Family Sword Fighting Demonstration at the Globe – 01/06/24

Posted on June 1, 2024 by katese11

Copyright Pete Le May

Half term may be nearly over but the summer holidays aren’t far away and I bet you’re looking for something to entertain the tween or teen in your life. Well, I have just the thing for you. It helps if your kids are into DnD and/or Shakespeare but luckily I have a Shakespeare obsessive who doesn’t mind a bit of DnD and a DnD obsessive who doesn’t mind a bit of Shakespeare. So a demonstration of Shakespearean sword fighting seemed perfect for us.

What wasn’t perfect was the signal failure at Clapton that meant all the trains were cancelled. We wearily flagged down a 275 and headed to Woodford, via the North Circular – a diversion that adds an extra few minutes to an already lengthy trip.

But the good news is that once we got to Woodford, a Central line train was just about to leave and so we jumped on and were at St Pauls within half an hour.

Plus, we were sitting opposite two small doggos, which pleased Eva. And you get to play the Central line Museum of Illusions game. Where’s your head at, Roo?

None of this left much time for lunch which was, of course, at Eva’s preferred fries dispensary. Happily, there’s a branch just next to St Paul’s so we managed to grab some food and walk over the wobbly bridge in time for the workshop to start at 2. In fact, we had a few spare minutes to wash the ketchup off our hands and relax in the the tent downstairs.

As it happened, the workshop wasn’t in the main bit of the Globe at all but around the corner, at the entrance marked as “Guided Tours Entrance”. We had a few minutes to kill before the workshop started so posed a bit for this photo opportunity:

As per the instructions, I didn’t take any photos during the workshop itself but here’s a press image so you can get the idea:

Copyright John Wildgoose

Our hosts were two actors called Marie and Rob. I believe Marie is also a fight co-ordinator but they both knew a lot about the artform and how swords were handled in Shakespeare’s day. Apparently swords were as common a sight in Shakespeare’s London as cars are today and, like cars, there were varying degrees of quality and prestige. They talked us through four different types of weaponry and at each stage, demoed the weapons with a fight. Occasionally they reminded us to not try this at home and I have tried to re-enforce that with Roo but he seems keen to try out the new knowledge he’s absorbed. Maybe he’ll be able to work it into GCSE Drama somehow. I should also say that the weapons were blunted as they’re stage weapons and they would also have been blunted in Shakespeare’s time.

The first weapon was the Rapier, which was demoed alongside the dagger. As well as showing off their duelling skills, the hosts also linked the different weapons to characters in different Shakespeare plays – from Tybalt vs Mercutio to Prince Hal vs Hotspur. There’s a lot of information but interspersed with the practical demonstrations, which included some very dramatic death scenes. I forget all the types of swords we were shown but Reuben, who was obviously listening well, tells me there were longswords, shortswords and staffs. Plus one which had a Scottish name that none of us can remember but it was used along with a shield in the Scottish play. I should probably pause at this point to apologise to Marie and Rob for the number of times that Reuben said the name of the Scottish play. I think he underestimated just how superstitious actors are.

There was a bit of time for questions and the hosts answered everything we threw at them, such as whether there were any female swords(wo)men, whether anyone in Shakespeare’s company ever died on stage from a swordfight and whether the hosts themselves had ever sustained any injuries from swordfighting. If you want to know the answers to these questions, you should probably just book tickets to go. No spoilers here.

At the end, we got the chance to handle two of the swords ourselves. They were held at the other end by our hosts but I promised the kids I’d magic-eraser the hands out so it looked like they were freely wielding the weaponry. In the interests of transparency, I’ve included both versions here – health & safety version followed by clumsily edited version. No one lost any limbs, that’s all you need to know.

So, here’s Reuben with the Rapier:

 

And Eva with the same, stabbing Rob to death:

And both kids with (I think) the longsword:

 

It was a really fun afternoon out and really interesting to learn a bit about the art of stage fighting. For two Drama students it was a handy lesson and feeds into their special interests as well. It’s probably more for older kids than littlies as the swords are quite heavy and, even in this controlled environment, could be dangerous in toddler hands. Besides, there’s a lot of listening to be done and a basic understanding of Shakespeare comes in useful. But for my two, it was pretty much spot on and it meant we got to see a bit of the Globe we’d never visited before and there were some cool things to see along the way. There’s even a fake but lifesize tree down there:

So definitely one for the older and geekier kids in your life. Don’t forget the (near-obligatory) trip to Spice Mountain in Borough Market afterwards, to stock up on weird flavourings and fruit powders. I didn’t get a photo of Eva’s spoils of war but trust me, our spice drawer is now full restocked.

The sword fighting demonstrations run until 27th October. For tickets and more info, click here

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

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Sunday Sunday Here Again

Posted on May 26, 2024 by katese11

It’s a Sunday afternoon before a Bank Holiday and I am doing nothing in particular but it’s given me time to write about what we got up to the last Sunday before a Bank Holiday. Which was also nothing very exciting but it was un-exciting in a geeky music fan way.

The short version is that we found St Charles Square, which has recently been memorialised in a blur song:

The “why” of this story is a bit longer. Blur have featured on this blog a few times – from a trip to France where I referenced every song on Parklife to actually seeing them in the flesh at Wembley last year (albeit from a long way back). And of course, we have this Parklife landmark just a few minutes’ walk away from home:

Essentially, we found ourselves childfree and directionless in West London that Sunday. Not quite lost on the Westway, but we did at one point pass Under The Westway:

We’d dropped Eva off at a bowling party in Queensway and Reuben was playing DnD with friends in Dalston so we could have just gone home and waited for the chicks to return but we were so close to that Square that I figured we might as well jump on a bus and see what there was to sing about.

Funnily enough, the bus we’d got on the way there from church also had a bit of a blur-themed stop:

From Queensway, we jumped on a number 70 bus which not only passed under the Westway but also crossed Portobello Road, which I think is referenced on a song from “Modern Life is Rubbish”. I did not get a good photo of the sign.

But here we are at the St Charles Square bus stop:

We were on the lookout for the sign in this tweet but  – spoiler – we never did find it. We did walk round the entire square, which is no way a square, and found a few signs but none that matched exactly.

