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Wine time: The Frogs - Southwark Playhouse

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For a show called The Frogs, there isn’t much amphibian activity in the piece. But being a show with music by Stephen Sondheim, you could be mistaken for thinking it’s a critical theatrical piece. But like Sondheim’s final musical playing at the National Theatre, while it may not be a musical that fills you with provocative thoughts, it’s a fast-paced romp through hell and back to save the world for the sake of arts. With rousing choruses, thrilling choreography and plenty of cheap laughs, what more can you want from the theatre? It’s currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse (Borough) . There isn’t much to the plot, except that Dionysus (Dan Buckley), disillusioned by the state of a divided world, and his sidekick and slave, Xanthias (Kevin McHale), cross the river Styx to the underworld to find a great writer who they can return to the world to teach the world about life. He has his mind set on bringing back George Bernard Shaw until he hears the poetry of Shakespeare.  This v...
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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