“Romeo and Juliet” by East London Shakespeare Festival – 22/07/23

Posted on July 22, 2023 by katese11

Another week, another outdoor Shakespeare in the rain. Last week’s productions in Stratford-Upon-Avon did their best to rain on us and drown the actors’ voices out with howling winds but this week’s production really did bring on the tempest. We’re used to it by now though,

This was the second visit of East London Shakespeare Festival to Highams Park. Last year’s “Twelfth Night” saw us scrabbling around for shade and downing drinks by the litre to try and stay cool. Today’s “Romeo and Juliet” was a slightly different vibe but still somehow resulted in Eva going blackberry-picking in her Shakespeare dress. It’s contextual memory by now.

We had two camping chairs with us, so Eva and Nathan bagsied them and a big umbrella:

While I sat at the front on a blanket with a friend and a slightly smaller umbrella. Spoiler: we did all get wet but at last we gave ourselves a fighting chance.

ELSF always has a bit of a contemporary take on Shakespeare and this was no different. I mentioned in “Two Gentlemen of Verona” last week that putting the characters into school uniform helped make sense of their decisions and ELSF pulled off a similar trick here. Romeo (Nick Hardie) and Juliet (Emilia Harrild) were believable as teenagers, especially Juliet with her surly expression and Cherry DMs. Which is good, because the logic on display in this play is really very teenage – Romeo switches affections as sharply as Proteus did last week. And the whole “I’m gonna kill myself for love” is a bit of hormonal overdramatising if I ever saw it. On the way home, we were discussing how close the plot comes to being a Shakespearean comedy – it would only take Juliet waking up a few minutes earlier for it to become one of those “what a hilarious misunderstanding” type of farces. And I wonder why Juliet didn’t just run away to Mantua instead of faking her own death. But, as ever with Shakespeare, you can’t overthink it.

On the subject of Juliet’s age, though, there was a small tweak that I clocked in the first act – Juliet is described as being “not quite eighteen” rather than “not quite fourteen”. I assume this was to make the whole marrying-off plot less creepy but it was a notable departure. And Paris living to tell the tragic tale was another tweak although one that I’m alright with. I always thought Paris dying was a bit arbitrary and almost detracts from the deaths of the lovers. So him just exchanging glance with Romeo and walking off was an OK end to the character. He doesn’t really do anything wrong – although in this version he was played a little bit creepy- so doesn’t really deserve to die.

I mentioned that the setting was contemporary but it wasn’t as specific as last year’s 80s take on “Twelfth Night”. I thought for a while it might be set in the 90s – because of the DMs and the Nurse rocking out to “Killing in the Name”  – but I think that might be because my generation do associate this story with the 1996 version. And if you go too far down that road, a la Hot Fuzz, it’s a group version of “Love Fool” before you know it.

I mean, this production did have a version of “Angels” – which again, might be a reference to Claire Danes’ costume – but it kinda fitted into the Capulet party vibe and provided Romeo and Juliet with the opportunity to harmonise together, which was lovely. I did like the portrayal of the Capulets as being very much New Money and the Montagues as the old school, which explains the rivalry to some extent. Lord Capulet was exuberantly played by James Hyland and he really brought the energy to every scene he was in, including giving me a stinger of a High-5. The perils of sitting at the front!

Talking of energy, I really some of whatever Mercutio (Chris Knight) was on. The character is a complex one  – both personable and troubled- so playing him as a wild-eyed raver makes sense. The unscripted interjections of Romeo and Benvolio (“He’s always like this when we go out”)  helped to break up that long and slightly unhinged speech about Mab and he really went all out, pacing up and down the aisle restlessly while talking about madness.

The whole cast did well to keep the energy up, given how cold and rainy it was. They never lost focus or broke character even when they must have been freezing, especially Juliet in her wedding dress and bare feet. I missed the fight scene in the middle, as we were waiting for hot drinks in Humphreys, and I do regret that because it’s one of the best bits and where Tybalt and Mercutio really get their moments. Tybalt (Isambard Rawbone) was suitably cattish in the party scene and it would have been good to see him fight to the death. The small cast were seriously doubling up on roles and it was remarkable to see the fiery Tybalt also playing the calm and saintly Friar Lawrence. Sadé Philips made some very quick changes as both Lady Capulet and Benvolio, despite being really quite pregnant and it was impressive how she switched between roles as they are very different characters. Apprentice actor Caitlin Stevenson also seemed to be everywhere all at once – from the dignified Lady Montague to the It-Girl Rosaline – and Nathan tells me she even stayed in character during the interval.

One thing I really loved about this production was Juliet’s relationship with her nurse (Ursula Early). The nurse was played a lot younger than I’ve seen her in other productions – the aforementioned rocking out and a little light flirting with Friar Lawrence. I guess that if she genuinely nursed Juliet then she probably would only be in her late 20s or early 30s as she would have to have been of childbearing age when Juliet was a baby. And, as previously discussed, childbearing age in Tudor times was creepily young. Her relationship with Juliet in this was very physically affectionate and teasing and made a stark contrast to Juliet’s more formal relationship with her actual mother.

I’m glad they pushed through the rain and I’m glad we pushed through too. We might have been a small audience but we were certainly appreciative. We generally are whenever anyone brings culture to Highams Park. Eva loved it and watched the whole thing, despite being cold and in sandals. She did wander off in search of berries a few times but she tells me she was still watching.

There are still more dates coming up and so there are chances to see the production – hopefully on sunnier days. For tickets and more information, click here.

No disclaimer needed as I was a paying punter this time. All opinions still remain honest and my own though.

 

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A Shakespearean Jaunt Part 2 – 16/07/23

Posted on July 20, 2023 by katese11

My powers of self-control are as good as ever and I managed to ramble on for a thousand words about just one day in Stratford-Upon-Avon. So I cut it off and here’s your Part 2. I know…you’ve been on tenterhooks.

We had indeed made it to the correct Premier Inn in the end and fuelled up on their breakfast buffet before heading out to Shakespeare’s birthplace. We’d been past it the day before but the queues had been massive so I put it on the “tomorrow” list, which was increasingly filling up.

We booked online so got in almost as soon as it opened at 10. The entrance is in the modern building just next door and there’s an exhibition to walk through before you get to the birthplace itself.

It was quite crowded but Eva insisted on reading every sign in full so most of the crowds went on ahead of us. She was dressed for the occasion but it didn’t stop her putting on yet more Tudor-era clothing:

And dressing the dogs up too:

Her outfit delighted the other visitors – especially the North Americans who may well think that this is how British children dress all the time. And her ghost impression is really evolving from a Victorian ghost child to a Tudor one:

We learnt a few interesting facts as we walked through the exhibition, like how Shakespeare’s marriage to Anne Hathaway seemed to be somewhat of a shotgun:

It’s not just my maths, right?