And when I say it’s not a square, I really mean it. These yellow highlighted bits are what is labelled as “St. Charles Square” and yes, we did walk down each of these offshoots to see if we could find the right sign.

And on the unhighlighted bits, we found some interesting Things to See, like this house which is more plant than dwelling:

And this office building, which used to be a furniture depository:

It felt like we were in Hampstead Garden Suburb or some kind of far off village rather than a few minutes north of Notting Hill.

After such a lot of adventuring, we naturally retired to the pub:

And on the way back to Ladbroke Grove happened to catch a band called Phantom Limbs, rocking up a storm on the pavement:

So this might have been the epitome of LWAT “Just Wandering” but it was a fun afternoon’s walk and another pop culture landmark to add to our list, alongside the house from “Spaced” and the phone box from the back of “Ziggy Stardust”. Not bad for a Sunday Sunday walk in the park….

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Legoland – 04/05/24

Posted on May 8, 2024 by katese11

It’s been a couple of years since our last trip to Legoland but as soon as I started planning, I remembered the drill. Harvester breakfast, check:

We still miss the pre-Covid buffet but you can’t dwell on the past indefinitely.

Trolling the kids that we weren’t actually going to Legoland and were planning on staying in Harvester all day for the free coffee refills, check. They didn’t believe us when we tried to tell them that this *is* Legoland, Windsor:

Tickets bought with Clubcard vouchers, check. Parking bought online, check. Ridiculous amounts of snacks, check. Legoland itself did throw us a slight curveball by directing us to a brand new car park that wasn’t there last time we went but that’s OK – we remembered where we’d left the car because it was by the new woodland village that wasn’t there last time we went and still seemed to be under construction. I think the adventure golf by the front gates was also new and the giant letters as we drove in all had new minifigs. Times, they are a-changing.

And for us too there was change afoot – Eva was in charge, given it was her birthday treat, and she asked to turn left at the top of the hill instead of right. Like Zoolander, we never go left so this was a bit of a novelty. Roo had wanted to start at the Star Wars exhibition, given it was May the fourth but sadly that was no longer there. I think I read somewhere that they lost the licence.

On the way, we stopped at the sweet shop by the hill train to buy some refillable cups. We don’t always get these but it looked to be a hot day and the idea of being able to just grab a cold drink whenever we wanted was appealing. It’s £14 per cup, which is steep, but we got two to share between the four of us and that worked fine. It’s ten minutes between refills so we couldn’t exactly share one cup between four like we have done in the past but neither did we want to have to have a full cup each every time we filled up and then all have to be carrying something….so this worked.

With the preliminaries finally out of the way, we were ready for our first activity. And while Eva had Miniland in mind, we found something along the way – the Ferrari-sponsored “Build and Race”. There was a very short queue, which Roo used to add a Lord of the Rings reference to our day:

Then we were in after just a few minutes. The first room is a lifesize Ferrari made of Lego, which I’m sure some punters would spend a long time examining. We had a quick pose and moved on to the building room next door.

We did get confused and think that the idea was to design cars on the screens in this room but the “lights flash” buttons were actually controlling the Ferrari model. The actual idea was to build a mini Ferrari and race it on the tracks:

Sensors would give you your lap time and display it on the screen. One track also had a camera in it for action replays. All very hgih tech but the concept was scuppered by a more low tech problem. Well, two related problems.

The first being a distinct lack of wheels in the brick trays:

A sign near the exit made us think this might be due to light-fingered wheel enthusiasts.

The second problem being that the wheels were quite grippy so actually the cars didn’t roll well down the tracks and rarely made it as far as the sensors. It might be a technique issue but Reuben experimented and found that it worked better to just throw a small stack of bricks down than anything even vaguely car-shaped.

Eva, meanwhile, had located the camera in Track 2 and was using it to rickroll people. Standard tween stuff.

There was also a giant virtual racetrack at the end of the room and you could scan your car to make an avatar of sorts for racing round. That was fun, even if Reuben’s avatar looked like a small pile of bricks, for obvious reasons.

We were in there for about 30 minutes I reckon and it’s not a place I’ve ever noticed before – I don’t know whether it’s new or just out of our usual route but it was good to start with something different and it’s interesting for older kids with an interest in cars and/or the law of physics. You can guess which one my geeky boy leans towards.

Next up, we considered the new Minifig Speedway. Eva talked a brave talk and we even stood in the queue for a bit but after watching the ride a few times, she changed her mind about wanting to go on it. I’m going to say that Nathan and I were both a bit relieved as I don’t think either of us really wanted to go on it either.

So instead, we went for the gentle delights of Miniland and trying to spot the bus that Eva remembered from the “Inside Legoland” TV show. We didn’t spot the bus but did get a photo of Roo in Canary Wharf, where he went for his actual work experience. Actual as in, it wasn’t just a small boy hanging around a Lego version of Canary Wharf and posing. I know – the latter seems the more plausible option, doesn’t it?

And we also got a shot of Eva in her beret by the Eiffel Tower. Hopefully we can get this too in IRL before the end of the year:

Next, we wandered down to the Kingdom of the Pharaohs, where there were more gentle delights on Desert Chase and Thunder Blazer, which are basically just a carousel and a swing ride. But Eva enjoyed them and Roo was game for the “flap your arms to make this work” patter on Thunder Blazer.

Then we went on Laser Raiders, which is an old favourite as it’s not very scary and the kids get to chill out in their own zone while we do the queueing. As we snaked round the queue with the kids out of sight and not much to do, I started frantically refreshing Google on my phone for any news on the mayoral election. No real news was forthcoming but I did reach the front of the queue more cautiously optimistic than when we’d joined. That might be because I downed half a packet of Fruitella and made art out of the wrappers to stop myself draining my phone battery. No, I am not going to share my wrapper-art. Sorry.

We had a quick go on the PS4s on the way out of Laser Raiders and then decided to be a bit more intentional about where we wanted to go next. The queue for Laser Raiders had taken an hour or so and it was 13:30 already so we were slightly running out of time before we’d even really got started.

