Ah yes, Hampstead Theatre. Now, it's a lot easier to get to from the city centre, but still a bit of a trek - it was a slight rush after my work meeting, scheduled for the evening to accommodate the North American participants. Well, thankfully that finished 10 minutes early, but I still took the fast route, by Tube: Tottenham Court Road, Central Line to Bond Street, Jubilee Line to Swiss Cottage, the station with the posh lighting on the escalators. Ages since I'd been here, and I couldn't actually remember which exit to take - happily, I guessed right (No. 2), and the theatre was right in front of me when I exited. Which is good, because that drizzle that had been coming down all day was still being troublesome.
The group was supposed to be in the lobby bar, but I couldn't see them at first - it was quite crowded. Spotted them on my second walkthrough, and was in time to grab a seat. Some had drinks, some food, but with announcements already being made about the house being open, I decided against getting anything myself. We had a nice chat though, not bothering to take our seats until it was nearly time. I discovered that one of the group has just signed up to both of the Man with the Hat's groups! A discerning choice - as she said, she was delighted to find a group with such a varied range of interests..
We weren't all sitting quite together, but near enough to each other, in the front stalls. My, I'd forgotten how comfy the seats are here! Great lower back support, decent legroom. And we were quite central, so the view was impeccable:
Luckily, my cold had pretty much dried up, and apart from a few sniffles and a slight cough - not too troublesome - I was fine. So, the action takes place over slightly more than two hours, with only two participants; in the first half, they meet in a remote hotel, where they have both booked to stay to get some writing done. She - Emilia Fox - is a teacher and frustrated writer, working secretly on her second novel. He is younger, cute, more forthright: a blogger, who's written a book on foot of the blog, which is now to be turned into a film. All called Sex With Strangers, and resulting from a bet that he made with his pals that he couldn't pull a different woman every week, using old-fashioned chat-up lines in bars.
Starts fairly predictably - she's a bit prickly, he's cheekily trying it on. Of course, there's an instant attraction - for one thing, he's read her first novel and was bowled over. And he's damn cute - remembering the male nudity in Dead Funny, I regretted that it wasn't him in the cast list.. Sadly, we don't quite get the full monty in this play, but nearly! The curtain is constantly going down on them getting.. friendly.. and apparently, someone in our group was sitting beside an elderly couple who were quite disapproving!
I really loved it. It's funny, it's entertaining, the acting is spot-on, as the characters change with changing circumstances. He's extremely watchable. And it brings up interesting questions about the relationship between older and younger, old-fashioned and new-fangled, paper and ebooks.. As their relationship grows, can they resolve their differences? And what can each learn from the other? We were on tenterhooks to find out in the second half! Highly recommended, if you can get a ticket - runs until 4 March, but tickets are limited, and completely sold out for tomorrow.
For a venue with such small reception areas, it's surprisingly easy to lose people, and we had trouble finding each other both at the interval and afterwards. We managed, and at the end of the show, one of our group was insistent that we go to Singapore Garden, a local Chinese. "Only a minute's walk!", he said. Which was encouraging, as it was still drizzling. Huh. A long minute. At least it was downhill.. and as I remarked, with the drizzle, it wasn't as bitterly cold as before.
They were quite crowded, but found space for the eight of us that went, at a round table in the back. Ordering was a bit chaotic, and delivery sometimes lacking in communication - "What's that?" "Where's what I ordered?" but we got everything in due course, and were well fed. I was stuffed by the time we emerged - some drove home, the rest headed back to the station. Me, I bussed it - I had looked up a bus route beforehand, but we'd changed location significantly now, which tends to change bus travel arrangements. Braving data charges, I found a direct bus home, and wouldn't you know, although Google Maps predicted I'd just have missed that one, it actually arrived at the stop just as I did! And so home, and well satisfied with my night. Glad to have met up with the group this time, it was a great night.
Tonight, the Man with the Hat is starting the month again. Let's Do London - for less! is off to the Opera House for La Traviata. I'd better take a drink with me - I have an intermittent cough, which just won't do at the opera!
Tomorrow, he's taking both that group and London for Less Than a Tenner to Cadogan Hall for a concert involving the works of Brahms and Elgar, among others.
Friday promises to be unusual.. it's that late-night storytelling event at the Wellcome Collection. Tickets were all free, and are now all gone. I was too late to get a ticket for Ben Haggerty's storytelling performance, but I've booked the second, as well as the first and third talks. Anyway, there's tons of non-ticketed stuff on.
And finally, on Saturday, I'm finally going to the much-advertised British Museum Tour - Ideas That Made our World. A Funzing event, as advertised by two of their Meetup groups - London Speaks Sessions and LDN Talks @ Night. So I booked with both..
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