Now, I've headed to Liverpool Street Station for lunch every day this week - and I have to say, they've been keeping us entertained! There's a busking spot, with a different performer every day - two days ago, she treated us to Whiskey in the Jar, yesterday it was a fellow with a beautiful, deep, crooner's voice, singing Christmas tunes. (Shame he didn't know more of the words.) Today, it was an opera singer! She should really have had amplification though - we could hardly hear her..
Yesterday, the Crick Crack Club was back - online - with Trickster, live-streamed from Oxford again. Earlier in the day, I got an email, assuring me - again - that it would be recorded, and that it would be available for a week after. Well in that case.. So off I went and booked with Up in the Cheap Seats for Rare Earth Mettle, at the Royal Court.
I stayed on a little to work a little bit extra - so Tube it was, nice and empty, and I was a little late meeting them, outside the theatre. We chatted briefly, and in we went - one of us had booked a balcony seat, but they weren't seating people in the balcony, so she got an upgrade to the stalls! For me, I'd got the outmost seat on my side of the slips, and when I got there, there was no-one inside me - although a few did come later. But it wasn't crowded, certainly.
You can just about see a string, hanging vertically. That's attached to a large, transparent ball, housed in a trapdoor at the start, which, when the play starts, is raised and set swinging. Which set off my pendulaphobia - I'm very, very glad I wasn't sat nearer the stage. As it was, I was trying to find other things to look at..
Anyway, I guess this is supposed to be representative of Foucault's Pendulum. It's also leaking sand - indicative of time running out? And although the actors come on, and move scenery, around the swinging pendulum, it's not too long before the swinging decreases, and it's drawn into the rafters. Couldn't come soon enough for me.
But it wasn't long until I forgot all about it. This is TERRIFIC. Set on the salt flats of Bolivia, we have a local man - his wife has died, and he lives there with his teenage daughter, who's sick. An English doctor (Genevieve O' Reilly) cares for her. And one day, an irritating American - from California, to be precise - arrives and wants to buy the old train that this man lives in: and the ground underneath. These aren't the only visitors, mind - a politician (Jaye Griffiths) shows up, claiming she knew this man's late wife.. he's a popular chap.
Well, not really, It all has more to do with the lithium, available in enormous quantities under the salt. That American wants to make electric car batteries out of it, save the planet. Even the doctor has an ulterior motive for being there - she wants to put small quantities in the drinking water, improve people's mental health. And of course, the politician wants what they all want.. she sees this valuable commodity as a way of improving her hold on power.
Not that anything in this superbly written play is how it seems. The script absolutely sparkles - this is the cleverest play I've seen in a long while. It's a long one - and not everyone in the theatre lasted the course - but our group agreed that we really didn't feel the time passing. It's jam-packed with plot twists, snappy dialogue - the American really reminded me of one of the bosses in my company, and the corporate scenes with him (and his exasperated board members) are the funniest. Indeed, the opening scene is hilarious, where he's supposed to be communicating in pidgin Spanish with the Bolivian man. Having everything in English for us brings home how stupid he sounds to the Spanish-speaker..
The next scene, where his board are discussing corporate-speak, is just as hilarious (and very well-observed). But then, this play covers everything - climate change, mental health (there's an hilarious quick-fire debate between the doctor and the businessman, in the second half, about the NHS), medical ethics, ethics in politics, in academia, in business.. you won't believe the directions the plot goes in, and you can't anticipate how things will pan out. But it makes for completely absorbing entertainment. Very highly recommended - runs until the 18th of next month.
Google Maps was playing up all day, telling me it "couldn't find a way there". No, but it could if I asked it to get me there in the past.. Ooh, and on the way home, as I took the bus (faster at this time of night than it would have been earlier), it occurred to me - that on the 11th of the 11th, I was taking the #11.. at about 11pm! Beat that.
Took a while to sort tonight's schedule - I wanted to go to a film, but that blasted film list didn't come through until halfway through the afternoon! Well, I had to rush off to go to Naked, a Mike Leigh film at the BFI. They're doing a whole series of his work, apparently. It's not a long journey, so I wasn't worried when the bus didn't come straight away - and indeed, I took my seat at the cinema before several others. Dunno what the deal was with the people behind me, but the kicking and shoving was intense - to the extent that the woman beside me had enough, and when she came back from the loo, sat down the front instead - where there were plenty of spare seats.
Well now, this is a film with really clever dialogue - and being Mike Leigh, it's not exactly cheery. In fact, I'm going to steal the theme of the excellent programme notes that you always get at the BFI, and say that it's a comprehensive study of toxic masculinity. (As topical now as ever.) The main male characters are unredeemable pieces of sh*t. We have the excellent David Thewlis as the main protagonist, a man too clever for his own good, but unable to fit into society, unemployed, disaffected, unwilling to be tied down. And with a very unhealthy attitude towards women - he can charm them into sex, but they always tend to regret it. he comes to London to stay with his ex, Lesley Sharp. Gina McKee plays one of the damaged women he meets. On the other hand, there's the clean-cut, psychopathic toff, who openly bullies the women stupid enough to be charmed by him. The women of the piece mostly end up as victims in one way or another, at best made to feel stupid, and at worst..
Well anyway, you have been warned. But through it all, David Thewlis' character retains a humanity that makes us warm to him. It's also patently a commentary on Thatcher's Britain, set in 1980 as it is, and opening with her election. Jeez, if you hadn't lived through it, you'd wonder how anyone could..! This film runs twice a day all week, if you're interested.. and I was glad when my bus came, and I could get out of the cold!
Well, I have to get to bed. Tomorrow is a double-bill with Bucket List London, starting with breakfast in Maria's Market Cafe, followed by a trip to Wellington Arch (two separate events).
The next three days, I'm with my cheap ticket groups. Sunday, I'm at Conway Hall with CT, for a concert by the Coull Quartet.
The following two days are with TAC. On Monday, I'm headed to Whattalife! - part of the Wimbledon Music Festival, which I always end up attending at least once in a year, this is the story of English contralto Kathleen Ferrier. Takes place in St. John's Church, as usual.
On Tuesday, it's comedy - Holier Than Thou is a one-man show about a vicar, playing in the Canal Cafe Theatre.
On Wednesday, back with Invigorate for a pub crawl! (Oops, I mean a tour of historic pubs..) Now, that's also my birthday, so I'm sure I'll get a birthday drink! ;-)
I would have travelled somewhere foreign for my birthday, but well, that's not so much of an option these days. Anyway, I'm taking that day off work - so my boss has suggested birthday drinks for me on Thursday, as we should be back in the office by then. And then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend - it's easier to get Friday flights at the moment!
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