Hi, welcome back to Words of worlds! Today we'll be discussing "Noises off", which recently finished it's run at the Garrick Theatre in London. I was lucky enough to see this show on the 3rd, the day before it closed, because I was given theatre vouchers for Christmas.
So how did I find out about the show? I heard about it's existence way back in 2018 when Rebecca Parham,aka. Let me explain studios, released a video on Youtube talking about a crazy theatre teacher she had. The video is linked below.
Let me explain studios video
During a trip to London around September time, I passed the theatre and saw it advertised. After further research into the synopsis, I knew I had to see it. Not just as an ex-actress, theatre geek but as a comedy fan.
Now let's get talking about the day, the theatre itself and the play. As usual SPOILER ALERT!!! also STRONG LANGUAGE ALERT!
For clarification the director and actors/actresses mentioned are all characters in the play. The actual actors/actresses and company behind the play will not be mentioned.
I know that life-blogging isn't what I usually do but on this occasion I absolutely must. I got a single ticket to see the evening performance of the show so I had an entire day to kill. Luckily my girlfriend was free so we spent the day together. We came across what looked to be a duck-goose hybrid, saw a street performer do insane tricks with a hoop, found Hello Kitty bubble tea, geeked out at forbidden planet and helped a man out with his drunk colleague. It was both really random but honestly sometimes the random things turn out to be the best things!
The best part of the day was when we reached the theatre. Theatre 101: Always turn up to collect tickets half an hour to an hour before the show. If you already have your tickets to hand, show up half an hour early to ensure you don't miss the show and to collect theatre merch. We arrived 45 mins before the show was due to start. Although she wasn't seeing the show with me, my girlfriend went through security with me and waited with me until the doors to the show opened. Best time ever! We stood around chatting and when the doors opened, with tears in our eyes we said our goodbyes and hugged each other. I was about to head to the circle doors when she turned to me and made the first move, we kissed each other for the first time. It was truly the greatest and afterwards, I entered the theatre giddy. For the first time, my excitement wasn't due to waiting for the show to start but due to the electricity that sparked between me and my girlfriend...
Whilst sitting in my seat (B8), I began chatting with the people around me and that made me feel even more amazing because it was my first time seeing a show in London by myself. I would very much like to say thank you to those people who made the effort to talk to me before the show and during the interval.
Plain and simple, the beginning of the show sucks! Simply because it takes a while to make sense of what's going on and the comedic moments don't really kick in until halfway through the first act.
For those of you who haven't seen the show or know absolutely nothing about it, allow me to give you some info. It's a 2 act play that centres around a theatre company full of actors/actresses who don't get along, trying to put on a play called "Nothing's on" and failing. This may sound farmilliar to those of you who have heard of or have seen "The play that goes wrong". You may be wondering why the two sound so similar? That's because "Noises off" was the inspiration behind "The play that foes wrong."
Going back to the first act, it is necessary because it introduces us to the characters and shows us the rehearsal process but I really think there needs to be more comedic elements to it. Put it this way, if I am contemplating walking out of the theatre or thinking that it sucks before halfway through the first act, it needs work. That being said, it got better and eventually turned out to be even funnier than "The comedy about a bank robbery" and "the play that goes wrong" combined.
The comedic style itself is classic. I have never seen so many sardines in all my life and I have never heard anyone shout "SARDINES, SARDINES, SARDINES, SARDINES, SARDINES!!" before. I thoroughly enjoyed the sarcastic director, who literally takes a break from the other show he is working on (King Lear) to come backstage during their first performance and shout "What the fuck is going on?" 10/10 director of the year. It gets more interesting as it turns out that the director (Lloyd) has not slept with 1 but 2 of the actresses and has amazingly managed to keep the fact that he has slept with both of them a secret. Sure, this is such a horrible and immoral thing to do, but we have to keep in mind that this is a comedic play, therefore this is incredibly funny and it is socially acceptable to laugh at it.
Oh and it gets so much funnier by throwing booze, bad acting, an axe and a cactus into the mix. I wonder what made the director think that combining this group of actors was a good idea. They clearly don't get along! At the same time I am glad the director cast these actresses/actors simply because it is this very combination of opposing fatal flaws within the cast that makes the play go so wrong, therefore making it so hilarious.
It's such a same to have to wave goodbye to this show once again (it was first performed in the 1980's) because it deserved a longer run. That being said, "City of Angels" is due to perform at the Garrick this year, which looks amazing.
Have you seen "Noises off"? Do you think of it as a classic comedy? Would you have liked to have seen it? Do you think it needed a longer run? Do you talk to people you meet at the theatre? Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below and we can all have a bit of a laugh together.
Ticket update: In my last post I said that this year I was only going to see Heather's. As a result of Christmas, I am now going to be seeing "Six" the musical, "Everybody's talking about Jaime", "And Juliet" and "Come from away".
2020 Book challenge update: I have read "George" by Alex Gino and "101 pieces of me" by Veronica Bennett. I am currently reading book 3 in The Nerd Daily's challenge: purchased on holidays. For me that is "Rookie on love" by various authors, which I bought at "Shakespeare and company" bookshop in Paris.
That's all for now, thank you so much for reading. Stay tuned as next week I'll be discussing a mystery topic...
11/01/2020
01/01/2020
My year in books 2019
Hello everyone, Happy New Year! Welcome back to Words Of Worlds, as I said in my last post, this time I will be discussing my year in books. So what do I mean by that? 2019 was the first year I kept track of all of the books that I read, not only that but the first year I set myself a reading challenge. For the benefit of those who haven’t read “my year in theatre” post, I’ll summarise the challenge. Basically I set myself the goal of reading 100 books in a year because someone told me that they thought I couldn’t read more than 25.Although I didn’t reach 100 I managed to reach 60, which I still think is pretty impressive.
You are probably wondering what counts towards the challenge? Any book, play-script (prime example being Shakespeare, even though I didn't read/re-read any of his plays this year) and graphic novel. Re-reads/ multiple reads of books also count.
So here comes the difficult part, how do I cram 60 books into a single post? With difficulty. I could try but let's face it, we would be here for hours. What is my solution to this problem? To do what many bloggers have done before me: list all of the books I have read, however I will be commenting on some of the books. Let me be perfectly blunt, I will only be commenting on books that were especially good or especially terrible. Pre-warning, I will be giving honest opinions. WARNING SPOILER ALERT! BAD LANGUAGE ALERT!!
Side note: you can find my reviews of some of the following books on Goodreads, look out for Bookish Hound
Another side note: Goodreads will tell you that I've only read 57 books. This isn't the case, I chose to remove 2 of the books from the list on the website (one of which I read twice) because of life stuff. If you are curious which books they were, compare the below list to the one on Goodreads, there will be 2 in the list below which aren't in the list on Goodreads.
