Voila! Theatre Festival – 4th–24th November 2024

Whoops, I should have posted this last week. Support your local theatre and see amazing and thought-provoking innovative theatre created and performed by new artists.

Voila! theatre festival is a multi-language, multi-disciplinary, diverse collection of plays across London at various small theatres across London – 72 shows performed by 350 artists.

Some of the best plays I have seen this year have been staged at some of the venues hosing these events and they are will worth a night out at any time, if only to hang out at their bar!

Coriolanus at The National Theatre – disappointing, overproduced and over-enunciated

I went to Coriolanus at the NT's Olivier Theatre on Monday evening.

This is my view of stage before the play started. 

This stage set is actually the star of the show, almost a total distraction as it goes up and down, transforming from indoor to outdoor environments and also used as a huge screen for live action video projections. 

The design and visuals are excellent, the colour palette, the lighting, the staging and the costumes. But the delivery of play itself, the storytelling, is lacking in many ways. I wonder if they spent too much time and money on the look of the thing, rather than concentrating on how Shakespeare's play might be better understood by the audience who might not already know it so well. 

For instance, most of the 'actors' including Coriolanus himself, played by David Oyelowo, sounded like they were just reciting something at school without making those words come alive. Stiff and static, they stood there, feet rooted to the ground as they ee-nun-see-ate-ed their words in a metro-nome fash-on. Some of them boomed in that 'I am an aKtor!' style. There was a lack of inflection, of humanity, of reality. Most of the characters were therefore two-dimensional and unreal, practically every word spoken at the same level with the same intonation, with random occasional emphasis on a single word making it seem like they'd been told to do that by the drama teacher. However, in contrast, in must be said that the two actors who played the tribunes were excellent, highlighting the difference between acting and just learning words. Surely it's hard to act with/against others who are so wooden and unbelievable, and I wondered if these two actors had noticed or even complained or tried to help with their workmates' inadequate skills. 

And then there's the cost of these productions. People often complain that theatre ticket prices are too high. Well, this production clearly showed where the money is spent – the set, the designer costumes and the tech used in the production are all top of the range and in many cases, IMHO, not even necessary. Oh, and the soundtrack which was often overbearing. Many times I could hardly hear anything being said on stage beneath the loud sound effects emitting from the speakers.

I clearly was not the only disappointed punter as I saw many people grab their coats and leave before the interval. I considered giving up on it myself, but with a niggling FOMO I googled the play to see if it was worth sticking it out and found an excellent review by Arifa Akbar in the Guardian which totally echoes my own observations. 

I decided to stick it out if only to see the costumes in the final scenes and noticed some of the audience laughed in the 'right' places, often before the line was actually finished, in that in that 'oh ha ha, I get it the reference' way. I often wonder if these people are performing arts students studying the play, and it was probably them who whooped and clapped at the end. Me? I sat there stunned, wondering why they were applauding actors for simply remembering so many words. David Oyelowo looked very pleased with himself as he bowed to the audience, lapping up the attention, skipping off stage almost with a whoo-hoo. Creepy. 

Yours, disappointed of Holloway.

A THOUGHT: I've just recalled something else that I noticed... This production has a cast that's approximately 50% dark skinned. However, I would say the audience on Monday was 95% pale skinned. Interesting huh.

And another thing... seat numbers... why oh why can't they place them where we can clearly see them? Here, in the NT's Olivier Theatre, they are embedded into the sides of the padded arm rests which are barely visible in the pic below but it's actually worse when you are there.

Farm Hall at the gorgeous Theatre Royal, Haymarket

I'm a bit late with this as Farm Hall, the production I went to see a few weeks ago, has now finished its run. I really enjoyed the play – clever and thought-provoking conversations between captured officers imprisoned in a stately home during WW2 – go Google for reviews.

The thing about going to the theatre or to the cinema is that we rarely look around us at the often sumptuous surroundings being as we are too busy chatting with our friends, trying to find our seats, or queueing for drinks, ice cream or the toilet during the interval. Then the play ends and we all splurge out into the street having missed all the clever architectural embellishments within.

I often go to the theatre or cinema alone to be able to pay attention to the production without interjections and conversations and, during the intervals, I like go investigating. I have visited The Theatre Royal Haymarket many times and each time, even though it's small, I find something new. Many years ago I went on a tour of the building, yet I don't seem to have written about that experience here. (note to self; dig out those photos and add to this post). 

