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The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

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We’re warned at the start of the show with an upbeat number that this is not the usual sort of musical. And it turns out to be just that. But with boundless enthusiasm and energy from its two leads, who deploy a range of voices and breathtaking energy to create a series of voices for puppet characters, a bedtime story becomes a silly oddball tale about four souls stuck in purgatory. With puppets. And various toilet humour references. It’s currently playing at Upstairs At The Gatehouse . The piece starts as a bedtime story. Daddy (Mark Underwood) is about to read a bedtime story for Louise (Sarah Louise Hughes). But her stomach felt funny, and soon, she went to the bathroom. Then, for reasons that seem to only make sense in the confines of the show, they start telling the story of four people who died in unfortunate circumstances in the bathroom. Depicted as puppets, they’re stuck in purgatory as St Peter doesn’t have enough space for each of them in the afterlife. And so begins a puppe...
Aha! The counter-surprise operation is still in full swing...

I thought after yesterday's posting the game might be up but then I got this email this morning...

Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 18:40:26 -0800 (PST)
From: "Marc"
Subject: is something brewing????
To: "Paul"

Hey there pauley.... sorry I haven't called or emailed in the last 24... hope you haven't been worried too much. All is well....... Lets just say that there is a little surprise coming your way....you won't know when and how it is going to hit you but I think you'll get a kick out oif it!!!

Love you lots pauley and will talk again real soon


M

Well really, it is all good. We will be back together in less than four hours... not that I am counting down. JAL reports the flight is 20 minutes ahead of time as well... Will Paul make it to the airport in time? Will Marc breeze through immigration and be left waiting for Paul to show up? I have decided not to arrive in disguise given that might startle security there. Being well acquainted with Heathrow now I do know all the good spots to stand to wait for people to arrive. I will be the one wearing the Marcs shirt too (of course).

Other surprises

I have to fess up too, there are a few things I will need to tell Marc when he gets here. I will do my best to put them in a good light!
* The coffee in this city is shit. I don't know if its the hard water, the poorly trained baristas, the chain stores or what, but my tastebuds have had to adjust to poor quality coffee. But I know three places in London where the coffee is good and they are not chain stores so you have to go out of your way to get to them!
* We will be living in a bit of a construction site for the next month. But we are only 3 mins walk from the tube and I think location location location is paramount!
* On the plus we are living next door to a place that serves all day breakfast for £3.50 (including coffee)
* The flavours are not as intense here in general, but I have noticed the eggs are bigger...

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