Olivier Dubois Company’s Tragédie...

Last Friday night Stuart, Darren and I went to see Olivier Dubois Company’s Tragédie at the Sadler’s Wells in London’s glitzy Islington.

Consisting of three parts; it was in turns repetitive, desensitising, hypnotic, visceral, a little bit rude. Nine men, nine women and not a stitch on.

Initially all the naked dancers did was walk from the back of the stage directly to the front of the stage and turned on the heels to repeat the process once again. This was performed to a dull thumping bass line. After half an hour we kind of got it. We were desensitising to the nudity.

As the piece progressed to the later stages however things got more interesting. The dancers started to twitch. And jump. And move in diagonals. The music got more chaotic and the movement reflected this. Soon the piece became more tribal with a wild pumping beat and the dancers started to synchronise their pulsating actions.

By the final section the dancers were performing to a thumping techno beat and hectic, vibrant dancing ended up as writhing around on stage in an ecstatic orgy of humping flesh.

We loved it.


Teaser Tragedie from Tommy Pascal on Vimeo.

Apocalypse How?...

Last Sunday Oliver, Toby, Stu and I spent six hours combing the streets and building east London looking for a series of fiendish clues which required every drop of ingenuity and observation we possessed to solve. It was a treasure hunt murder mystery run by those lovely people at A Door In A Wall called Apocalypse How?

We loved it. Clever, funny, intriguing and frankly exhausting. What a great way to spend a Sunday. 

The pre-amble goes like this:- 20 years ago, Arthur Geddon crawled half-dead from the jungle; a miraculous survivor of a lost expedition. He clutched in his hands a series of stone tablets that he claimed described the end of the world. Now, with the day of reckoning fast approaching, Arthur is found dead. You, his faithful disciples in the Church of the Golden Pyramid, must discover who among your brothers and sisters has killed the beloved leader! Choose your path to victory and leave no stone unturned as you spend a day searching London for clues and characters that will allow you to avenge this sacrifice and, maybe, avert doomsday. Prepare for another all-new murder mystery treasure hunt from A Door In A Wall: Apocalypse How?

More pix here.

The Mousetrap...

Last Friday Stu treated me to a night out at the theatre. We went to see The Mousetrap - now in it's 60th year - in London's glitzy West End.

It's a dated whodunnit but not without it's charm.

I got it straight off. Stu thought it was the usherette.

Noises Off...

Last Saturday Stu and I treated my mother and father to an afternoon at the theatre. We went to see Michael Frayn's Noises Off at the the Novello Theatre in London's glitzy West End.

I have to say we loved it. We laughed and laughed. It's basically a farce - which can be hard to pull off anyway - written as a very clever deconstructive piece using the grammar and language of the genre to spoof itself.

The title comes from the theatrical stage direction indicating sounds that are meant to originate offstage. The conceit of a play within a play then hurtles along at breakneck speed following the backstage antics of a touring theatre company as they stumble their way through rehearsals to a shambolic first night and a final disastrous performance.

Celia Imrie's Dotty Otley was brilliant and deserves the Olivier Award for Best Actress.

If you get a chance - go see!

Udderbelly...

Stu and I had a really nice night out with David and Andrew on Saturday night. We went to Udderbelly on the South Bank to see the best of the Comedy Store. Great fun. We'd not seen the boys in a while and they had some news. They are returning to Sydney to live. Something that they have been talking about for some time actually. It'll be really sad to see them go - but hopefully gives us a good excuse to go and see them once they're settled.

I Drink the Air Before Me...

Last night Stu, Darren and I went to see Stephen Petronio's I Drink the Air Before Me at the Barbican Theatre.
The title comes from The Tempest where Ariel says, "I drink the air before me, and return. Or ere your pulse twice beat." And surely the piece was a meditation on storms - external and internal.
Captain Petronio, decked out like Captain Haddock, oversaw the show from up his makeshift mast. He initiated proceedings with “Salty Dog Blues.” (“If I can’t be your salty dog, I won’t be your man at all.”) What followed was at times fabulous, at times interesting and at times frankly rather boring. It wasn't that the performing was inconsistent or in anyway below par. It just lacked any strong narrative. There seemed to be little connecting the movements and although the theme of storms was fine there was just not much that it actually told us.