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Same but indifferent: Laughing Boy @JStheatre

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Stephen Unwin's Laughing Boy, adapted for the stage from Sara Ryan's Justice for Laughing Boy, is a powerful and moving story about a mother and a family that keeps asking questions despite the victimisation and harassment from the institution - the NHS - that was supposed to protect her son. It's a moving, celebratory account of a life cut short due to indifference held together by a remarkable performance by Janie Dee as Sara. It's currently playing at the Jermyn Street Theatre .  Sara's son, Connor, is a little different to others. He is fascinated by buses and doesn't like things like loud noises. But as he becomes an adult, his seizures and unexpected outbursts mean the family turn to their local NHS for support. Little did they realise they would receive such little care from a service that was institutionally incompetent and covered up thousands of unexplained deaths of people with disabilities, including Connor's. The search for answers about why he
Office situations A colleague at work returned today to say goodbye to everyone. She left work in March to go to hospital, but has now left work completely. I suggested to F that her departure in March may have been to have a face lift. Today I can confirm that this was not the case. But I couldn't rule out botox...
News: Farewell to the cracked leather Today the Royal Festival Hall bid farewell to the dusty tapestry, cracked leather seats and general shabbiness as it embarks on an upgrade which will see better facilities and acoustics in 2007 when it reopens. Central London will be a bit interesting on Saturday as there is the Live 8 in Hyde Park, plus the Pride Festivities in Trafalgar Square and elsewhere. So combined with the sales and a few other events it could be possible that every man and his dog will be out and about on the weekend. Possibly a good place to be seen...
Theatre: Hedwig and the Angry Inch Tonight caught Hedwig and the Angry Inch featuring David Bedella at Heaven Nightclub. Sitting in second row on the aisle made one a little anxious knowing that there is a bit of audience participation involved in the show, but fortunately the "car wash" of a member of the audience took place a few rows further back. The show was the basis for the cult movie (well an emerging cult movie since it was only released in 2001), and is such a great show full of tributes to 70s glam rock and punk music and cheap gags. Bedella was terrific as the blonde drag diva with the "angry inch". There was something good about seeing it under the arches at Heaven. It is the sort of show that seems to work best in a shabby venue. As the show progressed and as the temperature rose, the seats were uncomfortable and you could hear the clinking of beer bottles. None of this mattered, it just added to the flavour of it all.
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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?
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.
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...
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...