Catch-up & Play: Holy Fool

Yesterday was a bank holiday, so I managed to slot in my friend Helen, who wanted to come visit. We decided on a long lunch at Bella Italia Cranbourn Street.

We were both early, but she slightly beat me to it, and we had a lovely lunch (and lotsa wine). Funnily enough, the restaurant managed to find a staff member I'd never met, who actually asked whether I'd like to taste the wine first! Anyway, we had so much to chat about, we didn't end up finishing our food.. did have room for dessert, though. And then we hit Liberty..

- the Christmas shop (bah, I hate putting Christmas before Hallowe'en..) 

..although having said that, they have some scary decorations..

and haberdashery:

And off she went home. Terrific to catch up though!

Well, that evening, and this evening as well, I booked with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) (last night was the fourth in a run of six consecutive Meetups!). Last night, we were at Holy Fool at the Park Theatre. It's the story of Shostakovich, who trod a tricky line living under Stalin. I took the Tube, and was there swiftly - a couple of the group were grabbing food beforehand, and although I wasn't hungry, I joined them in a drink. The theatre usually serves pizza, although it's frequently unavailable for one reason or another. All ordering has to be done downstairs, because they never open the upstairs bar - but we sat upstairs. It was a large group, and we overfilled the big table at the back, and chatted merrily until we went in.

(sigh) Well, I didn't expect to hear the music - or not much, anyway - so I wasn't disappointed when I didn't. But glory, this is boring.. a dull character in a dull and predictable story. One would wonder why they bothered. I did go back after the interval, but didn't stay long.. went back out to the bar and waited for the others, to chat before we left. Runs to the 10th of next month. AVOID.

And tonight, we're seeing How the Other Half Loves, a romcom at the Old Vic. Eating beforehand at Bar + Block Southwark - which looks like to be my last time there, or in any Bar + Block, as the chain is closing down on Thursday!

Finally in this run of Meetups, tomorrow I'm hosting another London Museums A-Z (LoMAZ) event! This one is part of our Dracula series.. The Nickel is showing Dracula in Istanbul, and I said I'd run an event. Made in 1952, it's apparently the first film to depict Dracula with fangs.. and has Mina as a showgirl! Should be fun. We're headed to The Wilmington afterwards. Some of the Whitby crowd are coming, which will be a nice reunion! The screening is now sold out.

On Thursday, I'm back with CT for Never Let Go, part of the Fringe Fix at Underbelly Boulevard. It's a comedy, one-man, gay retelling of the film Titanic.

And then - with a last-minute reschedule of what I was supposed to be doing - I finally have a weekend free to get back to Ireland, phew! Took me ages to get the flight booked, mind - the Ryanair app was down, I had to use the browser. And both Ryanair and Stansted Express have forgotten my account, I book so seldom any more.. hopefully meeting the friend I usually lunch with when I go back. And ooh, it's National Cinema Weekend, with all tickets €4! It'd be a shame to miss out.. if the timing suits, De Gaulle: Résistence is a biopic, highly rated.. and showing in Ennis, where I'll be anyway.

On Monday, I'm thinking of film again - and might as well (finally, given that The Hideout saw it ages ago) head to Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Gillian Anderson, whose only showing that evening is in the Cinema in the Arches, at Battersea Power Station.

Next Tuesday, no fewer than three Meetup groups (none of which I want to join) are headed to the Science Museum late for Star Trek's 60th anniversary! Well, there's nothing to stop me going on my own - I've booked a timeslot late enough to allow me to grab something to eat.

Then it's five Meetup days in a row. On the 9th, I'm back with UITCS for Darkling, a play about an ecological disaster, set in Bhopal and playing in the Bush Theatre.

On the 10th, back with London Social & Cultural Meetups to see Pressure in the Vue Wood Green. Dying to see this, as it stars Andrew Scott (my favourite actor, although I don't think his 'tache in this suits him) as Capt. James Stagg, the meteorologist tasked with predicting the weather for the proposed D-Day landing. I saw the stage version of this back in 2018, would you believe, at the Park with UITCS.. and have remembered it ever since as one of the best plays I've ever seen. He disagrees with Eisenhower, you see, predicting terrible, stormy conditions on the day originally chosen - and really has to fight his corner. (He's played by Brendan Fraser in the film.) Damian Lewis plays Gen. Montgomery. And we're headed for drinks beforehand.

And on the 11th.. flying to Aberdeen for another LoMAZ Dracula event, yay! An early flight from Heathrow is an unpleasant thing to be doing, but it does mean we'll have most of the day up there..  the idea being that we'll be staying in the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel in Cruden Bay, where Bram Stoker started writing Dracula! (The hotel is now full for the night of the 11th.) Now, as it happens, I'm co-hosting, JW is hosting.. and we're the only two on the trip! at time of writing. So, I guess we'll be hosting each other.. anyway, looking up public transport options to Cruden Bay, I discovered that public transport is a palaver, so I'm hiring a car - feasible with just the two of us. I'd rather not trust to Uber, or even taxis, in what seems to be quite a remote area. It'll be me driving, as he's still learning - which is fine, won't be the first time I've driven in Scotland. I found a great deal with Planet Rental Cars. It'll also be handy, given that he's ordering a kilt, and needs to swing by there..

As to activities, well, nothing to do with the area at all, but The Uprising, a film about the Peasants' Revolt and starring Andrew Garfield and Jamie Bell, is out that weekend and we both want to see it, so we'll be doing that in Aberdeen.. also in Cruden Bay is Slains Castle, which is rumoured to have provided inspiration for Dracula - will want photos of that, at least. Supposed to be generally creepy. Also, JW apparently has ancestry in the area, so I suppose that'll come up.. and there's a lovely, long beach. Anyway, we're flying back on the 13th.