Play: Phantasmagoria
Tonight, back with Up in the Cheap Seats - for the first time in over a month, very unusually for me and this group! This is for Phantasmagoria - yes, advertised as a kind of horror play, too late for Hallowe'en, tsk! Showing at Southwark Playhouse - so I took out another PAYG subscription (five tickets for £75, no expiry). Terrific value. We met beforehand for dinner at Mercato Metropolitano.
There I was, nothing much to do.. said I might as well head out. Got there a little early - and lo, a couple of the group that I knew were standing outside the entrance, conveniently! In the cold. I'd wondered how we were going to find each other, so that was handy. Four of us entered together, in the end - we met some others inside, and found a table in the central area. All got our food from different outlets - a few were enthused by the pizza, others had Asian food - I went for the pasta, as usual. Which comes with optional bacon and mushrooms - I had those, skipped the optional parmesan. The buzzer (to let you know when your food is ready), I have to say, wasn't very loud - I hardly noticed mine. The pasta was very tasty, BTW - perhaps a bit much bacon; it was very salty.
I had a fun time getting wine - went to the main bar stall, asked for a large white wine. The young lady behind the bar was at a loss as to what to do next - asked the more experienced guy working with her. So he showed her where it was, how to pour it into a measuring container, then into a (ahem) coffee cup. I paid. All good. It was a Moscato, really sweet - went down really easily, so I went back for another, after I'd eaten. This time, she managed to pour it herself! Except.. the bottle ran out before the container was full.. oh no.. she went looking for him again. He showed her the shelf with some bottles on it - they found another the same. Problem - now he couldn't open the bottle (which had a cork). I was beginning to wonder whether I should offer to help - but there was yet a third person behind the bar, who knew about.. corkscrews.. when she got it open, they finally thought to charge me for it. Very exciting evening, all told..
When the music got loud, we got out of there and made our way to the theatre. Which - was packed. The show in the main space must have been sold out, or mostly - we could barely get in the door. For my part, it took even longer, as someone was scanning tickets there - and despite the theatre having (blessedly) texted me my ticket earlier in the day, it wouldn't scan, because I had dark mode on my phone. And couldn't d**n well remember how to turn it off.. She finally let me away with it.. I know now how to turn off dark mode, looked it up.. Am I going to remember for next time? Hmm..
Mercifully, when the show in The Large started, the crowd dissipated, and we could breathe. And I could get a drink - which I then took in with me. With all I had to manoeuvre, I didn't take a photo of the set - which is a living room, a sort of faded Indian-type carpet on the wall, foliage out the window at the side. The usher advised us that we'd be better seated in the middle, or at the back. Now, why would she say that..?
Well, it wasn't for the risk of being splashed by anything - although a bottle of makeup is spilled at one point. There is a bit where a stone is thrown, supposedly through a window, right where the audience is - I'd have been interested to see where that was thrown from, I didn't actually notice. Came with shards of glass, too..
So, this plot concerns a young woman, politically outspoken, eloquent. She's a student - and dedicated enough that, the night before an exam, she agrees to come to a debate with her political enemy, a well-established, older woman, from a wealthy family. Conservative, I think it's safe to say. Before she meets her nemesis, mind you, she meets her PA - an irritating sort of person, who acts superior, bosses everyone around - her name, interestingly, is Scheherazade.
Seems to be set in India - a commentary on the conservative government, and its underhand tactics, as represented by this older politician. (See While We Watched, an informative documentary about their pernicious methods.) As the play progresses, the young student activist finds herself hemmed in by the claustrophobia of the family estate where the debate is taking place - it's in the middle of nowhere, then there's a power cut - she finds herself forced to spend time with the older woman outside of the debate, and events seem to conspire against her. As a crowd gathers at the gate, she starts to feel really nervous..
The older woman - rather than her PA - is the true Scheherazade here, telling stories.. including one about how they accidentally knocked down a leopard near the estate, some time ago - it (she) survived, and they ended up displaying it (her) in a cage in the living room. The student activist sees this as horrific, thinking of the poor, scared animal - the older woman? Not so much. She has something vicious about her, which comes out gradually.
That might be the problem with this play - everything comes out so gradually, it's hardly worth thinking about. It's kind of - timid. It really has the makings of a good plot, what with the leopard imagery - we constantly hear growling, and see the shadow of a leopard several times. But nothing much really happens, and apart from a couple of telling exchanges, we are left with a feeling of incompleteness. I have complained in the past about plays that bash us over the head with the message - perhaps this one could have done with some of that? The group as a whole wasn't impressed - I thought it was interesting. But could have been much better - it's an intriguing premise. Runs till the 25th, if you feel like checking it out yourself.
Back in the bar afterwards, the crowd was back - the other play had obviously finished too. So we legged it. Lovely to see people again, though - not sure when I'll be back with this group, the way things are going. But it'll happen eventually.
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