Nothing much written down, but I think this was the evening that Janie produced her wasabi beef special for those two and jolly wonderful it tasted too.
I seem to recall that they stayed over and that we said goodbye to them before going off to play tennis, during which time they left.
This is a very interesting play, based on a true story about a man and a woman in California who agreed a formal contract for “mistress services”, at the behest of the woman.
The true life couple also taped a great deal of their conversation; a resource that was utilised for the story.
For me and Janie, it worked much better as a conversation point than it worked as a drama. These were consenting adults after all and it seems that the arrangement worked well for them; the persevered with it into their extreme dotage. Perhaps that explains why the reviews were mostly indifferent.
Still, excellent cast and well produced, as you’d expect from the Royal Court. The piece certainly got me and Janie talking afterwards. I think we went to the Four Seasons for Chinese that evening – I don’t know why that thought pops into my head nearly four years later.
Every so often, Jamil and Souad insist on taking me and Janie out for a meal. We occasionally get a chance to reciprocate, but not as often as we are hosted.
Janie and I love Lebanese food; Jamil and Souad know how to help us choose; to some extent favourites and known treats, to some extent things we might not have tried before.
As always with those two, an excellent meal in excellent company.
I recall Janie wondering why we had booked this, when we reminded ourselves on the day about what we were going to see. A play about footballers and sex and stuff.
Actually we both really enjoyed this play; it was full of energy, with a good mix of entertainment and issues to think about. Janie and I found lots to talk about afterwards.
I have found an unfeasibly long trail of messages on Facebook messenger between me and Jilly simply to arrange for me and Janie to join Jilly and friends at Moro in Exmouth Market for Jilly’s sort-of birthday thing.
It had been quite a while since I’d last seen Jilly, for no apparent reason other than general busyness, mutual social laziness and dates/lives not coinciding.
I have always liked Moro – click here – but hadn’t eaten there for some time, life not really taking me to Clerkenwell all that much now. I think it might have been a first time for Janie. North African Spanish fusion was bound to be her taste and indeed was.
Jilly’s friends are reliably good company and this occasion was no exception.
Janie and I very much enjoyed the evening, as did Jilly, by all accounts.
This was an extraordinary installation/show. Not quite in the same class as The Masque Of The Red Death, another punchdrunk masterpiece, but not far off.
We went with Kim and Micky, eating a spread of Big Al goodies at the flat before ambling over to the venue. The “Temple Studios” installation was in the old Paddington sorting office; the place from whence I used to collect my parcels and “must be signed for” mail, back in the day.
This piece is about the making of a Hollywood movie and the studio that is making it. But are the scenes we see playing out scenes from the movie or real violent drama playing out in the studio?
Kim tried to amuse herself by putting the performers off, but they were all too seasoned for that. I enjoyed getting lost around the studio and examining the incredibly detailed artefacts punchdrunk had strewn around the place, before wending my way through the various performance scenes.
It was great fun.
The bar and entertainment therein was good too. At that juncture, Kim’s style of intervention was positively sought after and Kim did not disappoint.
