Play: The Wife of Willesden

Tonight - my first Crick Crack Club (CCC) event of the year! Online - Nick Hennessy, at the Story Museum, performing The Kalevala. I think I remember hearing that he's the only non-Finnish person ever to win their competition to recite this! So, really looking forward to it.

Of course, I got confirmation that it'd be recorded, and available for a week afterwards. So, you know, I could do something else if I felt like it! So I checked.. and wouldn't you know it, there was loads on. In particular, Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) had two events. I looked first at Arms and the Man, showing at the Orange Tree - but it was sold out. However, they are broadcasting next week's performances.. so I've booked for one of those. Can be watched, on demand, any time next week. (And can be got cheaper than a physical ticket).

Which still left me free to check out the group's other offering - so I booked for The Wife of Willesden, at The Kiln. Which looked like fun! Now, as usual, I dug out my ticket this afternoon - and noooo! I'd booked for a different date! (One I couldn't even make.) Kind of inexplicable, but the main thing was to get this corrected - and quickly. I checked the website - there were still tickets. I rang the emergency line on the website - seemed appropriate. There wasn't a box office number that I could see. They told me to ring the box office - I asked for the number, which they gave me. Progress.

I tried the box office number - nobody answered. Blast - I left a message, then emailed them and explained. 40 minutes later, I got a reply to my email, saying they couldn't get through to my phone, and asking me to ring them. I rang. No answer. I left another message. I sent another email. They sent another response to the email, explaining that they were really busy, and asking me to try ringing again. Third time friggin' lucky! The minute I got through, the lady on the other end realised who it was, and said, "You got through at last!" Hmm. So, they can't do it by email, and they aren't allowed to ring non-UK phone numbers (like mine). And, as established, the phones were busy. Well anyway, it cost me £1 (plus the charge for calling a UK number three times), but I did get a seat. In the circle. Phew..

I didn't see anywhere near the theatre that really appealed for food, so thought about eating nearer to home - would have liked O' Neill's, but of course there isn't any point in trying, they're always full these days. So, The Lucas Arms it was - where I was well fed, as usual. Left it a little late to take the bus, if I wanted to be on time to meet the group, so I was on the Tube - which stopped several times in tunnels, and eventually shuddered into Kilburn, as if unsure it wanted to let us off there. It was, in fact, a minute or so before the doors even opened! At which point I escaped..

Now, why do they put Tube stations at crossroads? This is a guaranteed strategy to get passengers lost. Sure enough, every time I get off the Tube at a crossroads, I choose the wrong road to walk down - as with this evening. Figured it out in due course, and was headed in the right direction by the time one of the group messaged to say where she was - and there were a few there by the time I located them! This bar has an unusual range of white wines - I ended up with a Picpoul de Pinet, which isn't normally what I go for, but is fine. And we chatted a bit before we went in - I was to find that another of the group had got the seat beside me! By and large though, they managed to get seats onstage..

Yes, it's a bar! Unlike Choir of Man, though, they didn't seem to be handing drinks out.. No, the audience is just arranged like that for atmosphere, it seems. Ditto for atmosphere, there's no interval - always appreciated.

Well now. I don't usually read up a lot about the plays I'm going to see, so it wasn't until I heard someone mention Chaucer that I realised that this is based on one of The Canterbury Tales! Specifically, The Wife of Bath's Tale. Lord, but it's a while since I read that. So, like the original story, the prologue (the life story of the storyteller) is longer than the story itself, and the lady at the centre has been married five times - unapologetically. She stridently points out that God never forbade marriage. The tale itself, about the young man who rapes a woman, and is sentenced - by a woman of power - to spend a year and a day finding the answer to the question, "What do women want?".. is straight out of Chaucer, except translocated to Jamaica, and told in pidgin English.

It's a clever device - and the feminist message still resounds. Our "Wife of Bath" (or Willesden) is determined to live as she chooses, having as many men as she chooses. The original Girl Power, I guess you could say - she's got the red dress, the heels, and the moves, and even when something (or someone) knocks her down, she's soon on her feet again. Some hilarious cameos from (ahem) Jesus and St. Paul, with many actors playing multiple parts - but we're never in doubt who's the star of the show. It's a riotous, raucous evening, as you might expect - mild audience interaction, but I don't think anyone need fear sitting on stage for this one. Runs till the 11th - limited availability on many dates, with some sold out. So, I'd book, if I were you and were interested..

How nice it was to go for a drink with this group afterwards! They don't normally, but it was lovely to chat - and my, but the conversation ranged far and wide.. very glad I ended up coming to this, in the end.

Tomorrow, of course, I'm back to Ireland for the weekend; film is looking like A Man Called Otto, which suits just fine! Based on the Swedish comedy, A Man Called Ove, it stars Tom Hanks as an old grump whose wife has just died, but who meets his match in the fiesty young family that moves in next door. And, interestingly, its IMDB rating just keeps rising.. Showing in Ennis, handily.

On Monday, back with UITCS for The Art of Illusion, at Hampstead Theatre. Award-winning, it seems..

On Tuesday, I'm headed to Chicago Blues Explosion in the January Blues Festival at the 100 Club. Just a shame their early bird tickets were sold out.

On Wednesday, with TAC for a classical concert at King's Place (nice and close). This is the Kirckman Society for young artists, presenting Connaught Brass.

Next Thursday, Ken's Green Walks for Health (aka Ken's Events, to those of us who know it from before) is off to see the Winter Lights at Canary Wharf. Now, I wouldn't go with them in a fit - but there's nothing to stop me seeing the lights myself for free, eh? I don't see the point in paying Ken £5 to lead a group around.. Mind you, today, the lady that sold me my ticket for Mandela was in touch to say that the theatre is offering a free link to a livestream of the full show! and she was asking me what day would suit. This being one of the options, I figured it'd be a good way to avoid the cold of Canary Wharf..

On the 20th (a Friday, unusually), back with Watkin's Bookshop for a book launch. This is Fifty Forgotten Books by R. B. Russell. Occult theme, as usual. Let's see whether I can avoid falling asleep this time!

On the 21st, back at King's Place - this time it's the CCC, with Stories in the Dark. Told in darkness, by the sound of it - sounds divine!

On the 22nd, back with Cultureseekers for the Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt exhibition at the British Museum. Assuming it's not curtailed due to transport strikes - there is a warning on the museum website that galleries might have to close early!

On the 23rd, I've finally booked for Best of Enemies at the Noel Coward Theatre. This play concerns a series of debates on US television between liberal writer Gore Vidal and conservative William F. Buckley in 1968 - the interesting twist here, given the time and place we're talking about, is to cast William Buckley as black! Had my own seat review on Seatplan to guide me in picking a seat - this is one of those restricted view/legroom theatres. And despite all the theatre offers flooding my inbox, I found the cheapest tickets for this on the official website! Mind you, what with See Tickets doing the selling, I found myself with a second, unexplained, booking fee..

For the next week or so, it's all UITCS! On the 24th, 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).

On the 25th, 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..

On the 26th, 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.

On the 30th, we're heading to Noises Off, starring Felicity Kendal, at the Phoenix. Again, cheapest tickets from OLT.

On the 31st, 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!

On the 1st, back with the Horror Book Club - Lordy, that means I need to read a book! :-) I suppose I can use my flights for that. 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. Which means I should really read that, too.. Nice, I'd like to get back to some Lovecraft! In the Prince of Wales, Covent Garden again. 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!

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 just 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 that other group did some time ago? (since closed down). And then I'm back to Ireland again.

And on the 13th of next month, 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.