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Showing posts from December, 2022

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Somewhere that's green: Potty the Plant at Wiltons Music Hall

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"I'm Potty the Plant," sings a potted plant in this odd little fringe concept of a show. It's hard not to get the tune out of your head, even if the show is brief. It's an earworm for a show that features a worm-like plant as a puppet. And given the show's brevity, running at only an hour, it's hard to get too annoyed by a lack of a coherent story, even if it still seems like the show could use a bit more development (which is underway). It has made its London debut at Wilton's Music Hall. The premise is that Potty, the plant, lives in the hospital office of Dr Acula (geddit?) and dreams of a life with the cleaning lady Miss Lacey (Lucy Appleton). But Dr Acula might be responsible for why all these children are disappearing while trying to romance Miss Lacey for her family's money that she doesn't have. Three nurses are on the case, trying to solve the mystery.  If the show settled on a convincing plot, location and set of characters, it could ...
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Santa’s coming for us: The Grotto @draytonarmsSW5

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The Grotto is an alternative Christmas show for those who feel there isn’t enough blood, gore, and science fiction in traditional Christmas outings. Or you can’t stomach the usual good cheer this time of year. It plays at the Drayton Arms Theatre to satiate those who want to wish less good tidings to people at this time of year. It opens at a Santas Grotto in some shopping centre.  Layla and Pete are in some Christmas purgatory—dressed as an elf and Santa, Welcoming in children and taking a photo of them on Santa’s lap. They are on a repeat loop all day to the tune of I wish it could be Christmas every day. The music speeds up as the day continues in a frenzy of desperate Christmas cheer. It’s as if the music starts sounding like, “I wish shit could be Christmas”. After finishing up for the day in this Christmassy purgatory, Leyla and Pete are visited by a ghostly presence as they have lost their Christmas spirit. Christmas is an endurance event for them of annoying family members...
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Le film du jour

Film: Belle Du Jour Saturday night I caught the Film Belle Du Jour (not to be confused with the blog) with A which is showing as part of a Catherine Deneuve retrospective. During the movie I was impressed with the number of cableknits on display, but it was an interesting tale about a bored French housewife who despite being married to Jean Sorel decides to dabble in prostitution. At this point I was ready to slap Deneuve's character. She could have all the Yves Saint-Laurent dresses and cableknits in the world, but what she really wanted was big fat Asian men and gangsters with metal teeth. What is wrong with the woman??? Still it was a fascinating movie that holds up well nearly forty years after it was made. After the movie A asked me what did I think the moral of the story was. I suggested that the moral was that one should not take up prostitution in the afternoon. It would be probably safer to do it in the morning when you get the milkmen coming off shift rather than creep...
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