On this occasion my seat was in the stalls and I took a sequence of snaps of the opulent surroundings 

The first half of the play flew by being as it was so engrossing. In the interval I went exploring and  found intriguing little hinges and handles and shiny brass plates within the floor and as push plates on doors:

These doors lead to The Oscar Wilde Room, named to commemorate his two plays that were staged here. The room is also signposted at the front of the theatre under the portico and there is a green plaque at the rear of the theatre at shoulder level here.  Adjacent to this room is a recess that would have contained an ash tray, no doubt used by Oscar himself, a keen cigarette smoker. 

Continuing the subject of ashtrays, the very first pic showing my ticket is in front of a brass corner shelf on the stairs which was also used for this purpose. Here's a better pic of it:

The second pic is looking down into the bar area which, as these next pics show, is slathered in stucco:

And then the bell rang and we all returned to our seats via the doors marked 'Exit' 

I am convinced that there used to be a bakelite phone within one of the stairwells. Or perhaps I am getting my theatres confused. 

UPDATE: Yep... I have found some pics I took in 2015 whilst on a guided tour:

The phone was on the stairs where a flower-shaped window offered a marvellous view out to Haymarket and Her Majesty's Theatre, opposite. But I cannot recall seeing the phone when I went to see Noises off* in November 2013 otherwise I'd have taken more photos of it.

The next two pics show a brassy little pot that I expect was instead used to stash chewing gum or other small rubbish. Not being screwed down, I suspect it was pocketed. The animal head along the handrail is one of many in the bar area.

*my one-word review of that 2023 production of Noises Off: painful.  

Ghostsign for Hackney Empire in Dalston

Out for a wander up Kingsland Road and Dalston High Street this past weekend and I checked up on a few old friends. Specifically, a couple of ghostsigns that face each other near the junction with Englefield Rd.   

The palimpsest on the side of No.474 is well known, shown here as screen grab from Google Streetview. It shows ads for Gillette safety razors, the Sunday Illustrated newspaper, a cafe, and more as yet undeciphered.

But there's another sign on the other side of the road that has intrigued me since I first started taking photos of these things. It's on the north side of the KTS's corner shop at No.415-417, a joy in itself! The hand-painted sign here often goes unnoticed being as a marvellous tree obscures it for most of the year (Google snapshot below is from here).

Being north-facing, only the very top of the sign has been affected by the weather, leaving blue letters at the middle and bottom that were always to me intriguing but difficult to decipher. I'd often assumed that the sign was simply an ad for a bygone business at that corner. I'd take some snaps and say to myself, "I must get the old directories out and look into this one when I get home"... but then I'd get distracted by something else. 

Well, ta-da! – I've finally had a better look at it. The first pic shows a fair representation of the light available from the street on Saturday at approx 3pm 25th Nov 2023, and the pic on the right, taken by standing on the front path of one of the houses adjacent to the sign gives a straight-on view. My original pic was dark and gloomy, but with a simple but of photo enhancement, beefing up the contrast and colour balance (whilst on the bus home, no less! duh! why had this taken me song long?!) it's now clear that the signs reads:

EMPIRE
TWICE
NIGHTLY

I am pretty sure that the top faded part alluded to the Hackney Empire, about a mile away due east in Mare Street quickly accessible via Richmond Rd. Indeed, the Our History part of the theatre's website shows this old pic of the building with a similar sign on the side.

If only all ghostsign sleuthing was this easy!

Other signs for 

Th Crucible at The Gielgud Theatre: numbing not electrifying

Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’ is one of those classics on my list of never read or seen. It was on the curriculum at school but not for my stream. I know the basic story, being as it’s based in fact, about the Salem witch trials, which Miller used to make a point about MacCarthyism. I hadn’t even seen the two movies made. So I bought a ticket.

You may have read on here that I don’t like to find out too much about something before I go and experience it for myself. I had seen short promos online and headings to reviews in the press praising the way the show was staged and how the whole thing was a magnificent revival, or perfect as shown here on the Gielgud’s site. A word repeated used to describe it, used far too often which suggests a copy and paste job, was/is ‘electrifying’

Dear reader, it is soporific. It numbed me. I think I dozed off a couple of times!  Everyone speaks at the same tone to the same beat with no break or pauses like a metronome hence the hypnotic rather than stimulating effect. It certainly didn’t give me sense of dread or foreboding as I later found out it was meant to do. 