We decided to go to Mythica, stopping briefly at the loos in Heartlake City on the way. There Eva remembered how much she’d enjoyed the Hydra’s Challenge last year. It was another long queue, so we sat down for a few minutes to have some crisps before joining it.

I decided to let Reuben drive the boat again, slightly against my better judgement. At least I wasn’t feeling as seasick as I was last time we went on this ride but still, I was slightly dizzy afterwards. The announcement said we’d be battling Duo the Hydra, which made us think that this is what happened when you didn’t complete your Duolingo….Duo evolves from an angry green owl into an absolutely furious, two-headed abomination.

Quick, stop whatever you’re doing and complete a sentence about potatoes. You have many of them but you don’t have a cupboard.

Anyway, Hydra’s Challenge is fun but if you’re at the back you’ll get a rougher ride and act as human shield for the blasts of water. It’d be good when it’s hot out but it just so happened that we went on it during one of the only slightly chilly spots of the whole day and I packed waterproofs for the kids but not for me. Ah well, I dried out and warmed up eventually.

As is tradition by now, Nathan took Eva on the Fairytale Brook while Roo and I went on the helicopters. None of us want a repeat of the 2018 incident. But we darn near had a 2024 incident as our helicopter got stranded at the top of the pole and wouldn’t come back down. Much as Roo kept pushing the “down” lever it was not going down and we were pretty high up. When we did go down a bit, it was when a distinct “clunk” and then no more movement.

Nathan and Eva had reappeared after their trip on HorrorBrook so I tried to signal to them that we might be in a little bit of trouble. They didn’t necessarily pick up on my signals and just kept waving cheerily back at us and taking photos. Eventually, I tried turning the helicopter to the left and that got us past the sticking point and back to the ground. Who knew that the Duplo Airport was just as Xtreme as its watery neighbour?

Again, I was feeling a bit motion sick after all that so as we passed the Haunted House Monster Party I mentioned that I was glad Eva didn’t want to go on it because it was the last thing I felt like doing right that moment. Then Reuben clocked that there was no queue at all and Eva suddenly decided that she did want to go on. So I found myself in a disorientating spinning room with a very tight lap bar. The motion sickness remedy that absolutely no one recommends. There was a fair bit of faffing from the staff at the start as well, because the ride wasn’t full and they kept counting spaces and counting again like they couldn’t believe it. I mean we could barely believe it either, as last time we’d queued for an hour. But it did break the spooky atmosphere somewhat to have quite so much fussing. The ride itself was fun and I still can’t quite figure out how they do it. I’m just glad that Eva wasn’t screaming in my ear this time.

I’d promised Eva that we could visit The Hungry Troll at some point, which was a chip shop in Mythica. I don’t normally stop for any meals between Harvester and Heston but it was her birthday and she wanted chips so who am I to deny her?

Turns out I couldn’t deny her but the eponymous troll could. The chip shop had closed already and the statue of the troll with his handfuls of chips was just…well, trolling us really. So we checked the app and set off in search of treasure at Pirate Shores.

Bounty successfully plundered! And despite all my meal-avoiding at Legoland over the years, it seems that buying chips is not actually going to bankrupt us. In fact, they’re cheaper than Five Guys but the portions aren’t nearly as generous. Still, salty fries are one of my recommended motion sickness cures and they worked a treat. So much that I was ready for a rollercoaster, albeit a very tame one.

Oh yeah, Dragon’s Apprentice. That’s about our level. Reuben used the in-queue Lego to leave what is fast becoming “his tag”:

It was gone 5pm by this point but the park didn’t close till 6 so we thought we could squeeze one more ride in. Looking at the app, Hydra’s Challenge only had a five minute queue so guess where the birthday girl wanted to return to? Yes, that’s right – with the weather rapidly cooling down and the sun going in, it was time for the birthday girl’s mother to get soaked for a second time.

I’ll leave you with that thought. Happy family days out…!

 

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“Paws on the Wharf” – 06/04/24

Posted on April 8, 2024 by katese11

So this might be an unusual post for me because I’ve got lots of pictures and not too much to say whereas I normally rabbit on for pages about complete nonsense. This time though, the story is simple – we went to Canary Wharf, we found some fake dogs, we petted some fake dogs. What more is there to say? You wanna get a load of the fake good boys and girls dontcha?

Wish granted! We only got round two of the areas on the “Paws on the Wharf” trail as they’re quite spread out but we picked up all the ones in Jubilee Park and outside the Elizabeth Line tube. At one point, we found a roof garden on top of the Elizabeth Line station, where the map had said they would be two doggos. We never found them but it was a pleasant spot to hang out in for a bit anyway:

And on the way, we also found this wall of mirrors outside the “Illusionaries” exhibition:

There is a lot of public art around the Wharf   – permanent pieces as well as the dogs. Like this giant shiny teardrop:

And this water feature which might be mistaken for a bench if you weren’t looking:

I always think of Canary Wharf as being a slightly soulless, very shiny wind tunnel but there are pockets of green pleasantness – I mentioned Jubilee Park earlier as home to four of the dogs but it’s also a nice place to just wander through and – if you’re Eva – channel Fraulein Maria at the horse fountain. I didn’t get a picture of her water-flicking but here’s the fountain in question:

Jubilee Park also has a shopping centre right next to it, with toilets, a Pret and a Five Guys….all very handy although we tried to get out through the back door and couldn’t so nearly had to live off Pret and Five Guys for the rest of our lives. I don’t think we’d notice a difference tbh.

We did eventually escape back into the fresh air and even had time to pick up bubble tea for Eva from T4 and an armful of random stuff from Flying Tiger (picture frame, pretzels, fake tictacs, ivy-string lights). And don’t worry if this is all sounding a bit too bohemian. There are still plenty of shiny buildings around the place:

See, wasn’t that snappy by my standards? Don’t worry – normal service will soon be resumed…

“Paws on the Wharf” is on until 17th May. For more info, click here.

