Freud Museum & Play: White Rabbit, Red Rabbit

Some London Museums A-Z (LoMAZ) members have developed a new group - Museum, Arts & Culture Socials - and I headed with them yesterday to see The Symptomatic Surreal, an exhibition at the Freud Museum, which is Freud's actual final home. Meeting beforehand at the Garden Breakfast Cafe. 

That far away, I had to take the Tube - and wow, fourth time lucky! Three times in a row, I couldn't take the Jubilee Line because of severe delays - I was lucky to be able to take it yesterday, not sure what other route would have been practical! (There were only minor delays..)

As Camilla, the organiser, remarked when she arrived, she'd arrived early because she knew I was always early, and I still beat her to it. ;-) Happily, the cafe does wine - red or white, as the lady behind the counter asked me. I also had a ham & cheese panini (excuse me, mozarella & parma). Which was burnt on the bottom, and tasteless on top. Ah well, the wine was good, and I had a second as more of the group arrived, and we chatted convivially. Including the ongoing debate about whether you bite, or lick, a Magnum..

The climb from there to the museum is up a ridiculously steep hill, happily with a railing, should we need it. The museum itself is, as I say, in what was Freud's final residence, after he and his family fled the Nazis. We had quite a few QR codes to navigate at the entrance - one for WiFi, one for an audioguide that I never used. Not to mention scanning our tickets. And then we were into the sitting room:

A very potted history explains why Freud moved here:

A sobering thought, that the Nazis had to be paid to let him leave.. imagine all the poor souls that weren't lucky enough to have wealthy sponsors.

A lovely montage of paintings of his native Austria demonstrates that someone had as great a love of mountains as I do!

In his treatment room, we were to find a profusion of archaeological artefacts - primarily Egyptian: as much of a surprise to us as, apparently, to his contemporaries:

That pretty much finished the ground floor - apart from a most appreciated couple of water jugs and plastic cups that had been left out for people, on what was yet another sweltering day. And so up the stairs, to a very pleasant landing midway:

There's more upstairs - a family tree:

A painting that illustrates a dream one patient (therefore known as the Wolfman) had, with wolves sitting in a tree:

A very touching memorial to Freud's sisters, who refused to leave and ultimately died in concentration camps:

A brief stop in to the exhibition, which runs to next Monday:

I also spent 20 minutes or so watching a repeating reel of home videos, filmed the year of Freud's death. And then some of us repaired to the very pleasant, and secluded, back garden where the home videos were filmed:

When everyone was finished, we repaired to the pub, the North Star - where, as I told them, I've been before (thus confirming one group member's remark that I have been everywhere in London..). Oh, and with my bathmophobia, going down that slope again was harder than going up had been. Anyway, at the pub, we'd booked the "Secret Garden", at the top of a multi-level beer garden!

And up there, it really felt as though we were in the middle of a forest - except for the constant traffic noise, of course:

Only problem was having to go all that way down again, every time we wanted a drink. An old fellow sitting by the back door of the pub recognised me going up and down, and we struck up a brief conversation every time..! Anyway, we stayed for a good while there - and it was great to see a lot of faces I haven't seen in some time. My first time with this group.. but I already knew most of the people there.

I didn't fancy eating there, really - and since I was heading back through London Bridge, I decided to stop off in The Sun Wharf for food. Where I was very well fed, before wending my way home. Way too tired to blog mind, and too busy today.

Tonight, I was with TAC for White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, a play read cold by a different performer every night. Showing at the Duchess Theatre, and I booked to eat at Cote Covent Garden beforehand.

Was perfectly in time to watch my bus sail off without me. And had a helluva wait for the next, baking in the sun as the traffic got heavier. By the time it came, I'd figured out I wouldn't make my dinner reservation - happily, I had left time at the other end, and managed to push the booking back by half an hour, to 6.30pm. Arrived at 6.20pm, was seated immediately - and ordered so quickly that the maitre d' was amused. Service was quick - my starter had arrived by 6.30pm. They forgot to bring a steak knife for my steak, but otherwise everything was perfect - and I was outta there by 7.10pm for a 7.30pm show. Only a shame I didn't have time for dessert. The theatre was 40 yards away.