1. A Berlin Love Song by Sarah Matthias. What an awful way to start a year, this book was truly a waste of time. Don't get me wrong, the initial chapters are okay but I expected more. I kept going with it in the hopes that it would get better, it got so much worse! I really wouldn't recommend it. Put it this way, it was so bad I refused to write a review and just decided to leave it 2 stars. To be perfectly honest, 2 stars was pushing it. All of that being said, I sincerely hope that Sarah reflects upon this book, grows as a writer and writes something so much better because I have faith that she could write a truly captivating and masterful story.
2. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
3. Floored by Sarah Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson and Eleanor Wood
4. If I was your girl by Meredith Russo
5. 36 Questions that changed my mind about you by Vicki Grant. A seriously underrated book, it tells the story of volunteers, Hildy and Paul, in a love based science experiment. Not only does this book ask it's characters questions but it asks the reader questions, causing them to think about what their own answers to the questions would be. Sure the book can be very predictable at times, but the idea is seriously original. In fact I enjoyed the book because it was so predictable, sometimes it's really nice to curl up with a book that doesn't make you feel as if you are stuck in the Matrix. It didn't quite tug on my heartstrings though, so I can only give it 4 stars.
6. Geekerella by Ashley Poston
7. All about Mia by Lisa Williamson
8. Dork Diaries #1 by Rachel Renee Russell
9. Are we all lemmings and snowflakes? by Holly Bourne
10. I was here by Gayle Forman
11. The unpredictability of being human by Linni Ingemundsen
12 and 13. I am Juden: undercover in the SS by Stephen Uzzell (I read this book twice)
14. Spinning by Tillie Walden
15. Princess Princess ever after by Katie O'Neill
16. On the come up by Angie Thomas
17. What if it's us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
18. Severed heads, broken hearts by Robyn Schneider
19. Moonstruck #2: Some enchanted evening by Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle and Kat Fajardo
20. Dracula by Bram Stoker
21. A darker shade of magic by V.E Schwab
22. Mary's monster by Lita Judge
23 and 24. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott. Fitzgerald (read twice)
25. Beautiful broken things by Sarah Barnard
26. Call me by your name by Andre Aicman. Brief review: for once the film was better than the book
27. A girl in winter by Philip Larkin
28. The comedy about a bank robbery by Henry Lewis
29. The handmaid's tale by Margret Atwood
30. The Ballad of Liberty Siegler by Stephen Uzzell
31. Toffee by Sarah Crossan
32. The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society by Mary Ann Shaffer
33, Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary by Martha Brockenbrough
34. Letters to the lost by Brigid Kemmerer. Truly beautiful and moving. Go and read it!!!
35. This one summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. For those of you who don't like manga, fear not, this is an American graphic novel.
36. The miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily C. Davenforth. Film did the book justice!!
37. Birthday by Meredith Russo
38. Clean by Juno Dawson. Seriously captivating but brutal book. Love the way that generally taboo subjects are brought into the light, enjoyed exploring a new subject matter/genre and would happily re-read this book any day!
39. Be more chill by Ned Vizzini
40. The night circus by Erin Morgenstern. Did an entire blog post about this book under the title of "Magic at midnight" so go and read that if you are interested in my opinion.
41. The poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
42. Meat Market by Juno Dawson. Saw a book talk about this story at Waterstones and was lucky enough to meet Juno as well as have 2 of my books signed by her. Really liked how down to earth she was. Juno if you are reading this, thank you!
43. DNA by Dennis Kelley
44. Faceless by Alyssa B.Sheinmel
45. People, places and things by Duncan Macmillan
46. Call it what you want by Brigid Kemmerer
47. All the things we never said by Yasmin Rahman
48. The places I've cried in public by Holly Bourne
49. Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu
50. Let it snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. Did 2 blog posts about this book under the titles of "A Jubilee in a blizzard" and "Continuing through the blizzard", so go and read those if you are interested in my opinion.
51. The weight of a thousand feathers by Brian Conaghan
52. Lies we tell ourselves by Robin Talley
53. Words in deep blue by Cath Crowley. Is littered with eye-catching quotes and will absolutely make you cry. I can't express how magnificent this book is so you will need to read it to find out for yourself.
54. I hate fairyland #2 fluff my life by Skottie Young
55. If on a winter's night a traveller by Italo Calvino
56. I have lost my way by Gayle Forman
57. The tea dragon festival by Katie O'Neill
58. How hard can love be by Holly Bourne
59. Dog poems by lots of people
60. Skylarks by Karen Gregory
Have I set a new challenge? Of course, I will be taking part in The Nerd Daily's 2020 reading challenge. As part of the challenge I will have to read 52 books, each from a different category, afterwards I plan to keep reading with a goal of reaching 70 or more books by the end of the year. If you would like to participate in The Nerd Daily's challenge, click on the link below.
https://www.thenerddaily.com/2020-reading-challenge/
How many books did you read in 2019? Which books would you recommend? Which books didn't you like? What's your 2020 reading goal? Are you participating in any challenges this year? Please feel free to leave a comment below, we can have fun geeking out about books and look forward to a new year of authors and books.
That's it for now, I feel incredibly lucky that I have enough readership to be able to continue this blog into 2020, the glorious new decade, so thank you all so much for reading or skimming! Stay tuned as our next discussion will be about "Noises off"...
You are probably wondering what counts towards the challenge? Any book, play-script (prime example being Shakespeare, even though I didn't read/re-read any of his plays this year) and graphic novel. Re-reads/ multiple reads of books also count.
So here comes the difficult part, how do I cram 60 books into a single post? With difficulty. I could try but let's face it, we would be here for hours. What is my solution to this problem? To do what many bloggers have done before me: list all of the books I have read, however I will be commenting on some of the books. Let me be perfectly blunt, I will only be commenting on books that were especially good or especially terrible. Pre-warning, I will be giving honest opinions. WARNING SPOILER ALERT! BAD LANGUAGE ALERT!!
Side note: you can find my reviews of some of the following books on Goodreads, look out for Bookish Hound
Another side note: Goodreads will tell you that I've only read 57 books. This isn't the case, I chose to remove 2 of the books from the list on the website (one of which I read twice) because of life stuff. If you are curious which books they were, compare the below list to the one on Goodreads, there will be 2 in the list below which aren't in the list on Goodreads.
1. A Berlin Love Song by Sarah Matthias. What an awful way to start a year, this book was truly a waste of time. Don't get me wrong, the initial chapters are okay but I expected more. I kept going with it in the hopes that it would get better, it got so much worse! I really wouldn't recommend it. Put it this way, it was so bad I refused to write a review and just decided to leave it 2 stars. To be perfectly honest, 2 stars was pushing it. All of that being said, I sincerely hope that Sarah reflects upon this book, grows as a writer and writes something so much better because I have faith that she could write a truly captivating and masterful story.
2. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
3. Floored by Sarah Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson and Eleanor Wood
4. If I was your girl by Meredith Russo
5. 36 Questions that changed my mind about you by Vicki Grant. A seriously underrated book, it tells the story of volunteers, Hildy and Paul, in a love based science experiment. Not only does this book ask it's characters questions but it asks the reader questions, causing them to think about what their own answers to the questions would be. Sure the book can be very predictable at times, but the idea is seriously original. In fact I enjoyed the book because it was so predictable, sometimes it's really nice to curl up with a book that doesn't make you feel as if you are stuck in the Matrix. It didn't quite tug on my heartstrings though, so I can only give it 4 stars.
