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Bear with me: Sun Bear @ParkTheatre

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If The Light House is an uplifting tale of survival, Sarah Richardson’s Sun Bear gives a contrasting take on this. Sarah plays Katy. We’re introduced to Katy as she runs through a list of pet office peeves with her endlessly perky coworkers, particularly about coworkers stealing her pens. It’s a hilarious opening monologue that would have you wishing you had her as a coworker to help relieve you from the boredom of petty office politics.  But something is not quite right in the perfect petty office, where people work together well. And that is her. And despite her protesting that she is fine, the pet peeves and the outbursts are becoming more frequent. As the piece progresses, maybe the problem lies in a past relationship, where Katy had to be home by a particular hour, not stay out late with office colleagues and not be drunk enough not to answer his calls. Perhaps the perky office colleagues are trying to help, and perhaps Katy is trying to reach out for help. It has simple staging

On a clear day: The View From the Shard

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The View from The Shard opens on Friday and having caught a preview of it earlier in the month, it is worth a look... Even if it is a snowy day... And visibility is poor... There is still a gee whiz excitement about looking down from the London landmark. There is something light and delicate about The Shard that makes it intriguing and not just another tall building.

The journey starts with a slightly eccentric tour of London and its people before you are shuffled into one of two lifts to take you to the thirty-third floor. You are told that it will take you at speeds of six metres a second but unlike other tall buildings in London, it is not a glass lift so there is no horror or nausea from shooting up. Perhaps it is the low lighting and video screens of soothing autumnal leaves and snow that does it, but you do not feel a thing.

You then have to take another lift to the top which again has soothing music and video screens which takes you to the top. There are a few more stairs to take before you then see all of South London, The City, Canary Wharf and beyond. Well, if the weather is good. There are view screens so you can see what you could see if the weather was clear, or if it were a more interesting time of day (such as sunset or night). It is all very fascinating and even if you can't see much you will be distracted by looking at the building itself and how the glass windows fit together to create the jagged shard-like structure. There is also an upper viewing deck that is open to the elements.

Of course there is no bar or cafe up top so you probably will find that half an hour is enough before heading down and making your way to Borough Market for a sensible coffee... And some hot meat in a bun or something warm... It's a bit chilly up there.

The View from The Shard is open to the public from 1 February and tickets are available from their website... It isn't the cheapest ride up an elevator, but one with such a lure enough people are going to part money to do it anyway...


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