Apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

Sometime in the dim and distant past, somebody got a bit of translation from even dimmer and more distant times wrong and the Roman vomitorium (big passage to enable people to get in and out of theatres etc. easily) became the Roman vomitorium (special room to go and throw up in between courses at banquets so as to make space for more food).  The two don’t normally go together at all, but a couple of weeks ago I was right in the centre of an explosive conjunction.

Back in mid-January we went to see our fifth “Christmas” show by the Eastern Angles group.  This year snappily titled “The Brontes of Dunwich Heath…  And Cliff” which fit the pattern we have experienced before of borrowing characters and authors from great literature and adding in a silly Suffolk plot and songs.  As has become traditional, we met up with friends for dinner first then all bundled down to the Seckford Theatre in Woodbridge for the show.  All was fine and enjoyable until nearly the end when the person sat behind me started coughing.  Just a little disturbance to start with but then, suddenly, splat.

As can be guessed from the first paragraph, said person was not well at all and threw up all over me.  Which did rather bring the show to a halt.  I’ve not had the pleasure of washing my hair, neck, back (and indeed shirt) in a theatre toilet before and it is not an experience I want to repeat.  The Angles volunteers were very good, provided me with a t-shirt and all so I was able to sneak back in to the performance for the last few minutes.  Then it turned out that MrsB had also caught some of the extensive splattering so she too got cleaned up and t-shirted before we headed home for a very hot shower!  It is already becoming something we can look back on and laugh, but at the time…

They have given us tickets to the next production in recompense, so hopefully that one will pass off without incident.

Advertiser of plays.

Advertiser of plays.
Originally uploaded by The original SimonB

Better late than never, I can recall that we did manage to experience the Eastern Angles production "Bentwater Roads" last week and thoroughly enjoyed it. If it hadn't now finished I would recommend anyone within range snapping up tickets, but I'm afraid I rather missed the boat with that idea.

Anyway, the plot concerned a girl returning home to Suffolk on inheriting the family house along with vignettes from history of the location (Pagan, Middle Ages, Cold War). Which is what I really want to write about.

Billed as a site-specific production, the play was performed in the Hush House at the former Bentwaters Air Base. This being a hanger used for testing jet engines by the USAF during their years on site. It is a very distinctive space - part hanger, part tunnel of corrugated metal and I really would like the chance to wander around it with a camera and without the added scenery, lights, seats etc that made it usable for the drama. The tunnel made a good additional stage entrance, allowing dramatic processions etc to appear from the rear while using the hanger floor rather than adding a raised stage meant the camper van (as pictured on promotional duties) was also able to make an appearance. It also had the advantage of being effectively in the middle of nowhere by virtue of being on the far side of the airfield from the main gate, and also very close to Wantisden church, which also featured in the story, and looked lovely lit up when we cmae out. Must try to visit there in the day time. An actual review here.

Having said that though, I guess the show would work almost as well elsewhere as the location and natural features of the building could be glossed over. Unlike a site-specific play we saw at Landguard Fort in Felixstowe which used several rooms and the courtyard and had the audience moving between them with the actors.

Now to book tickets for the Christmas show.

Not staying in

Although I'm not really one for New Year's Resolutions, I did decide while we were away that we need to get out and do more things during 2010. Not that we spend all night every night slumped in front of the telly or banging away at the keyboard - it just seems like most of them! I think it was partly realising that while we were in Canada we were out and about a bit more than we would be here. Now, I know some of that is the being on holiday syndrome, or there being more shops open late or just having relatives on hand with ideas of things to do, but we were definitely doing stuff. Here we seem to fall into a routine of, for example, shopping on a Sunday when we could just as easily go of an evening and then have the whole Sunday to do something else, go somewhere etc.

To that end we were out on Saturday night with friends for a nice meal and then to see Mansfield Park And Ride, the Christmas show from local theatre group Eastern Angles. The brief description on their page only gives a very faint flavour of the evening of laughs that awaited us. A quality cast of five managing to squeeze in at least 12 roles between them, song, dance and lots of breaking the fourth wall. Although as we saw them in a venue with seats on two sides of the stage I guess they broke the third one as well. We have heard good reviews of the Christmas shows in the past just never managed to catch them. This year I am very glad we did.

MrsB is a huge fan of the costume drama as perfected by the BBC, and I have been known to enjoy them from time to time as well (and sit politely through others!) so a send up of the genre was bound to make us laugh. Unlike any of the works of the Austens, Brontes or Dickens of this world it was set in the Ipswich Area and thus poked gentle fun at the Park & Ride services I look after in my daily life. And of course any play where the characters complain about the lack of production budget has to be worth seeing.

I am now very tempted by a show they are putting on at the old Bentwaters airfield in the summer which I am sure will not be a comedy but still worth investigating. In fact it sounds similar to something we saw at Landguard Fort here in Felixstowe last year which also featured a small cast in numerous roles, acting on the move between different rooms and ghosts.

Oh, and I popped out at lunch time to get tickets for Julian Clary next month. Never seen a proper stand-up in the flesh so this will be a first for both of us. Hopefully not a last.

Sister Act and other diversions

Sister Act
Originally uploaded by The original SimonB

As foreshadowed, Saturday saw our visit to London to see Sister Act. It was absolutely superb - definitely the best west end production we have seen so far. OK, so perhaps they have an advantage at the Palladium with revolving stage, trapdoors etc that you may not see in other venues, but by 'eck do they make the most of it. Acting, singing, dancing and the scenery all superb.

We were both impressed by Patina Miller in the lead role and Sheila Hancock as the Mother Superior with perfect comic timing. For our show we got the understudy for the priest, instead of the anticipated Ian Lavender* but he was really good anyway, and somehow the thought of Private Pike with an American accent would have been wrong anyway.

As we arrived with four hours to kill we had a bit of a mooch around Oxford Street, Soho and the general area. No real intentions other than seeing some of the back streets and bits we've not wandered around before. Plus it wasn't enough time to get to and then do justice to a museum or gallery as well as fitting in a bite of lunch. Some more pics gradually making their way up onto flickr.


* This was not such a disappointment for me as I have actually met him. We were holding a bus users forum in Bury St Edmunds which he attended with some questions for us. Nice to see someone with a modicum of fame using public transport. Anyway, one of my colleagues got the job of taking down his details and had no idea who he was talking to. When he asked for his name I had to bite my tongue to not shout out "Don't tell him, Pike". I'm sure he must get that all the time.

I dunno, you spend the best part of a Metallica CD humming and ha-ing over what to write and completely forget to mention what you did last night. Yup, we went to the production of Camelot referred to on Tuesday. Apart from it being in a tent (with very squeaky frame making a lot of racket in the high winds) rather than strictly outdoors it was very good indeed. Not seen the film or a previous production so it was all new to me too. I do enjoy a bit of live theatre from time to time, and the amateur groups round here all do a stonkingly good job. Plus we won two prizes in the raffle!