Well, the bus came a few minutes early - which, given the awful traffic and slow, slow traffic lights, was just as well! And was so crowded that I spent half the trip standing (quite illegally) just inside the front door. Along with a whole load of others, including a woman with a buggy. Mercifully, a huge swathe of people disembarked at Liverpool Street. I even got a seat - which gave me a great vantage point from which to watch all the people who slipped on at the rear and centre doors, which they're no longer supposed to do on this route, mingling with the disembarking passengers, and not bothering to pay at all. (The card readers to the rear have been disabled, of course.) The driver noticed too, and quite irately demanded that they come to the front instead of the rear, and pay - they all quite literally ignored him, and the journey duly proceeded. Really, it isn't easy being a London bus driver.
Happily, the bus stops just past Rich Mix, so it was a short trot once I got off. And I made it in on time - although not in time to get a front-row seat. Never mind, the view was good from the third. A large number of latecomers this time - some very late indeed; perhaps they mistook the time, or perhaps they were caught up in the transport problems in London this evening - ongoing flooding in Liverpool Street combined with awful traffic.. not an easy evening to get around.
Ah, but it was good to be back with the CCC, though! With Ben Haggarty as MC, the others took turns for two sessions of roughly an hour each, one story per person. And we started with the ever-melodic TUUP, who as usual was my favourite of the night - he brought a hypnotic rhythm to proceedings, always tapping away on a bongo drum during Nell's performances, speaking in - as he put it - a Ghanaian twang during his own. Nell had a couple I'd heard before, delivered in her inimitable style - always enjoyable to listen to. Tim did fantastic impressions of both a fox and a wolf for his story about a kind of battle of wits between them - he also let us in on the fact that he'd studied physics and philosophy in college. Gee, I know someone else who did that - Man with the Hat, if you happen to be reading, look at what you could have done for a living! And lastly, but by no means least, Sarah Liisa was as charmingly entertaining as ever in her tale, having very obviously enjoyed all the others' as they were performing! Really, it was an enchanting evening - the CCC has such a large bank of talent to draw on.
The Q+A afterwards was fascinating, as usual, with insights into the idea of the trickster as a character that gives us license to break the rules - as Nell pointed out, the actions of the "trickster sisters" in her story, who dressed as men to perform their trickery, echo the actions of real-life women in restrictive societies, not allowed out without a male relative; she said that she knew women who told her that they often dressed as men to go out on their own! On a lighter note, one audience member recognised one of Sarah Liisa's stories, saying she remembered it as being associated with a particular pub!
Another terrific night - and I could walk home afterwards.
Tomorrow, Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) is back with Groan Ups, at the Vaudeville.
On Friday, Love London Theatre, Arts, Music & Stuff (LLTAMS) is at Our Lady of Kibeho, at the Theatre Royal Stratford. Ahah, I knew I'd booked something else with them!
On Saturday, I booked for the matinee of Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. at the Royal Court. And then Civilised London (CL) organised an outing to see London Concertante perform the Four Seasons at Southwark Cathedral. What the hey, I figure I can make both! It's ages since I heard it, in fact.. and it'll be a nostalgic trip for me, as my very first Meetup with the Man with the Hat was to listen to Concertante in Southwark Cathedral. He's much missed.
Sunday is film - hence the delay with the blog, I was doing the film list! What came up top was - appropriately for the weather - something for the last day of the Raindance Festival, at the Vue Piccadilly. Booking seems to be on the Raindance website, rather than the Vue's - tickets with Eventbrite. And I'm going to Babysplitters - a comedy about two couples who can't decide whether they want a baby, so decide to have one they can split amongst them all! Since tickets are only available until Saturday, I'd have had to book anyway - so I just went ahead and booked straight away.
On Monday, I'm back with UITCS for Ballet Preljocaj - La Fresque at Sadler's Wells.
On Tuesday, we have a slightly delayed September social for ex-employees (and current, if they want) of the company I last worked for - Ivan is away till Sunday, and of course I'm busy on Monday. So, on Tuesday we're headed to Imperial China - the new Chinese restaurant I discovered via CL. Booked for six people, it probably won't exceed that. Getting an answer out of people is predictably difficult.
Next Wednesday, I'm headed to The Merry Wives of Windsor, at the Globe.
On the 3rd, I'm back with CL - this should be interesting. Red Palace is an immersive cabaret experience - lots of fairytale characters, I believe - at the Vaults. And I really hope the weather is ok, because I sourced the most fantastic outfit for it..! Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend - the start of another brief hiatus from Meetup.
On the 7th, I'm off to Shushkin's Stories, at the Barbican. Performed in Russian, with English surtitles, it's a dramatisation of the short stories of Vasily Shushkin.
On the 8th, off to Wilton's, for Lady of Jazz.
On the 9th, heading to the Turbine Theatre, for Torch Song. This is the inaugural show at the new theatre in the revamped Battersea Power Station!
On the 10th, back with Meetup - North London Friends is off to A History of Water in the Middle East, at the Royal Court. Another where I got my ticket from the organiser.
On the 11th, back with UITCS - to Southwark Playhouse this time, for Preludes. D' you know, I bought their passport a while ago, which entitles you to cheap tickets to five shows - and of the last three I booked, something else came up for every single one! Hope I make this one..
On the 12th, seeing the matinee of Solaris at the Lyric Hammersmith. Turns out that both UITCS and LLTAMS are going - so I booked with both! Why not? Each requires you to buy your own ticket. And since only the organiser and I are going from LLTAMS, what it effectively means is that I'm slipping her into the UITCS group. What harm..
On the 13th, joining the London Improvisation Community Group for the first time - they have a show called Happily Never After at the Pleasance - part of the London Horror Festival.
On the 14th, I'm seeing Mother of Him, at the Park.
On the 15th, UITCS is off to the Albert Hall for Symphonic Queen - the Royal Philharmonic is performing Queen.
Then begins a long period of non-Meetup stuff. On the 16th, I'm heading to the ballet Manon, at the Opera House.
On the 17th, the CCC is back at Rich mix, with Melusine. TUUP is the headliner on this occasion, which should be terrific!
On the 18th, Helen's in town, heading to a Midge Ure concert at the Palladium - we're meeting for dinner beforehand. Now, that's the day I should be flying back to Ireland - so I'm going the next day instead. And with my mother's birthday during the week - and not having any major holidays booked - I said, why not just take the week off and spend it in Ireland? So I am.
On the 28th of next month, the CCC is back again - Ben Haggarty is in Soho Theatre with Grim Grimms - a dark take on fairytales, highlighting four lesser-known tales of the brothers Grimm. With musical accompaniment. Tickets weren't available when I noted this in my calendar - they are now, and will likely sell out.
On the 29th of next month, I'm trying to persuade the aforementioned social group from my former company to come with me to a Design My Night event - Fright Night Cinema is showing Hallowe'en in the Rivoli ballroom, with a themed cocktail bar and people dressed in spooky costumes. Now, that sounds like fun..
On the 30th of next month, back with Meetup at last - UITCS is at a mixed programme by Birmingham Royal Ballet, at Sadler's Wells. I've seen part of it before, and it's excellent.
And for Hallowe'en, The Embers Collective stepped up to the plate, with a storytelling performance called Witch, at The Jago.
No comments:
Post a Comment