No drinks before I left the office, this time. And I needed the exercise, so was glad of the walk up the hill. Decided to treat myself to the lift upstairs to meet the others though, so as not to spoil the advantage of being in the stalls and avoiding the climb. The lift, confusingly, told me I was on the first circle level - although the button for the second was lit, and the sign when I peeked outside said the same. So I got off - and pretty quickly found our organiser. Not hard, as I was the first other person to show. In the end, a couple more came - it was good to see them, and I was glad I'd made the trek upstairs. In due course, we headed for our seats - and could I find the lift?! Ended up taking the stairs back down..
For this show, the overhang wasn't actually a problem. And I had a decently central seat. You can see people on stage in this shot - the cast were milling about before the start. In fact, one came to the front to advise us that we couldn't film or photograph - and was quite amusing. Spoken word was mixed into the whole show, as it turned out.
Well, the half that I saw. Dear God, it was dreadful. "Self-indulgent, juvenile drivel", as described by another in my group. The soundtrack was good, the staging clever, with interlocking sets - the show itself, however, was a series of vignettes that might, or might not, have been related. Most dealt with death - I was happier with those than with the woman in the pink nightie that ran shrieking across the stage, for some reason. If not for the spoken bits, we wouldn't have had a clue what was going on. In fact, "surreal" seems a good word to describe the whole, 3.5-hour performance. The first half was just over 1.5 hours, and I felt every painful minute. People around me kept checking the time on their phones - I had my head in my hands for most of it, desperate for the interval to come. The disadvantage of a central seat.
Interval! OMG. Almost the entire row put on their coats as they got up - I wonder how many were leaving at that point. Certainly, I couldn't wait to get out of there. The only thing I regretted about leaving was that I wouldn't get to see how empty the theatre was for the second half. Funnily enough, as I was heading back to the office, a message came through from the group organiser to say that they were all leaving as well, and thanks for coming, and apologies for having to endure what we'd had to for 90 minutes. First time I've seen an entire group walk out! Back at the office, and da boss was still there.. so the rest of the night was spent drinking. V late. Hence the delay in blogging.
I had a presentation this morning, would you believe.. And made it in for it. Da boss arrived considerably later. Tonight - as if we weren't drinking enough - the UI team has arranged drinks with us! Well, with da boss - I assume I'll be invited if I'm around. However, I'm wrecked - more lack of sleep than surfeit of alcohol. Think I'll try and grab a meeting room for an hour's nap. And I doubt very much I'll be drinking anything alcoholic today.
Tomorrow, back with UITCS for the opening night of Don Quixote - the ballet this time - at the Royal Opera House. Olé! Expecting a lovely, spirited, Spanish evening. I haven't been there in months - I was really lucky to get a reasonably priced ticket, though! London Box Office saved the day - and on this occasion, I'm at the same level as everyone else in the group, which should be easier.
On Thursday, we have our official monthly team social - heading back to Little Georgia for this.
And on Friday, delighted to be headed off with the London European Club, since I cancelled them on Thursday - this time, I'm a bit more determined to go to the Scottish Ceilidh. Dancing this time, rather than watching, eh?
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