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The agony and the misogyny: Banging Denmark @finborough

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Banging Denmark, the comic play by Van Badham, answers the question, what lengths does a misogynistic pickup artist go to date with a frosty Danish librarian? It may be an uneasy farce given the subject matter, but it is made more palatable by the cast assembled to convince you of it. It's currently having its European premiere at the Finborough Theatre .  It opens with Guy DeWitt (Tom Kay) at one end of the stage. His real name is Jake, and he's a part-time podcaster whose expertise is misogyny and playing the role of the pickup artist. That is, someone who attempts to coax women into having sex with a mix of flattery or manipulation. His podcast attracts a variety of involuntarily celibate men (or incels), so call in asking for advice. And while he gives the impression of living the high life, he is in a grimy flat strewn with empty pizza boxes.  At the other end of the stage is feminist academic Ishtar (Rebecca Blackstone). She lives out of the photocopy room, losing all her
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Window Shopping at Heals Saturday 20:13. The sales have started here and the punters have slowly been getting out and spending. Nothing lures Londoners out of a spending slump than a sale. Here are some of the lovely things on offer at Heal's. Note the stainless steel bins on sale. No self-respecting kitchen in London is complete without a stainless steel bin. It gives garbage and peelings so much more class to put them in a sleek bin with a special liner that you have to purchase separately. Saw many people carrying stainless steel bins home to make their kitchens complete this weekend. And with prices under £100, who could blame them?
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Theatre: Happy End Managed to do at least one thing cultural this weekend and this was to see the Royal Academy of Music's, music theatre production of Kurt Weill's Happy End (1929) . It was fantastic. The show was well made and acted. The singers were all great. Weill and Brecht's anti-capitalist message is quaint by today's standards, but while the message is irrelevant the music is sublime. It was nice to hear singers sing the music (including Surabaya-Johnny) as if they didn't have laryngitis either. Tonight's show was proof it could be sung musically.
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Food South Indian Fare just across the divide Among shopping and other things today, ventured with A across the great divide (no not the Thames but Euston Road which is such a wide and confronting road just north of where I live and I haven't faced it before) to a South Indian restaurant. The food was great and one course was served with a flattened rice flour pancake that was propped up and looked like some sort of hat with little pots of tasty things underneath. A (seeing arrival of the food): Oh our hats are here to eat... Paul: Yes they are fancy hats... A: You could almost wear them at the races in Ascot... Paul: Oh so is that how you distinguish the Southern Indians at the races? They are the ones eating their hats?? Silly perhaps, but great food, and so close to Warren Street Tube...
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News: Hot in the City The heatwave caused a full scale emergency on Thursday evening as a train for Newcastle out of Kings Cross got stuck between Peterborough and Stevenage . Temperatures reached the high forties in the cars and as water and drinks ran out, panic and dehydration set in. Elsewhere trains were delayed as the heat led to cracked rails. Also yesterday a tube train malfunction on the Central Line led to 800 passengers being stuck underground for two hours in 30 deg heat... The weather has finally returned to more sensible temperatures today...
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Scenes from Tottenham Court Road Friday 20:08 - A backpacker is hit by a black cab and lies across the road motionless - legs and arms akimbo. Backpack lying on the road. Given the care paramedics were taking not to move him I assumed he was still alive.  
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News: The ties have it Outgoing cabinet secretary suggested yesterday civil servants could ditch their neck ties . Is it the beginning of the end of the stereotypical civil servant? No mention was made about umbrellas. Of course, on a day like today where temperatures soared into the thirties and with air conditioning non-existent or not working... ties were strictly optional where I work...
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Scenes from a Japanese Restaurant in Soho American guy on a date (looking over at Paul's meal): Heeey that looks good. What's that? Paul: Chicken Katsu AGoaD: Where's that on the menu? Paul: Over the page... There... Chicken Katsu Curry AGoaD: Aw it's a curry. I can't do a curry...
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Idle chatter Monday afternoon in the office Colleague #1 (to Paul): Beryl called to speak to you so you might want to give her a call... A tinkle... Paul: Hmm... I would prefer to just give her a call
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News: Cruise Control All the talk today was around the short squirt (of water) to the short squirt (that's Tom). It turns out the stunt was for a Channel 4 show which will most likely never see airtime but the clip of the stunt is here . Channel 4 is going to miss out on Tom's future press junkets, but Tom should take heart. He is the only movie star to spend so much time meeting fans and giving interviews in Leicester Square, and he still looked good while being embarrassed. And that's really all that matters surely?
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Scenes from Victoria Station Saturday 17:43 - Waiting for the train to Streatham Hill... It was late...  
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