6. Geekerella by Ashley Poston
7. All about Mia by Lisa Williamson
8. Dork Diaries #1 by Rachel Renee Russell
9. Are we all lemmings and snowflakes? by Holly Bourne
10. I was here by Gayle Forman
11. The unpredictability of being human by Linni Ingemundsen
12 and 13. I am Juden: undercover in the SS by Stephen Uzzell (I read this book twice)
14. Spinning by Tillie Walden
15. Princess Princess ever after by Katie O'Neill
16. On the come up by Angie Thomas
17. What if it's us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
18. Severed heads, broken hearts by Robyn Schneider
19. Moonstruck #2: Some enchanted evening by Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle and Kat Fajardo
20. Dracula by Bram Stoker
21. A darker shade of magic by V.E Schwab
22. Mary's monster by Lita Judge
23 and 24. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott. Fitzgerald (read twice)
25. Beautiful broken things by Sarah Barnard
26. Call me by your name by Andre Aicman. Brief review: for once the film was better than the book
27. A girl in winter by Philip Larkin
28. The comedy about a bank robbery by Henry Lewis
29. The handmaid's tale by Margret Atwood
30. The Ballad of Liberty Siegler by Stephen Uzzell
31. Toffee by Sarah Crossan
32. The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society by Mary Ann Shaffer
33, Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary by Martha Brockenbrough
34. Letters to the lost by Brigid Kemmerer. Truly beautiful and moving. Go and read it!!!
35. This one summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. For those of you who don't like manga, fear not, this is an American graphic novel.
36. The miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily C. Davenforth. Film did the book justice!!
37. Birthday by Meredith Russo
38. Clean by Juno Dawson. Seriously captivating but brutal book. Love the way that generally taboo subjects are brought into the light, enjoyed exploring a new subject matter/genre and would happily re-read this book any day!
39. Be more chill by Ned Vizzini
40. The night circus by Erin Morgenstern. Did an entire blog post about this book under the title of "Magic at midnight" so go and read that if you are interested in my opinion.
41. The poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
42. Meat Market by Juno Dawson. Saw a book talk about this story at Waterstones and was lucky enough to meet Juno as well as have 2 of my books signed by her. Really liked how down to earth she was. Juno if you are reading this, thank you!
43. DNA by Dennis Kelley
44. Faceless by Alyssa B.Sheinmel
45. People, places and things by Duncan Macmillan
46. Call it what you want by Brigid Kemmerer
47. All the things we never said by Yasmin Rahman
48. The places I've cried in public by Holly Bourne
49. Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu
50. Let it snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. Did 2 blog posts about this book under the titles of "A Jubilee in a blizzard" and "Continuing through the blizzard", so go and read those if you are interested in my opinion.
51. The weight of a thousand feathers by Brian Conaghan
52. Lies we tell ourselves by Robin Talley
53. Words in deep blue by Cath Crowley. Is littered with eye-catching quotes and will absolutely make you cry. I can't express how magnificent this book is so you will need to read it to find out for yourself.
54. I hate fairyland #2 fluff my life by Skottie Young
55. If on a winter's night a traveller by Italo Calvino
56. I have lost my way by Gayle Forman
57. The tea dragon festival by Katie O'Neill
58. How hard can love be by Holly Bourne
59. Dog poems by lots of people
60. Skylarks by Karen Gregory
Have I set a new challenge? Of course, I will be taking part in The Nerd Daily's 2020 reading challenge. As part of the challenge I will have to read 52 books, each from a different category, afterwards I plan to keep reading with a goal of reaching 70 or more books by the end of the year. If you would like to participate in The Nerd Daily's challenge, click on the link below.
https://www.thenerddaily.com/2020-reading-challenge/
How many books did you read in 2019? Which books would you recommend? Which books didn't you like? What's your 2020 reading goal? Are you participating in any challenges this year? Please feel free to leave a comment below, we can have fun geeking out about books and look forward to a new year of authors and books.
That's it for now, I feel incredibly lucky that I have enough readership to be able to continue this blog into 2020, the glorious new decade, so thank you all so much for reading or skimming! Stay tuned as our next discussion will be about "Noises off"...
20/12/2019
My year in theatre
Hello, welcome back! As I said in my last post, this week I am going to be talking about my year in theatre. Okay, you are probably wondering why? Well the year, as well as the decade, is almost over so we have reached a period of reflection, most people at this point would chose to reflect on the decade. I won't because too much has happened for me to fit into even a series of posts.
Last January I decided that instead of writing New Year's resolutions (lets face it, most of us like to write them but hardly any of us actually stick to them) I was going to set myself 2 manageable challenges, I say "manageable" because the problem with New Year's resolutions is that we often set goals which are too difficult for us to achieve or we don't factor in the unpredictability of life.
Anyway I came up with the idea of trying to read 100 books in a year because I was brainstorming out loud and someone told me I couldn't read more than 25 (which for some people is a lot but I'm a bookworm so that isn't much). I am not naturally competitive. Stubborn, yes. Competitive? nope, unless you chose to challenge my intellect or my geeky/nerdiness. When this person challenged my inner bookworm, my mind was set, I was absolutely determined to prove them wrong. Slight sidetrack there but trust me, it's relevant.
If you couldn't already tell, my second challenge was to see as many theatre shows as possible in a year. Why? because I was a theatre student and there is a theory that the more shows you see, the more theatrical techniques/ inspiration/ideas you pick up. Also, I have been lucky enough to have collectively seen a lot of shows over the years but I usually only see 2 or 3 shows in a year. I had aspirations to perform on the West End for a lot of years, fate had other plans and I am no longer well or able to perform on a stage so that dream is dead. I have plans to do a post in the future saying goodbye to 13 years of acting/performing...Wow I am so good at getting sidetracked. I swear I'm going to get into the main part of this post right now. STRONG LANGUAGE ALERT!!!
This year I have been fortunate enough to have seen 18 shows. I think I know what you are thinking, "OMG that's a lot, how could you afford all of those?" First of all, student discount, second of all, amateure productions (in a few cases), third of all, gifts. Some of you may be wondering if I buy/keep theatre programmes, yes and yes, I also keep tickets/ticket confirmations and any show merch/things the actors hand to the audience.
I bet you can't guess what I'm thinking whilst I'm writing this...how the heck am I going to fit 18 shows in a single post? I honestly have no idea so I guess we will find out together.
Pre- warning, these shows are going to be organised by month not day. Another thing, as usual, I am going to be blunt about my opinions and this time I will also be talking about the theatres themselves as well as the productions. SPOILER ALERT!!! MANY SPOILER ALERTS!!
