Have kept this week a little bit varied, a fairly even split with theatre and cinema trips. I did also get to finish the books I was reading and get excited over darts.

Theatre

First trip this week was to the Hampstead Theatre to catch their production of Stephen Karam’s play Sons of the Prophet in its last week. The play follows Joseph who is trying to control the myriad of issues in his life while trying to deal with the grief of his father passing away after a prank goes wrong. I had seen Karam’s play The Humans at the Hampstead a few years prior and boy does he know how to create a contained family drama. I thought this was a really interesting play because it dealt with so many strands, but he manages to keep the play from going rogue. It was a short 1hr 40, which I think could’ve been condensed down slightly but still a rather enjoyable play. My friend Kieran and I caught Jack and the Beanstalk at the London Palladium in its final week. I haven’t seen all of the yearly Palladium pantos but out of the couple I had seen, this is definitely my favourite one. They really said BUDGET and it shows. I knew of the big beanstalk that grew from the audience to the ceiling. But I did not anticipate Louis Gaunt actually climbing up the thing. My jaw was on the floor. I loved Dawn French, Natalie McQueen, Alexandra Burke and Rob Madge in this as well, they were absolute treats. The jokes were even more filthy, the costumes were even more extravagant and all in all this was an absolute belter of an evening. Can’t wait to see what they do next year.

My friend Sabrina and I caught As You Like It at Soho Place this week. We were meant to see this pre Christmas but our performance was cancelled due to illness. So glad we did get a chance to see this before it ends on the 28th January, as we both thought this was super delightful! This was a Shakespeare play I hadn’t seen performed before, but as soon as they mentioned a forest, I was sold purely cause it reminded me of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is my favourite. We also got upgraded so were super, super close, it felt like we were in the forest of Arden with the cast. Loved the staging in the round. Loved how they incorporated BSL so seamlessly. The entire cast were great but I did really love Alfred Enoch as Orlando, the scene where he’s reciting the poem he’d written for Rosalind was so funny. Leah Harvey and Rose Ayling-Ellis were fantastic as Rosalind and Celia, I also thought they had rather wonderful chemistry together. Either they are really close (almost cousin-like) in real life, or they’re both just extremely great at their jobs. Director Josie Rourke is such a great Shakespeare director, having seen her production of Coriolanus and has really brought to life this wonderful romantic comedy. Definitely worth checking out if you can in the next couple of weeks!

Any Other Media

I finally finished the A Little Life audiobook. I have SO MANY THOUGHTS. Just when you think the main character wasn’t given enough shit, he’s given EVEN MORE SHIT TO DEAL WITH. It was exhausting. I hope the tickets I have to the play come with free therapy afterwards.

Cinema trips included; Empire of Light, which was a very pretty snoozefest. Micheal Ward and Olivia Colman were great, but the film was trying to be too many things. And there were quite a few strands that weren’t tied up. I then put myself through a triple bill on Saturday to get some films off my to watch list. I managed to catch a screening of Living which happened to be on at the cinema randomly yesterday afternoon. Been meaning to see this for a while. I’m glad I did because Bill Nighy was so wonderful in this. I thought the cinematography was really beautiful and I loved the old timey shots of London. But I did think it was a bit too slow for my liking. This was then followed by A Man Called Otto. Now, this film has been shown before nearly every film I’ve seen in the past few months and I assumed this was going to be a film that was very much “awww!! look at this grumpy old man!!”. I mean, in some parts it is a bit like that, but no one has mentioned that he tries to kill himself 4 times in this movie! That was a bit of a shock cause I think there could’ve been a better warning about this. That said, I still really liked the film with the second half being a lot stronger than the first. And finally, I saw Tar which I didn’t know much about other than the fact it’s received a lot of praise. Cate Blanchett was so good in this film. The film was around 2hr 30 and, particularly after a long day of cinema, this felt LONG. But it was a really interesting portrait of this composer who is essentially broken down by cancel culture as her past catches up with her. I really liked the film, but I did think because it was so focused on Lydia Tar’s perspective, we aren’t given much insight from the people that she’s wronged. I felt the film could’ve done included a bit more of that. But it was really well directed and worth checking out.

I’m on a bit of a Becky Hill kick this week as well, her album Only Honest On The Weekend is filled with banger after banger. I find that dance music helps me become more productive at work, so this is perfect.

The casting of Aimee Lou Wood and John McCrea going into Cabaret had my entire Twitter timeline clutching their pearls which is MEGA exciting and I cannot wait to see these two smash it.

I have also been going through what will be on at The Vaults Festival which kicks off later this month in London. I’ve got a couple things I’ve got my eye on. I’ve already booked for the wonderful Louis Emmitt-Stern’s play I Fucked You In My Spaceship which I’m very much looking forward to. Any other recs for The Vaults, please send them my way!

Any Other Business

I went out with work earlier in the week to a really cool place called Flight Club, I pass the Islington site all the time and I finally got to go into one! I’m not a huge darts person (this was only my second time playing darts) but it was such a fun time. My paternal nan and my maternal aunt used to play on different darts teams which is really cool. The bloodline pulled through because I came third, which was so exciting. I had a really great time and already can’t wait to go back!

Until next time