Play: It Walks Around the House at Night & Film: Hamnet

Last Monday, Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) was off to another spooky thing - It Walks Around the House at Night has an actor playing the ghost that inhabits a remote manor house, scaring visitors.. only to discover that he's not the only one there! Mwah-hah-haa.. Showing at Southwark Playhouse (SP). My sometime dinner companion suggested we eat afterwards, it being over early - as I suggested, we could try the Mercato, although it was closed last time we tried to do that, despite the website saying it'd be open much later!

So I left later - has been a feature all this week, and is very handy for organising myself! Arrived right after our organiser, and managed to give her a jump scare as we approached the box office. :-) We got a table in the bar, and the others arrived in due course. The Barbie doll on the bar is now wearing a paper boat as a hat.. I fully meant to get a picture, but was a bit rushed, trying to navigate the queue. Anyway, we chatted merrily - and I had a bag of Tayto to sustain me - until it was time to go in. Sadly, one of the group forgot about the earlier start time until it was too late, and missed it.

Some of us were in the front row. Well.. it isn't scary - unless you're very easily scared. It's like a scary story for kids, all suspense, which is soon resolved. The "around the house" part literally means in a ring outside the house, in the dark and scary woods, not around the inside of the house - which makes it easier for set design - all you need is the room the actor is staying in.

It is well acted, and a second character is subsequently introduced - there's suggestion of pagan worship, in the form of the god Pan, although the visuals put me more in mind of Herne the Hunter. To my mind, it's an opportunity missed - if they had just tweaked a few things, how scary could it have been - but hey, it's well done. Runs to the 28th.

And lo, the Mercato was open afterwards - to be fair, it might have been last time too, and me looking at the wrong gate. Anyway, we repaired to the nice wine bar - and with my regular food options unavailable, I plumped for a stall called "Pad Thai", where I got a very nice massaman chicken curry - very light on the chicken, I must say! but the sauce was tasty.

Wen I got home, I started to book more things ahead.. and it ran too late to blog.

Now in the midst of two days of films, catching a couple I've had my eye on for a while.. yesterday, St. Patrick's Day, my thought was to go to a film with an Irish connection.. not a great choice of them amongst the highly rated though! I finally plumped for seeing Hamnet at last, my justification being that it has two Irish stars - Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. They play Shakespeare and his wife, respectively - although her name seems to have changed from Anne to Agnes! Mind you, it is based on a novel. Deals with the death of their son, Hamnet, and how that provided the inspiration for the play Hamlet. Closest showing to me was in Rich Mix - which I booked, because I also booked to eat in The Blues Kitchen beforehand, and figured I'd better book the one, since I'd booked the other.

The bus I was supposed to get was delayed - so it was as well that I managed an early one! Arrived early at The Blues Kitchen, and was seated near the door, for once - I worried about the draught, but only felt it once, and wow, it seems to have worked a charm for service, which was as efficient as I've seen it! You're right by the service station there, you see. Anyway, quickly ordered my usual, fried chicken with fries, and yes, it was scrummy - and I was delighted to find that there was much less salt on the fries than previously. A second glass of wine, and I asked for the bill - the waiter asked whether I had plans for the evening, and when I told him I was off to Hamnet, he got positively misty-eyed! "Oh, it's wonderful.. oh, I cried.."

A reasonably short walk got me there:

And it being in Screen 3, I had to climb right to the top - the screen ended up about half full.

Jessie Buckley won the Best Actress Oscar for this, you know. And it's easy to see why - she is absolutely mesmerising, stealing attention in every scene she's in as the wild one, reputedly the daughter of a witch, and liable to do, or say, frankly practically anything. So she picks the young Will Shakespeare for her husband, although he has few means, because he has, as she explains, more in him than anyone she knows. She is the one that urges him to seek his fortune in London - and she absolutely bares her soul, in childbirth, and in a raw, visceral display of grief when her children fall sick with the pestilence. Borne along on the wave of her emotions, you cannot help but be moved, right up to her seeing the play Hamlet, inspired by their dead son. Highly recommended.

Coming home afterwards, I was just in time to miss my bus - then missed the next, because I wasn't expecting it yet, according to Buses Due (Google Maps got it right, for once!). So it took longer than it should have to get home - and again, I was booking ahead.. no blog.

