Punch Drunk: The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable

I'm in a rickety old lift.  Crammed in with 30 others.  Plus a lady dressed in 60's glamour, giving us the down-low on who's who.

The lift doors open up to a pitch black room.  I slowly make my way down a corridor and before you know it, I'm transported to LA in the 1960's...

Actually it is the set of the theatre production; The Drowned Man, at Temple Studios.  4 floors of sets with different actors and actresses wandering around in character.

And 'we' as the audience were immersed into the thick of it.  Our faces covered by white masks, making it easy to identify who were the audience and who were the cast.

It was a little bit eerie to begin with.  The sets were quiet if none of the cast were around and you had to go in search of the action.  It took a few minutes to get into the rhythm of it and figure out who was best to follow.

Due to the individual journeys the 4 of us in our group took throughout the 3 hour theatre production, we each got a different angle on the fatal love triangle and story that we saw.

Between us, we managed to piece the story together and get an understanding of what it was all about.  Although I'm sure there were many scenes and parts of the story that we all had missed.

But overall it was a great theatre experience.  Something you were a part of, rather than just a spectator.

Hitched

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

 

 

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.

Love ’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error, and upon me prov’d,

I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.

Sonnett 116, William Shakespeare

Didn't You Read the PDF?

It feels like we have been planning this weekend forever.  But it is finally here and the summer has begun.  This weekend is Ramps' Hen Do.

Now with Ramps there are a few musts; big tunes, plenty of alcohol, big laughs and your dancing shoes.  There is no sitting on the side lines if you're out with Ramps.

The Chief Bridesmaid did a fantastic job.  And pulled out a few surprises and not only for the Bride-to-be.

There was a few of us that hadn't read the PDF.

It was all in there... the Butler, the alcohol, dancing like Beyonce in 'All the Single Ladies' and the spa.

A fun weekend ladies.

xx

Home of the Beatles

Liverpool.  It's the home of the Beatles and the home of the Curly Blow hair do.  If you're from Liverpool you know its an essential part of the prep for a night out on the town.

Considering I've lived so close to Liverpool for the most part of my life, I have never been to this city.

It was a gloriously beautiful day on the Saturday when we got there.  And we were able to have lunch on the docks.  But being outdoors has its consequences and unfortunately we had some birds flying above that thought it was a good time to have a poop.  Luckily it didn't land on me, but on the girls with a lot of hair... :-)

Hip Hop Dance Festival

The International Dance Festival is in Birmingham this month.  There are street shows, theatre shows and free classes, indoors and outdoors, for you to learn all types of dance.

The activities on offer have been inspiring.  Particularly the Breaking Convention show that a friend and I went to see at the theatre.

There were several acts, but there was one particular act which was of dancers from all around the world.  What you didn't realise at the start, when they were all doing their back flips and spins, was that they all had a disability.

Some had a prosthetic leg and others had disabilities that they were born with e.g. genetic defects, blindness, deafness.

It was amazing that their passion for dance was so strong that it was enough to overcome their disability.  An inspiration to us all.

The video below is not from this particular act, but of another group of dancers.  It still is good enough to make you want to get up on your feet and dance.

Games: Chess, Black Jack, Roulette & Bingo

There are games on board the ship...

... Pimped up chess set... which had us deep in strategic thought...

...Black Jack and Roulette at the casino... something I am rubbish at.  Good job I'm not a gambler.  And a game where my sister managed to triple her money...

...And Bingo... although this seemed to be fixed.  It was always the same group of people winning...