Having subsequently read a synopsis of the play, I realise many poignant things that were said on stage were missed by me completely. I hadn’t grasped who was related to whom, who had done what when or who most of the characters were. Seems to me that this is a performance for people who have studied the play who are already in the know. Which was evident here and there when audience members laughed (laughed?) in that in-the-know way they do to prove how brilliant they are, whereas I was sat there questioning what had been said. Many of these loud chucklers looked to be young students who I guess are studying the play at the moment  

I did like the look of it though. The rain effect, the costumes, the moodiness, the way people appeared like ghosts from the rear of the stage. But I also noted that the positioning of actors on the stage was often too equally spaced in the same way they that had been directed to deliver their lines - I’ll speak then you speak and he will speak then she will speak, all in the same tempo and in strange Bostonian(?) accents. Actually, here’s a thought… had that or any US regional accent set in by that time period? Surely these early settlers had all come from various places inc England and Europe and would not have yet had a common accent..?

Anyway. I sat for five mins of the interval and wondered whether to stick it out. I pondered how I’d seen quite a few people leave already during the performance. Perhaps 18 people of varying ages. I wondered if the second half would bring it all together for me. I Googled a synopsis and realised there was too much I hadn’t already understood and so I too left to read it properly on the bus home. I later looked up reviews of this show, a few of which also said they found it strangely paced and relentless as regards the dialogue. 

A shame. Disappointed. Numbed not electrified.

The Parson's Green ghostsign – let's go to the Palace!

Way back in the dim distant past, in November 2008 (wow and ouch, that's almost 15 years ago!) I took some photos of a huge hand-painted sign on the side of Woolverstone House, 45-47 Parsons Green Lane. The sign is painted on the rear of what was originally a beer retailer/ publichhouse and faces north across the District Line railway on the other side of the road to the station. In 2008 the sign looked like this:

It was faily easy to decipher most of the words (see further down). I filed the pics, intending to return to the site another day when the light was better for photography.

But this area of Fulham sits in an area I rarely pass through, let alone stop, and it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I finally paid another visit to the sign. I was at last in the vicinity because I had been asked to lead a mudlarking group on the foreshore at nearby Broomhouse Dock. As I came out of Parson's Green station (possessive apostrophe there or not? I wish they'd make up their mind!) I crossed the street to check on my old friend and was delighted to find it's all still there, in fact more of it is visible than before being as that white panel is no longer in place. I had expected the whole wall to have been overpainted in some way or completely whitewashed, but I was pleased to see it intact. This was about 11:20am on a very sunny, hot and hazy day, and not anywhere close to the best conditions for photography. Hence why the best shot is this one taken from underneath the railway lines.

The sign is an advertisement for variety nights at The Victoria Palace Theatre, the Grade II* 1911 Frank Matcham building topped by a gilded statue of Anna Pavlova. 

I have returned to my first batch of pics and created this over-enhanced image to better illustrate the content.What is immediately evident by the patchwork effect here, is the amount of different panels that have covered this wall throughout the decades and, as such, helped to protect what still exists.

Top left, within a panel across 2/3rds of the wall:
VICTORIA
PALACE
VARIETY AT ITS BEST
(time) TWICE NIGHTLY (time

VICTORIA PALACE
OPPOSITE VICTORIA STATION
6.15 TWICE/NIGHTLY 8.50

I think what we have here is a build up of signs over time with the earliest one at the top left, its letterform is distinctly early C20th. It reminds me of the sign for the Palais de Danse that used to be visible from the Dictrict Line plaforms at Hammersmith until that marvellous music venue was demolished in May 2012. 

The repetition of the venue name at centre looks to be later addition, rendered as it is in a simpler sans serif form. And at the very bottom, partly obscured by that vertical dark stripe, is a delightful interconnection of 'Twice' and 'Nightly' where the two words are set diagonally against each other as per my pencilled example, right.

And finally, at the extreme bottom right, under the rule, it reads LONGMANS – this is probably the signwriter and, if so, could be the largest 'signature' I have ever seen on a hand-painted sign, the letters being three bricks high! There looks like there might be some other smaller letterforms to the right of that name and this could have been a telephone number, but being as the mortar between the bricks has been replaced across the whole wall, this is very hard to discern now. 