Let's travel back in time to January of this year (2019), I was able to go up to London to see "The Unreturning" at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Would I recommend this theatre? Sure, if you like to travel around via the underground and don't mind absolutely shit legroom, be my guest. I will say the view was really good but that may be to do with my tickets or the smallness of the theatre itself. I had high hopes for the show as it was being performed by the company, Frantic Assembly, which bases itself around a combination of physical theatre and naturalism. It delivered! It was very moving and made me cry at a few points. In case you were wondering, it is for an adult audience, I think the age recommendation is 12-13 ish but I would say that a person should be at least 14 if not older to see this purely because of some of the triggering subject matter and striking sound/lighting effects.
I was also able to see "Twelfth Night" and "Art" at Chichester Festival Theatre (CFT) in January. I absolutely love CFT, you will hear a lot more about the theatre itself and behind the scenes when I do my post about acting.
Overall thoughts about the shows: "Twelfth Night" is my favourite Shakespeare play and the performers did it great justice. "Art" was absolutely hilarious, I was crying tears of laughter throughout the show, three acting legends were part of the show, which made me feel a bit starstruck and I felt inspired/stunned by Stephen Tompkinson as he did a 10 minute monologue in character without so much as a stumble. I am going to say that this type of comedy is a really "hit and miss" so whether or not you would find it as funny as I did depends on what type of comedy you like.
Moving on to February. That month I only saw one show,"Leave to remain", it was playing at my all time favourite theatre, the Lyric Hammersmith and was a gay musical. It sucked because of the length and the music itself. Some songs were really good but other songs were just painful to listen to. The story itself was really cute and I was rooting for Obi and Alex to get together and live in fabulous rainbow happiness. It was ruined by unnecessary scenes, a soundtrack on itunes sung by one person who wasn't even in the show and it looked more innocent on the website than it was. Put it this way, don't bring your parents to see this show. I brought my mother to see it and she is seriously liberal (she took me to see Priscilla last year, we like watching LGBTQ+ love stories together and for the past 2 years we have participated in pride parades together) but we both felt awkward watching Alex and Damien snort drugs on stage.
March does indeed come in like a lion. I saw "Noughts and crosses" at the Theatre Royal in Brighton and "The Great Gatsby" at Gatsby's mansion in London. It was the best month for my bookish side to be unleashed. Let's tackle "Noughts and crosses" first. The company did the book great justice and I had the same reactions as when I read the graphic novel and the book. The set was clever and the scenes were brutal to watch, which was a good thing as the story isn't light hearted, the characterisation of Sephy and Callum was perfect and I honestly felt sick watch the hanging scene because it looked so realistic. I think this one is okay for anyone who fits into the YA bracket and older, although it is a quite a triggering show so please bare that in mind.
I honestly can't recommend "The Great Gatsby" enough, I have so much to say about this show that this will end up being a future post. Brief thoughts being, it is still playing, there are still tickets, go and see it!!!
April was a weird month, not gonna lie. I had been studying the book "the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson for about 6 months ish? maybe longer? and, thanks to a combination of Google and Youtube, discovered that a university group was performing the musical at the Alexandra Theatre in Bognor Regis. Tickets were dirt cheap and I honestly would have paid a lot more. The production was good quality, I still haven't figured out how the transformations worked and the songs were breathtaking. I have one major nitpick: it didn't stick to the book, to the point where it could be seen as a stand alone story. This didn't ruin it for me, I still enjoyed the show however it really didn't help with revision at all. This one is definitely suitable for families with teenagers, it wasn't as scary as the book intended it to be but it still had violence in it and Hyde...I'm not sure how to quite describe him, which is good because his character fit the book perfectly.
This was also the month that I saw "The comedy about a bank robbery", I spoke about it briefly in my last post so I'm not going to say too much more about it. It was freaking hilarious, kinky in places and dark in others. Put it this way, I would recommend it to most ages because I think some of the jokes would go over children's heads however there is no escape from the only dark scene, in which one of the characters gets eaten by a fan whilst in a vent. The special effects are really cool and I really like the story's unexpected twist ending. I enjoyed this show so much that I bought a copy of the script. Yes, I am that person and yes, I am proud of it. #embraceyourinnergeek
Now we reach May, which was another weird month. In case you were wondering, I classify a weird month in terms of theatre as a month in which you see different theatre extremes. In this case, I saw "the odyssey" ,which was the very first show produced by the company "All Greek to me", at Brighton Open Air Theatre (BOAT). This show will forever be special to me as it signifies my independence because it was my first time seeing a show by myself. Despite it being an ameteur dramatics production, it was anything but amateur. It was abridged for obvious reasons but it got the basic storyline pretty accurate, the costumes were simple but effective and I loved how they used a towel/sheet to create the Trojan horse. It was very amusing and it felt really nice to watch matinee whilst eating a picnic lunch. Nothing compares to open air theatre and I plan on seeing more in the new year.
"Dead dog in a suitcase and other love songs" was just...a lot. I saw it at the Lyric Hammersmith, also in May, and it was performed by my all time favourite company, Kneehigh. For those of you who don't know Kneehigh, they are a company which specialises in physical theatre combined with live music. I have to admit, guns on stage make me scared and yet I see a lot of shows with guns in them, I'm not sure why. Either way, my heart was shattered when the dog was shot, I don't care if it's a puppet, if you kill a dog on stage or bring out an already dead dog, expect a lot of tears. The show was the most political show I have ever seen (I really don't like politics in general) but I was able to overlook that because of the breathtaking music and special effects and puppets. The ending is by far the most dramatic and awe inspiring I have ever seen. Six words, enormous skeleton dog, explosion, violin. The show put me on edge and yet I loved it to the point of creating fan art. This is a show that couldn't be more relevant to our current society/politics and is definitely for an older teen/adult audience.
Surprise, surprise, I saw nothing in June.
In July I saw two romantic comedies. The first of these being the midnight showing of "A midsummer night's dream" at The Globe. It was amazing, the cross dressing/pantomime esque style worked really well, the donkey, which Titania falls in love, with wore a pinata with a recorder dangling down made the sex jokes even funnier and the design of the show was by far the most imaginative version I have seen so far (I have seen a midsummer night's dream 3 or 4 times). I would rather stand in the rain for two and a half hours than sit in the sheltered seats. I've only sat in the seats once and I swear never again, the reason being that the actors interact/enter with the standing audience more. Not only that but the standing is what makes the theatre special, you can meet all sorts of people. Whilst waiting in the que for the gates to open, I ended up talking to the woman in front of me, she turned out to be an american university student studying medical science over here in the UK. We ended up entering the theatre together (I know which entrance offers the best standing view) and stood next to each other during the performance, we even ended up geeking out about the show during the interval and hugged each other goodbye when the show was over. That is the kind of experience that you rarely get in the seats. I have to admit, for me that isn't strictly true, I meet a lot of people when I see shows. I must also say that even though I got home at stupid o'clock the next morning, nothing compared to the midnight showing, it was indescribably magical.
