Play: The Authenticator

Now, no fewer than five spooky meetings in a row! Well, sort of. Tonight, I was back with Up in the Cheap Seats for The Authenticator, which is described as a Gothic psychological thriller. Love anything that describes itself as "psychological". Showing in the Dorfman - and all seats left at the cheapest price were described as "severely restricted"! so I went for the next price bracket up, which was just "restricted". Booked to eat in The Archduke beforehand - wow, it's months since I was last there!

Well, I made the bus in perfect time, and it was practically empty! We fairly flew along - and even though I'd had to take a slightly earlier time than I wanted, I was still early. Mind you, they were pretty empty - I daresay I could've come a bit later. Some of the servers still recognised me, and I got a seat by the window. I see their menu has changed as well.. the chicken just comes with sauce and fries now, no salad, and they no longer have the wine I used to get! Never mind, they still have Sauvignon Blanc, which was lovely and refreshing - and I never ate the salad anyway. Thought about getting the mushrooms as a side that I used to, but in the end forgot to order them, and didn't miss them.

Happy to say the quality was as good as ever, and I was in time for an ice cream sundae to finish. So I was a happy camper as I schlepped over to the theatre. I was first to arrive - got a drink, and seeing no seating in the lobby, noticed a door open to the side - I'd never seen it open before, but down a few steps there's a sofa, and plenty of loose chairs available! I was soon joined by another of the group, and the rest after she posted a message about where we were.

When it was time, we took our seats.. "restricted", my ass! I did have to turn my head to see the stage, so I guess the seat was restricted in that respect. There's a convenient railing in front to lean on:

Empty frames hang at the sides of the stage at intervals, to represent paintings in the stately home in which the play takes place. Three characters appear - an authenticator, her mentor, and the owner of the stately home, a rather crackpot woman, last of her line, who rents the place out to interested parties, and intends to leave it to the National Trust in due course. She has them in to authenticate the diaries left by a long-ago ancestor. It's what they find in the diaries that throws the cat among the pigeons..

Now, there are a few nice pieces of staging. We paid particular notice to the staircase they descend to the basement, which they access through a trapdoor in the stage, but as they climb down, the staircase itself rises, so when they reach the bottom, the stage suddenly becomes the basement. It's a nice piece of staging, simply done, and one I hadn't seen before. I also thought the empty frames hanging at the side of the stage worked well to evoke artworks they were talking about, but which weren't present.

To be honest, that was the bones of what our group liked about the play. Which says something. It does raise issues about the perception of history, and the use we make of it - but it struck me as a mildly entertaining, mildly amusing, play with good staging. It might have made an impression if you had a particular interest in the subject - which we didn't. I don't doubt that there's a whole group of people interested in Black History who will consider this a momentous play about an important subject. It's just - that wasn't us, and we considered it no more than mildly interesting. Perhaps if we'd engaged more with the historical characters - but instead, the play presents itself as a mixture of comedy and mild scares, creaking noises and the like. So it's more a sidenote to an important debate than anything important in itself. Runs to the 9th. I wouldn't bother, if I were you..

At least I got to shop on the way home. Long overdue.

Tomorrow, delighted to be back with Spooky Isles! Well, when I say "back".. once upon a time, I knew them as "Spooky London", when they were a great Meetup group, we'd meet in pubs with a spooky history and conversation was fascinating. Sadly, it died a death over the pandemic.. but was resurrected (appropriately, I guess) as Spooky Isles on Facebook! This is their first face-to-face event since, a social evening in honour of Walpurgis Night and Beltane, featuring a talk by a paranormal researcher, and is happening in my old stomping ground of the King & Queen - I used to live right next door! Tickets from Eventbrite.

On Friday, the first of two films in a row, back with The Hideout for Deep Water, a thriller about a plane that crashes in shark-infested waters - Ben Kingsley is one of the pilots. Details TBA. Mind you, with people noting that it hasn't yet come up in film schedules, it seems there's a problem with distribution - we're to watch this space, they might have to go to something different.

And on Saturday, thinking of Rose of Nevada - I saw the trailer and thought it was interesting. A fishing boat reappears after being missing for 30 years.. two men join the crew, and after one voyage, find themselves transported back in time and mistaken for the original crew.. Closest showing to me is in the Barbican.

And on Sunday.. mwah-hah-haa, 'tis the long-awaited launch of Dracula Interactive! It's a LoMAZ event, but to be fair, they didn't come up with it - it developed during the pandemic, based on the fact that the novel, Dracula, is written as a diary. Anyway, a website was set up whereby you could have the section of the novel corresponding to a particular day emailed to you on that day! So.. LoMAZ has decided to read along. Oh, but that ain't the half of it.. we're meeting in our regular haunt of the Union Jack, and dressing up (preferably vampirically) is encouraged. Plus, apart from hopefully deciding the ongoing schedule of readings that day.. we also have a couple of tie-in travel events.. because the action moves to Whitby in August, and to Transylvania in November! And I had so many ideas for the trips.. I was asked to be a co-host. This is going to be a record-breaking Meetup - and with a terrific bunch of people. Ooh, looking forward to it..

The next two days are looking like film. On Monday, thinking of Coup '53, a documentary about the Western coup in Iran in 1953 - and of course, showing in the Curzon Bloomsbury.

And on Tuesday, well, there's a new Irish horror film, Hokum, that I might check out - it's certainly highly rated! The Hideout is actually going to it on Sunday evening, hopefully late enough that those also coming to the Dracula launch can do both, if desired. Closest evening showing to me is in Peckhamplex.

Next Wednesday.. well, it happened before and it's happened again. There's a Meetup group called LGBTQ Culture Lovers - and they're off to a performance of Brahms Symphony No. 1 at St. John's Waterloo. I don't swing that way, but nothing to stop me going on my own! It's called a "rush hour" concert, and certainly it's on early - so I'm eating afterwards in The Archduke.

On the 7th, back with London Social & Cultural Meetups for a talk at the LSE about Trump's Foreign Policy in Historical Perspective. Couldn't miss that..

On the 8th, I've booked with TAC for an improv show called Fabled: The Improvised Fantasy Adventure, showing in The Free Association Theatre.

And on the 9th, back with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpies for a reprise of his walk through the Old Jewish Neighbourhood. Yes, I've done it before - but I'm sure I don't remember half of it, and it's been years.. I do remember it being good, though. Also delighted to see that prepayment is no longer required for attendees, whatever setting was changed!