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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...

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Originally uploaded by Pauly_.

Scenes from Waterloo Station Northern Line Friday 09:31 - The morning commute is disrupted at Waterloo after what was described as a suspect package is found at Kennington... My train had to be reversed back up the line to allow another train to reverse back into the station. It would be the bus for me for the rest of the journey...

Before catching the 59 Bus from Waterloo Station I thought I could do with a coffee. I started heading over to the nearby Starbucks and suddenly British Transport Police appeared out of nowhere and swooped on a tall young lad with a rucksack right next to the coffee shop. I decided to skip the coffee and head to the bus stop. Starbucks coffee is such rubbish anyway. From the safety of the bus stop I could see that it was a false alarm.

**Further Update** It is now reported that a man has been shot at Stockwell tube station around this time (three stops south of Waterloo). Just as well I was late for work today...

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