Dance: Aisha and Abhaya

Tonight, I was back with Up in the Cheap Seats for a preview of Aisha and Abhaya, at the Linbury Theatre - apparently a new venue for the Opera House. My first time there. And I was told I had to head downstairs from the ground floor bar, because it's in the basement. (Wasn't aware there was a ground-floor bar!) Just as well I thought to check this morning whether that was one of the physical tickets they sent me - which they tend to do, every now and again. Or I'd have come out without it. Annoying.

I headed off in good time, walking - and making three wrong turns along the way, I was to be glad of the extra time. And it rained on me, annoyingly - wasn't supposed to do that. In the end, the theatre wasn't too hard to find - realising that my regular Opera House entrance probably wouldn't do me much good (never noticed a bar there!), I continued down Bow Street to the new, main entrance - which I'd never gone in by before. Google Maps said I should cross the road - nope. I went in here, had a good look around.. and discovered the stairs down, over to the left, with an arrow and a sign for the Linbury Theatre. Not obvious at all, though.

They'd secured a table in the foyer, and as more people arrived, we scavenged some more chairs. It turned out, mind you, that the first person at our table wasn't with us, had never heard of Meetup - she just said yes, we could join her, and we kind of ended up recruiting her! For the evening, at least - well, she was nice, and the more the merrier! She might even sign up, you never know. Having said that, fully half of the people who were to come cancelled just today - so our numbers were much depleted. Which, at least, made it easier to get chairs for everyone.

They offered us earplugs as we went in - apparently, it's louder than anticipated! I passed. Entry to the theatre is easy - there are just two doors, Door 1 for seats to the left, Door 2 for seats to the right. Entry is at the top level - for any other level, you have to go down. However, I mistook her when she said I needed to go down a level for the Circle - since I had to go down a flight of steps, I thought I'd already gone down to the level she was talking about. This led to some confusion, because where my seat was supposed to be, there was just a standing area! With no ushers around to ask, I was at a loss - until I noticed that, on the level below, there were high seats that seemed to correspond with the description on my ticket. Sure enough, this was the Upper Circle - I needed to go down again.

You can't see it from this angle, but there's a pillar just to the right of the photo that really impeded my view. Still, I saw enough, I think. Actually, the design reminds me of that of the Bridge Theatre, also new to the scene - same styling (including lots of wood), and the same angling of seats towards the stage. At my high seat, there were rails where we could rest our feet - and there was nobody just to my right, as their view would have been too impeded. In fact, the slips don't have too many seats, so you don't feel crowded.

Now, this show is a curious beast. Only an hour long, I don't think any of us - crowd or performers - could have managed much longer. It actually starts with a film - which went on so long that we began to wonder whether this was to be the entire show. It occurred to me that it was very arthouse, and if it were to be an arthouse film, frankly, I'd seen better. Two girls get shipwrecked, and hook up with a local tribe that seems to be all male. The girls, mind, are wearing very striking headdresses.. seems they're modelled on Russian kokoshniks! The tribe they meet up with are less concerned with such fripperies, and supply them with parkas and boots for the journey ahead - but they also introduce them to the idea of losing themselves through dance..

This is the point at which the curtain suddenly pulls aside to reveal the dancers of the Rambert company. And now it gets even more intense, with constant, pounding bass accompanying flashing lights on the backdrop, and staccato group movements. For ages, it reminded me of a rave, with the pounding music, flashing lights, and repetitive motion and images. And someone in the front row testified that yes, you could see all their straining muscles..

Very, very powerful, very intense - perhaps too much so, for such a prolonged period. Still, we all loved it, I think. Runs till the 9th, sold out for the next two days - very highly recommended for those with a taste for the weird. We certainly had enough to talk about, in the bar afterwards. Great to chat to people, and I was just in time for the bus home.

I hadn't anything definite booked for tomorrow - which turned out to be for the best, as The Embers Collective has finally published their New Year's schedule! Very late notice - I swear this wasn't up till last Thursday. They have a show tomorrow, called Wild Beasts, in Cafe Cairo - and I've booked. Tickets, as usual, from Design My Night. I just hope I don't have a repeat of the last time I tried to get there, when the Tubes were down..

And on Friday, I've booked for the Troy: Myth and Reality exhibition at the British Museum. Should be interesting.