Play: Guidelines

Tonight, third Meetup in a run of five, Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) tempted me back with Guidelines, at the New Diorama - a play about the horrors of the internet, basically.

Turned out to be far enough away to take the Tube - and so to London Bridge. Buses were scheduled, but nary a one had passed me by the time I'd walked there. The plan was, Jubilee Line to Baker Street, then take any of three lines one stop to Great Portland Street, where I could eat at the adjacent Greene Man pub. Indeed, I even got a seat on the Jubilee Line! The trouble started at Baker Street - now, it's a maze of a station, but that wasn't the problem - I made my way towards the lines I needed, only to pass stalled Metropolitan Line trains; that being one of the lines I needed, I started to think something was up. Sure enough, there was an announcement - I didn't hear the full thing, but I heard something about "severe delays" on the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines. What with the Metropolitan Line down as well, and all three taking the same route, it was obvious there was something seriously wrong. (Turned out a train had broken down at Baker Street.) I decided to walk the rest of the way.

Now, I looked carefully for the South exit to Baker Street Station, so I'd be on the correct side of the road - naturally, I emerged on the wrong side! Crossed when I could, and off I went - arrived at the pub 15 minutes after I'd planned. So I decided to order a few small plates - they might come quicker, they'd certainly be quicker to eat. I was served in decent time - had my usual sticky karaage chicken, with pulled pork croquettes and onion rings. All fine - mind you, the chicken and croquettes are both doused in very rich sauce; I was dubious about being able to finish them! As it happened, I did - five minutes late to meet the group. Another five minutes' walk got me there, and I joined them in the theatre bar.

We were first into the house when it opened - he asked us to fill from the front, so we did. 

One beside me was dubious about us sitting so close to the mics - afraid we'd be asked to participate. No fear - audience participation is minimal; they shake a few hands when they come on, in the guise of company execs, there to vocalise the T&Cs, by the sound of it! We did feel that this section dragged a bit, although they did a good job of summarising the T&Cs we all come across so often, even to the "Accept and Continue" button at the bottom. I'm always reminded of that story about the T&Cs that included a clause at the bottom of some page about surrendering your firstborn child..

There's a lot of scary language in the advertising material - not a lot of scariness in the play however. A lot is implied, involving a video, shared online, showing two girls in the woods, and something bad happening. One of the more interesting comments about that was, "Who was holding the camera?"

See now, we'd all have been a bit more interested in the whole thing if we'd had a bit more detail, a bit of specificity. It was too vague - perhaps they were afraid to tell a more explicit story. We all know the internet is packed with things that would disturb your sleep, if not actually cause you danger - I think they were so frightened of saying too much that they simply didn't say enough.

Lots of interesting ideas weren't explored enough - but I think we agreed that the opening was good (if a bit long), and that the closing scene was fun, and striking.. the moral of the story being that the internet is irresistible, but beware the toxic stuff, which can sit right beside the trivial.. Runs to Valentine's Day (perhaps not a conventional choice for that day..) And if it achieved nothing else, our chat in the bar afterwards was hilarious.. Took a different Tube home.

The weekend belongs to London Museums A-Z.. tomorrow, we're off to Bletchley Park, the ticket for which is valid for a year. I got a cheap train ticket on Uber, with a promotion knocking £5 off, plus £10 Uber credit - which was most of the cost of the ticket. And afterwards, we're headed to the fetchingly monikered Captain Ridley's Shooting Party! (It's a pub.) The history reads as follows: In 1937, the estate passed into government hands. Then, an undercover MI6 group arrived using the name ‘Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party’, with ‘an air of friends enjoying a weekend at a country house’. Their real purpose was to see whether Bletchley Park would work as a wartime location.

And on Sunday, it's an Unlimited event, where they don't cap numbers - we're off to the British Museum to see fragments of the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, as I previewed last Sunday of course, followed by a social in Penderel's Oak, as usual.

I was stuck for something to do on Monday, until I remembered something I saw advertised on Facebook - there's a talk about British Folk Horror that night! I was too late to book an in-person ticket, so I booked one for the livestream - tickets from Eventbrite.

On Tuesday, I'm thinking of heading to see Is This Thing On? A comedy about a guy who, having marital problems, heads to a bar - only to find it's open mic night, and he can't get a drink unless he does a turn on stage: so, for the first time ever, he attempts a bit of stand-up comedy. Directed and co-written by Bradley Cooper, it stars Laura Dern as the wife - and as told to me by someone at The Cartoon Museum, it's inspired by the story of John Bishop! Nearest showing to me is in the Curzon Aldgate.

Then it's two more days with UITCS - on Wednesday, Ballad Lines at Southwark Playhouse (SP), booked on their excellent (but now, sadly, expired) PAYG offer, where you paid £60 for access to up to five productions. I made sure to book another set before they expired!

On Thursday, we're at Monstering the Rocketman, in the Arcola - the true story of the biggest libel suit in British history, with Sir Elton John suing The Sun for falsely claiming he'd used prostitutes. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend- good weekend not to be in London, with Valentine's Day in the middle..

And on the 16th, back with UITCS again, at SP again, and again with PAYG, for Beautiful Little Fool, the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, as told by their daughter.