Does anyone have any better pics?

Art Deco architecture in Central London

Oops, I let the blog posts take a back seat whilst I have been researching new walking tours these past few months.
Spurred on by the success of my Art Deco era guided walks in Shoreditch, Holloway, Spitalfields, The City, Camden and Arsenal, I can now offer a few more. Specifically Piccadilly, KX/StPancras, Soho, HattonGdn/Smithfield, Covent Garden and Bloomsbury all of which include less-visited unsung gems in the back streets.
In-depth info and how to book here.
Or visit my Jane's London Walks where you'll also find a quick-to view schedule.
I hope you can join me one day.

Hatton Garden to Smithfield – Modernism, Markets, Meta and Mysteries

St Giles to The Strand  – Flappers, Fashion, Fruit and Footlights

Soho Deco – Movies, Music and Motor Cars

Piccadilly Deco – Slacks, Flicks and Slots

All Change! St Pancras and Kings Cross in the 1930s

The pillars of NYT

The building that is home to the National Youth Theatre, 443-5 Holloway Rd, N7, was originally built as Holloway Hall in 1865 and used for meetings, events and shows including, in 1873, 'Aborigine travelling minstrels' and a baby elephant (not on stage at the same time!)
NYT have plans in place to make some clever architectural changes to the building and I recently went inside during one of their open evenings to see how the spaces will be revamped.
The large area at the rear of the ground floor, which 150 years ago was the  auditorium, is today used to create stage sets and I noticed that many of the columns within are 'decorated' with interesting paint patterns and graffiti.

I understand that these columns will be removed one renovations are complete to create an open, even more useable, unimpeded space.
Keep your eye on local press for updates about NYT's improvements.

Charles Baker, optical and surgical instrument maker, 244 High Holborn

Earlier this week, whilst hunting for something else in amongst my suitcases of collected bric-a-brac, I rediscovered my small collection of opera and field glasses.
Oh what a distraction!
Beautiful little pocket-sized binoculars made of brass (and other metals) and/or bakelite, many with mother-of-pearl, leather or shagreen embellishment. And most of them still in their perfect little pigskin pouches. OK, that was just for alliteration – I mean carrying/protective cases.
Someone recently suggested to me that they were not worth much, that they had no value, and asked me if I used glasses at the opera these days. A bit of a daft question as I rarely go to the opera! And also daft because one could say that Chinese tea caddies and Victorian children's dresses are also not used these days but that doesn't mean they aren't worth anything. I believe what he meant was that these are just collectables; they aren't top dollar items. Certainly not worth insuring.

Nevertheless I thought I'd do a bit of research on them and the pair that I found to be the most intriguing, for me as a Londoner, is the pair that when the centre wheel is at full twist, letters can be seen inscribed into on the shafts that read; "Sold By C. BAKER, Optician" on the left side, and "244 High Holborn, London" on the right.

Silver metal with hinged centre and mother-of-pearl inlay on the handles 

I at first wondered if this Chas Baker was the same person/company as the gentlemen's outfitter a further along High Holborn. After all, an optician simply sells eyewear, such as frames and other accessories; the optometry being carried out elsewhere. Therefore, I considered that the optician's shop might well be a branch of that large company. But it appears not.

Kelly's – just up the road

Intrigued by many of these things, I got got to googling. 

It seems Charles Baker was listed as a company as early as 1765 and by 1854 they had moved from premises at 51 Gt Queen Street, to 244 High Holborn, listed as an "optical and surgical instrument maker".  Interesting that the engraving reads "Sold by" rather than 'Made by". Hmmmm. Ponder, ponder.
My Kelly's Directory of 1895 shows that Mr Baker was at No.243 with his instruments and also at No.244 as an optician. By 1915 there are five companies listed at No.244 address including another optician.
The 1939 directory shows that 242-243 has become The Holborn Empire music hall with Baker at No.244 listed as a scientific instrument maker, sharing the premises with Ascot Gas Water Heaters. 

At this time, ads show that Baker is making full use of the theatre next door as a signpost. I like to think he would have had a display of opera glasses in his shop window ready to catch the eye of passing theatre-goers who had left theirs at home.
Moving forward quickly... in 1963 the Vickers company acquired C.Baker Ltd's microscope factory which later became Vickers Instruments. 
It's all here on Grace's Guide if you want to read it for yourself.

