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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

Dance: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre


Source: http://www.alvinailey.org

In a week with a head cold from hell (which meant no gym, a lot of rest, and no socialising), it was somewhat of a relief to get out and see Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre at Sadlers Wells on Saturday night. Arriving at the theatre with the above artwork plastered all over the theatre (and most of Islington), I expected little was spent on the costume budget. But in a programme set to legendary jazz music, it turned out to not be the case. This was a bit of a relief as after a week of coughing and spluttering who needs to have somebody else's physical fitness rubbed in your face?

After the first interval I caught up with Fliss who was there with her posse. Fliss signed up to see the show on the strength of a viral video that was doing the rounds in the past month. I was there just for the artistic enrichment (plus I got a great seat at good price). Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Anyway I joined them the first interval onwards as a seat filler in the stalls. And while the view of the stage wasn't as good, the view of the stalls was much better and there were some pretty nice views there... Fliss and I also managed to bitch about some of the production team seating by who only vaguely managed to resemble their photos in the programme.

Anyway I digress... Setting dance to the music of Duke Ellington and others can only be a good thing and it was a great evening. I was even grooving along at various points. Afterwards I passed on a chance to dine with the posse in favour of more drinking and more jazz... It was probably not the best idea after a decongestant with pseudoephedrine (and may have explained the in-seat grooving) but what the hell. Regardless of what substances I was under the influence of, it still was a great night. They are in London until the end of this week before touring the rest of the UK. Definitely one to catch... And most of the seats at Sadlers Wells are pretty good...

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