More Shows

A quick update of Friday's shows (as I got my updates mixed up)

I saw "Kingmaker" which was a political satirical play about a "buffoonish" London mayor who is running for leadership of his party and hence become Prime Minister. The play is set around a secret meeting between the mayor, his main/only opponent and a third party who is trying to manipulate things for their own ends. It was very well acted and had it's amusing moments, Ultimately it suggests that is not the people who make the decisions but the machinations that go on behind closed doors.

The scond shows I saw on Friday was "Lieutenant of Inishmore", it's a comedy based around an irish pyschopathic "terrorist" who finds out his cat is sick. When you enter the room you find it is covered floor to roof in heavy black plastic and cagoules and plastic bags are provided for each member of the small audience. It was very funny and totally over the top with lots of "blood" being splattered everywhere! :-)

Saturday

I took a gamble on booking "Shakespeare in the Garden: A Midsummer Night's Dream" hoping it would be a nice warm evening, unfortunately it wasn't, it was chilly and there had been showers of rain on and off all day, so the show was moved indoors into the church (whose garden was to be the original venue) [pictured]. It was a traditional version of Shakespeare (with the original "thees" & "thous" language) which I find at times difficult to follow when not very familiar with this particular play. It was very well done and they made the most of the church space (characters entering and leaving from front and back and even using the pulpit).

Second show was "Americana" which was a modern musical about a gay couples battle against bigotry, homophobia and religious fundamentalism in a South-Carolina high school. It was pretty hard core and a bit edgy, with some excellent musical performances.