Of my other binoculars, the ones that also interest me are my two compact late-20s/early-30s Bakelite pairs made by A. Kershaw & Son of Leeds. I am particularly fond of the ones made in bright colours such as teal, emerald green or ultramarine. In 1920 the Kershaw company had various premises across the UK including offices/shop at 3 Soho Square. They had previously claimed to produce "the World's first cinematograph projector". By 1964 the company was swallowed up to the Rank Organisation.
And I also have some diddy little opera glasses made by Colmont of Paris; a company that I am told was one of the best French companies of this type back in the day. Ooh. 

More research needed.

In the meantime, I am hoping to be able to get a group together to visit the marvellous British Optical Association Museum in Craven Street, Charing Cross, where they may have more info about Charles Baker.

An elephantine enigma – what a load of tripe

I recently asked help with any information about this little building that used to be at 18 Market Road, N7, mid-way on the north side between The White Horse (Gin Palace) and Caledonian Rd.

As you can see below, when I took a photo in 2008, it had dancing trumpeting elephants on the front. I had wondered if it had been a theatre or something similar.

My pic from June 2008

It has since been replaced – see Google Streetview 2008 and click though to see that it had been demolished by 2012. 

Kelly's 1939 directory

Joe, a friend who grew up in the area, told me he recalls it as The Electric Cinema or similar. But I can't find it mentioned in Chris Draper's Islington Cinemas and Film Studios book. 
Further sleuthing in the Kelly's street directory of 1939 (right) shows J. L. Henson, tripe dresser at this address. The company must have been here pre WWII but I can see nothing listed in 1915 and 1895.
Hmmm. Ponder, ponder.
And then recently I met Alan. He's another person who is always looking up, looking down, and questioning things.
Alan tells me that in the 1970s he worked in this building when it was Otaco Ltd. He tells me that the empty meat-related buildings in the area were taken over at that time mostly by businesses related to the motor trade. 

Photo: Alan, ex-OtacoLtd employee, 1970s

He also directed me to a pic of the building in 1962-4 that clearly shows the signage for the tripe factory: 

J. L. Henson also had premises at 97 Charterhouse Street, opposite the northeast corner of Smithfield meat market

As you can see, there were no elephants in the 1960s or 1970s.
The black and white pic is available from a few online photo libraries and In all instances it is credited to English Heritage with John Gay as 'artist'. All tag this pic as 26-40 Vale Royal, Holloway, which is just down the hill off York Way and certainly not part of Holloway! This is a great example of people just copying and pasting info without checking things. 
My 1939 directory shows that Edmund Martin Ltd*, another tripe dresser, was at 22-46 Vale Royal. but Henson did indeed have premises there but not until 1962 when they vacated the Market Road premises as shown here in a document about offensive trading. The link also indicates that Henson had an unauthorised fat melting site in Hornsey Rd near the junction of Tollington Park – that's a stone's throw from my home – ugh!
I can find no info about about Truman Steven/s as shown in this 1960s pic.

So, enough of all this tripe – back to the elephantine enigma. When did the trumpeting beasts appear?
I have a few ideas...
1. If Henson's factory was converted into a theatre/cinema, as my mate Joe recalls, then it couldn't have been until the mid-60s and only for a short while; possibly for a decade until the motor trade moved in. 
2. Or perhaps the elephants were added in the 1980s after the car companies moved away? The buildings would have again been standing derelict and could have been put to good use. Consider that there are playgrounds and sports facilities opposite = lots of children. Perhaps it was at this time that the building was used as a temporary cinema and this is when the elephants were added (children like dancing animals and the ref to a tripe factory might have been obscured to avoid offence and confusion).
3. Or (and here's my latest idea) it might have been used as a film location?

Alan tells me has some other leads to investigate and will get back to me...
Watch this space
All help welcome.

*You might recall that Edmund Martin Ltd had a shop on Lindsey Street ,facing the eastern side of Smithfield market, was demolished to make way for The Elizabeth Line. Boo hoo. Next door was a marvellous Miami-style 1930s building, also demolished, which I am going to be featuring Smithfield Art Deco walking tour, coming soon.