And tonight, finally heading to see No Other Choice, a dark comedy about a middle-aged Korean man who, finding himself unexpectedly unemployed and with a family to support, and faced with competing with younger, brighter applicants in the jobs market, decides that the only reasonable course of action is to eliminate them.. Handiest close showing to me is in the Curzon Bloomsbury - I've booked it with the last of my year's free tickets. Always good to use a free ticket for something that's not a documentary, and so is priced higher..

Next, three days of Meetup. Tomorrow, back with UITCS for the opening night of Body and Soul at Sadler's Wells (SW), eating at The Wilmington beforehand as usual.

On Friday, back with The Hideout at last, to see Dead Lover - the trailer is so ridiculously OTT, I can only hope the film is worth it! About a gravedigger, finally finds the man of her dreams, and he goes and dies! Naturally, what can she do but resurrect him..? Showing in the Prince Charles, and we're meeting in Victory House beforehand. Now, I'd normally book at my favourite restaurant for this - but would you believe, by the time I decided what I was doing, they were fully booked for early evening! Eating at the Bear and Staff instead, I know they're good.

And on Saturday, finally back with LoMAZ for their bi-monthly birthday bash - meeting at Benugo in Waterloo, then having a self-guided history tour (ahem) within the station, and repairing to the Union Jack..

On Sunday, I'm provisionally thinking of a film - what's coming up is Everybody to Kenmure Street, a documentary (Emma Thompson takes part) about a movement of Glasgow locals when a couple of their neighbours face deportation in a dawn raid! Only showing in the Lexi, all the way up in Kensal Green.. which I discover I can get to in under an hour, with a combination of Tube and Overground..

The next two days are courtesy of my cheap ticket groups! On Monday, I'm with TAC for a Beethoven concert at the Milton Court Concert Hall. Eating beforehand at Cote Barbican.

And on Tuesday, with CT, I found a live podcast - You're Dead to Me is history with a comedic twist! Playing at The Adelphi.

Then it's five Meetups in a row.. next Wednesday, back with UITCS for Oh! Mary, a musical and comedic look at the life of Mary Lincoln, playing at Trafalgar Theatre. I paid a little over the odds for it at late notice, but decided I'm interested enough to get another perspective, after seeing last month's show about her, Mrs. President.

On the 26th, back with LoMAZ, unusually for a midweek event, a talk on Johnson, Crime and Punishment, in Four Cases, at Dr. Johnson's House. Includes a welcome drink and a chance to peek around the house. Tickets are cheaper if bought in pairs, so I paired with someone from the group.

On the 27th, finally back with Over 40: Living the Life, for Cleopatra: The Experience, at the ExCel Centre. She's found a place nearby to eat beforehand, apparently Italian, details TBA.

On the 28th, back with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpies - this walk is It's Only Rock 'n' Roll but I Like It! Unfortunately, the event page seems to be set up differently, not allowing people to sign up without paying through PayPal, and incurring the fee. He's having to take people's names offline..this wasn't his intention, and I'm not sure what has happened.

On the 29th, back with The Hideout again for They Will Kill You, a comedy horror about a girl who takes a job at a Manhattan mansion, only to discover it's a temple to Satan, and she's tonight's sacrifice. However, they didn't know about the martial arts she picked up in prison.. not a spoiler, that's all in the trailer. Location and time TBA.

On the 30th, heading to something advertised to me by someone I met on the last LoMAZ event - he organises a WhatsApp community called London Fun, and had a prebooked ticket to Lifeline, a musical based around the medical profession and starring real medical professionals. So I said I'd go - in SP again.

On the 31st, back with Movie Roadhouse London, who are dipping their toe in horror as well.. we're seeing Brain Damage, an 80s body horror about a guy infected with an alien parasite..  hmm. Showing in The Nickel Cinema- which turns out to be around the corner from The Wilmington, so I've booked there again. 

On the 1st, back with TAC for another Kirckman concert for young classical musicians at King's Place- this time it's Sherri Lun.

On the 2nd, back at storytelling with Orpheus Dismembered, featuring Ben Haggarty, of the Crick Crack Club. Happening at Hoxton Hall. 

And on the 3rd, back with UITCS at SW, for Solera - flamenco with Paco Peña. ¡Olé! Eating at The Wilmington again- and can go a little earlier, it being a bank holiday.