Play: Bubble

It's becoming quite a habit, this underwhelming television schedule. So, again, I came to bed early, and checked to see what Meetup had been up to. And as usual, Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) had something of interest.. so I watched Bubble, by Theatre Uncut. Billing themselves as a political theatre, they quite coincidentally hit the zeitgeist perfectly, producing an online play, acted by people who've never met to rehearse, and released at the start of the lockdown!

It's completely set on Facebook, and the participants are the students and staff of an unspecified university. With a couple having Scottish accents, I'm guessing it was supposed to be somewhere there. Anyway.. in short, a controversy blows up about something that happened on campus, more and more people weigh in on it, and it blows completely out of proportion.

And wow, is it good. It starts with an absolute flurry of participants - and as you try to process the several responses to a rapidly digressing conversation, the constant stream of emojis is massively distracting. Almost a 101 course on social media, the play demonstrates quite effectively how strident people can be (and how hurtful), particularly online, how far the conversation can stray from the original discussion, and how nobody is safe in what can be a vicious exchange. Watch your own reactions too - I found myself yelling at the screen (one advantage of watching from home) in favour of one person or another, then turning away from that person completely in later chats, as they revealed more of their character and beliefs.

So true to life. It's a salutary lesson to take care what you say, in social media as in life - and to remember that the picture that you get of people online can be quite one-dimensional. And such a range of issues is raised as to spark any number of after-show discussions.. I cannot recommend this highly enough. 10/10, and far and away the best thing I've watched so far during lockdown. And less than an hour long! Only available till Thursday..

On Saturday, London Social Detours (LSD) has a quiz - in the afternoon, so I've signed up. She's requiring us to write down all our answers - dunno whether she's considered that she'll only be able to read them backwards! However, I'll also try to catch this week's offering from The Shows Must Go On!, where Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals are streamed for free for 48 hours - this week, it's Love Never Dies, a sequel to Phantom of the Opera. As advertised by UITCS.

On Sunday, as usual, I'm following UITCS' lead in watching Hampstead Theatre's weekly offering, which this week is the currently topical Tiger Country, set in the NHS.

On Monday, London Literary Walks has scheduled a continuation of the music quiz that was running.. a mistake on the organiser's part, he accidentally made the next bit a separate event! Glad he's still running it - when I saw the first event had ended, I was afraid he'd stopped, and I do enjoy them!

On the 2nd, behold, LSD has my attention again - they're doing an online murder mystery, where everyone chooses a character and (optionally) dresses up. Small fee. Cool! We get scripts, it seems.. And I've been chosen to be Sierra Tango, police constable! Seems it's been booking heavily, and that was all that was left. Fine by me.

On the 3rd, back with Hampstead Theatre for The Arrest of Ai Weiwei. UITCS is, of course, seeing it that evening.

Now, the 8th is a bank holiday - so I'll need something to do that day as well. And I'm thinking I'll follow UITCS' lead from earlier in the week, and have a look at a livestreamed Showstopper! show, filmed in the Lyric a month ago without an audience (!), now available on Facebook..