Balloons and A Great Expedition via Gingerline

Along the Victoria Line platforms at Finsbury Park tube station there are some marvellous colourful mosaics of balloons. These are probably historically incorrect for this location, but hey they are a nice distraction.
They tie up nicely with a night out I had last week at one of Gingerline's clandestine dining adventures; the current experience is A Grand Expedition being a Phileas Fogg -style balloon trip around the world.
I can't tell you where this was located because it's all a bit secret squirrel – you are told that the your night out will somewhere along the northern half of the Victoria Line but the specific location is not given until the afternoon, via text.
When you get there you enter the dining space to you find you are inside, completely surrounded by, the experience, as if you are part of a play. The 'stage' for this is well-throught-through and marvellously evocative. Performers act out scenes and deliver the food in character whilst all around there are animations, graphics, evocative sounds and music.
Many other guests had been to previous Gingerline events and were coming back for more.
Hmm... thinks... perhaps I could offer some non-specified themed guided walks...

Wassail... Wassail... here's to 2019...!!

This basically means drink a bowl or cup of mulled wine whilst cheering in the new year.
It's an old pagan festival thing.
My friend and I were luck to happen upon a troupe, if that's the right word, of mummers near Millennium Bridge on Sunday 6th Jan and so we stuck around near The Globe to see what might evolve. And I am so glad we did that.

A screenshot of images I found within The Lions part website

The Lions part put on a fab colourful Twelfth Night show and, just like those that would have been put on in George III's reign, it was satirical referencing the past year's events with a peppering of rude and lewd extras.
We then ended up getting caught up in the throng and 'danced' a farandelle through Southwark's riverside streets to end up The George Inn on Borough High Street.
What an absolute delight. Though I am not sure that drivers of the the cars who had to stop to let a long chain of people cross Borough High Street were that amused!
My prediction for next year is to go to wassailing again, tho this time I will have to tae a flask of warm alcohol as we got nary a sip.

What we did notice when watching the play was that in all the riverside flats above there were only two people at one balcony watching the show. I am pretty sure no-one was at home in all the other apartments. Does anyone actually live there? I suspect the owners just use these places as somewhere to crash mid-week.  
Anyway...
Let's raise a warming glass to happy new year...!!

The Marlborough Theatre, Holloway

A marvellous theatre, designed by the prolific Mr Frank Matcham and built in 1903, used to stand in Holloway Road on the west side of the street, almost opposite M&S.
I was recently alerted to a short film on the Talking Pictures TV channel showing the building just before it was demolished sixty years later in 1963.
The movie is less than five minutes long and isn't the best quality. However, I managed to snap a few stills with my camera and put this together:

The tall building that now stands in its place is called The Marlborough Building in memory of the theatre and the row of villas that used to stand adjacent to it.
If you'd like to find out more about the theatre and what the Holloway Nag's Head are was like in 1903 then (plug! plug! plug!) why not come along on my walk?

The film also includes some street scenes of Holloway Road looking north; cars and buses and what not:

Diary of a Nobody at Kings Head Theatre – Avoid avoid!!

No pics with this post – just a review about what I had hoped would be an interesting twist on a much-loved book; a book I have read four times.

Last week I sent out a missive to customers who have been on my guided walks:
"As you know, one of my walks is all about how the Nag's Head area of Holloway and how it looked in its late Victorian heyday when George and Weedon Grossmith's comic character Mr Pooter "lived" there (here!).
I thought you might be interested to know that there is a play on at the King's Head Theatre at the moment that is based on the book. It runs until Saturday 18th.
I am just about to book my own ticket – perhaps I will see you there...?"

I went with two friends to see the play on Friday night. Oops. I'd spoken, I'd promoted, too soon. I could have stayed at home and clipped my toenails. Or enamelled the bath.
I should stick to my guns and only write about the things I have seen or experienced in person, because I had to again write to those same people:

"... Evelyn Waugh is quoted in the production's blurb as saying this is/was "the funniest book in the world". This quote needs to be put into context – bear in mind that Waugh's own characters, such as in Decline and Fall, are subtlely observed, hence why he would have loved DOAN as being in the same vein.

