One of the perks of my new job (which I am loving btw!) is the occasional free ticket to a West End show! This week’s was 'Swimming with the Sharks,' starring my thesis case study Christian Slater! The play was just ok, but he was fantastic! Turns out there was another quasi-celeb in the cast - Helen Baxendale, best known for playing Ross’ British wife Emily on “Friends.” Alas her time in ‘New York’ did nothing to help her Horrible attempt at a New Yawk accent. Ouch! But when Slater was on stage, all eyes and ears were on him as the manipulative Hollywood agent. Backstage he could not have been more different – very nice and charming! Yes, we stalked to the stage door where I told him about how he had been a thesis case study. “Very cool man!” was his reply before 1) signing the front page of my thesis and 2) putting his arm around me for a photo…sigh! Val or Woody – I’m coming for you next!..lolCulture week continued as the next evening I went to opening night for Net Curtains’ ‘One, Nineteen’ at the Arcola Theatre. This is the company where I’ve been a marketing intern/volunteer since February. Their new show is about the media’s coverage of disaster, environmental responsibility, and our obsession with the cult of personality and it is INCREDIBLE! I am so proud of everyone involved. Sharp, clever writing, acting and directing. Read more about it in this article (have to scroll down the page a bit) and if you’re in London, do come see it. I couldn’t be more pleased with how the production turned out! I hope this play gets picked up by other theatres – it could not be more topical!
The next day brought the opening of the renovated St. Pancras train station! In a word – Gorgeous! In a second word – Convenient! Eurostar has moved its terminal here from Waterloo (making it much closer to my flat) and the trains are now high-speed (making it much quicker to get to France, Belgium and other European destinations). I then headed next –door to the British Library to hear my friend Barry perform in a concert of Stockhausens’ work Stimmung, a very cool, new-agey, choral piece for 6 vocalists. Amazing voices and a hypnotic performance!
From Germany to Austria, my crazy cultural week continued to the Sing-along Sound of Music! I’d done this before here in London and at the Kennedy Center, but my American friend Liz had been dying to go and it’s always a fun evening. Sure enough, last night did not disappoint as there were lots of crazy costumes and LOTS of audience participation (perhaps sometimes a bit more than we wanted – seemed to be several very drunk groups there, ahh, central London on a Friday night..lol)
Photos for most of the above are now online. Tonight I’m off to see my first event at The Tricycle. An Irish comedian who was a hit at the Edinburgh Festival. Tomorrow…relax! One month from today – fly to U.S.! So see you all SOON!