We then queued for the birthplace itself, in some very pleasant gardens:

In each room there are guides who told us about different parts of the house and how they were used. One of the guides in the glove making workshop used the phrase “kid skin” and noted Eva looking a little worried before explaining that it wasn’t made of human child, but a baby goat.

Knowing Eva as I do, I think my animal-loving girl was perturbed at the idea of killing a baby goat to make gloves. She probably wouldn’t have minded so much if it had been a human. In fact, she’s probably got a few names she could suggest.

The Shakespeares were quite well-to-do, as you can probably see, and liked to ostentatiously display their wealth through rich wall hangings and fine foods. The most impressive furnishings were on the ground floor so that passers-by could gaze in and feel envious. I’d be a little uncomfortable with that….I’m not saying it doesn’t happen in Highams Park but I don’t think I’d like it. It’s more of a North Chingford thing really.

We explored every room, including the tiny loft at the top and, of course, the gift shop.

Once we’d left, there were a couple of other shops Eva wanted to check out, like the House of Spells just opposite:

And the old-fashioned sweet shop, where she bought some cherry drops:

I wanted to check out the Pret, which looked small from the outside but was giant inside. It could have fitted the Marylebone Pret inside it ten times over.

Once I had my coffee in hand, we went back to the hotel to pack up and check out. We left our suitcases at the hotel and went back to the Dell for more Shakespeare, this time with slightly less wind and rain. Did I mention that the Dell performances are all free? It’s a great way to get some theatre in without having to worry about getting anywhere at an exact time (especially as the performances we went to coincided exactly with out check-in and check-out times at the hotel)

Sunday’s show was “Two Gentlemen of Verona” and, try as I might, I can’t find the name of the theatre company anywhere- the RSC site refreshes as soon as dates are past and I can’t find any trace on Facebook or Twitter. Seeing as they were young people, I probably should check Snapchat or something. Anyway, if anyone knows do tell me and I’ll replace this whole rambling paragraph.

Where the previous’s day show had been fairly true to the text, this one took a  few more liberties. There were interjections that were definitely not in the script but they didn’t take it too far. The characters were dressed as secondary school kids and a blackboard formed an integral part of the staging, including hosting a picture of Crab – the famous dog, who doesn’t do much but somehow still steals the show. It was a clever move making them very teenage because the actions of the characters are pretty inexplicable and this way, at least you could write them off as hormonal teenage idiocy. Especially Proteus, who switches his affections from Julia to Silvia almost instantaneously.

I know the ending to this play is a bit controversial, so I’m not surprised they changed it. After Proteus threatens to assault Silvia, it somehow all works out that he’s forgiven by both Valentine and Julia and everyone gets married. That scene was quite visceral in this version, as was the fight between the boys afterwards so I wasn’t sure how they were going to come back from that. As it happened, they didn’t. The play ended with some new words and Proteus broken and friendless on the floor. I’m not sure how I feel about changing Shakespeare’s plots but I can definitely see why they did it.

After a dark ending, it was time for a random jaunt and we’d been eyeing up the chain ferry since the day before. It costs a pound for adults and 50p for kids, and it takes you across the Avon in a matter of minutes. It wasn’t where we needed to get to but it was a pleasant diversion and, as Eva said, “rather fun”.

That meant a stroll back along the opposite side of the river, taking in the sights and the flocks of “murder birders” as Eva insisted on calling the swans. I was still full from breakfast but Eva was hungry again so we stopped at the street food market for some deep fried halloumi and chips, just as Shakespeare himself would have eaten.

It was around this time that we had our third meetup of the weekend  – a bit of a spontaneous one, to go with the planned one and the complete surprise one. Rob is a guy I lived with at university and it’s relatively rare for anyone who’s lived with me to still be on speaking terms with me so he’s clearly one I should keep in touch in. Also, he was up for accompanying us to the last bit of our weekend – the Shakespaw cat cafe.

Now, if you’ve been following this blog for a while you’ll know how much I like dogs. And there were lots of good boys and girls around Stratford-Upon-Avon so that was great for both me and E. Cats, I could take or leave. But Eva was attracted to their floofiness and for her, it was an essential part of the trip.

We’d tried and failed to book ahead because I didn’t realise that different tables had different time slots available. So top tip – if you can’t find a timeslot, try selecting a different table. Then we timed out cause it wasn’t quite 3 hours before our booking and in the end, we just visited as a walk-in and it was all fine. We sat downstairs in the basement and the cats tended to be upstairs on the ground floor but that was fine. Rob and I sat at our table and chatted while Eva scooted up and down the stairs in search of the elusive floof.

(I realise this photo makes it look like Eva is selecting a cat from the menu to eat. Let me assure you, that is not how a cat cafe works)

There was one particular floofy fella by the name of Hamlet who kept coming over to us. He had one of those squashy, GrumpyCat kinda faces but apparently thought that Rob was his new best friend. I was mainly trying to make sure I didn’t accidentally sit on one.  And yes, they did all have Shakespearean names including a Tybalt who presumably was the King of Cats.

The food was awesome by the way – I had the waffles with syrup and berries and the other two had waffles with lemon and lavender sugar. Eva was pretty drinking the lavender sugar neat. They also served tea in Shakespeare-themed square teapots:

It was a lovely end to the weekend and Rob drove us all the way to Leamington Spa to save us a train. We had a look at historic Warwick on the way and “Leam” itself is lovely – all cream-coloured Victorian splendour:

Even the station is pretty!:

We were very tired by the time we were dragging suitcases back up the steps at Walthamstow Central but it was totally worth it. And this weekend, we’re taking in yet more Shakespeare…but a bit closer to home….

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A Shakespearean Jaunt Part 1 – 15/07/23

Posted on July 19, 2023 by katese11

A few years ago I was reading “The Swish of the Curtain” to Eva and we both enjoyed the chapter where the Bishop takes the Blue Doors to Stratford Upon Avon and Maddie scandalises the dining room by telling everyone that the Bishop was her father and Sandra was her mother. Randomly, I had a photo of that very chapter in my Google Photos. Don’t ask why:

Although I don’t know many kindly Bishops, it did plant the idea in my head that a trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon is something that every budding Shakespeare fan should experience at some point. I think my sister took me there when I was 13, probably to see Midsummer Night’s Dream, and I very much fancied taking Eva there too. I didn’t think we’d ever get round to it but the weekend where Reuben was away and I had no choir gig seemed the perfect time to have a girls’ weekend away and grant Nathan some well-deserved peace and quiet.

I planned to travel light but I never quite pull that off so we had a suitcase each, as well as a bag containing picnic blankets, snacks and a giant umbrella. This would be unwieldy at the best of times  but when there are no trains and we had to cram onto the bus to get to Walthamstow….well, it was lucky that no one lost an eye.

Two tubes later, we were at Marylebone which is a very neat little station and I’m not sure I’ve ever caught a train from there before. They had a Pret, which meant I could get my free coffee, but I didn’t exactly think through how to balance my coffee and Eva’s hot chocolate as well as all the suitcases. Again, we were lucky to escape disaster-free.

