Sunday 26 August 2018

Play: A Tale from Transylvania

London Social Detours was supposed to be off to the Scoop today, where King Arthur is playing. Not that I'd have paid them £3 for what is a free event! However, when I checked the weather forecast yesterday.. well, it was supposed to rain all this afternoon, continuing till after this started. So I said, not really - it's outdoors, and might be cancelled anyway: and all Meetup was offering as an alternative were walks. So I consulted my £3.60 club, who had tickets to a few plays, primarily in the Hen & Chickens, on the last day of the Camden Fringe. Behold if one of the plays wasn't A Tale from Transylvania! Well now, I couldn't resist that. Their discounted tickets were sold out, so I just bought a full-price one - they were cheap anyway. (And London Social Detours duly decided to cancel for the Scoop.) And here I was, thinking I was done with the Camden Fringe for the year..

Another nice, lazy day - and yes, it poured rain all day. Freezing cold too, when I went out for food - however, in the evening, headed to the theatre, it was much milder. So I said I'd walk. Which was fun - large quantities of rain make it easy to see where the dips and hollows in the pavements and road surfaces are, as they fill with water.. and yes, some huge puddles formed right beside where I was walking. Happily, they're in the bus lane, so there wasn't much traffic through them, and the one bus that passed did so slowly. Not so the speeding van - but he missed me, I'm glad to say.

Got to the pub with minutes to spare. I noted that it was as noisy as ever, as I made my way straight to the ticket desk, where he quickly checked me off and I clambered up the stairs to the theatre. I must have been the last in - the seats were nearly full, and I took one in the front row.

The lone performer tells us straight away that his sister has gone missing. You expect that anyway, from the "Missing" poster with a woman's picture on it, which matches the picture on the desk - and from the board with all sorts of clippings and notes attached. On the other side of the stage sits a suitcase. And the show is basically a narrative about what happened next - how he found out, what he did. As the plot thickens, sure enough, the action shifts from London to Transylvania..

He's a compelling performer, and I really didn't feel the time pass - quite an achievement, for a show that lasts for an hour and 20 minutes! (No interval.) It's intimate, it's sincere.. to the point of being uncomfortable, as we deal with this man's very personal grief. He's also very visual, producing artworks on stage during the show to demonstrate his inner anguish. He finishes it all off with a flourish, as the end sees a massive twist - perhaps not one that was earned from the plot that went before, but damnit, it's done very well indeed! For such a low-budget production, this is beautifully done, and highly recommended, should you come across it.

Tomorrow, I'm finally off to see Julie at the National, having got a cheaper ticket than I could have managed on earlier occasions. Would you credit it though.. the cheapest ticket I could find was from.. Ticketmaster!! Never known for their cheapness in the past.. with this, and them scrapping the Get Me In and Seatwave ticket reselling sites, maybe they're turning over a new leaf!

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