This particular adaptation is for people who like their old favourites updated, amended and added to, in this case using an inane mix of Victorian genteel and 20thC swearing, with a quite confusing mix of characters played by just four actors. I have read the book four times and I thought the first half hour of the play in particular was painfully fast.  
If, like me, you like the book's gentle comic style then be prepared to sit straight-faced all the way through the play wondering the other half of the audience is finding so damn laugh-out-loud-as-loud-as-you-can-to-prove-you-get-the-joke-hilarious.  During the interval I wondered whether to bother going back inside. It got worse, not better.

But, hey, if you haven't read the book you might actually enjoy this as a piece of fun, jolly theatre.
On a positive note, the stage sets and costumes are good."

Note that the two friends I went to see the play with concurred. As we exited the theatre we three were numb, our ears having suffered one particular audience members' outrageously loud whooping and whoa-ing. We were all unusually stunned into silence by it all; it wasn't even worth a post-mortem so we said goodnight and all went home in different directions.
I am reminded that the play was serialised on the BBC a few years back with Hugh Bonneville in the title role – that too was very HA HA HA. Everyone seems to be missing the point. I wonder what the brothers Grossmith would make of all this...?

UPDATE May 2018
I am planning a guided walk around the Holloway area based on this book including the kind of places Mr Pooter would have visited and where he would have purchased many of the items mentioned in his diary. This will form part of the Footprints of London Literary Festival in October 2018 but I should have the walk up and running by July so please check Jane's London Walks for updates.

The Banksy Job

Last night I went to the preview screening of The Banksy Job, an often hilarious film about the thefts of a Banksy statue that he had based on Rodin's The Thinker which stood for a while at the north end of Shaftesbury Avenue.

Before and after which included a Q&A session – Andy/AK47 is in blue.

I am not going to give too much away here (see the link to the trailer below if you like your films squished), but this true story spans a decade and centres around a tit-for-tat feud between AK47 (Andy Link) and Banksy about signatures and ownership.

The film will be available to purchase through iTunes, Skystore, Amazon, Googleplay, Virgin and Microsoft from Monday 19th June.

Enjoy... AK47, the man behind it all, is a joy to watch.

See the trailer here.

Unrestricted View – a film festival at Hen and Chickens Theatre, 25th April – 1st May

The Hen and Chickens Theatre Pub is well-known for being the starting ground for many new productions. It's where small theatre projects have begun and comedians both new and established have honed their craft in front of a small audience. Now the H+C is showing films.
Tonight sees the start of Unrestricted View, a week of eclectic movies of varying length carefully selected from a long list of submissions. Highlights of the full programme include: Set Fire to the Stars starring Elijah Wood which will opening the Festival and Men & Chicken starring Mads Mikkelson closing the festival. High points of the festival include Bradley Walsh in The Lights, Catherine Tate & Alex McQueen in Not Sophie's Choice, Richard Glover in The John and Indira Varma in Vintage Blood.
See the full programme here. I will be there this evening so do say hello if you see me.
It's also worth mentioning that there will be special drink offers to tie in with each film and craft beers available.

Masks and a Monkey – In Your Face – Nina Conti at Criterion Theatre

Ventriloquism ... it's moved on since the days of Lord Charles and Orville.

Nina Conti, Criterion Theatre, Piccadilly Circus (right next to Eros)

This week and next Nina Conti brings to us her own version of this genre. Nina has, quite justly won awards for her ingenuity in this field. You may have seen her amusing and genuinely moving BAFTA nominated film on the subject.
I saw the Criterion show last night – Nina makes everything she is doing really obvious and yet we forget she is the voice behind everything we are hearing. She uses strap-on masks (as modelled by Nina above) on members of the audience and every night is different being as it's dependent on audience participation. It's a lot of hard work for her and yet she makes it look effortless.
That's all very clever, but my favourite bits were when Monk the monkey was [literally] on-hand making his often outrageous observations.

Until 12th March. See here for more details and how to book tickets.

Below are some other monkeys and apes I have spotted on my travels:

Graffiti in Kentish Town and Shoreditch, and a skeleton in the Natural History Museum foyer

Palmers pet store in Camden Parkway (now closed), windows in Holloway, a plastic bag in a tree.
And, spotted just last weekend at Portsmouth Cathedral – a monkey is the organ, and not just the organ-grinder's friend!!

Accentuate the positive – three more nice things along the No.19 bus route

Big and beautiful x3:

 Clocked at Highbury

 Inspired in Upper Street

 Feeling perky in Shaftesbury Avenue

Three nice things – a series by Jane's London