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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...
The dinner game

There has been a slight hiatus given that one has been busy with a few other tasks, but on Sunday a successful dinner party was held in Balham. A was cooking curries for his friends and I was an innocent bystander in the goings on.

During the evening however, the subject of chicken curry I cooked in Australia was brought up as a topic for discussion. I had cooked a curry for six and when eight arrived I threw in a head of cauliflower so there was enough for everyone. I had raised this a week or so back with A as I found the whole idea of using cauliflower as "chicken extender" quite amusing. A being an aficionado on what to put and not to put in a curry found the whole idea of cauliflower in a chicken curry to be a ghastly thought and so much discussion ensued about the merits and demerits of cauliflower in a chicken curry. I maintained it rather a practical solution for when eight instead of six guests arrive.

After everyone left and we were doing a bit of clean up, I suggested to A that there were some other potential practical things to think about for future dinners such as
  • How to make guests who bring cheap red wine drink it
  • How to save time by preparing microwavable desserts and pass them off as your own
  • How to carry on conversations with dinner guests who know great detail about the saunas in Rome.
A wasn't so sure about my thoroughly practical advice but I get the feeling that the next dinner he puts on the guests will be expecting chicken curry with cauliflower...

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