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….

Tickets for the next raves are already on sale! Click here for more info.

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Twist Museum – 05/04/23

Posted on April 5, 2023 by katese11

I realise I still haven’t told you what I did on Sunday night – and I will tell you because it’s not often that I do anything remotely hip – but I have something else to tell you about. The Easter holidays are in full flow and I was off work today so wanted to take the kids on an adventure.

All adventures need fuel and we started out at the Mood Lift Cafe near Highams Park station. We had Yorkshire Aunty staying so had to stoke her with red meat before dispatching her back to Leeds. Reuben and I also ordered breakfast baps and Eva had her customary Eva-brunch of scrambled egg, toast, halloumi and hash browns. All the yellow things. Plus some bubble tea, which we’d be carrying around for the next few hours.

Then we took Yorkshire Aunty to Kings Cross and hung out a bit by the canal because the Harry Potter shop had a queue outside and we didn’t fancy that, especially as I wasn’t planning on spending any money in the Harry Potter shop. Still, it was a pleasant day for sitting outside on the fake grass even if Reuben spent most of the time trying to use the fake grass to generate static electricity and shock us. And he was successful. Ouch.

We also spotted this family waiting area which looks a fun place to hang out if we ever need to actually catch a train from Kings Cross. There’s a slide, comfy seats, a model railway and little waiting huts:

After we dropped the spare at Platform 6 and no quarters, we hopped back on the tube and got to Oxford Circus with an hour and a half to kill before our timed entry to the Twist museum. So we wandered around Kingdom of Sweets, again with no intention of spending any money.

And the Disney Store, with a similar lack of intentions. But it was a great place to entertain the kids for a while, especially with the Marvel/Star Wars/Lego “fan zone” upstairs, which was more to Reuben’s taste than the Disney Princess sections:

Then we went to Pret on Vere Street and actually did spend some money on snacks and drinks although of course I got my prepaid coffee. And Eva was still clutching the bubble tea from brunch, so it was an economical trip. It’s a decent sized Pret as well, with lots of seating downstairs and a customer toilet, albeit one where you have to track a staff member down and get the code before you’re allowed in.

By the time we’d finished caffeinating and energising ourselves, it was almost 2pm and our tickets for the Twist museum were for 2:15 entry, with the advice being to arrive 15 minutes early. I think we timed it pretty perfectly. Just to manage expectations after a friend misheard our destination – this is the *Twist* museum, not the Crisp museum. There were no ancient packets of Walkers on display.

The Twist museum is a few doors down from where I used to work, which probably won’t help you find it, but it’s also a couple of minutes’ walk from Oxford Circus, on the same side of the road as H&M. You can spot it pretty easily from the outside:

It looks tiny but the museum is all downstairs. Before you go in, there are lockers and a place to hang coats – the FAQ suggests that all food and drink is left in the lockers but this wasn’t particularly enforced. Probably a good idea to leave as much as possible in the lockers tho, as there are things you’ll need to climb into and you do not want to be dragging a picnic around when you do that. The lockers also seemed to have an issue with the unlocking codes but the staff were very helpful and unlocked it for me when it was time to leave….so don’t worry if you put a code in and it doesn’t unlock. Just be prepared to describe what’s inside the locker and be able to prove that it’s yours.

Anyway, enough of the admin – onto the exhibits! The gateway to the museum is this jaunty corridor:

And the first room makes everyone look like they should be in the Simpsons:

I won’t go through every exhibit as I don’t want to give too many spoilers for anyone else who wants to visit but here were some of the highlights.

The human-size kaleidoscope:

The infinity boxes:

The illusion rooms:

And the seat illusion, where you could have one giant child and one tiny one (I mean, I have those already but you could choose which is which):

These were the big ticket items but there were so many other things to look at as we went through – classic “which square is darker?” and “which line is longer?” illusions, along with a sound lab with some auditory illusions and even a sensory exhibit with hot and cold pads to touch (although the warning about “feeling painful” might put you off this one)

It was fairly crowded and a lot of the exhibits involve being a certain distance away to make them work. So there was quite a lot of people walking backwards into people to try and get a good photo or to see a magic-eye type picture come to life. But everyone was terribly polite about it and seemed to be very understanding. The illusion rooms had short queues to get into but again, everyone was very ordered and polite about it. Thinking about it now, I don’t remember seeing any staff members within the exhibition rooms so visitors did have to self-organise to an extent but it all worked fine. It took us an hour to go through, almost exactly, and it is fairly expensive for the amount of time you spend there but everything in London is getting more expensive all the time so that’s to be expected.