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“Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank: Romeo and Juliet” at The Globe – 03/04/24

Posted on April 4, 2024 by katese11

A scene from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare @ Shakespeare’s Globe. Directed by Lucy Cuthbertson.
©Tristram Kenton 02-24

It’s funny – when someone mentions a modern-day adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet”, a  lot of people my age will automatically think of the 1996 Baz Luhrmann version. I even saw it mentioned on Facebook just the other day. But it’s depressing to think that 1996 was almost 30 years ago and even that film probably looks dated to today’s teens. So it’s time to reboot the reboot and that’s where this gritty, urban production comes in. The language is (nearly) all Shakespeare’s own but the setting is bang up to date and set in a world that will be sadly familiar to many watching – that of teen-on-teen violence and floral tributes piled up on street corners, decorated with teddy bears and blown-up versions of the victim’s profile pic.

The production notes for this said it was aimed at 13+ kids so I decided to take Reuben with me instead of Eva for this one. He’s studying GCSE Drama so any theatrical input he can get is valuable and he’d never been to the Globe before, unlike Eva who was there exactly a year ago. We had a small diversion to Canary Wharf along the way but timed it perfectly so not only could we swing by Leon for waffle fries and nuggets but we could also bump into the friend who we always seem to see at these kinds of things.

Just a note to say that evening performances do get a little chilly in the open air, even though we were in the sheltered bit. I had packed an extra jumper and was grateful for it by the end. The cushions for the wooden benches are also much appreciated. The show is abridged, so a 90 minute running time but even so, that might feel a long time if it weren’t for the cushions.

©Tristram Kenton 02-24

So, we all know how Romeo and Juliet starts, don’t we? Two households both alike in dignity etc….it’s essentially a synopsis of the whole play spoken from (presumably) a narrator who has seen the ending. What this production quite cleverly did was to frame it as a vigil for the young people lost during the course of the play. Ladies Capulet and Montague held up those larger-than-life size profile pictures while spitting out those classic lines with something approaching bitterness. It put a new spin on something that’s been seen so many times before. And the cyclist doing wheelies in the middle of the audience was entertaining but also set the scene….this was going to be about how real teenagers act and the impetuous things they do. A bike can be used as a weapon when it’s trapping a victim in place and the tricks weren’t just impressive – they were ominous too. The character is listed in the programme as “Fate” and he appears every time a significant moment is about to happen, like a harbinger of doom but in a hoody. It’s unsettling but effective.

©Tristram Kenton 02-24

Right from the first scene, the violence feels real and dangerous. The police have to break up the fight and it’s down to the Prince to implore all concerned to “Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground” – a slogan that adorns the lecturn in almost an electioneering style. Safe to say it falls on pretty deaf ears – if it didn’t, there wouldn’t be much of a story really.

As it’s abridged, there are chunks of dialogue cut out – the characters still bite their thumbs at each other but don’t talk at length about it – and the plot moves on rapidly. Via the medium of phone-snatching, the Montague gang gain their invite to the Capulet party and Romeo evens finds a gold tracksuit for the occasion. The most stylish character is, of course, Mercutio (Ashley Byam) who matches his “dancing shoes with nimble soles” with a pretty groovy gold shirt. In fact, everyone in the party scene is in gold which makes for some spectacular visuals when they’re dancing.

It’s always interesting to see how the Capulets and the Montagues are differentiated from each other, especially when they’re dressed to match. I noticed that Capulet and the Nurse both had Welsh accents and Tybalt had a Scottish accent – I don’t know whether that was deliberate casting to contrast with the London accents of the Montagues or whether it was just coincidental.

If you’ve noticed I’ve skimmed over Juliet’s introduction don’t worry. I’ll tell you about her now. Juliet is a really tricky character to get right as she’s so very young but has to do all the heavy lifting of the plot and much of the verse. So it needs experience but also naivety, which is a difficult balance to pull off. Looking at her acting CV, I’d say that Felixe Forde was a little older than 14 but she does a great job of portraying a young teenager, with all the flippancy and impulsivity that has the character dancing one minute and committing to a lifelong relationship the next. I mean, that lifetime is only another few days but she’s not to know that. She has the teenage attitude and speech patterns but is confident and fluent with Shakespeare’s words. She’s well matched with Hayden Mampasi, who plays Romeo as wide eyed and optimistic almost right to the end. They are a very convincing couple, with good energy and a balance between the tragic and the flippant – just look at them taking selfies in bed when Tybalt’s blood is probably still under Romeo’s fingernails:

©Tristram Kenton 02-24

Speaking of Tybalt, his was another character that felt convincingly teenage with all the anger and damaged pride that comes with your enemies seeming to mock you. Played by Liam King, Tybalt is aggressive and reactive and is beaten into submission by Capulet (Gethin Alderman) to stop him ruining the party. Capulet is certainly played a lot harder in this scene than in other productions I’ve watched – there’s always a suggestion that he’s abusive towards Juliet (forced marriage when she’s still grieving, anyone?) but in this version he’s also abusive towards not only Tybalt but also his wife. The whole family seems to walk on eggshells around him and it’s not surprising that Tybalt then takes his own anger out on Mercutio.

The fight between the two of them is my favourite scene  – isn’t it everyone’s favourite scene? – and it’s well executed with plenty of realistic-looking stage blood. I think this might be where the 13+ rating comes in. Mercutio is cocky right up to the point of being stabbed and even afterwards while Tybalt and his friends are cold-blooded and furious. It is almost too realistic and can be challenging to watch, knowing that it’s being played out on a regular basis not far from here. But it’s an important message and a good illustration of how destructive and wasteful knife crime can be. The only thing that jarred slightly for me is that all the teens still seemed to come from quite privileged families and the reality is that it’s often poverty that forces young people into gang warfare. But there’s no real good way to change that without hugely altering the text so I can understand why it had to be that way.

©Tristram Kenton 02-24

There were a few alterations, like several characters being played by women (Benvolio, the Prince and the Friar). That worked fine for me though as those characters represent the voices of reason in the midst of all the male aggression so it makes total sense for them to be female. I think a few lines were tweaked to accommodate these changes but it was fairly seamless. Roo and I debated the role of the Friar on the walk home because they really make some poor decisions towards the end but they are certainly well-meaning to start with and not the last person to make a crazy decision in the hope of bringing about peace.

