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Showing posts from December, 2022

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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...

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...

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...