On Wednesday, I went to The Hideout's Cherry Blossom April Social! In conjunction with Movie Roadhouse London (MRL), of course - the name, mind you, conjures up summery-er weather than we have now. In the BFI as usual - the lounge though, this time. I booked to eat in The Archduke beforehand. I was signed up for it with MRL as well.. aren't I the busy one?!
Managed to get away roughly in time - the social was an early start, so dinner was early too. I made it about five minutes late, which wasn't a problem - was shown upstairs, as usual, and asked what the soup of the day was. Didn't notice I was actually sitting under a large sign that told me precisely that, oops. So, it was mushroom, and I had that - hot enough to scald, it was so comforting on a cold day! Accompanied by warm toast and butter - and I had the roast chicken to follow. Yum.. and that was all I had time for, trotting over to the BFI afterwards. Where we had the whole back section of the lounge again.. a lot of newcomers at the beginning, with older hands showing up in due course. And, in short, a great night's chat was had! As always. Mind you, I was way too tired to blog afterwards - especially having to be in the office yesterday morning.
Having survived that traumatic experience, yesterday evening I was back to storytelling - this was The Hairy Girl, back at Folklore Hoxton. Courtesy of the Crick Crack Club. Interestingly, the same night, they had Hugh Lupton telling the story of The Homing Stone at the Story Museum Oxford - which always does streaming tickets! So I bought one of those as well - they're always available to watch for a week afterwards. The link was only just emailed to me this evening, in fact. Now, if I could only remember to watch them..
Was checking my route before I left for Folklore, and decided to double-check the eateries round about - I'd had the impression there was a Nando's, but must have been mixing it up with Torriano, where Nell Phoenix hosts storytelling nights! I'd completely forgotten that it's The Blues Kitchen that is near Folklore.. so I quickly booked, it always being safer. Headed out, got there - again - about five minutes late - and with not a huge crowd present, I was seated in the proper restaurant area, for once!
Was served quickly - and wow, that fried chicken is good. (Chicken n chips two days in a row, gee..) Asked for the bill immediately - and was very glad to remember that, although the ticket advertises the show as starting at 7, that's just when the doors open - the show doesn't start until 7.30 or after!
So, a quick trot up there - and a friendly cat just inside the door let me tickle her chin. (Is she the cat in the poster on the door?) The crowd had already gathered at what is always a busy bar - so I didn't bother looking for a drink, just made my way straight to where the lady was checking tickets. I hadn't opened my ticket yet on the Dice app - and could I get it to display?! She finally gave up, said she trusted me, and stamped my wrist - I was just headed in when the ticket finally displayed. A test of trust, perhaps..?
Lucy Lill turned out to be greeting people at the door, as well as MC-ing - Lordy, it's an age since I've seen her perform! I got the same seat as last time - there was a spare in the front row, but I thought that was a little too close to the taiko drum, prominent on the stage!
Now, the storyteller herself is Swedish - how taiko drums come into it puzzled me, but she did use it to good effect, using it to illustrate the story throughout. She also sang a lovely, traditional-sounding song, right at the start - I was disappointed she didn't do more of that, as someone on the bus home remarked, it was so beautiful! But it was an energetic story, and she mainly charged around the stage, in what was a very physical performance, untying her long hair at one point to represent the "hairy girl" herself.
It's a mad tale, of a childless queen who eats, not just the flower she is told to, but the ugly one beside it too (she is hungry), leading to the birth of twins - the "hairy girl", and the pretty one, known only as "little sister". As typical in stories, the pretty one isn't much use for anything except being rescued and marrying - it's her hirsute sibling that has to do all the work, being well-versed in magic. For which she uses a wooden spoon - read into that what you will.
An absolutely mesmerising evening, for all that it only lasted an hour. One of the memorable ones, for sure! And as I passed through, headed for the door, lo, I passed by Laura Sampson. Well well, quite the storytellers' turnout..!
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