Film Noir.
At the interval, we were urged to Tweet about the show - the winner would get a free drink. While we did that, we got some cold water from the bar - and soon enough, we were back in the overheated performance room, for the last three. The News had three friends, sitting in a hospital waiting room, waiting for word of their seriously injured friend. Love in Freefall examined what would happen if two soldiers, involved in a skydive as part of their training, got involved in a love triangle. And we finished with How to Murder Someone and Make Sure They're Absolutely Definitely Dead, in which a jilted lover plotted to murder his ex's new boyfriend.
Well, we didn't win the Tweeting contest - but it was a fascinating night, and I'll be keen to hear more of Bare Essentials.. Helen didn't have time to eat, sadly, and we went straight to the station for her to catch her train. And when I'd seen her off, I took the bus home.. where I started on my film list, for the first time in nearly two months! Today's weather was promised beautiful, and I should have done something outdoorsy - but I've come down with a moderate case of the flu, and am trying to take things easy.
..I didn't even get the film list finished last night, although I stayed up very late. So, a late start today, and I got the thing finished mid-afternoon. I was stunned by what came top of the list, most particularly because of its 9.4 rating - I've seen ratings like it, but not for a mainstream film like Jason Bourne! So I'm really excited to see that. Sadly, it seems only to be previewing this week, on Wednesday and Thursday - neither of which I can do. Next on the list was Bayou Maharajah, a documentary about James Booker. Only showing today at 4pm at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, which turns out to be all the way up in Seven Sisters. By the time I determined that, and how to get there, I had 15 minutes to get dressed and presentable if I were to make it in time. Heh, wasn't happening.
There was a Bollywood film, Madaari, which didn't really appeal. So that brought me down to Embrace of the Serpent, an interestingly titled black and white film set in the Amazonian jungle in the early part of the 20th century. And it was in the ICA, which I hadn't visited yet this year. Cool! Didn't need to book, and I just nicely had time to set off to catch the bus.
The 87 is a nice bus route, taking you through Westminster, to Trafalgar Square and Aldwych. And it was a lovely day for it - as long as you weren't on a Routemaster, with windows that don't open. And as long as you didn't have to go on the upper deck. I wasn't, and didn't, sitting downstairs beside an open window that wafted the odd cool breeze my way. Got off just before Trafalgar Square, at Horse Guards Parade, where I followed Google Maps' suggestion, walking straight through the ornate building just ahead, to Horse Guards Road on the other side - and so to the Mall, with the ICA just across the road. I'd forgotten what a gorgeous area this is on a sunny day:
Got there a bit early, got a ticket without trouble - but they don't tend to open till the last minute. I hadn't eaten (again), and would have got something from the café except that there was such a queue. So I mooched around their interesting bookshop until they opened the doors and let us in to the screen. It ended up about half full, I noticed.
Some trailers for arthouse films I'd heard of but not seen - and we were into the main feature. Now, Embrace of the Serpent tracks the story of an Amazonian shaman, switching between two phases of his life, during each of which he meets a German scientist on the trail of a mythical Amazonian plant that cures all ills. There's a lot to like in this - it's absolutely beautifully shot, and although there has, unsurprisingly, been criticism of its shooting in black and white, missing the gorgeous tropical colours - as someone pointed out, you get to concentrate on the story this way: and it's not a travelogue.
Indeed, it's not - we are left in no doubt how much trouble the white man brought to the Amazon, and the shaman is rightly suspicious of both men. We see the traces of the murderous rubber barons, we see some effects of the well meaning missionaries. And although the scientists themselves are curious, and eager to integrate with the natives, we see the limits of their understanding, too.
The shaman strides majestically throughout, even in later years. Yes, a lot to like.. and I wish I had liked it more. However, I did find it very long.. Avoid, I think, unless you really have a passionate interest in the native peoples of the Amazon. Anyway, on my way back I cut through Trafalgar Square:
..and tomorrow, I think I'll hit the cinema again. With my film list now done, it's a lot easier to choose what to go to - and Bayou Maharajah is showing somewhere closer tomorrow. It's at the Picturehouse Central - 1pm is a bit early, but I intend to go to bed earlier too! As for Monday, it sees me back with the Man with the Hat, who's headed to Southwark Playhouse for a drama called Stalking the Bogeyman. Hope my flu dries up by then..
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