While we’re talking about deviations from the script, it would be remiss of me not to mention the hallucinatory sequence while Juliet is taking the draught of living death. I won’t say too much in case of spoilers but if you ever wondered how you’d add a hen party vibe to this scene, there’s no need to wonder any more….it was an interesting addition and in a play that’s so well known anything fresh is to be welcomed. Definitely a touch surreal though.

So definitely a 21st century take on a classic and some purists might find it uncomfortable in parts but I’d encourage you all to go with an open mind. This is a teenage story and it only makes sense through a crazy hormonal filter, which is definitely evident in both the romance and the violence. It’s relatable for teens and young adults and would make a great first Shakespeare for anyone who finds it hard to connect to the more traditional versions. It’s only on for another ten days so be quick though. Booking details are at the bottom.

On the way home, we walked over the wobbly bridge as is fast becoming traditional post-Globe. You just can’t beat these night-time views:

What you can beat is a signal failure at Hackney Downs, which meant no trains home and an interesting diversion on the Stansted Express via Stratford to Tottenham Hale and then a bus home from Walthamstow. What with that and the Canary Wharf trip, my Google Maps timeline for yesterday looked like a toddler had been let loose with a sharpie on my phone. Happily though, we bumped into a friend at Liverpool Street so had company for the crazy adventure. But if you’re wondering why this review is both late and a little vague, that probably explains it. I’m a bit tired. It was a great night out though.

“Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank: Romeo and Juliet” is on at the Globe until 13th April. For tickets and more info, click here.

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

©Tristram Kenton 02-24

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The LWAT Guide to “The LWAT Guide to Completing the London Metro Memory Game…Kinda”

Posted on March 17, 2024 by katese11

So on Friday night I took an unwanted diversion on the Central Line and stood outside Leytonstone tube for 35 minutes waiting for a bus. Instead of relaxing when I got in and never thinking about the tube again, I instead spent an hour twenty recording the video above, which includes all of what I laughingly call “hacks”. Most of them just involve spending a lot of time on the tube but seeing as I’ve documented some of my wildest tube wanderings, I thought I’d link to them here so if anything in the video sounds in any way intriguing, you can see what me and the kids got up to in West London on that day in 2015. Aren’t you lucky?

I realise as I’ve gone through this that I’ve excluded most of the Zone 1 stations from the links. I guess that’s because they’re the kind of places that loads of bloggers visit so not much to boast about. Whereas making it to Amersham or Roding Valley is a bit more interesting. Still, I’ve included some which have sentimental value…like Coram’s Fields or the Science Museum.

So timestamps for the visits I mention start with the Central line I think as I rattle/warble through the Bakerloo pretty quickly. Here you go:

6:40 Holland Park

11:11 Debden

11:33 Epping

11:54 Roding Valley/Buckhurst Hill

12:48 Fairlop

13:00 Barkingside

14:35 Latimer Road

16:24 Barbican

18:59 South Kensington/Gloucester Road

20:21 Richmond Park

20:24 Kew Garden

30:05 Canary Wharf

30:34 North Greenwich

30:50 Canning Town

32:15 Amersham

34:10 Pinner

36:01 Ruislip

36:24 Battersea Power Station

36:38 Morden

36:45 South Wimbledon

37:32 Clapham Common

44:28 Cockfosters

44:33 Southgate

46:42 Finsbury Park

47:21 Russell Square

53:20 Highbury and Islington

53:40 Pimlico

53:54 Brixton

55:08 Westferry

56:00 Mudchute

56:29 Greenwich

59:16 Beckton

1:00:06 Woolwich

1:00:59 Custom House

1:08:38 Gospel Oak

1:08:59 Peckham Rye

1:11:32 Crystal Palace

1:11:46 Forest Hill

1:15:08 Chingford

1:15:16 Highams Park

1:15:49 Maryland

1:18:58 Hanwell

There are many, many other tube stops mentioned on the blog but hopefully that’d given you some context for all this station-memorising. And as I say repeatedly in the video, the best way to learn these places is just to get out on the tube a LOT. There’s plenty to see…so happy adventuring!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“Love From Carmen” at Chickenshed – 07/03/24

Posted on March 7, 2024 by katese11

First things first – happy birthday to Chickenshed! 50 years is an incredible time to be in operation in the arts world and especially so when you’re sticking unwaveringly to your principles of inclusivity and diversity. A quick glance at the interactive timeline in the cafe area shows the sheer amount of love there is for the ‘Shed. And deservedly so.

So congratulations from LWAT and let’s hope that Eva at least is still around to celebrate your centenary. i’m not promising to be there myself.

For such a landmark, you need a spectacular show and “Love From Carmen” was certainly spectacular. It was ambitious – the first time I’ve seen a Chickenshed production almost without any spoken dialogue. There was a lot of rapping and singing but it was operatic in that everything was set to music, often at a frantic pace befitting the urgency and desperation of Carmen’s situation.

I wasn’t overly familiar with the story of Carmen tho I knew the main musical themes from my “keyboard classics” songbook of the 90s. So I could have hummed you “Habanera” or “Toreador Song” before tonight but I couldn’t have told you the context. So I had no idea how faithful to the story this production was but having read the synopsis now, it does seem quite a faithful retelling. And the music is treated with respect as well. At times, I felt like I could have been watching the original opera albeit with updated lyrics. Other times it was a much grittier vibe, with lyrics being spat out by the narrators with that urgency I mentioned earlier. I wasn’t sure how rap would blend with the classical music but it works remarkably well. Transplanting the story into a refugee camp not only made it topical but also gave it that sense of edge and danger that complemented the rap. Being a choir girl, my favourite moments were probably when the whole cast were singing in harmony but I liked the contrast between that and the more dissonant bits.

The lynchpin of the whole story and this show is, of course, Carmen herself and Bethany Hamlin was perfectly cast with just the right amounts of rebellion and romance. I mentioned Bethany in my last review for  – I believe – making us care about a singing alligator and she shines again here. Not only can she sing but she can also rap, dance, act and perform ariel gymnastics.

