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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
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Scenes from WC1 Saturday 14:56: Cleaning up the street... 
Cabaret: Janie Dee Caught Janie Dee in concert tonight. She is an awfully talented singer, dancer, actor from the British stage and it seemed like various odd sorts of theatre types came out of the woodwork to see her perform at the Shaw Theatre. The Shaw Theatre is just around the corner from where I live so it was very handy to get to... Her choice of music was varied and often was new music. Some of it was worth hearing as well. She also premiered a new Andrew Lloyd-Webber song "All the love I have". Well the music has been around for a while - I have the previous version on CD - it was just given new lyrics and a different orchestration (apparently this counts for a new song). But aside from an unfortunate foray into Ave Maria and a song called "No-one believes in a Mermaid" it was a great evening. Overheard at the Theatre Friday night: Old Luvvie (to female companion): Well there are three men who are very talented who are vying for the leadership so the Jewi
Politics in Britain... The little things that are different Its a bit gay (except for the BNP) Stayed up late on Thursday night watching the election results (as one does, although I wasn't wearing an anorak)... Fell asleep at one point in front of the television only to wake up to see lovable Schools Minister and Member for Enfield and Southgate Stephen Twigg concede defeat. He looked very glum. It was a bit of a shock. Mainly because I was so close to the television and I woke up and saw his glum face in widescreen. I certainly wasn't expecting to see that. I sort of met Twigg at the start of this year (I was in the same room he was and he was talking to a friend of mine briefly). My brush with a man with a red box. Smart man, in politics and openly gay. Being gay and in politics in Britain is expected as politics is pretty gay. And with all those Westminster traditions you can't get much gayer than the oldest democracy of them all. People here can't believe it when
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Scenes from Covent Garden 21:35. Polls close at 10pm and people work through to 3am to complete the count... so Friday is a quiet day for many! At 00:35 the swing is on and many Labour MPs will be out before the dawn... Exit polls are projecting a loss of 100 seats for Labour and a majority reduced to 66 seats... Swings against Labour are between 4-6%.but it is early in the evening (only 01:50)...  
Concert: Barenboim plays Bach Sunday Afternoon caught Daniel Barenboim playing Bach's Preludes and Fugues from Book 1 of 'Das wohltemperite Clavier' . Translated that is "the well-tempered keyboard". The first hour were numbers 1-12, then after intermission there were 13-24. It was a sellout concert given Barenboim's mega-star status. There was a long queue waiting in vain for returns. Inside the hall, it was just him, the Steinway and the preludes and fugues. On stage there was magic. There was also a bit of tapping and fancy footwork, which initially was a bit distracting. The hands may do the hard work, but the rest of his body seemed to be locked in a constant struggle with the counterpoint. I didn't have the best vantage point and wished I was sitting on the other side so I could see his hands (rather than the body of the piano) but I guess you can't have everything... He has just released a CD of this as well, which he was signing at the end of
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Scenes from the Barbican Sunday 14:43. There were plenty of punters out for the sun and the food in the concrete and brown tiled area overlooking the artificial ponds. The ponds act as a sound barrier as the circle line runs directly below it. Only a small portion of the Barbican residential area is seen here, but in the glorious sun it can be seen in its ghastly speldour... 
Musical: Acorn Antiques! Caught Victoria Wood's Musical based on her popular (and very much loved) sketch-show last night at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Acorn Antiques the soap was about two sisters who ran an antique store in Manchesterford. Mrs Overall (who is working class and from Birmingham) is the help and makes the tea and macaroons while dealing with her osteo-arthritis. It was a parody of soaps full of bad acting, missed cues, ludicrous intrigue and all things awfully British... Julie Walters plays Mrs Overall, Celia Imre, Duncan Preston, Josie Lawrence, Neil Morrissey and Sally Anne Triplett also star. And it was directed by Trevor Nunn. The Musical picks up after the unceremonious axing of the show, after it was unable to compete with the likes of Celebrity Breast Implants From Hell. The principals have been reunited to turn the soap into a musical at the Enoch Powell Arts Centre in Sutton Coldfield. Their careers are in a tailspin so they resort to turning Acorn Anti
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Scenes from Seven Dials Covent Garden Saturday 17:27. As it was over 20degrees this weekend, the punters were out en masse...  
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Scenes from Millbank 20:49 - Tate Gallery and Millbank Tower 
Overheard at the Tate Friday Night: Man with a woman (to woman #2): Edith has been here once before, but she was sixteen and it was with the nuns... Art: Turner, Whistler & Monet Finally caught the blockbuster at the Tate on Friday night of Turner, Whistler and Monet . A room full of Monet's paintings of the Houses of Parliament and of Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross were worth the price of admission. I always have thought Monet's paintings of the Palace of Westminster capture it far better than any photograph. The purpose of the exhibition was to highlight how all three artists explored light and atmosphere in landscapes. A blockbuster exhibition that was well worth the visit... And then later... Caught up with M&M for Friday night drinks. A long day and nearly two hours at an exhibition took its toll. Left them both at G-A-Y around 2am. I got a text from M1 Saturday saying: End a bit of a blur again. Not only did I end up with a Brazilian in my bed but a can of Stro