Also, this station needs more than 12 cubicles in the Ladies’. Just saying.

We were early enough that we could get a seat on the train without much trouble. I piled the suitcases around my knees so that Eva could have space to drink her hot chocolate. Standard stuff.

In “Swish of the Curtain” they have to take three trains to get from Fenchester to Stratford-Upon-Avon and it takes most of the day. I don’t know where Fenchester is – possibly somewhere near Colchester – but we only needed two. We changed at Leamington Spa onto a line that seemed to be called “The Shakespeare Line”. This was a good sign.

The train stopped at every tiny station along the way, including some that were so small they only had one platform. The weather had been variable during the journey and often seemed to be raining on just one side of the train but it was still looking dry outside when we finally got to Stratford-Upon-Avon.

That did not last. It tipped it down as we started walking and I only had the roughest idea of where we were going because my phone doesn’t do well in torrential rain. So we headed towards the town centre and quickly spotted Shakespeare’s birthplace. I knew our Premier Inn was a few minutes away from that so when I saw the familiar purple sign up the road, I walked towards it.

Well, you would, wouldn’t you?

It was only after we’d left our suitcases there, used the loos and set off again that the nagging doubts set in. Sure enough, I checked my phone – the rain had stopped by now – and it transpired that there was indeed another Premier Inn in the centre of Stratford-Upon-Avon.

It also transpired that I didn’t care that much. We’d sort it out later once we got some food. It would all be fine.

We lunched at Ye Olde Subway because Eva does like a bit of familiarity in new places and I believe it was where Shakespeare first ordered a footlong Chicken Teriyaki and a rainbow cookie. In fact, the Hearty Italian is thought to have been the reason he set so many of his plays in Italy – looking out, as we did, on a rain-soaked Henley Street, that bread transported him to the sunnier climes of Verona and Venice.

We were having similar thoughts but Verona would have to wait for the next day because Ephesus was first on the itinerary. And that’s Ephesus via the Dell Outdoor Theatre, which is just down the river from the town centre, in a windswept Avonbank Gardens. It wasn’t ideal weather for outdoor Shakespeare, as it was fluctuating between blazing sun and the aforementioned torrential rain, but the Sweet Sorrow Theatre Company was persevering with “The Comedy of Errors” against the odds. There was a line about “they cannot hear us above the wind”, which caused great hilarity given the weather conditions but we could hear…just about. The umbrella I’d been carting about certainly came in handy but it turns out we needn’t have bothered with the picnic blankets as there are lovely RSC people on hand to lend you one of theirs.

Eva very much enjoyed the show and knew the story so it didn’t matter that we were a few minutes late. A friend of mine told me that Shakespeare actually wrote his opening scenes to be slightly throwaway so that latecomers didn’t miss vital plot points and that really worked in our favour. Of course, with “Comedy of Errors”, the only real plot point you need to know is that there are two sets of twins and mass confusion ensues. Then you can just sit back and enjoy the slapstick comedy and the goldsmith’s ever-changing accent.

I particularly liked Adriana, who was suitably overbearing and confused and the door prop for the scene at her house was very clever. I couldn’t always remember which Antipholus was which but a detail on their matching pink jackets gave it away – one had it on the right lapel and the other on the right.

Eva had chosen her spring beret to take on the trip with us instead of the usual summer trilby, on the basis that it looked more Shakespearean…and she wasn’t wrong, given that one of the Dromios was sporting one that was near-identical:

After the play, we were meeting my brother and his family for dinner but there was just one problem – my phone was almost out of battery and my charger was in my suitcase in the wrong hotel, which was quite some way away. So I went with the 90s solutions (1590s?) and used the last of my battery to tell him a place and time to meet. We’d already located the Shakespeare statue earlier in the day so that seemed like an obvious landmark, even if none of us quite knew our way around the town.

And, of course, meeting him there but with no way of contacting him if either of us were running late opened up the possibility of hilarious hijinks involving a gold chain. My brother and I do look quite similar and it’s almost certain that someone would fall in love with one of us, believing us to be the other one. I’m led to believe that kind of thing happens all the time in these kind of places.

One thing that did happen was that I got weirdly disorientated and kept finding myself places I didn’t expect to be. It’s probably just an unfamiliar town and bendy ancient streets but I got lost more than I usually do in new places. I’m gonna blame Puck because someone kept pointing those streets in different directions and he’s got form.

Happily though, we did find the family and set off looking for a wheelchair accessible restaurant, which is not easy in a town full of historic buildings. In our crazed wanderings earlier, I has spotted a newer development with a Nandos and some other places. The newness of it suggested DDA compliance to meet and, sure enough, an ASK fit the bill and fit us in. We had a lovely dinner and then a post-dinner walk down to Shakespeare’s grave to let the food go down. We didn’t see the grave itself because it’s inside a church and chargeable btu we did spot the memorial trees for Judith and Hamnet.

In case you’re wondering, we did manage to check into the correct hotel earlier on and even transport our suitcases from one to the other. But you don’t need the dull details of all that. You can just assured that Eva and I did find ourselves a bed for the night. And even bumped into a Highams Parker along the way.

It might sound like we packed a lot in already but there’s more to come….so I might just split this blog post in two. Try not to go too mad with impatience for the second part…For to define true madness, What is’t but to be nothing else but mad?

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Blur at Wembley – 09/07/23

Posted on July 12, 2023 by katese11

It probably seems like everyone you know, who is of a certain age, went to see Blur at Wembley last week. Well, we did too. I’d had terrible FOMO when all my friends seem to be at Pulp the week before so when a chance to see Blur came up, I grabbed it. The way we got the tickets was a little ropey but it worked- that’s all you need to know.

I’ve loved Blur ever since I was 14. Kinda against my will to start with, cause they were indie and someone I didn’t like was into indie. But I was weirdly fascinated by them and by the time of the great Britpop battle of 1995, I was fully bought in and I’d chosen my side. Around that time I remember writing a story – a teen romance where two people bonded over their love for Blur. Two years later, I met an extremely sweaty boy in a Blur t-shirt and the rest is history. Look, he wore it again on Sunday:

It has been washed a few times since that very sweaty first meeting…

So, this was all a bit spontaneous. It involved some cobbled-together and not entirely foolproof childcare plans (school night sleepover, anyone?) but everything fell into place and we were on our way to Wembley.

It’s hard not to feel a little bit awed by the stadium up close. We’ve driven past a million times and seen it from the A406 but it is a bit magic when you’re Right There.

Talking of Right There, that’s exactly where we weren’t in comparison to the stage. We were miles up in the Gods and, although Paul Weller was on stage, it could easily have been Phil Weller of Portsmouth for all we knew.