Oh yes, the ariel work was amazing. Even before the show started, there was a performer doing hoop and silks work and Eva was just gawping. She leant over to me and said “if this was the entire show, I’d be quite happy”. The hoops appeared a number of times during the show and it was impressive every time. It really adds authenticity to the circus setting and I know from Holly’s hooping that it’s blimming hard work. So if these performers learnt these skills just for this show, they did amazingly well.

Michael Bossisse took the other lead role – the narcissistic Escamillo – and he pulled it off well with mostly arrogance but occasional vulnerability. And some of his own circus skills as well. I think I’ve seen him in a lot of Chickenshed productions and he’s always an assured actor. Here, he worked well with Bethany, creating some tangible chemistry but also letting her take centre stage. The other two leads were Cerys Lambert as Micaela and Will Laurence as Don Jose. In some ways, they had less to work with characterwise – Micaela certainly doesn’t seem to get much of her own back story except being a childhood sweetheart of Don Jose. It’s never explained why she wants to be a soldier’s wife – which I believe is also blimming hard work. But Cerys Lambert makes the character sympathetic and her singing voice is perfect, with just the right amount of fragility. When she and Carmen duet on one of the versions of “Habanera” it’s magic – their voices go so well together.

Copyright Chickenshed

Will Laurence really comes into his own in the second act. While Don Jose doesn’t have much to him apart from “soldier” at first, he becomes a lot more interesting once he’s spiralling into a jealous rage. Will portrays that well, taking us with him on the journey from good solder to potential murderer. I also loved the performance of his boss – Jonny Morton oozing evil as the sinister General X.

Copyright Chickenshed

If this all sounds very intense and emotional then let me tell you – it was. This is rated age 11 plus and it really is a more mature side of Chickenshed. There is violence at the end and some language that you probably wouldn’t want your toddler learning. I don’t think Eva would have coped well with this a few years ago but she’s nearly 12 now and she loved it. It reminded me of “West Side Story” at times, with the aggression between the two groups  – the soldiers and the circus people – and it had that same intensity. This story needs passion because it would be flat without it but trust me, this production had passion and danger in spades.

At the same time, there is still lightness and fun sprinkled throughout, with plenty of the trademark Chickenshed high-energy dances where you don’t know where to look because so much is going on. There is still a mixed-ability ensemble who work flawlessly together to create the crowd scenes and there is joyfulness. But this is opera – of course it’s going to end with tragedy. Which is another reason why it reminded me of “West Side Story”. There is an inevitability as soon as Carmen draws the death card that things are going to spiral. The violent scene that is mentioned in the trigger warning is very effectively done and jangled my nerves almost as much as “Stranger Things” did last week. And, as per that same trigger warning, there was nothing graphic in it.

Copyright Chickenshed

I have two special mentions  – one  for the quartet who sang two songs in the second half in beautiful harmony – I think they were “Midnight Song” and “Early Morning Song”. In the midst of all the intensity, those were two very peaceful moments which provided some relief and contrast. The second special mention is for the trio of rappers who acted as narrators throughout. All the rapping in this was right on point but they especially had some heavy lifting to do and were always bang on cue. Nothing about this score could have been easy to master  – fusing rap with Bizet is challenging – but these three made it look effortless.

So a show that’s visually pleasing, musically eclectic and emotionally draining – this is an awesome achievement for Chickenshed’s half century. Do heed the age rating as it is a powerful piece and we wouldn’t want any sobbing three year-olds on the way home. But it’s perfect for your music-loving tweens and teens. Oh, and try the mango and lime ice cream during the interval. It is incredible.

“Love from Carmen” runs until 23rd March. For tickets and more info, click here.

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

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Dreaming of Spires

Posted on March 2, 2024 by katese11

Writing about our childfree jaunt to see “Stranger Things” reminded me that I haven’t yet blogged about our last childfree jaunt –  a couple of rainy days in Oxford over half term. It was two weeks ago so I can’t remember all of the details but hopefully I’ve got the highlights.

We were staying at Voco – Oxford Spires, which was lovely. There was free access to the pool and spa (jacuzzi, sauna and steam room) and the breakfast buffet was extensive. They even had rollmops, which I haven’t seen since living with my Polish friend Rob while at uni. I have not missed them.

Weirdly, we did not go for the pickled fish for breakfast but the fruit, pastries and cooked breakfast were all good.

Plus the hotel had pictures of dogs everywhere:

We were within walking distance of the city centre and there was a route from the back of the hotel along the river but it looked a little…soggy. After the recent storms, it seemed that the Thames River Walk might involve actually walking in the river.

There was a lot of this. What we thought was a lake turned out to be playing fields. It was the rugby posts that gave it away:

The centre of the city was less waterlogged although we did have to cross a river to get there:

And then we wandered around Christchurch a bit:

One of the first things we like to do when we go somewhere new is climb up a tower and look at the views. I don’t know why we do this because I don’t like heights and Eva reallly doesn’t like heights nowadays but we’ve done this in Copenhagen, Alanya and Calais. So Oxford’s version was the Carfax Tower:

And here’s the view from the top:

It wasn’t a huge climb but it was tricky as the spiral stairs were very tight and with little headroom. If Reuben had been there, he would have banged his head multiple times for sure:

Luckily we didn’t get any head injuries but I did get my bag stuck in those railings a few times.

Talking of Reuben, although he wasn’t there it felt like he had a prescence in Oxford:

While we were in that corner of town, we decided to pop into the Natural History Museum to use the loos and also see some impressive dinos:

There was a lot of taxidermy that visitors were encouraged to touch, which I haven’t seen in the London version of this museum. I’m not sure how I felt about stroking the bear who did indeed look very floofy but also very dead.

I’m not sure how Eva would feel about this fox either   – I’m sure she would find it adorable but I don’t know whether she’d want to pet it:

The all-male statues who looked on at the half term hubbub seemed quite appalled at it all:

But really, what do they know?