On that note, I also got the chance to see "Waitress" at the Adelphi theatre. Any show that offers sweet pies in mini jars as an interval snack during the interval is a winner for me, I ended up devouring an apple pie alongside a girl I met, who travels around a lot because her father is in the army, and talking in German. We shared each others pie, she had a chocolate one and it was divinity, we lost contact after the show (it usually happens so at this point I'm not too bothered by it) which was a real shame but it was still really awesome meeting her. I also happened to meet a girl from Australia and we are still in contact with each other. Moving on to the show itself, Blake Harrison played the role of Oggie and Ashley Roberts played the role of Dawn, honestly I think it was by far the best casting. They really made the roles come to life. Lucie Jones's voice was beyond amazing and it harmonised perfectly with David Hunter. I think Peter Hannah often gets overlooked because he plays the role of Earl, who is such a dick, but I think that he is an incredible actor because of the fact that he is able to make the audience hate Earl. This production is seriously good for all ages, go and see it, it is really good. Listen to the Broadway cast recording as well!!
Now we hit August, when I saw "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!" at CFT. This production was a tenderly brutal watch. My general rule of thumb is to see shows with people wherever possible and to avoid seeing shows with violence in them unless I am with someone. My "friend" backed out 2 days before I was due to see the show so I desperately searched for someone to go with but didn't have any success. I decided to go anyway and it was a 50/50 decision. I met a really friendly girl there who it turned out, was sitting in front of me and we ended up talking before/after the show and during the interval. The show itself was seriously outdated because it was written in 1930's America, which meant that it was really sexist and racist. The blatant sexisim and racisim made me feel really uncomfortable but the songs, stage and dancing was mesmerising. I can't stress enough how good the music was, my favourite song being "Kansas city". Overall, I think that like with The Great Gatsby and Of Mice And Men, you have to take it with a spoon of salt as well as remember when it was created. Do I like the prejudice? I believe in free love and equality no matter what, so fuck no!! Do I like the musical? I am torn, I love the singing and dancing but the storyline absolutely sucks. I think that this show suitable for adults and teens.
September rolled around and I ended up getting standing tickets to see "As you like it" at The Globe, what can I say other than I love a Shakespearean romantic comedy. It was funny but honestly as much as I thoroughly enjoyed it, it wasn't memorable, which really sucks.
In October I saw "Amélie", I did an entire other post about it so if you are interested in my thoughts, search on my blog for the only post with a French title.
November was by far the best month for shows. I was able to see "The play that goes wrong", that is also a post on this blog under the name "The play that goes right" if you are interested in my thoughts about that production. I was finally able to see "Dear Evan Hansen" at the Noel Coward (I bought pre-release tickets back in February) and it was the third best show of the year (Amélie takes first place and The Green Fairy takes second place). I came out of the theatre with a phenomenal sense of hope and it made me feel like I wasn't alone in the world. Despite the tragic subject matter, it is seriously uplifting and I love the healthy approach it has towards mental health. Honestly it couldn't be more relevant to our society and it is a show that everyone needs to see, it addresses taboo subjects and shatters the barriers we put up. That being said, if you can't see the show, listen to the Broadway cast recording or read the book. Yes, you heard me right, there is a book, go and give it a read (I discovered the show through the book).
Now we have entered the realm of the last show of the year, "The Green Fairy" at The Union Theatre. Sure the theatre was small as heck (there was only 6 rows of seats) and was attached to a coffee shop in the back of beyond but any coffee shop/theatre which displays rainbow flags is an automatic winner for me. The small space worked surprisingly well because it made the show feel more intimate. The actors were incredible, I am really stunned that the show didn't run for longer than it did considering how amazing it was. I really wish that more people could see it because it is such a diamond of a show! Vocals were beautiful and the storyline was a masterpiece. I really hope that the show comes back and I feel so lucky to have been able to see it. I felt inspired artistically and it gave me the confidence I needed to fix a bad situation. I can't stress enough how much I wish for others to have been able to see it and how much I long for it to return to the stage....
As of December I am not seeing any shows other than what I can find on Youtube (which is a surprising amount). As of the new year, I am seeing Heathers in May but other than that I'm not sure, hopefully I will be able to continue seeing shows.
Did you see any shows in 2019? Which shows would you like to see in the future? Are you planning on seeing any shows next year? Do you like talking to people at the theatre? Please feel free to leave a comment and we can all belt out our favourite songs and look forward to the future of theatre.
That's it for now, thank you so much for reading, if you made it this far congratulations! If you skipped to the end, honestly fair enough. Stay tuned as the next discussion will be about my year in books.
Last January I decided that instead of writing New Year's resolutions (lets face it, most of us like to write them but hardly any of us actually stick to them) I was going to set myself 2 manageable challenges, I say "manageable" because the problem with New Year's resolutions is that we often set goals which are too difficult for us to achieve or we don't factor in the unpredictability of life.
Anyway I came up with the idea of trying to read 100 books in a year because I was brainstorming out loud and someone told me I couldn't read more than 25 (which for some people is a lot but I'm a bookworm so that isn't much). I am not naturally competitive. Stubborn, yes. Competitive? nope, unless you chose to challenge my intellect or my geeky/nerdiness. When this person challenged my inner bookworm, my mind was set, I was absolutely determined to prove them wrong. Slight sidetrack there but trust me, it's relevant.
If you couldn't already tell, my second challenge was to see as many theatre shows as possible in a year. Why? because I was a theatre student and there is a theory that the more shows you see, the more theatrical techniques/ inspiration/ideas you pick up. Also, I have been lucky enough to have collectively seen a lot of shows over the years but I usually only see 2 or 3 shows in a year. I had aspirations to perform on the West End for a lot of years, fate had other plans and I am no longer well or able to perform on a stage so that dream is dead. I have plans to do a post in the future saying goodbye to 13 years of acting/performing...Wow I am so good at getting sidetracked. I swear I'm going to get into the main part of this post right now. STRONG LANGUAGE ALERT!!!
This year I have been fortunate enough to have seen 18 shows. I think I know what you are thinking, "OMG that's a lot, how could you afford all of those?" First of all, student discount, second of all, amateure productions (in a few cases), third of all, gifts. Some of you may be wondering if I buy/keep theatre programmes, yes and yes, I also keep tickets/ticket confirmations and any show merch/things the actors hand to the audience.
I bet you can't guess what I'm thinking whilst I'm writing this...how the heck am I going to fit 18 shows in a single post? I honestly have no idea so I guess we will find out together.
Pre- warning, these shows are going to be organised by month not day. Another thing, as usual, I am going to be blunt about my opinions and this time I will also be talking about the theatres themselves as well as the productions. SPOILER ALERT!!! MANY SPOILER ALERTS!!
Let's travel back in time to January of this year (2019), I was able to go up to London to see "The Unreturning" at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Would I recommend this theatre? Sure, if you like to travel around via the underground and don't mind absolutely shit legroom, be my guest. I will say the view was really good but that may be to do with my tickets or the smallness of the theatre itself. I had high hopes for the show as it was being performed by the company, Frantic Assembly, which bases itself around a combination of physical theatre and naturalism. It delivered! It was very moving and made me cry at a few points. In case you were wondering, it is for an adult audience, I think the age recommendation is 12-13 ish but I would say that a person should be at least 14 if not older to see this purely because of some of the triggering subject matter and striking sound/lighting effects.