He did eventually play some songs we knew -“Start” and “Peacock Suit” – which made me think it probably was him. Nonetheless, it felt like it might not be a classic gig experience being so far away. On the flip side though, we were already knackered after a busy weekend so two hours of standing might have been a challenge and also, we were just lucky to be there.

It was almost dinnertime by the time Blur were on and we did discuss nipping to the bar at a strategic moment to get some nachos or something. “But you never know when they’re going to play ‘Popscene'” I mused.

Turns out they played it pretty early on…but I’m getting ahead of myself. First, there was one of the Britpop-era instrumentals as walk-on music. I want to say “Intermission” but I’m not entirely sure. It did give me hope for a nostalgia-filled set ahead though, which was only slightly dampened by their first proper song, new single “St Charles Square”.  I mean, there’s a reason they’re gigging and they’re not exactly gonna ignore the new material but I was craving something a bit more familiar.

“There’s No Other Way”? That’ll do it. And THEN “Popscene”. Alright!

From then on, it was just joy after joy as they romped through the back catalogue. There were some less obvious picks, like “Villa Rosie” and “Trimm Trabb” alongside absolute crowdpleasers like “Tracey Jacks” and “Beetlebum” (poor Beetlebum….gone, but not forgotten). Damon went down to the front row early on and greeted the crowd. It seemed for a moment like they wouldn’t give him back, which reminded us both of Graham singing “Please don’t kill our singer” on the Showtime VHS. But eventually he did make it back to the stage, leaving fans swooning as he did. He might be a self-described old man but he’s still got that certain something….a “twinkle in the eye”, if you will.

Graham got his moment too, with the crowd adoring “Coffee and TV”. It would have been nice to have a few more Graham-led songs, like “You’re so Great” but we’ll take what we can. I know the relationship between him and Damon has been rocky at times but it seemed all sweetness and light that night – all sage tea and kisses. Those boys!

I wonder if Damon was musing on all that history too, as he broke down and sobbed at the end of “Under the Westway”. Or maybe it was just all a bit much. It’s not a song I connect with too much – it was out the year Eva was born, when I was mainly listening to ZingZillas – but it was a very touching moment. After some musical encouragement from Graham, he rallied enough to do a lively version of “End of a Century” and  – as a special treat for us schoolnighters – “Sunday Sunday”, complete with giant oven.

If I had one criticism, it would be that “Parklife” was just too darn fast. Special guest Phil Daniels (gosh, who saw that coming??) struggled a bit to keep up with all the words and there were a few bits missing. Also, I am a little bit terrified of Phil Daniels after his recent “Inside No 9” appearance. Luckily he left his welder’s mask at home or maybe in the workman’s tent he emerged from.

There was a bit of a theme with the Big Hits that they weren’t sung with as much care as some of the other tracks. Damon didn’t bother to sing half the words to the “Country House” chorus and later threw out “boys” and “girls” with seeming randomness. I didn’t overly mind though – those songs weren’t the ones we were dying to see. So while it’s fun to have a song that literally everyone in the stadium knew, it wasn’t as special as hearing something a bit more obscure, like “Oily Water” or “Advert”.

As the sun went down, the gorgeous ballads started rolling out. This is one of the things I love about Blur – they can go straight from a riotous “Song 2” to a heartswoon like “This is a Low”.  The phonelights coming out around the crowd while the sky turned pink was one of those perfect gig moments.

They were off! But not for long cause they still had some big hitters to cover. As well as the aforementioned “Girls and Boys”, there was “For Tomorrow” and then they brought out the London Community Gospel Choir for “Tender”. Weirdly, this was the song that stuck in everyone’s heads the most – even as we walked back to the tube afterwards, there were crowds singing “Oh my baby, oh my baaaaaby”.

My voice was seriously hoarse by this point but luckily I had a packet of corporate-sponsored jelly beans in my handbag, which restored ,me a little.

After “Tender”, the night was almost finished. I know a few people left during “The Narcissist”, in order to beat the rush but they missed out. The concluding song – “The Universal”- was enhanced with mirrorballs, which made Wembley seem truly magical for a moment. It really, really, really could happen. And we were, in fact, in the next century.

Getting home was not so magical. I’d love to say we had a clever way to get around the crowds but no, we were part of the crowd. I’d planned to get some food from the vendors on Wembley Way but they were all shut and we were too far in to go back once we realised.

So we just shuffled, stopped when told and shuffled again. The only mildly intelligent thing we did was to go northbound one stop on the Jubilee line when we did get on the tube.

Rather than fight our way onto the southbound platform, we went to Kingsbury and spent a rather dull 9 minutes there. But at least we got onto a southbound tube, even if it wasn’t the optimal line and even if we still had to fight to get off it when we got as far as Green Park.

But these are minor details and just the kind of irritants you deal with if you insist on going to big stadium gigs.It was worth it. Monday wasn’t pretty but it really was worth it. The love I felt in 1995 has not gone away and, judging by last weekend, a lot of other people share that love too. Thank you D, G, A and other D. See you soon <3

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AquaSplash – 11/06/23

Posted on June 25, 2023 by katese11

It’s taken me two weeks to write about this but somehow my arm muscles are still aching so I’ve had a constant reminder that it is something I need to write about. It’s also a constant reminder that I need to change the name of this blog as AquaSplash is yet another activity that you wouldn’t do with a toddler. The minimum age is 6 and all participants need to be able to swim 25 metres in deep water. Luckily, the toddler is now a competent swimmer and also 14 so we were fine on both counts.

So AquaSplash is an inflatable obstacle course on a lake  – we visited the one in Chigwell. For readers of a certain age, think “It’s a Knockout” in water. For readers of slightly less than that age, think “Takeshi’s Castle”. The Ts and Cs said that you needed to have a certain level of physical agility to complete the course but….well, we’ll get on to that. It was Roo’s choice of birthday treat so I agreed to it but booked myself and the mother of his two friends on to the course as well so we could try and stop the three of them drowning.

Google Maps didn’t seem to think we could get to Luxborough Lake on public transport so my first plan was to get the tube as far as Buckhurst Hill and then order an Uber from there. I’d checked the uber app a few times as I was sceptical about whether it would work in Zone 5 but sure enough, the options were there. The lake is actually close-ish to three Central Line stations but I’d chosen Buckhurst Hill because it was on the Epping branch and there would be more trains going that way than around the Hainault loop to Chigwell or Roding Valley. I felt like this choice was justified when we got as far as Stratford and saw that all the upcoming Hainault loop trains were terminating at…well, Hainault. So far, the plan was working perfectly.

