Social & Play: Comment Is Free

Yesterday was the next date possible for my ex-coworkers' reunion, what with everybody travelling hither and yon, and suffering from jetlag.. I was thinking of going back to Brown's. But then Ivan requested today, because he was rehearsing yesterday - and the others were fine with it. But then he said he was needed in Scotland, where his family lives, today, so kind of had to meet us yesterday.. he was cutting his rehearsal short.. and you might ask why I say it's like herding cats! So we were back to yesterday again.. I booked The Albert for yesterday, instead of today.

I was lucky not to be going further west on the buses - they were all terminating at Victoria, because of the protests! Anyway, James and I both arrived at the pub at the same time - while he stretched his legs briefly, I headed in and upstairs, where I was told meal reservations would be.

No staff visible, so I found my table myself - and James was hot on my heels. Very shortly afterwards, a staff member appeared. We ordered - the others weren't due for hours, so we just went ahead. We both had chicken kyiv - which confused the waiter slightly.. he thought we were sharing it! Mind you, considering the huge portion we each got, perhaps he had a point! Neither of us could finish it. But it was delicious, as were the accompanying chips.

When Martin arrived, he had the steak n ale pie, and cleaned his plate - Ivan rocked up and asked for cheese. To his dismay, they don't do it! He ended up ordering lots of desserts for us all - I must say, the chocolate and salted caramel tart is lovely and rich. And despite the lack of cheese, the staff couldn't have been more helpful. James duly left to catch his train, and the rest of us stayed till closing - my God, it's months since I got them all in the same room together! When the upstairs dining room closed, at 10.30, the barman was good enough to help us to set up at a table downstairs, where we stayed for as long as they let us. It ended up being a very interesting night.. roll on the next! But of course, I was way too tired to blog..

Today, I was back with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) (at last!) for a short play, Comment is Free, at the Putney Arts Theatre. Sounded really interesting, having the vicious nature of social media as its theme. It's part of their Box Set Summer Festival - they do have a discount if you book multiples. The organiser is availing of that, but I'm not - I've seen one of them (A Hundred Words for Snow), which was a memorable production, but I don't generally like to repeat myself - and I'm not around for the others she's going to, next weekend. 

I had a lovely lie-in. This was the hottest day so far this year, I think - certainly one of them. The only way for me to get there in under an hour was to take either bus or Tube and catch a train from Waterloo. I caught the bus - and wow, that was a hot journey. Mercifully, the train was beautifully airconditioned. A few of us met before the play in Blabar Nordic Living Cafe - the organiser lives locally, and knew where to recommend! Not a coffee drinker myself, I had a hot chocolate - this is one of those places where they ask whether you'd like "regular" milk in it. They're not great for hot chocolate, I have to say - the lemon drizzle cake I had with it was lovely, though.

When they closed, we walked to the theatre - a former church:

It was between plays - but their bar was unbearably noisy, so we repaired to the (much quieter) pub up the road, The Railway (just across from the station). Where they were inclined to tell us where to sit - except that we seated ourselves, it being practically empty - and they also offered us table service. Which we declined. One of the group was hungry, and got a portion of arancini - which she proclaimed very spicy.

Back at the theatre, we met the other group members, had our names checked off the list, and went in. It's a nice, big space - we were sat about halfway up the tiered seating:

So, these are all short plays - and this one in particular can't have been more than 40 minutes! Well, nothing wrong with brevity.. The story concerns a controversial columnist - one of those who inspires plenty of online comment, much of it vicious, personal attacks on not only him, but his family. In a nice piece of staging, the online trolls are represented by people in black hoodies, wandering around the back of the set, using their phones. The number of them crowding the stage, their anonymity, and their random movements, is a great way to represent visually what online comments are like.

The people in hoodies don't speak. We have a few characters who do, to move the story along. Now, I thought this play would go in a different direction, and I was a little disappointed it didn't - but then, that would be a different play. The story essentially deals with the comments leading to real-life fallout, and what happens as a result is more extreme than I was expecting. It's essentially extreme enough not to allow any doubt about how wrong it is - I would have preferred some ambiguity. But hey, that's me. What the writer did do is produce a great observational piece on the nature of social media. Well worth a look.

The festival runs till Saturday, this play until Friday. As we discovered from the very professional-looking brochures handed out for free to the audiences! I particularly like the colour-coded timetable.. very clear. Other festivals could take note.

For food afterwards, a couple of us headed to Lila, just up the road. It's years since I last ate Thai food! What with the play finishing so early, we arrived very early for our booking - not a problem, and we got the last table outside, in the evening sunshine. With a light breeze. Lovely.

I had prawn crackers - unusually, brown! but very tasty. I also ordered Massaman chicken curry. Now, I remember this as being delicious - sadly, they seem to have removed all the flavour from it in this restaurant, and I wasn't impressed. And they were stingy with the chicken. Rice must be ordered separately. My companion - who'd had arancini earlier - just had a squid starter, which she seemed to enjoy reasonably. It took us a while to get out of there - I finally managed to catch the waiter's eye, where he was standing at the far end of the restaurant, and motioned for the bill.. so, we made it home eventually.

Tomorrow, finally going to Mnemonic, at the National, which this group saw last Wednesday, but of course I was otherwise engaged that day. Does sound interesting though.

On Tuesday, back with CT: for The Improv Comedy Show - Can We Have a Word? at Upstairs at the Green.

On Wednesday, I'm back with UITCS for Starlight Express! Heard of this, never seen it - it's at the new Wembley Park Theatre. And I'm trying out their Studio Five restaurant beforehand.

On Thursday, heading to Frankie Goes to Bollywood at the Queen Elizabeth Hall again - should be fun. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend again.

On the 5th, heading to Next To Normal, at Wyndham's - cheapest tickets with TodayTix. Eating at Bella Italia (St. Martin's Lane) again.

On the 6th, headed back with CT to Stagetime - more improvised comedy - at Shoreditch Balls! Eating at the nearby Blues Kitchen, which I love.

On the 7th, back with London Literary Walks for Dickens, Woolf and Lawrence. Meeting at The Dolphin, but they don't do food, so I'll eat at the nearby Isolabella Italian restaurant beforehand.

And on the 8th, back with Buddies on Budgets for a sketching evening (!) in Phoenix Garden. Tickets from Eventbrite. If I go.. not usually my thing, but we'll see.