I headed off a little late - there is always something to do - so when I arrived at the pre-arranged venue of Casa Blue, and couldn't see anyone I recognised, I wondered whether they'd already gone? Posted a message on the event page - and not long after that, in walked Henning! Turned out there were delays on the Central Line, which had held him up. Great to see him, anyway. We took a table near the back - as he said, one of the advantages of this venue is that it's never full, unlike the cafe at Rich Mix. Turned out one of our group was already at the bar, and another joined us there before we headed off - another few met us at Rich Mix, where some of us headed straight upstairs, it being in the studio tonight. A couple of us got a drink, and before long we were let in.
Seating, interestingly, included colour-coordinated beanbags at the front - as we agreed, perhaps not the comfiest! Instead, we headed for the regular, tiered seating - four chairs to the side were obviously for the performers. Martin Shaw was hanging around again - I do wonder whether he'll ever perform at one of these evenings again, or whether he's done for good. And you'll never guess - indeed, I hadn't even noticed until the lady beside me said as much, but TUUP was sitting just in front of us! He might not have been performing, but he was certainly engaged with the show, grunting his appreciation..
After that, they took turns, starting with Ben Haggarty - not completely in black, for once! but as theatrical and expressive as ever. All the stories included tales of old folk.. his set finished with a rousing version of Baba Yaga: as Henning remarked afterwards, the most humorous version he'd heard! (I never knew he was so into storytelling!) Jan Blake gave us two tales, the first of which she said had come from TUUP, and both of which were delivered in her matter-of-fact way with a flavour of hilarity. Daniel Morden gave his usual, deadpan performance.. the best soundbite story of the night for me was the young man asking the old how he came to make good decisions. "Life experience," was the answer. How did he get life experience? "Bad decisions," was the answer.. ;-) And Laura Sampson made a good debut, perhaps over-egging it on occasion, but settling into it more even by the time of her second story.
For the first time in my experience, they had a Q+A! About half the audience stayed for it, and most of the questions centred on archetypes in one way or another. Me, I just found it fascinating to hear people I've seen perform so often talking from the heart about how they do what they do! Delighted with the evening.. roll on the next! (Especially as it includes both Daniel Morden and TUUP - ooh, and Clare Murphy! my absolute favourite, and it's so long since I've seen her.)
What a deliciously short trip back. Tomorrow, I'm with a completely new group - London Sci-Fi Horror Hide-Out, for their first ever Meetup! Hem - this is Miskatonic LDN - Remakesploitation: The Horror Meme. Fairly trips off the tongue, the whole thing! So it seems that Miskatonic LDN is actually an institute of horror studies, and based at the Horse Hospital. Well now. This specific event is about the many international horror film remakes through the years. Would you believe it though, it took a co-worker, t' other day, to let me know that "Miskatonic" is a Lovecraft reference! Well, it's years since I last read him.
Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend. And on Monday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for Pinter at the Pinter again! This is Programme 5 - The Room / Victoria Station / Family Voices. And this evening includes a free Q+A with the cast.
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