I was also able to see "Twelfth Night" and "Art" at Chichester Festival Theatre (CFT) in January. I absolutely love CFT, you will hear a lot more about the theatre itself and behind the scenes when I do my post about acting.
Overall thoughts about the shows: "Twelfth Night" is my favourite Shakespeare play and the performers did it great justice. "Art" was absolutely hilarious, I was crying tears of laughter throughout the show, three acting legends were part of the show, which made me feel a bit starstruck and I felt inspired/stunned by Stephen Tompkinson as he did a 10 minute monologue in character without so much as a stumble. I am going to say that this type of comedy is a really "hit and miss" so whether or not you would find it as funny as I did depends on what type of comedy you like.
Moving on to February. That month I only saw one show,"Leave to remain", it was playing at my all time favourite theatre, the Lyric Hammersmith and was a gay musical. It sucked because of the length and the music itself. Some songs were really good but other songs were just painful to listen to. The story itself was really cute and I was rooting for Obi and Alex to get together and live in fabulous rainbow happiness. It was ruined by unnecessary scenes, a soundtrack on itunes sung by one person who wasn't even in the show and it looked more innocent on the website than it was. Put it this way, don't bring your parents to see this show. I brought my mother to see it and she is seriously liberal (she took me to see Priscilla last year, we like watching LGBTQ+ love stories together and for the past 2 years we have participated in pride parades together) but we both felt awkward watching Alex and Damien snort drugs on stage.
March does indeed come in like a lion. I saw "Noughts and crosses" at the Theatre Royal in Brighton and "The Great Gatsby" at Gatsby's mansion in London. It was the best month for my bookish side to be unleashed. Let's tackle "Noughts and crosses" first. The company did the book great justice and I had the same reactions as when I read the graphic novel and the book. The set was clever and the scenes were brutal to watch, which was a good thing as the story isn't light hearted, the characterisation of Sephy and Callum was perfect and I honestly felt sick watch the hanging scene because it looked so realistic. I think this one is okay for anyone who fits into the YA bracket and older, although it is a quite a triggering show so please bare that in mind.
I honestly can't recommend "The Great Gatsby" enough, I have so much to say about this show that this will end up being a future post. Brief thoughts being, it is still playing, there are still tickets, go and see it!!!
April was a weird month, not gonna lie. I had been studying the book "the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson for about 6 months ish? maybe longer? and, thanks to a combination of Google and Youtube, discovered that a university group was performing the musical at the Alexandra Theatre in Bognor Regis. Tickets were dirt cheap and I honestly would have paid a lot more. The production was good quality, I still haven't figured out how the transformations worked and the songs were breathtaking. I have one major nitpick: it didn't stick to the book, to the point where it could be seen as a stand alone story. This didn't ruin it for me, I still enjoyed the show however it really didn't help with revision at all. This one is definitely suitable for families with teenagers, it wasn't as scary as the book intended it to be but it still had violence in it and Hyde...I'm not sure how to quite describe him, which is good because his character fit the book perfectly.
This was also the month that I saw "The comedy about a bank robbery", I spoke about it briefly in my last post so I'm not going to say too much more about it. It was freaking hilarious, kinky in places and dark in others. Put it this way, I would recommend it to most ages because I think some of the jokes would go over children's heads however there is no escape from the only dark scene, in which one of the characters gets eaten by a fan whilst in a vent. The special effects are really cool and I really like the story's unexpected twist ending. I enjoyed this show so much that I bought a copy of the script. Yes, I am that person and yes, I am proud of it. #embraceyourinnergeek
Now we reach May, which was another weird month. In case you were wondering, I classify a weird month in terms of theatre as a month in which you see different theatre extremes. In this case, I saw "the odyssey" ,which was the very first show produced by the company "All Greek to me", at Brighton Open Air Theatre (BOAT). This show will forever be special to me as it signifies my independence because it was my first time seeing a show by myself. Despite it being an ameteur dramatics production, it was anything but amateur. It was abridged for obvious reasons but it got the basic storyline pretty accurate, the costumes were simple but effective and I loved how they used a towel/sheet to create the Trojan horse. It was very amusing and it felt really nice to watch matinee whilst eating a picnic lunch. Nothing compares to open air theatre and I plan on seeing more in the new year.
"Dead dog in a suitcase and other love songs" was just...a lot. I saw it at the Lyric Hammersmith, also in May, and it was performed by my all time favourite company, Kneehigh. For those of you who don't know Kneehigh, they are a company which specialises in physical theatre combined with live music. I have to admit, guns on stage make me scared and yet I see a lot of shows with guns in them, I'm not sure why. Either way, my heart was shattered when the dog was shot, I don't care if it's a puppet, if you kill a dog on stage or bring out an already dead dog, expect a lot of tears. The show was the most political show I have ever seen (I really don't like politics in general) but I was able to overlook that because of the breathtaking music and special effects and puppets. The ending is by far the most dramatic and awe inspiring I have ever seen. Six words, enormous skeleton dog, explosion, violin. The show put me on edge and yet I loved it to the point of creating fan art. This is a show that couldn't be more relevant to our current society/politics and is definitely for an older teen/adult audience.
Surprise, surprise, I saw nothing in June.
In July I saw two romantic comedies. The first of these being the midnight showing of "A midsummer night's dream" at The Globe. It was amazing, the cross dressing/pantomime esque style worked really well, the donkey, which Titania falls in love, with wore a pinata with a recorder dangling down made the sex jokes even funnier and the design of the show was by far the most imaginative version I have seen so far (I have seen a midsummer night's dream 3 or 4 times). I would rather stand in the rain for two and a half hours than sit in the sheltered seats. I've only sat in the seats once and I swear never again, the reason being that the actors interact/enter with the standing audience more. Not only that but the standing is what makes the theatre special, you can meet all sorts of people. Whilst waiting in the que for the gates to open, I ended up talking to the woman in front of me, she turned out to be an american university student studying medical science over here in the UK. We ended up entering the theatre together (I know which entrance offers the best standing view) and stood next to each other during the performance, we even ended up geeking out about the show during the interval and hugged each other goodbye when the show was over. That is the kind of experience that you rarely get in the seats. I have to admit, for me that isn't strictly true, I meet a lot of people when I see shows. I must also say that even though I got home at stupid o'clock the next morning, nothing compared to the midnight showing, it was indescribably magical.
