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Christmas Mysteries: A Sherlock Carol @MaryleboneTHLDN

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A mash-up of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes would seem an unlikely pairing. Yet it provides a surprisingly fun Christmas-themed adventure. These two Victorian tales (albeit separated by about 40 years) provide the basis for an inspired adventure at Christmastime that just also happens to turn out to be a murder mystery as well. With lavish costumes, a few spooky set pieces and some good old-fashioned stage trickery with lights and a lot of smoke machines, it is hard to resist. It returns to the Marylebone Theatre for Christmas after a run there last year.  The premise is that after Holmes sees off the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty, he is left adrift in London. People thought he was dead, and he might as well be. Disinterested in the misdeeds of other Londoners, Holmes has even given up on his friend Dr Watson. It's almost as if he has become a Scrooge. Or half a Scrooge, moping about shouting, "bah" in respon
Just another Summer Saturday in London

Today was one of those days when you could have:
  1. Seen the women's final at Wimbledon (assuming that you had tickets)
  2. Gone to Live 8 at Hyde Park (assuming you won tickets on the mobile phone lottery)
  3. Participated in the London Pride (assuming you were a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person)
I went the third one of these. There hadn't been so many gay men in central London since yesterday, but that didn't stop anybody having a good time. I wasn't planning on taking part in the actual march from Hyde Park to Victoria Embankment, but A convinced me to do so and before I knew it I was walking up Piccadilly getting applause (which is something that you don't get everyday).

There was an interesting part near Pall Mall as well where anti-gay protestors had placards saying something about sodomites. A and his friends asked what we should be doing at this point and I said we should just do what everybody else was doing: make impolite gestures with our middle finger and shout "motherfuckers". We did. And it was such fun. It was probably the most sensible debate to have with these people.

I didn't really spot any celebrities unless you count rights campaigner Peter Tatchell as one. He has to be admired for his passion on issues and his attempt to make a citizens arrest on despot Mugabe, even though he is a tad left on the political spectrum...

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