The uber part did not work. Although I got as far as “finalising” a few times, it never did finalise. Maybe it’s because I needed a 6 person car or maybe it was the area but either way, we were out of options. It was time for a mile long walk through some bits of countryside. Incidentally, there is a bus stop at Buckhurst Hill and the 167 turned up just as we’d decided to walk but we had no idea where it went so were reluctant to jump aboard. I’ve just checked the route and that was a wise choice – it goes nowhere helpful. There is a 549 route which is more helpful but that doesn’t seem to run on Sundays. So we walked and it looked a bit like that:

Incredibly, we didn’t take any wrong turns  – following Google Maps in the blinding sunshine can be a challenge and I doubted it a few times when it took us past some people’s garages and down an overground woodland path. Then we emerged onto a rugby pitch, dived into another woodland path and finally found a makeshift bridge over the River Roding:

Once you find the bridge, you’re pretty much there but it can be hard to keep the faith when you’re on a sport pitch, there’s no clear path ahead and one of the party has just walked headfirst into low hanging tree.

We got to the lake just in time. The Uber debacle had set us back a bit and we were already running to a tight schedule after church went on longer than expected. Luckily, we’d done our waivers already so all we needed was to change into our swimmers in the portacabins, get fitted for life jackets and attend the safety briefing. The changing facilities are pretty basic  – I didn’t even see loos anywhere- but we were safe to leave out stuff on a shelf by the lake as it’s so remote and unlikely that anyone would swing by and nick it.

All there was left to do was to swim out to the obstacle course, climb aboard and get started.

Now, one of those things was substantially easier than advertised and one substantially harder. If I say it was the bit which required participants to be “reasonably fit & healthy”, would you believe me? First though, the easier bit. Although the Ts&Cs described it as a 25 metre swim out to the course, it was nowhere near that – it was really just a few metres. But I guess they need swimmers of a certain competence and a length of 25m is a pretty standard competence test.

More than easy, the swim was positively blissful. After a long walk in the sun, it was lovely to splash around in the cool water and I could have happily stayed there all afternoon. I politely let everyone else board the obstacles ahead of me but eventually, I had to try it and this was the challenging bit.

Basically, you have to be able to pull yourself up by your arms only – there’s nothing to put your feet on so the undignified move involves getting your leg up at a 90 degree angle onto the float and then hauling everything else to follow. If you can do a chin up, you’ll be fine but I’m not sure I could do that in the prime of my youth, let alone as a decrepit 40-something. Also, my legs don’t bend the right way. My skinny child managed it with little effort but he has long legs and no body fat at all. Meanwhile, I had to get grabbed by the lifejacket by a lifeguard who must be used to this cause he managed to drag me onto it. No wonder my muscles are still aching though – that was more work than I did 14 years previously giving birth to the child. And about the same level of dignity.

Once on, I tried my best not to fall off cause I didn’t want to go through that again. So I did the easiest obstacles – climbing up the pyramid, back down again, over there a bit, back a bit. Fortunately, the instructors didn’t feel the need to shout at us to complete the course so they seemed relaxed about me being a bit relaxed. I ended up sitting on the widest bit of the course, dangling my legs in the water and supervising the teens from afar as they scrambled over the obstacles. They all did very well and I think they made it rounfd the whole course. The other mother did well too….it was just me that was taking the lazy option.

At one point, she did persuade me to go down the slides which meant a dip in the water (yeh!) but another struggle back onto the course (boo!) The instructor promised to help me after going off to sort out a kid in trouble…I was more than happy with that, bobbing about in the water not even having to tread water because of the life jacket. Again, I could have stayed there all day but he did come back and then I resumed my less-than-frantic assault coursing.

On a serious note (unusual for me, I know) it did occur to me when I went down the slide that cold water swimming can be dangerous if you don’t respect the water. We hear every year during heatwaves about people drowning after they’ve jumped into lakes even tho they can swim and I kinda understand it now. My head went underwater and when I surfaced, my breath was coming out in very short bursts because of the cold water shock. I had a life jacket on and plenty of things nearby to grab onto so 100% safe but it did occur to me that anyone jumping into a lake without a life jacket could find themselves breathless and unable to get their breath back. I’ve done tons of cold water swimming but I always ease myself in slowly, letting my body get used to it and taking as many slow breaths as I can. And even I had that shock when my head went under. Given that we’re in a heatwave right now, it seems like a good time to remind people to respect the water and respect the sea. There is more information here.

Anyway, back to the fun stuff and I’m happy to report that the three boys had a wonderful time. Us oldies had a few aches and pains the next day and maybe for the two weeks after that but it was fun for us as well, I think. I’m not sure I would do the obstacle course again but I am now very keen to join the HP open water swimmers that visit the lake every Saturday. Now seems like a good time to get started.

On the way home, we aimed for Roding Valley as we weren’t under any kind of time pressure, and it was a much shorter walk. We crossed into Essex – I’m not entirely sure where we were before – and wandered over another rugby pitch but found ourselves a nice beer garden before getting back on the tube. Some very well-deserved pints of lemonade and bags of crisps later, we were at this diddy delight:

Yes, we had to wait a while for a train but it was a short hop for us to Woodford and then the bsu back from there. Totally doable!

For more information on AquaSplash, click here.

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A Month of Mayhem

Posted on June 4, 2023 by katese11

In the dying hours of half term, I’m sure we’re all decompressing and being glad that June is now with us. But May was a pretty crazy month for me, even before half term and I’ve got some stuff to share with you that might not even be child-related (shh! don’t tell anyone!).

So, what *did* I get up to May, aside from trying to say intelligent things on conference calls while tween girls scream at “A Hat in Time” next to me? Well, early on I took an epic road trip with C’s Mum and met up with some of the other BLWers. We were all heading for Devon and a beautiful wedding at Ilfracombe’s Tunnel Beaches:

The next day, I spent several hours on rural trains to somehow wind up in Bournemouth with Auntie Savage. We were staying in the same hotel as I’d visited with the kids last Easter but this time we paid £12 each and got to use the spa facilities in the basement. If you’re looking for the kind of things that I like, then a swim in the sea on a gorgeous sandy beach followed by a long soak in the jacuzzi to warm up again is pretty perfect.

I almost forgot what we did on the first day of May, which was a swift visit to the Black Park Country Park near Slough. We were doing a hostage handover with CousinZ so were only there long enough to play in the playground for a bit and then get a coffee. It was very pretty though:

More recently, I had a wild day out in Central London with Holly, Weasel’sMum and Kim. Our initial plans fell through but we had poke bowls and bubble tea and lounged around St James Park, almost getting clobbered by flying objects from charming Italian men. We scored last minute tickets to “Bleak Expectations” which had Robert Lindsay narrating – who I thought of as the guy from “My Family” until I got home and Nathan reminded me that he was also Wolfie “Citizen” Smith. What a legend! It was a very entertaining show which I may review properly at some point but then again, I may not. Do enjoy these pictures of the contrasting entertainment in Leicester Square though – giant transformers and big-screen opera, together at last.

So apart from that, May was pretty quiet, right? Yeah, except for the usual work and church stuff. Oh, and being involved in a complicated choir concert:

Which I followed up the next day by doing a maypole dancing display (I mean, what else do you do at the time of year?):

And along the way, blessing the English Class with some proper LWAT knowledge on London parks and landmarks:

Oh, and one of my kids had a birthday. Did I forget to mention that? It was a really busy month. Roll on June!