There isn’t a cafe but there is a vending machine and a small gift shop. Eva had asked this decision maker whether we should go and find food after we left and it said “yes”:

So where else but Five Guys Argyll Street for a pile of fries the size of our heads?

And then back home before the tubes got too rush-houry. This annual leave mlarkey is exhausting isn’t it? Lucky I’m back at work tomorrow!

For tickets and more information, click here.

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“The Tempest” at the Globe – 03/04/23

Posted on April 3, 2023 by katese11

Photography by Manuel Harlan, taken during an integrated BSL performance

 

I’ll start this post by saying that I am very, very tired today. I’ll explain the reason in a separate post because it definitely deserves a separate post but needless to say, it was a very tiring reason. But nothing bad, don’t worry.

Still, I needed a lively kind of show to keep me awake this afternoon and luckily this production of The Tempest promised punchiness. It’s a kid-friendly version (Year 5 and up) which comes in at a pleasingly economical 90 minutes. I’m not super familiar with the original text  – I certainly don’t know it off by heart like I do with Midsummer Night’s Dream – but I assume it was abridged and some of the extra nobles and sailors cut out of the plot altogether.

The other thing that was going to keep me awake was coffee. I made an offhand remark to Eva about how there would be around 10 branches of Pret on our walk from Liverpool Street to the Globe and from this offhand remark, we ended up using a random number generator to decide which of these 10 we would get coffee from. The randomly generated number was indeed the number 10. Which sounded like there would be a lot of walking and not a lot of caffeine to fuel it. We cracked around Pret#6 and stopped at this one just north of Southwark Bridge, with lovely views of St Pauls.

Feeling suitable re-energised, we headed over Southwark Bridge and then along the South Bank to the Globe. We had seats in the Lower Gallery, including cushions which we picked up just outside Door 2.

It took us a little while to figure out where we were supposed to be sitting. Turns out that each section of the gallery has a letter  – Bay A, Bay B etc – but every row also has a letter. So I was convinced we were in Bay E but no, we were in Row E in Bay H. It’s a little complicated to get around because there were so many people in the standing area but I guess that’s a positive reflection of how popular the show. And on another positive note, we had great seats – directly in front of the stage, shaded from the sun and with a wall behind us to lean on. Perfect!

It was a beautiful day for outdoor theatre as well. The Globe performances carry on in rain and shine – presumably they would carry on in an actual tempest – but the lack of rain made for a very pleasant experience. For those who were finding the sun a bit much, there were stewards handing around caps made out of cardboard that acted as a sun shade. They really think of everything.

Photography by Manuel Harlan, taken during an integrated BSL performance

My knowledge of The Tempest is mainly from the chapter in “Curtain Up” (I refuse to call it “Theatre Shoes”) where Sorrel plays Ariel. But it’s enough to know what I think the characters should be like – Prospero domineering and stubborn, Caliban comical and pitiful, Ariel strange and ethereal. And I would say that all these characteristics were on show today, with David Hartley’s Prospero looking a bit like The Dude but an irritable and all-powerful version. Caliban was pretty spot on too – it’s a hard balance to pull off pitiful without being whiney but Archie Rush manages it. Charlie Cameron’s Ariel was certainly strange and ethereal even if her voice did remind me of Miranda Richardson. Her costume was gorgeous, especially the wings  – when pressed, Eva decided that Ariel was her favourite character and I can see why. After all, Eva quite strongly identifies with the fae folk and may actually be part-fairy. She was wearing her own version of Ariel’s wings  – a long, shimmering piece of material that once acted as a curtain in my student house and now makes a credible cloak:

Of course, she isn’t basing her knowledge of the play off a 1940s novel…being a bit of a Shakespeare nut, she has read the original and was scornful of me for not doing so.

Photography by Manuel Harlan, taken during an integrated BSL performance

The costume design throughout was bold and striking. The sun made everything look brighter and combinations like bright orange and hot pink were almost blinding at times. But I said I wanted to be kept awake, right?  The occupants of the ship were all in fairly conventional clothing – bright but not outlandish – which contrasted with the more unstructured look of the island folk. Caliban and Ariel both wore tight fitting sparkly caps, which linked them together as Prospero’s slaves and Miranda (Bea Svistunenko) wore a dress and ripped jeans that were sparkly and a bit otherwordly. The nobles, on the other hand, had a much sharper look especially Gonzalo (David Ijiti) who sported tailoring that even Tan France would approve of. He also had some very sharp dance moves.