On the way back through the city centre we found the most ancient branch of Pret I’ve ever visited:

Being from Winchester, I’m not easily impressed by historical stuff but Oxford did have a lot of  nice quirky old buildings hanging around the place:

In the evening, we went out for a romantic Valentines meal at Nandos, seizing the opportunity to aggressively promote chicken-eating while Eva wasn’t looking:

The first night we were there, we’d been too tired from travelling to do much but we did grab a tasty stonebaked pizza at the White House on the same road as the hotel:

There was a very highbrow pub quiz going on but we didn’t get involved because we didn’t want to commit to staying awake once we’d finished our pizzas. That’s middle age right there.

On Valentines Day though, we had a big night planned. Not just Nandos but also a showing of a Rogers and Hammerstein concert at the Odeon. When I say that *we* planned it, I mean that I did. Nathan put up with it.

It was fun! Being a cinema there was no singing along but you can’t argue with a couple of hours listening to songs from “The King and I”, “South Pacific” and – of course  – “The Sound of Music”. I naturally had a few nitpicks around timings for some of the SoM songs but overall, it was very well done. At the end, the cast took their bows to an instrumental version of “Oklahoma” and so naturally that’s been stuck in my head ever since. Which made it very gratifying when that exact bit (“you know we belong to the land”) popped up in the Stranger Things show.

And that was almost it for our Oxford adventure. The next day we had the hotel room until 1pm but Nathan had to work so I spent the time doing more swimming, jacuzzing and lounging around as well as nipping back into town on the bus for another Pret coffee and some spicy chicken from Kokoro. We’d had a massive breakfast so I wasn’t really hungry enough for spicy chicken but it just looked sooooo good. We could have happily spent another couple of days wandering around and checking out the other museums but it was a pretty good use of a couple of days’ annual leave. We didn’t get as far as we did last February half term – the aforementioned Copenhagen and also Malmo – but we didn’t come back with Covid this time either. Win win!

 

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“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” at the Phoenix Theatre – 01/03/24

Posted on March 2, 2024 by katese11

What to say about Stranger Things on stage that won’t constitute spoilers? And if I do spill any spoilers, will a shady government organisation come and make me disappear? It seems likely.

What I can say is that the queuing system was a little chaotic. For reasons best known to myself, we cut through Outernet from Tottenham Court Road and then around the back of Denmark Street, past the stage door of the Phoenix and ended up in this rainy alleyway, where there was a substantial queue already.

I’m always wary about joining queues unless I know what they’re for but a quick recee to the front suggested that yes, this was a queue for all parts of the theatre. Then a guy came past and told us that there was other entrances in Phoenix Street that had no queue so a number of people left ours and went round there. At which point, our started moving quickly but then they closed the entrance. All very confusing but the take-home point is this: If you go to see “Stranger Things” use the entrance on Phoenix Street and not the random alleyway queue.

And that’s all I can tell you. There is already ominous knocking on the door.

You want more? Oh, go on then. I’ll turn up the static on the radio and hopefully we won’t get found out.

 

(Incidentally, if this photo looks odd to you, it’s because I manually rotated it. Ever since Wes Anderson last week I’ve had an urge to photograph things dead on and rotate them if they’re not. Nathan apparently has the same urge)

It is an incredible show. I didn’t know how it was possible to make a theatre show have the same “feel” as a much-loved TV show but they managed it. At times, I forgot that we were watching live theatre because the special effects (moving smoke, slow motion) didn’t seem physically possible. I can usually tell how a play works – even with Totoro, the staging was incredible but you could see the backstage area where the house went to and how it came apart. Here, things just appeared and disappeared with seemingly no movement. I can’t get my head around it at all. Right from the opening – set on a wartime ship – it was hard to believe what we were seeing and hearing, to the extnet that it was almost physically painful at times and certainly nerve-jangling. It wholly pulled you in to the eerie world of Hawkins, Indiana but this time in a 1950s setting rather than the 1980s setting we know so well.

I would highly recommend re-watching Season Four before you go because the story of the Creel family is central to this plot. I didn’t know much about the show before going and thought it was just going to be a standalone story about Joyce, Hopper and Bob getting up to supernatural high jinx at supernatural high school. But the Vecna storyline was very much part of this and although I remembered it, it would have been better if I’d done my homework. I also missed a few subtleties around who the characters were – Alan Munson being the father of Eddie, for example – so pre-immersion is recommended. I also missed that the cat-obsessed Claudia goes on to be Dustin’s mother. I did twig who Ted and Karen were tho, unlike Nathan.

You can totally enjoy this show without having any prior knowledge of the Things verse as it works on its own as a self-contained storyline but I’m not sure why anyone would go to this without having ever watched the show. The big motifs of Stranger Things – the demigorgons and the mind flayer – appear only briefly so if you only had a passing interest, you probably would be a bit disappointed. But for fans, it is very recognisable as the same universe  – from the red lighting to the incidental music to the familiar “teens being disbelieved by the grown ups” scene in the police station. The casting is spot-on  – Joyce (Isabella Pappas) is a dead ringer for a young Winona Ryder, Hopper (Oscar Lloyd) looks like Steve and Bob (Christopher Buckley) does have a real Sean Astin vibe going on and no, we are still not over that scene where he met his end.The casting directors are lucky in a way because if you need to know how Winona Ryder or Sean Astin looked and spoke when they were teens, there is a whole host of source material. But also that’s a lot of pressure to find actors who can play such iconic parts. They did an amazing job.

The actor who played Henry Creel (Louis McCartney) is especially good. If you haven’t watched Season Four and are planning to, skip over this cause…yknow…major spoilers but this is a very complex character and going through all those emotional shifts night after night must be exhausting. It’s never clear in the show whether Henry is inherently evil or just possessed and this play doesn’t really clarify that  – although the implication is that something happened to make him this way. It’s an intense internal struggle but here it’s pulled off immaculately.

I did have a nitpick at the midway point but I retracted it by the end. I wondered how Hopper, Joyce and Bob could possibly be unaware of the Upside Down after the events of 1959 but actually, their characters never stumble on the truth behind the Creel house happenings and so for them it would be just an unpleasant episode caused by a war veteran with PTSD. So that leaves them fresh and sceptical for when things stay going screwy again in 1983.

