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More sex and violence: Playfight @sohotheatre

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The funny thing about three girls growing up under a tree is that you never quite know when they're being serious or just messing about. One time, they might be talking about giving blow jobs on a tennis court at school and another, they might be yearning for a connection that they can't quite explain. That's what happens in Playfight, an Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024 hit currently showing at Soho Theatre .  Writer Julia Grogan doesn't give us much time to dwell on the lives of these three young teenage girls. One minute, they're fifteen and giggling, and then the next thing, they're off getting married or going to University. But underneath all the smutty talk, humour, and quick scene changes, there is a darker underbelly about relationships, power, and consent. It's about finding your way in a complex world that can dehumanise and degrade you. But as things move so quickly, you could blink and miss it. This is too bad as the performances capturing this co...
Politics: New Labour testing ground

Labour is testing a series of posters that it may use in the election on the theme Britain is working. Don't let the Tories wreck it again (which borrows the same slogan from what the Tories used 10 years ago but anyway...). They are all are pretty underwhelming in the mudslinging stakes and surely must only appeal to the most die-hard of campaign fanatics...

Meanwhile over on the Conservative.com site, the new slogan: "Are you thinking what we're thinking?" is being rolled out... Quite cryptic really...

News: Crimes against intruders

Amid concerns that crime is out of control (and depending on what statistics you look at you could argue this toss one way or another), in the battle over what people can do to protect their homes during a burglary, new guidelines released this week say pretty much anything now goes. You still can't set traps or punish a burglar by death, but anything else is fair game. The advice was released to make homeowners feel safe about keeping that cricket bat by gun by their bedside table (who also will be voting in May as well)...

News: Mandela in London

Nelson Mandela is in London for the rest of the week to address the G7 industrialised nations about "making poverty history". He will also address a Rally in Trafalgar Square. Chancellor Gordon Brown is leading on the initiative from the Government, but whether any real action on wiping third world debt and giving developing nations real access to world markets is another matter...

Films in London

There are a couple of films shot in London screening here at the moment:
* Closer - drama with Julia and Jude etc... location map is here
* Creep - A garden variety slasher flick set on the London Underground and uses the disused platforms at Charring Cross.

Life Bits

* New haircut (check)
* New gym membership (check)
* New place to live (still looking)

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