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“Science Fiction: to the Edge of Imagination” at the Science Museum – 29/05/23

Posted on May 29, 2023 by katese11

I’m actually kinda reviewing not one but two exhibitions today. But I only physically went to one of them, which was the one in the title of this post – “Science Fiction: to the Edge of Imagination” . I mean, that’s long enough as blog post titles go so if I’d tried to fit in “The Fans Strike Back®: A Star Wars Fan Exhibition” then I think the URL would have been so long that I might have broken the internet. And no one wants that at the start of half term, do they?

I’ll explain a bit – it was the Star Wars thing that first caught my eye as a possible family outing for Bank Holiday Monday. Nathan and I are both working over half term so I really wanted to get some forced family bonding in while we could. But Eva isn’t a Star Wars fan and so wasn’t up for it. That’s why I started looking for alternatives nearby. I considered Dopamine Land but that was closed on Mondays. What I eventually landed on was the new immersive space travel exhibition for me and Eva while the boys went to see Star Wars. Of course, the space travel would have been ideal for the boys as well but maybe they’ll go back another day.

I’ve had something of a transport curse all weekend so I made the family leave Highams Park a full hour before we needed to, *just in case*. Not only did it all work smoothly but we were also treated to a top-quality dog-sighting in the form of a corgi in a backpack. I never normally take photos of strangers or strangers’ dogs but given that this is mostly Reuben’s shoulder and all you can see is a pair of dog ears sticking out, I think that’s OK.

Of course, all this luck meant that we were hanging around South Kensington with time to spare before our time slots. So we went to buy ice creams at Snowflake and perched on the pedestrianised bit of Exhibition Road to eat them.

At least, I thought it was pedestrianised until two cars passed by close enough to have taken our flakes out should we have had them. Turns out that bit of road is a road, even though it looks for all the world like a lovely plaza. The other side has cafe tables out and bollards at the end but the bit outside Oriental Canteen is a through road, according to Google Maps. Well luckily I was having raspberry sorbet and I would never put a flake in that, so we were OK. Also, didn’t lose our legs in the process.

From there, we split into our two groups and Eva and I headed to the Science Museum. We booked free tickets for entry between 15:30 and 16:00, with our exhibition tickets at 16:15. Again, I’d built in time for delays (queues, bag checks etc) and again there were none so we had a bit of time to fill in.

The exhibition was on the first floor, near the stairs at the front of the building – just follow the orange and yellow lines:

Next to it was something that hadn’t been there last time we’d visited  – I think it’s called “Technicians”. So we hung around there for a bit, as well as visiting the sci-fi gift shop so that Eva could buy Reuben a birthday present.

There was actually much in the way of fun to be had. Eva did the quiz on the screens which selected some technical careers that might be suitable for her – she got “Games Designer”, which made her very happy:

She also got to try her hand at CAD for wind turbine blades, which did not go well, and lighting design, which did. This the set that you can design the lighting for:

I didn’t see where it was from but, given that the post-production activities in the same room were from Black Panther, I’m guessing it might have been Shuri’s lab? It was fun choosing the right colours and levels and “Ed”, the virtual lighting director commended Eva on her choices.

Then it was time to go to the thing we’d actually planned to go to. We had to wait outside a large pair of ominous-looking grey doors until we were called forward and taken on a flight to an alien spaceship:

We then walked through several different decks, which were all full of memorabilia from sci-fi movies and TV shows. There was a solid plot device reason for why an alien civilisation had a costume from Star Trek in a glass box but I can’t quite remember what that plot device was.

You’ll see what I mean when I say the boys should have come with us. The first thing I saw was a suit from “Sunshine”, which Nathan rewatched just two days ago. But Eva is quite space-savvy too and only bemoaned the fact that there was no travel poster for her “favourite planet”, Kepler-186f. I think this is what she’s referring to but there were some very close substitutes, such as the one for Kepler-16b:

I don’t want to include too many spoilers as it’s something that should be explored first-hand really. But it was a slightly odd mix of movie museum and space-LARP. It worked though. There were bits of narration from the ship’s computer (not Norman Lovett…boo!) as we went through and some interactive screens which told us stuff like Eva was pretty much a cyborg already so might as well get some bionic legs. They would have come in handy if those cars really had come much closer earlier on.

Both of us thought the best bit was exploring ice caves on an alien planet, which was pretty much safe. Eva claimed the atmosphere made her cough but I think she might have been method acting.

The whole thing probably took us around 40 minutes to get through. It might have been longer if we’d looked at everything more carefully and also, there were some activities that were occupied and Eva didn’t want to wait for them to come free. So we may well have spent longer in there in different circumstances.

It was good timing though, cause the boys had just finished at Star Wars and had walked up to meet us, booking their free entry tickets on the way. We spotted them from above and thoroughly confused them before by calling down to them. It was Roo who figured it out first.

I think they had a good time at their exhibition. Again, it had taken less time than the website had suggested and I think they walked through twice. But then they didn’t go for the added extras like the VR experience. They did get some good photos though, which I’m going to share with you without much context cause…yknow…I wasn’t there.

Once we were reunited, we wandered through the very familiar ground-floor Space room and up to “Who Am I?” on the first floor. There, Reuben made sure to leave his mark:

Eva and I hung out at Pattern Pod for a bit, which she is definitely too old for but it was gone 5PM by this point and there weren’t too many toddlers for her to step on. Besides, this disco cave never gets old:

Then it was time for some Five Guys fries (where else?) and a long tube journey home. But it was a fun afternoon out. As Eva said of the exhibition – “Cool. 10/10. Would visit again”

Can’t ask for more than that, right?

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“The Wolves in the Walls” at Little Angel Theatre – 20/05/23

Posted on May 21, 2023 by katese11

We have a bit of history with this particular production. When I received the invite, I had a weird feeling of deja vu and when I checked back, my suspicions were confirmed – we were due to go and see this at Little Angel in March 2020.

Reader, we did not. We did pick up a copy of the book at Little Angel when we went to see The Paper Dolls in February 2020 and, as I was dithering over Eva really would be brave enough for it as a very sensitive 7-year-old, lockdown fell. Now, there was no question – as a just-11-year-old she’s not much braver than she was before but she does think that all canids are adorable and that includes wolves.

First though, we had work to do. It’s the 6-monthly cleaning day at church and if we left home early, we could squeeze in some token leaf-sweeping before the show. However, Essex Road was closed and so we had to walk the last bit which meant we that our leaf-sweeping was very token indeed. We then walked the next bit to Little Angel as there were no buses but it’s only half a mile and it was a lovely day for a walk. Especially cutting through the very scenic Asteys Row rock garden:

So the show had a three year build up and that’s a lot of expectation. Did it meet those expectations? I’d say so. The description warns that “there is a slightly menacing atmosphere which builds up throughout the show” and it is definitely one of the darker shows I’ve seen at Little Angel. Whether your child is troubled by this will be influenced by whether they consider the wolves to be beautiful doggos or not and Eva certainly did. As soon as the wolf puppets burst out of the walls, she burst out into coos of adoration even though they were toothy and evil-looking.

