Play: Orlando

For the next week or so, it's all Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS)! Last night, for some reason, I hadn't seen their advertised event to see Orlando, based on the book by Virginia Woolf, and showing at the Garrick. For this, however, I found the cheapest tickets from Official London Theatre (OLT).

We were meeting beforehand in The Chandos, because the theatre bar is so small and we had a large group. And it's just around the corner. Our organiser booked a table. I checked - yes, they do food - so I decided to head there early, try and grab a bite before we met. Turns out the main dining area is upstairs, although they do number the downstairs tables as well - I asked where her table was booked (upstairs or downstairs), but she didn't know. So, seeing that the downstairs was quite packed, I headed upstairs - our table wasn't booked for a while yet, so I grabbed what looked like the most convenient spot to eat at, a shelf with high seats. It did have a young couple at one end - sod it, this wasn't really like sharing a table! So I occupied the chair at the far end. Whereupon he remarked to her that this wasn't very private. Aww..

Well, I ordered at the bar. Funnily enough, they don't do sauvignon blanc, but they do a very nice chenin blanc. I could have had the steak and ale pie - to compare with Greene King - but I decided to have the half roast chicken instead. Very moreish, I have to say - yummy chicken gravy served with it, in a sauce boat, accompanied by pots of BBQ sauce and aioli. All massively tasty, and my chips did a round of all three. I posted on the Meetup page where I was sitting - there were people at the table we'd reserved - and was just about finished when people from the group started to arrive.

In due course, the organiser arrived, said hi, and went off to see about the reservation, digging out her confirmation email. Well! She came back in high dudgeon. Although someone had indeed emailed her to confirm the reservation - and given her a table number - they were now saying they didn't take bookings! Indeed, I hadn't been able to see a booking option when I looked it up on Google Maps. Now, it's one thing not to take bookings - it's another thing entirely to take a booking and then let customers down! Of course, the exact same thing happened on Sunday, when our organiser had booked a table at The Museum Tavern, which staff knew nothing about when we got there.. Well, you have been warned. Just because you're in a popular area, it's not worth treating customers badly. In the end, we did get a table downstairs, and chatted away until showtime.

Another cursory bag check, and we were in - and how pleasant it is to be on ground level! The Dress Circle, where I was booked, leads straight off the lobby. And it's lovely to be so close to the stage - closer than I usually am in venues like this. Good, comfy seat, too.

The only thing I can say I didn't like about this play was the use of no fewer than nine (!) Virginia Woolfs on stage, mostly just overseeing proceedings. I don't get the point of that, and as our organiser said, it's awkward when they're all speaking together - which, happily, doesn't happen much. Well, Emma Corrin plays the title role - a young man at the Elizabethan court, who zips through history, looking for love. Every time he goes to sleep, he seems to wake up in another time period - from the 1700s, he becomes a woman! (There is a maid to keep us all informed, but we can also tell from the costume changes.) By the end, (s)he is flummoxed - still Orlando, but when asked what (s)he loves, the best answer seems to be "a good red wine"!

It's a feminist piece, of course - and I guess there's no point in representing our hero as a woman before the 1700s, she'd have had so little say in her own life. By the 1700s, she might have had some - but, as we learn, she couldn't own property, and basically had to choose an obliging husband, who would allow her to live the life she chose. The Victorian period is funny, with the straitlaced manners, and the husband who marries her, then disappears to sea - indefinitely! The play's aim is ultimately unfulfilled, as despite his/her perambulations through history, (s)he cannot find an era where (s)he's truly happy, or a person with whom (s)he's truly happy. But hey, it's a fun romp through history! Runs till the 25th of next month, if you want to check it out for yourself.

Couldn't blog last night - I had to be up early for a delivery today. Which hasn't arrived yet, and won't now, unless it's by courier. Tonight, we're off to see John Bishop at the Leicester Square Theatre. Love him, so I booked as soon as I saw this advertised - one of the few things for this month that I booked last month! Not that it seems to be selling out..

Tomorrow, we're off to The Vaults Festival - specifically, The Welsh Lxdies, a bilingual show about the women of Wales.

Then back to Ireland for the weekend again. With partial film listings finally out for there, it's looking like The Fabelmans, in Ennis - an autobiographical tale from Stephen Spielberg, about how he got into filmmaking.

On Monday, we're heading to Noises Off, starring Felicity Kendal, at the Phoenix. Again, cheapest tickets from OLT.

On Tuesday, with a group I haven't joined in a Very Long Time - I'm back with London Dramatic Art, from whom I've got a front-row ticket for Sylvia, at The Old Vic; this is the story of Sylvia Pankhurst, and stars the excellent Beverley Knight. Completely sold out - this was my only way to get a ticket!

Next Wednesday, back with the Horror Book Club. This time, it's The Ballad of Black Tom, based on the Lovecraft story, The Horror at Red Hook, but told from the perspective of a black man. I managed to get through the club's book, and read the entirety of the story it's based on, which is much shorter - and less coherent. Again, the meeting is in the Prince of Wales, Covent Garden. Question is, will the kitchen be open..?

On the 2nd, I'm on my own for My Son's a Queer (but what can you do?), a musical at the Ambassadors Theatre.

On the 3rd, my first meeting of the year with London Classical Music and Theatre Group! We're off to Wigmore Hall, to listen to the Hagen Quartet play Mozart. They're Austrian, so that's appropriate.. I just need to remember not to drink the ultra-expensive sauvignon blanc!

On the 4th, well, Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners are back to Greenwich again. Now, I have been there with him before.. not sure how "new" this one will be, but hey, it was a great day last time! Indeed, that evening might be the time to meet Ivan - and our coworker, if he's recovered, by then, from the jetlag he'll suffer from the trip to India he's currently on!

On the 5th, nothing on Meetup appeals massively at the moment - I might go for a walk along the Ken's Events route, if I feel like it! (on my own). Or Over 40 Living the Life has advertised a walk along the New River.. I'll have to see, as I have to pay to sign up (refunds given to those who then come). And I might well change my mind.. 

On the 6th, my first actual event with that group. We're off to How Not to Drown at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East - the first event of theirs for which I couldn't get a cheaper ticket! So I decided, if I couldn't beat them, I might as well join them. True story of an unaccompanied, 11-year-old asylum seeker.

On the 7th, excited to be headed to see Derren Brown in Showman, at the Apollo Shaftesbury Avenue. Cheapest tickets with OLT again.

On the 8th, off to The Lehman Trilogy, at the Gillian Lynne Theatre. Based on the true story of the bank that collapsed. Got the last £39.50 ticket!

On the 9th, back with UITCS for Winner's Curse, at the Park Theatre - an interactive show about a peace negotiation. Turns out North London Friends are headed to it the same night - what, are they now copying this group, as another group did some time ago? (since closed down). And then I'm back to Ireland again.

And on the 13th, I'm headed to Allegiance, starring George Takei in a musical based on the true story of his time in an American internment camp during the Second World War. Showing at the Charing Cross Theatre.