Photography by Manuel Harlan, taken during an integrated BSL performance

As well as being a bright and colourful production, it was also a very physical one. Right from the start, the actors grapple with one another as they portray the ship being wrecked. It almost looked like they were about to fall off the stage but I assume it was all very carefully choreographed. It throws the audience right into the story and gives a real sense of jeopardy, even in the bright sunshine.

I won’t go through the whole play scene by scene because I am many things but I am not Wikipedia. Instead, I’ll tell you what the highlights were – the tender romance between Miranda and Ferdinand (Azan Ahmed), especially the look on Miranda’s face after their first kiss. The comedy scenes with Caliban, Stephano (Aoife Gaston) and Trinculo (apparently also Bea Svistunenko although I failed to notice that it was a dual role). The “not a fish” and “kissing feet” sequences got proper belly laughs from Eva. The gymnastic skills of Ferdinand and Ariel were also impressive. and we loved the bit where Ariel descended from the roof with those glorious wings again. There were a few tweaks to the script where words seemed to be modernised slightly or added in to create moments of comedy. it may have all been done through a switch of intonation but I think there was a bit of reshaping going on, to help the text appeal to a young adult audience. It wasn’t in any way intrusive or detrimental to the original text though.

Photography by Manuel Harlan, taken during an integrated BSL performance

There was also a bit of gender swapping worked into the script, with a Queen of Naples instead of a King – this switch was only noticeable when there was a line about a “queendom” which didn’t sound quite right. But Emma Manton was so imperious as the ruler that I probably wouldn’t dare to question her. On the nobles side, I also enjoyed Antonio (Zheng Xi Yong) making only the half-heartedest of efforts to look for Ferdinand and the interaction between him and Sebastian (Lloyd McDonagh) as they consider a bit of light regicide.

The production skips past pretty nimbly. At 75 minutes in, Eva asked me what the time was and was astonished that the time had gone so quickly. I was a bit confused because I thought there was an interval and wasn’t sure how much plot could possibly be left. But it runs straight through and certainly my child found that runtime more than manageable. A couple of preschool aged kids in the audience seemed restless towards the end but there were probably just that bit too young.

The venue does add a sense of magic to any Shakespeare production. It was the first time I’d watched a show in the main theatre but we saw Midsummer Mechanicals in the Sam Wanamaker last year and Eva had been to the main theatre before with her BFF.  But it definitely creates an authentic atmosphere, even when the actors are in 90s neons. There can be some logistical issues with a round arena and occasionally the actors were speaking away from us but the acoustics were good and we could hear everything clearly. Playing in the round also allowed the actors to come in through the audience and clamber onto the stage (or not, in Stephano’s case) and there were quite a few moments where the standing audience were able to interact directly with the cast.

We were super lucky to be able to have a poke around backstage after the show. We have a friend in the production crew and she let us have a look at the costumes and props up close as well as stand on the actual stage. I think it was somewhat of a dream come true for the little Shakespeare fan. We went right up to the top of the building and saw the mechanism that allowed Ariel to fly and the musicians’ gallery. It was really cool and totally made Eva’s day. I was amazed by the attention to detail  – even backstage, all the doors are made of heavy oak and the thunder machine is a suitably rustic sheet of metal. We did have a go on the thunder machine and it was so much fun. We also met Azan Ahmed, who played Ferdinand, and he was just so lovely to Eva even though I’m sure he wasn’t expecting to find a 10-year-old fan lurking backstage in her Shakespeare dress.  I’m trying not to make you all jealous as I’m sure my Inside Woman doesn’t want to be swamped with backstage requests but it really was an awesome end to the day.

All that was left was to wander back through Borough and somehow spend a fortune on fruit powder, vanilla sugar and vegan cola bottles. And then a crowded rushhour bus with a tiny dog in a bag but we don’t need to think about that. I’m a bit too tired.

But not too tired to heartily recommend a trip to see The Tempest with your older-primary-aged kids and teens. It’s a great mix of the very traditional setting but a modernised production with plenty of moments that will chime with 21st century kids. It’s onlu on till 15th April but it’s the Easter holidays – what else do you have to do with your time?

The Tempest is playing at the Globe Theatre now – for tickets and more info, click here. 

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

Photography by Manuel Harlan, taken during an integrated BSL performance

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