I’m getting ahead of myself tho. The story starts by establishing Lucy and her family – her jam-making mother, tuba-playing father and obsessive video-gaming brother.  Each of these characters has a song to introduce themselves and their motivations, none of which involve believing Lucy about the wolves living in the walls. All of them give her the same cryptic warning tho – “if the wolves come out of the walls, it’s all over”. Helpful parenting at its best.

I liked the use of the screens as the walls, with yellow wolf eyes projecting through as Lucy slept. There was also some use of silhouettes to create the feeling of being watched. It was creepy but not terrifying although younger kids might find it tricky (the age recommendation is 6 plus)

The Wolves in the Walls at Little Angel Theatre 2023 cast – Photography by Dan Tsantilis

 

In some Little Angel productions, the humans interact with the puppet character but in this show, the puppeteers took more of a background role, allowing the puppets to really take centre stage. As ever, the ensemble worked smoothly to change scenes and make the puppets move around the set but the story was all told through the puppets rather than the humans behind them.

The first half of the show was a slow build of suspense but then it took a turn towards comedy when the wolves burst out. Eva was laughing hysterically as the wolves donned tutus and did ballet and acrobatics.  She wasn’t so happy when the humans fought back and biffed the wolves on the nose…but she will always support the canids over the humans. She also thought the wolves were better tuba players than the humans.

The Wolves in the Walls at Little Angel Theatre 2023 cast – Photography by Dan Tsantilis

There was plenty of tension – like when Lucy was trying to rescue her precious pig puppet from beneath a sleeping wolf – but lots of lighter moments too. I liked the use of antique maps and graphics as the family discussed where to move to (tho I’m pretty sure there are wolves in the Arctic Circle). It was a really visually pleasing show and there always seemed to be something to catch the eye. Eva had to reassure me that the music score would be OK after the wolves go to it tho (spoiler: it wasn’t)

The Wolves in the Walls at Little Angel Theatre 2023 cast – Photography by Dan Tsantilis

So, a fun show that combines dark tension and slapstick comedy which will entertain your mid-aged kids  – I would agree with the age recommendation. And watch out for a twist in the last few minutes….

“The Wolves in the Walls” is on until 23rd July. Click here for more info and tickets.

Disclaimer: I received free tickets in exchange for a review. All opinions remain honest and my own. 

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The Most Matilda Weekend

Posted on May 1, 2023 by katese11

Ever since the movie version of “Matilda: The Musical” came out earlier this year, Eva has been kind of obsessed with it. So for her birthday, I promised to take her and CousinZ to the theatre show. It was only after I’d booked the tickets that I got a well-targeted sponsored ad on Facebook for a singalong version at the Prince Charles cinema which was the same weekend. I dithered a bit about whether we could do both and then i asked Eva, who assured me that there was no such thing as “too much Matilda”. So with CousinZ in tow, we headed to Leicester Square on Saturday lunchtime and did some sensible things.

Ah wait, no we didn’t. We spent a ridiculous amount of money on M&Ms instead. My bad.

But then we went to the cinema, after very excitingly bumping into a friend from HP in the queue.

As with most singalong events, there were certain cues we were meant to follow and a bag of tricks to go with them. Our host rattled through them all, as well as getting us to practise our lines for “Revolting Children” and our dance moves for “The School Song”. Not that Eva needed to practise her lines because she’s been running them for months already.

I don’t remember all the props and cues but we certainly had to boo and hiss for the villains of the piece and cheer and “Aww” for Matilda and Miss Honey. A slowly deflating balloon was used for Bruce’s extended belch and a little clapper toy was used for…pretty much everything really. We sang along with gusto but didn’t get up and dance like we were meant to because no one else was. I think we were a bit confused about what to do when. We remembered the actions though.

After the film, we had a wander around Trafalgar Square and down to Victoria Embankment Gardens with a little stop on the way to pick up some fries from the Five Guys in Villiers Street.

I haven’t been in these gardens for ages, except for a brief walk past on my way to a conference in December when they looked….Decembery:

From our days of going to church on the Strand, I remembered them as being quite nondescript but they were in beautiful full bloom yesterday, with the kind of flowers that attract influencers like honey bees:

We sat and ate our fries in the glorious sunshine for a bit before heading home to prepare for the second part of our weekend. We were treated to a rowdy version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the Circle Line by a stag party but, as we told CousinZ, this was pretty standard for London.

Sunday dawned and the girls were up and raring to go, despite a late night filming fashion videos. For Matilda Part 2, Eva was in costume as Hortensia:

A church service and very quick picnic in Highbury Fields later and we were back in Leicester Square, heading for the Cambridge Theatre.

We were running a little late so no time to take photos of the giant flowers and corgi murals along the way but we made it to our seats just in time even with a loo trip that involved a very long queue (who knew there would be so many small children at a kids’ theatre show?)

The stage version of Matilda is kind of a halfway house between the book version and the new film version. There are some elements that are in the book but left out of the film – like Matilda’s brother Michael – and some elements that are neither in the book nor the film – like the appearance of the Bulgarian mafia and the emphasis on Mrs Wormwood’s salsa competitions. There were also some songs that didn’t make it into the film, like “Telly”and “Loud”. One thing that the film missed out was the reprise of “Miracle” as the children are walking through the gates of Crunchem Hall, which makes the first line of “School Song” make a lot more sense as it references the line “I am a princess, I am a prince”.

Talking of “School Song” – this was one that I didn’t see working on stage as well as it did on film but the choreography around the gate was so sharp that it worked brilliantly. The letters were on blocks pushed through the gate and spotlit as they were sung. I think all three kids said it was their favourite bit.

In fact, all the sets were really clever. The desks rose out of the floor and the bookshelves swished together to form different scenes. The swings that come down during “When I Grow Up” were used almost as a dance and it was beautifully done, even if it did make me feel anxious. I mean, what parent doesn’t feel anxious at seeing kids standing right behind a moving swing?

The kids all knew what they were doing though. They were brilliant actors, singers and dancers – so much so that Eva leaned over to me and said “They must have really dance lessons at Crunchem Hall”. I’m not entirely sure which Matilda we saw but I think it might have been Victoria Alsina. She had a very strong and pure singing voice and sounded just like you’d imagine Matilda to be. We were a little too high in the Gods to see all her facial expressions but, as far as we could see, she looked like Matilda too.

I’m not going to do a full review of this show as, for once, I was there for leisure rather than on a review ticket but it really was a very special afternoon out and I would definitely recommend it if you have a child who’s as obsessed with the songs as Eva is. CousinZ was not as obsessed before the weekend but I think she might be now.