On that note, I also got the chance to see "Waitress" at the Adelphi theatre. Any show that offers sweet pies in mini jars as an interval snack during the interval is a winner for me, I ended up devouring an apple pie alongside a girl I met, who travels around a lot because her father is in the army, and talking in German. We shared each others pie, she had a chocolate one and it was divinity, we lost contact after the show (it usually happens so at this point I'm not too bothered by it) which was a real shame but it was still really awesome meeting her. I also happened to meet a girl from Australia and we are still in contact with each other. Moving on to the show itself, Blake Harrison played the role of Oggie and Ashley Roberts played the role of Dawn, honestly I think it was by far the best casting. They really made the roles come to life. Lucie Jones's voice was beyond amazing and it harmonised perfectly with David Hunter. I think Peter Hannah often gets overlooked because he plays the role of Earl, who is such a dick, but I think that he is an incredible actor because of the fact that he is able to make the audience hate Earl. This production is seriously good for all ages, go and see it, it is really good. Listen to the Broadway cast recording as well!!
Now we hit August, when I saw "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!" at CFT. This production was a tenderly brutal watch. My general rule of thumb is to see shows with people wherever possible and to avoid seeing shows with violence in them unless I am with someone. My "friend" backed out 2 days before I was due to see the show so I desperately searched for someone to go with but didn't have any success. I decided to go anyway and it was a 50/50 decision. I met a really friendly girl there who it turned out, was sitting in front of me and we ended up talking before/after the show and during the interval. The show itself was seriously outdated because it was written in 1930's America, which meant that it was really sexist and racist. The blatant sexisim and racisim made me feel really uncomfortable but the songs, stage and dancing was mesmerising. I can't stress enough how good the music was, my favourite song being "Kansas city". Overall, I think that like with The Great Gatsby and Of Mice And Men, you have to take it with a spoon of salt as well as remember when it was created. Do I like the prejudice? I believe in free love and equality no matter what, so fuck no!! Do I like the musical? I am torn, I love the singing and dancing but the storyline absolutely sucks. I think that this show suitable for adults and teens.
September rolled around and I ended up getting standing tickets to see "As you like it" at The Globe, what can I say other than I love a Shakespearean romantic comedy. It was funny but honestly as much as I thoroughly enjoyed it, it wasn't memorable, which really sucks.
In October I saw "Amélie", I did an entire other post about it so if you are interested in my thoughts, search on my blog for the only post with a French title.
November was by far the best month for shows. I was able to see "The play that goes wrong", that is also a post on this blog under the name "The play that goes right" if you are interested in my thoughts about that production. I was finally able to see "Dear Evan Hansen" at the Noel Coward (I bought pre-release tickets back in February) and it was the third best show of the year (Amélie takes first place and The Green Fairy takes second place). I came out of the theatre with a phenomenal sense of hope and it made me feel like I wasn't alone in the world. Despite the tragic subject matter, it is seriously uplifting and I love the healthy approach it has towards mental health. Honestly it couldn't be more relevant to our society and it is a show that everyone needs to see, it addresses taboo subjects and shatters the barriers we put up. That being said, if you can't see the show, listen to the Broadway cast recording or read the book. Yes, you heard me right, there is a book, go and give it a read (I discovered the show through the book).
Now we have entered the realm of the last show of the year, "The Green Fairy" at The Union Theatre. Sure the theatre was small as heck (there was only 6 rows of seats) and was attached to a coffee shop in the back of beyond but any coffee shop/theatre which displays rainbow flags is an automatic winner for me. The small space worked surprisingly well because it made the show feel more intimate. The actors were incredible, I am really stunned that the show didn't run for longer than it did considering how amazing it was. I really wish that more people could see it because it is such a diamond of a show! Vocals were beautiful and the storyline was a masterpiece. I really hope that the show comes back and I feel so lucky to have been able to see it. I felt inspired artistically and it gave me the confidence I needed to fix a bad situation. I can't stress enough how much I wish for others to have been able to see it and how much I long for it to return to the stage....
As of December I am not seeing any shows other than what I can find on Youtube (which is a surprising amount). As of the new year, I am seeing Heathers in May but other than that I'm not sure, hopefully I will be able to continue seeing shows.
Did you see any shows in 2019? Which shows would you like to see in the future? Are you planning on seeing any shows next year? Do you like talking to people at the theatre? Please feel free to leave a comment and we can all belt out our favourite songs and look forward to the future of theatre.
That's it for now, thank you so much for reading, if you made it this far congratulations! If you skipped to the end, honestly fair enough. Stay tuned as the next discussion will be about my year in books.
14/12/2019
The play that goes right
Hello everyone, welcome back! Today we will be talking about "the play that goes wrong". Not only will I be talking about this play in particular, also the company who created it "mischief theatre".
I was lucky enough to see "the play that goes wrong" at the beginning of last month and way back in June/July I saw "the comedy about a bank robbery tour". They also filmed "Peter Pan goes wrong" for the BBC last year, however I ended up watching the recording on Youtube as it wasn't on Iplayer when I found out about its existence (they took the recording off of Youtube but you can still find clips of the show). "Groan ups" ended its West End run on the 1st of this month, which really sucks, on the positive side they are going to be going on tour next year so keep an eye out. Last but not least, "Magic goes wrong" is now officially playing at the Vaudeville in London.
With all that said, lets actually get into the meat of the discussion....SPOILER ALERT!!!
"The play that goes wrong" is currently playing at the Duchess theatre, which is the smallest theatre in the West End. Upon hearing this information, I began to doubt the quality of the play as generally unpopular plays and amateur dramatics are held in small theatres. I was wrong. So, so, so wrong! The smaller space made the play more intimate, which worked really well for this production in particular as it enabled the actors to access the audience easier and made it easier to become immersed in the show.
You are probably wondering why the actors needed easy access to the audience or what the play is actually about? Well, the play is about an amateur dramatics society ( The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society) trying to put on a murder mystery play (The murder at Haversham Manor) and everything going completely wrong. The actors needed audience access because they interact with the audience at various points in the play and at the beginning and after the interval, the actors playing the technicians/backstage crew come through the audience searching for the company's missing dog, Winston. For those of you who are worried about getting tickets in the circle, fear not! The actors rush through both the stalls and the circle. The actor playing Trevor, has a technicians box situated on the far right of the circle, which means throughout the show he makes entrances and exits via the circle.
Speaking of Trevor, if you look at his box, you will find Duran Duran posters. This sounds pretty random and to be honest it is. So why have them displayed? Because the technician is obsessed to the point of playing the music accidentally, zoning out to the music whilst the play is on and making innumerable references to Duran Duran.
Trevor and Sandra are really unusual characters simply for the fact that the actors have to play the roles of a technician and an understudy. This also makes them brilliant to watch as it takes talent to play an understudy who is scared of performing (although the longer she is on stage, the more she steals the spotlight) and a technician who is easily distracted yet has a solution for most things.
The actual set itself is incredible, there are too many parts that brake or fall to pieces for me to talk about in this post so I am just going to focus on the main one. For those of you who watched the royal variety performance in 2015, you will know exactly what I'm on about. At the end of the play, the entire set falls to pieces. This a spectacular technical feat as it would have had to be designed in a way which does not crush the actors. The actors also had to anticipate the collapse without showing the audience that they were anticipating it.
