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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

Film: Volver

Sunday morning I managed to catch Pedro Almodóvar's latest film Volver . It is such a sweet story of murder, revenge and family relationships. All the cast were great, and particularly Penélope Cruz in particular in the lead role. Although having her star in a movie as a woman poor and scrubbing floors seemed out of place. She is too glamorousus for that. It reminded me of seeing Marlene Dietrich wearing an apron cookin' up a meal for Edward G Robinson in the movie Manpower - it was just plain wrong. Perhaps things are different in provincial Spain... Casting of Cruz aside, it was a great film. And her rather perky cleavage feature thoughout the film at key points. My favourite line was said by a supporting character to her about their plan to take over a bar and restaurant: "Between my mojitos and your cleavage we'll make a killing"... I'll drink to that.

Theatre: A Moon For The Misbegotten

In keeping with an intensive week of theatre (since Si was in town), we caught a preview of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon For the Misbegotten at the Old Vic. It is the opening play for Kevin Spacey's 2006/07 season. Spacey has received a lot of flak in the press for his artistic direction over the last two years at the Old Vic, but this play is going to knock everyone's socks off. Everything about the production was fantastic. Of course O'Neill has written a great story. You are drawn into their story around the relationship between the father and daughter still living on a run down farm, and their landlord and friend(?) who may sell the farm to them, or he may sell to a neighbour who is offering more… From there the story unfolds… Eve Best in the central role gave an incredibly engaging performance. Spacey and Colm Meaney were also fabulous. The play was so full of life and the performances were so enjoyable that the audience members who hadn't passed out from the h

Conversation at the Festival Hall site visit Saturday...

Lady : So will the new building have more toilets? Guide : Absolutely. There'll be 50% more toilets for the ladies... Man : What about the mens toilets? They were always locked? Guide : Well we had to lock the mens toilets because um... There were certain types of people who er... Gay men liked to go there often... Lady (to man) : Ah see Errol, you missed out...

Scenes from Royal Festival Hall Saturday 14:55

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Scenes from Royal Festival Hall Saturday 14:55 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . No I wasn't auditioning for the Village People. It was London Open House weekend this weekend and that meant the opportunity to visit various places of architectural merit (however dubious some might think). Royal Festival Hall - an iconic post-war building or eyesore (depending on your point of view) - has been undergoing a major refurbishment since last summer and was open to guided tours. Hard hat, vest and construction shoes were necessary to take the tour. The tour went from the basement to the new replastered ceiling. It is a Grade I listed building and while the majority of it will look exactly as it was when it opened in 1954, it will have improved acoustics, a deeper stage and (at last) air conditioning. It is such a great building that going on a tour of it you could forget all about the problems and budget overruns from this project...

Opera: Faust

Friday night I caught the opening night of Faust , featuring Angela Gheorghiu and Piotr Beczala . It is a fantastic production, although at three and a half hours it did test not only one's concentration but one's glutes. Gheorghiu reprising her performance from 2004 was probably better suited to this role than the one she attempted earlier in the summer with Tosca, but the jury has to be out on the blonde wig she wears in the role. It was however Beczala's night and the audience saved the most applause for him… I did get the feeling that the best parts of the opera are all in the first half. Particularly in this production the ballet dancing through hell in the fifth act felt way too literal. All told however the production was lavish and there was plenty to take in…

Scenes from a Victorian Mansion in SW2... Anyday...

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Scenes from a Victorian Mansion in SW2... Anyday... Originally uploaded by Pauly_ .

Reimagined conversation at the V&A Thursday...

Si : After seeing the Da Vinci show I bought "the last supper after dinner mints"... They're the campest thing... An : No Paul's the campest thing... They would have to be the second campest...

Theatre: Donkeys' Years

Tuesday night I caught Donkeys' Years. It is a revival of Michael Frayn's 1976 comedy and has been doing well enough to have its West End run extended . The cast has been changed this month which is probably necessary given all the door slamming, sweating and running about that takes place. I did find the first act to drag a little. So much so that I felt myself nodding off at times. Lucky S was next to me to prod me as we were sitting second row centre. It was a lot of exposition to get through and I figured I could do without it. Still for a mild farce it did hold up well.

Idle Sunday evening chatter...

Ad : I went to the new gym tonight. It is so much better than the one in Soho... Paul : Why's that? Ad : The one in Soho is too cliquey... Paul : But you could say that we're a clique when we go there... Ad : Yeah but that's a clique I don't wanna be in...

Theatre: A Slice O Minnelli

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Caught Rick Skye in his final performance of A Slice O Minnelli in London tonight. It was a faithful recreation and parody of you know who... Glamour and glitz, legs and tits in the basement of the Theatre Museum at Covent Garden. Plenty of references to the film New York, New York abounded too as the above picture can attest. The above picture was also an excuse to put a female impersonator on my web page as I don't think I have done that before either... Of course if you knew Liza's music (and hey who doesn't?) there were plenty of in-jokes but even without knowing that "With One Look" from Sunset Boulevard was sung in the style of "Some People" from Gypsy there was plenty to enjoy from this loving yet slightly barbed tribute. Skye is actually a pretty good singer too and it was a full house (well as full as the bowels of the Theatre Museum can be) too...