Afterwards, it was time for yet more Five Guys fries – we do eat at other places, I promise, but Eva was in the decision-making seat. And then we wandered through Chinatown, to show CousinZ the sights:

Then up through Soho, neatly dodging some of the dodgier shops, and through Greens Court where there is now a terrifying fancy-dress shop where you can buy dolphin heads:

Lastly through Carnaby Street, where Reuben tried to pose his Five Guys cup as the gold at the end of the rainbow:

(If I’m not sponsored by Five Guys already, I reallllly should be by now)

And past the back door of the London Palladium where Roo made a joke about watching the ET trailer:

Before collapsing onto the Victoria Line at Oxford Circus to get home.

So, two full-on Central London days with a clutch of children….it was exhausting but I think everyone enjoyed it. I’m glad we did the singalong first as I’d warned Eva not to sing along at the theatre or she might get ejected, Bodyguard-style.  That’s why it was good to get it all out of our systems the day before. I don’t know if the Prince Charles is planning on making this a regular event but they definitely should  – it was so much fun. Just remember not to go *too* mad in M&M’s world or you might not be able to pay the mortgage next month….

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Musical Theatre Rave – 02/04/23

Posted on April 7, 2023 by katese11

OK, I’m finally ready to blog about Sunday night. It’s been a busy old week with the Globe on Monday, office and an overnight visitor on Tuesday, Twist Museum on Wednesday and trying to catch up on work on Thursday. So today, when all I’ve had to do is sit in a reclining seat and watch heroic types beating up monsters, I finally have a bit of brainspace to tell you all about the Musical Theatre Rave.

I know – digest that for a minute. It’s not a concept I was familiar either but it’s what it sounds like  – a clubnight where the only tunes played are from musicals. This is definitely my kind of thing so when Bob’s sister invited me, I was more than up for it. As long as I booked the Monday off work, of course.

The rave is hosted by G-A-Y at Heaven, which confused me slightly as back in the day G-A-Y and Heaven were two separate clubs. But I’ve been off the scene for quite a long time so apparently I’ve missed some things. Heaven has not changed much since I last visited in the early 2000s though and thankfully, it was still as welcoming as it ever was…even for a party of straight girls. The only major change is that you don’t get a physical cloakroom ticket anymore and have to take a photo of your number. Now, that’s technology.

Technology had changed a few things actually. When we first got there, the dancefloor was packed but no one seemed to be dancing – just standing around chatting and taking selfies. I wasn’t sure what kind of age range a musical theatre rave would attract but it was packed with trendy young theatre kids. I guess shows like “Hamilton” have made musicals cool again and let’s not forget that this is a generation that grew up on “Glee”. I definitely remember it being uncool to like musicals a few years ago (not that it stopped me) so I’m glad the carousel has turned again.

We found a dark space at the back to limber up a bit to the theme from “Fame” but decided to join the main crowd when our host for the evening – Benjaminge – appeared on the stage. Benjaminge was there to tell us not to rain on her parade but also to introduce two West End stars who’d be performing for us. They were both super-adorable and tiny, especially when compared to the towering heights of our host.

First up was Grace Mouat:

Who performed “Hit Me Baby One More Time”, in “&Juliet” style. She then sang one of Katherine of Aragorn’s songs from “Six”, which was immensely popular with the crowd. In fact, anytime that musical was mentioned, the kids went wild. There was a bit of a generation gap because it’s not a show I’m at all familiar with and the songs are a bit too pop for my taste. But don’t worry – we found plenty of common ground.

Next up was Blake Patrick Anderson, who sang “From Now On” from “The Greatest Showman” and had the first proper crowd singalong of the night as we all hollered “And we will come back home!” back at him. He also sang a really sweet song called “Michael in the Bathroom” about being too shy to talk to people at a party.

Shortly after that, our group  decided to move to the side of the dancefloor that was closer to the bar  and a bit cooler. As I was off in the loos when they decided to move and they waited for mt to come back, it involved performing a tricky manoeuvre where I needed to push through people to get back to our group and then push back past the same people again. Luckily it was while they were playing “You’re Welcome” from “Moana” so as I went, I kept up a manic grin, made eye contact with people and shouted about killing eels and burying their guts. It seemed to defuse the tension.

Ah yes, Disney was indeed an area of common ground between us oldies and the younger folk. There was a lot of Disney played, most of which doesn’t exactly qualify as musical theatre because not every Disney film has been on Broadway (although it sometimes feels like it). So as well as Disney-based show songs (“Lion King”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Frozen”) there were several which were really just Disney songs (“Encanto”, “Little Mermaid”, aforementioned “Moana”). But of course I sang along with them all anyway. Sadly we were at the bar for “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” but we had a good singalong with everyone else who was there at the same time.

Weirdly, Eva looked at me like she didn’t believe any of this when I told her the next day. She was a bit sceptical that I’d been up half the night dancing to Disney songs in a gay club. I took a few videos to show her though, as I suspected she wouldn’t think it was real. I also think she’d love to go to one of these if there’s ever an under 18s version, especially when the whole dancefloor was shouting about being revolting children as one voice.

I don’t remember exactly what happened when. Not because I was drinking – I only had two drinks all night, to minimise loo trips  – but because it all seemed like such a surreal fever dream that, like Eva, I’m not sure any of it really happened. I do remember the crowd going absolutely wild to “One More Day” to the extent that the DJ turned off the track for the last 30 seconds and we just belted it out. “Let it Go” also got a great reaction, and there were people up on each other’s shoulders for “Defying Gravity”.

Some of the older songs did seem to get a muted reaction. Barely anyone was dancing to “Spoonful of Sugar”, which is practically an insult to the divine Julie. And “Sweet Transvestite” also didn’t hit in the way I’d imagined it would in a gay club. I assume it’s because the terms used are kinda outdated and the younger people felt uncomfortable singing them. But there’s no denying that “Rocky” was hugely influential so I was surprised it wasn’t more popular . I am definitely an old fogie though.

For the most part though, everyone was dancing to pretty much every song except maybe the full-length version of “Bat Out of Hell”. The biggest cheers were definitely for the newer shows like “Heathers” which I haven’t seen because I think I’d miss Christian Slater too much. And of course “Six”, which provided the soundtrack to one of the night’s biggest moments – the lipsync battle between Emma and Harvey:

It was a tough decision for the judges as both contestants were superb but #sorrynotsorry, I was Team Emma all the way. Her lipsynch was just perfect although Harvey’s high kicks were hard to overlook. I think the track was “Don’t Lose Your Head” but I might be wrong.

It might sound chaotic and surreal but it really was an excellent night out. I left at 2, an hour before the end, and got to bed at about half 3 before jumping out and taking the kids to Harvester brunch. No wonder I’m still tired four days later….

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