Now the theatre is in Reading. So I tried to finish work on time and failed, not by much but that extra half an hour was significant. So I arrived home late, dumped my stuff, changed my clothes and off we went (with no dinner as I was late and we had to leave). We plugged the postcode into the trusty satnav and off we went.
Now I am not the best person for geography but. Even I can tell that when you are 20 miles away from Reading it will not take 10 minutes. However according to our sat nav it would. I kept an eye on it and every time a minute went by the due time went up by a minute. I pointed this put to LSP.
It raised 2 concerns, 1 we had no idea when we would get there, 2 we were no longer confident it knew where we were going. However we ploughed on. We did end up in the middle of Reading getting caught in the one way system shouting back to the Sat Nav that there was no way we could make a U-turn as it was either illegal or deadly. Good friend's M's partner did his best to guide us through by phone but that really did not help.
Eventually we got there with minutes to spare, I think more by luck than anything else.
This is what we went to see.
Richard Mayhew, a Scottish man living in London, encounters an injured girl named Door on the street one night. Despite his fiancée's protests he decides to help her, but that unfortunately also means that he suddenly ceases to exist for regular people and becomes real only to the denizens of 'London Below', whose inhabitants are generally invisible and non-existent to the people of 'London Above'. He loses his house, his job and nearly his mind as he travels London Below in an attempt to make sense out of it all, find a way back, and help Door survive as she is hunted down by hired assassins.
In London Below the various familiar names of London all take on a new significance: for example Knightsbridge becomes "Night's Bridge", a stone bridge whose darkness takes its toll in human life;The Angel, Islington is an actual Angel, London Below is a parallel world in and beneath the sewers. Its inhabitants are the homeless, but also people from other times, such as medieval monks, as well as fictional and fantastical characters. (source Wikipedia)
Now the theatre is tiny, but the cast was excellent. considering they are an Am Dram group, the quality of the acting was great.
here is a little bit about the theatre.
The Progress Theatre was established in 1946 by a young, enthusiastic and futuristic group of Reading people as a voluntary theatre group in Reading to present new and challenging productions.
The first production was staged in 1947 and for five years performances were in Palmer Hall, West Street. The Mildmay Hall in The Mount was found to be available for rent from the Co-operative Society who agreed to its use as a theatre. The members together with families and friends, converted it into a working theatre and the first production was in October 1951. In 1963/64 after a massive Fund Raising campaign, the Freehold of the building was bought (thanks to a fair selling price from the Co-op).
The basis of the present Foyer was built at that time together with other, then modern, facilities. With other alterations and extensions over the years, Productions are still staged in the same building: it now seats 95 people and includes Disabled Access . http://www.progresstheatre.co.uk/about-us/
it was a great night, we arrived home at midnight tired and hungry but went straight off to bed.
Tonight is a much more ordinary affair as we are both tired out.
Stir fry for dinner, made with ready cooked pork from the freezer, with mixed frozen stir fry veg, noodles and some sauce. yum. Last night I was given a belated birthday present.
It looks lovely and is crammed full of lovely treats. I am going to make my first cake from it on Sunday as good friend M, is coming over for lunch...
My main problem is what to choose.
1 comment:
I've noy been to the theatre for ages, sounds like a good play and what time do you want me round for cake on Sunday!?
xxx
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