Just to touch on the age rating…the website says 12+ which our kids are in the ballpark for (Eva is nearly 12 and Roo is nearly 15) but neither of them have watched the show, so this was a parents-only trip out. We were lucky enough to have booked on the same night as some friends of ours and they did have a 12-year-old with them, who seemed unphased by the edgier moments. In fact, she seemed less strung out by it than Nathan was. It is an intense experience and gets very loud at times, so if you have a kid with sensory issues it might not be the best environment for them. There was some “adult” humour at times but nothing that 12-year-olds don’t already know about from school so while that might cause some awkward conversations, it wasn’t age-inappropriate. So I would think less around whether your child is teenage enough and more around their sensitivities. A calm 12-year-old will be happier with this than an anxious 15-year-old I reckon.

That’s about as much as I’m going to say as I don’t want to spoil it any more for anyone who’s planning to see it. But if you love the TV show, you will almost certainly love this. Go while you can!

No disclaimer needed as we paid for this one but all opinions remain honest and my own anyway

 

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Accidentally Wes Anderson – 24/02/24

Posted on February 24, 2024 by katese11

It was my birthday this week and, as a serial complainer about birthdays, I decided to organise a few things to try and make this one go well. But seeing as my birthdays have been serially bad, I didn’t want to book anything until the last minute in case of illness or natural disaster. Which is why we ended up with a 17:00 entry ticket to “Accidentally Wes Anderson”. Luckily tho, it wasn’t too late in the day for a visit to the Petit Pret inside South Kensington station.

I’d been wanting to go to this for ages, as I am a fan of Wes Anderson films, but it’s not something the kids are into so that’s why it had to wait until my birthday, which is when I get to call at least some of the shots. I tried to explain the concept to the kids but it’s a hard one to describe….if you’ve watched a lot of the films, you instinctively know what a Wes Anderson shot looks like but how to pin that down? Stylised? Retro? Colourful but maybe pastel or monochrome? Manmade but also nature? You see, it’s a toughie. In the end, I told them to enjoy it at face value and not worry too much about the concept.

Luckily, one of the first pictures was of a dog, so it got their buy-in straight away:

In case you’re wondering, yes  – it was very much OK to take photos of the photos:

The rooms are all themed – so the entrance was, appropriately enough, around “doors”. You wouldn’t think there would be too much to look at with doors but you’d be wrong.

The next room was something like “Facades” and was filled with pictures of buildings that were all different but equally Andersonian. Again, I tried to define to the kids what we were looking at. It’s tricky but there’s something around faded grandeur a la “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” The buildings were all splendid but had peeling paint here and there or just had a look of places that had once had glory days:

Eva identified the building she’d most like to live in  – the Hungarian Parliament:

Although this one came a close second, as she deemed it just elaborate enough and not too tall:

My favourite was probably this branch of BNP Paribas:

The next room was themed around “Maritime”, which all felt very “Life Aquatic”. I don’t remember whether this one was maritime or “Transport” but I liked it:

I also like this bus, which I thought looked a lot like the one from the Sound of Music, where Maria is singing “I Have Confidence”.

And I was right! It was a 1930s bus from Salzburg:

Eva pointed out this plane, which she described as “very colourful”:

And she also enjoyed this “very fancy swimming pool”:

The exhibition space is the same one that Roo and Nathan had visited for a Star Wars pop up last year. Apparently there was a point at which they weren’t sure which direction they should go in. But not at AWA – that same point was quite clearly signposted:

And in “Nature” we found the first interactive photo opportunity:

They haven’t quite mastered the look of indifference that Wes Anderson characters normally have. Eva unknowingly does a very good impression of Margot Tenenbaum tho. It’s when she is mooching around looking for a bedtime snack before choosing something delicious with a sigh of resignation….it drove me crazy for ages trying to think who she reminded me of before recalling this line:

I'll have a butterscotch sundae, I guess.

This photo is definitely moving towards that look:

But I’ve skipped over a lovely little room, which was themed around “Hotels”. Hotels seem to feature in a few different Wes Anderson films – not just the Budapest but also heavily in the Tenenbaums. This room had a selection of keys and a curtain to walk through:

The curtain led to the last main room, which was dedicated to Wes Anderson sites around London. There is a map of how to find them all but do read this disclaimer first:

I mean, you don’t need to be a Metro Memory 100%er to know that this map is nonsense but it helps…

It doesn’t detract from the gorgeousness of the photos in that room though, some of which were very familiar. Like this one, which we always walked past on our way to Trash:

And some of our favourite toddler-era hangouts, like the Transport Museum:

And the conservatory at the Horniman:

We also visited the Aquatic Centre once but I don’t remember it looking like this:

There was also a second photo opportunity in this room:

After that, we went to the cinema room and watched two short films about the AWA team’s excursions to Switzerland and Antarctica. Both locations had lots of opportunity for Andersonesque shots and the team clearly had a feel for how to narrate in the Anderson style.

The films don’t take long to watch but it was nice to sit down for 10 minutes or so:

After that, there was a photobooth and postbox-shaped consoles where you could send yourself an e-postcard:

You can guess what Reuben wrote. No? Well, don’t blame me for telling you:

We skipped the photobooth as there was a bit of a queue so had a quick browse around the gift shop and then headed back towards the tube. Once you’ve spent a while looking at these photos, you start to think that everything looks a bit like a Wes Anderson movie:

Even Eva’s choice of dinner place:

I tell ya, it’s all in the framing.

So, a fun afternoon out in South Ken. We were only in the exhibition for under an hour so it might seem pricey for that…but the kids do tend to speed through things a but so you may well find you spend longer. They enjoyed it though, so I would recommend for the tween/teen age. Just maybe make them do a bit of Anderson-homework first as mine had only seen “Isle of Dogs” and “Fantastic Mr Fox”. Some of the films probably have moments that are a bit too dark for 12-year-olds – like the suicide attempt in Tenenbaums – but Netflix have some Anderson/Dahl shorts which Nathan and I are watching tonight and the “Henry Sugar” one seems like it’d be alright for that age. “The Swan” was a bit disturbing tho…! So tread carefully…

“Actually Wes Anderson” is on until 14th April. For tickets and more info, click here. 

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