I got a seat in the rear stalls:

Our performer performed with a good deal of humour. The playwright is Iranian, and so you can imagine the various themes of the play referencing politics. Mind you, with all the rabbit references, not to mention the incredulity of the actor, it ended up quite funny. It does have something to say about power dynamics, in a sequence that explains the title, and perhaps something about the ridiculousness of authority. Caveat - there's quite a lot of interaction with the front row (as specified by the script). And at a couple of points with people further back. Nobody comes to any harm, but some were in position for a while, and got quite embarrassed. Still, it's a fun show, and interesting. Also interesting that it only plays on Mondays.. currently booking to the 2nd of November.

Tomorrow, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for Allegra, starring Maureen Lipman, at the Harold Pinter - got a cheap ticket with Seatplan, and completely forgot I'd earned a voucher I could've used! I managed a seat at the edge of the Dress Circle, which is at ground level. Eating beforehand at Bella Italia again, yay! Unfortunately, all that starts early enough that I have to leave early, so I have to be up early.. so I'm now way past my bedtime, ugh!

On Wednesday, I was to be back with CT for a concert, Symphonic Masterworks, by the 1st London City Philharmonic at St. Marylebone Church. But then Movie Roadhouse London advertised a trip to see Ish in the BFI - a film about racial profiling as it affects a couple of children, it's co-written by Enda Walsh, and the trailer looks good, so I'm doing that, and eating in The Archduke beforehand.

On Thursday, decided on film again, and what was coming up was The Sacrifice, a film about a family who've just discovered there's to be a nuclear war. Closest evening showing is in the Curzon Soho. But looking at a more complete listing, I saw the Prince Charles is showing Contes d' Été (A Summer's Tale), a wee story of a young lad juggling several simultaneous relationships. Looks decent, and is mostly sold out again, so I've booked. Eating at Bella Italia afterwards, because it's an early film - which means I'll have the three meals required to qualify for lots of half-price dinners, yay!

And woohoo, Friday sees the kickoff of LoMAZ's Dracula trips! The book goes to Whitby this weekend - and so do we! Now, we were having dreadful trouble trying to figure out how to get there, with complicated travel routes - until I was at one of Laurence Summers' walks, we were having lunch afterwards, and talking travel, and I mentioned this trip to Whitby. "Whitby!", exclaims the woman sitting opposite me, "I love Whitby!" She's always there, it seems.. to which, of course, my response was - "How?!"

So, she always gets the fast train to York and an Uber from there - says it's the quickest, and cheapest, among any of the alternatives. So.. we're all getting the fast train to York! on Friday. I booked with Uber, which got me the best deal - and points - and I had credit with them. Most of us are heading in the morning - I'm taking the day off - and then some are heading straight to Whitby by Uber, some by connecting trains, and some of us are staying in York for lunch and a wander around - it's a beautiful city. (And we're a flexible group.) We're then carpooling Ubers to Whitby, and have booked The Fat Badger in Whitby for dinner that night. We're now prebooking food. We all booked our own accommodation - I'm in The Captain's Lodge, and it seems a few more of the group are next door.

Saturday looks jam-packed - not least because there's a regatta in town! A number of us have booked to go to the famous abbey that day, where there are two showings of a Dracula play.. and one of the organisers, Shelley, has put together a Bram Stoker walk. We're eating in The Moon and Sixpence that night. Meantime, there are a few Goth fans in the group, who are likely to hit the apparently numerous Goth shops in the town - as told to me by someone on another of those walks!

Now, I was on yet another walk when the guide said to me that the Dracula Experience in Whitby is great fun.. Well, I'll try and squeeze it in on Sunday, although I'm guessing we'll be having lunch, and then we're heading back home in the late afternoon - watch this space. Altogether though, expecting a great trip!