For those of you who are interested, you will find a video clip of the royal variety performance below.
Let's talk about all of the actors. I am seriously amazed by how they are able to perform a show like this every night. Sure, keeping a straight face during a comedic scene is a basic actor's skill which is absolutely essential for any actor planning on tackling comedic theatre, however this company takes it to a whole new level. They are able to keep up the energy, keep a straight face, and manage to hide the fact that they are anticipating everything. It is this combination of techniques that shows the true skill of the actors onstage.
Speaking of comedy, keep an eye out for Winston the dog. He never actually appears in adorable dog form during the play, however you will be able to find a portrait of him above the mantelpiece at the beginning of the play, they make a joke about him which had me in hysterics, especially as I am a bit of a history geek. You will also be able to find a portrait of him on a poster inside "the theatre cafe" on St Martin's Lane in London.
Okay so what's my overall verdict? This show is seriously underrated, for those of you who find puns, slapstick and physical comedy hilarious go and see it! I would love to recommend this play to everyone but it is a comedy and everyone has a different sense of humor.
On a different note, you may be wondering what type of audience this is suitable for. There are some small "references" but these are subtle enough to make them family friendly. In "the comedy about a bank robbery" there is an entire scene/section dedicated to humor of this nature, so just be aware of that.
What is your favourite type of comedy? Have you seen any mischief comedy shows? What do you think about the performance style? For those of you who have seen the show, what is your favourite joke? and more importantly, do you think they will ever find Winston? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments and we can all have a laugh!
I would talk about the programme but that's a thing in itself and I am planning on doing a post about my year in theatre, so I will probably end up talking about it then.
That's all for now, thank you so much for reading and stay tuned as soon I'll be having a long discussion about my year in theatre.
I was lucky enough to see "the play that goes wrong" at the beginning of last month and way back in June/July I saw "the comedy about a bank robbery tour". They also filmed "Peter Pan goes wrong" for the BBC last year, however I ended up watching the recording on Youtube as it wasn't on Iplayer when I found out about its existence (they took the recording off of Youtube but you can still find clips of the show). "Groan ups" ended its West End run on the 1st of this month, which really sucks, on the positive side they are going to be going on tour next year so keep an eye out. Last but not least, "Magic goes wrong" is now officially playing at the Vaudeville in London.
With all that said, lets actually get into the meat of the discussion....SPOILER ALERT!!!
"The play that goes wrong" is currently playing at the Duchess theatre, which is the smallest theatre in the West End. Upon hearing this information, I began to doubt the quality of the play as generally unpopular plays and amateur dramatics are held in small theatres. I was wrong. So, so, so wrong! The smaller space made the play more intimate, which worked really well for this production in particular as it enabled the actors to access the audience easier and made it easier to become immersed in the show.
You are probably wondering why the actors needed easy access to the audience or what the play is actually about? Well, the play is about an amateur dramatics society ( The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society) trying to put on a murder mystery play (The murder at Haversham Manor) and everything going completely wrong. The actors needed audience access because they interact with the audience at various points in the play and at the beginning and after the interval, the actors playing the technicians/backstage crew come through the audience searching for the company's missing dog, Winston. For those of you who are worried about getting tickets in the circle, fear not! The actors rush through both the stalls and the circle. The actor playing Trevor, has a technicians box situated on the far right of the circle, which means throughout the show he makes entrances and exits via the circle.
Speaking of Trevor, if you look at his box, you will find Duran Duran posters. This sounds pretty random and to be honest it is. So why have them displayed? Because the technician is obsessed to the point of playing the music accidentally, zoning out to the music whilst the play is on and making innumerable references to Duran Duran.
Trevor and Sandra are really unusual characters simply for the fact that the actors have to play the roles of a technician and an understudy. This also makes them brilliant to watch as it takes talent to play an understudy who is scared of performing (although the longer she is on stage, the more she steals the spotlight) and a technician who is easily distracted yet has a solution for most things.
The actual set itself is incredible, there are too many parts that brake or fall to pieces for me to talk about in this post so I am just going to focus on the main one. For those of you who watched the royal variety performance in 2015, you will know exactly what I'm on about. At the end of the play, the entire set falls to pieces. This a spectacular technical feat as it would have had to be designed in a way which does not crush the actors. The actors also had to anticipate the collapse without showing the audience that they were anticipating it.
For those of you who are interested, you will find a video clip of the royal variety performance below.
Let's talk about all of the actors. I am seriously amazed by how they are able to perform a show like this every night. Sure, keeping a straight face during a comedic scene is a basic actor's skill which is absolutely essential for any actor planning on tackling comedic theatre, however this company takes it to a whole new level. They are able to keep up the energy, keep a straight face, and manage to hide the fact that they are anticipating everything. It is this combination of techniques that shows the true skill of the actors onstage.
Speaking of comedy, keep an eye out for Winston the dog. He never actually appears in adorable dog form during the play, however you will be able to find a portrait of him above the mantelpiece at the beginning of the play, they make a joke about him which had me in hysterics, especially as I am a bit of a history geek. You will also be able to find a portrait of him on a poster inside "the theatre cafe" on St Martin's Lane in London.
Okay so what's my overall verdict? This show is seriously underrated, for those of you who find puns, slapstick and physical comedy hilarious go and see it! I would love to recommend this play to everyone but it is a comedy and everyone has a different sense of humor.
On a different note, you may be wondering what type of audience this is suitable for. There are some small "references" but these are subtle enough to make them family friendly. In "the comedy about a bank robbery" there is an entire scene/section dedicated to humor of this nature, so just be aware of that.
What is your favourite type of comedy? Have you seen any mischief comedy shows? What do you think about the performance style? For those of you who have seen the show, what is your favourite joke? and more importantly, do you think they will ever find Winston? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments and we can all have a laugh!
I would talk about the programme but that's a thing in itself and I am planning on doing a post about my year in theatre, so I will probably end up talking about it then.
That's all for now, thank you so much for reading and stay tuned as soon I'll be having a long discussion about my year in theatre.
01/12/2019
Continuing through the blizzard
Hello, welcome back to worlds of words! As I said in my last post, this week I will be discussing the rest of "Let it snow". I had originally planned to do three separate posts however, since finishing the book, I found that my thoughts can be condensed into a single post. With all that said, lets resume our discussion...Once again SPOILER ALERT!!!
I have to admit that at times "A cheertastic christmas miracle" baffled my brain because of what I like to call "the cheerleader debate." I understand that in the American school sports system, cheerleading seems to be somewhat of a big deal, what I don't understand is why? Maybe its because I'm a British reader. For those of you who are based in other countries, where cheerleading also seems to be a major deal, allow me to explain. I am aware that cheerleading happens in the UK but that's the extent of my knowledge. Over here, it's only a big deal if you are directly involved in it, which I am not, and even then most schools/colleges don't have cheerleaders at their tournaments/games. To me cheerleading seems to be a thoroughly American thing surrounded by degrading stereotypes, so forgive me if I don't understand why people (in this case, guys) go nuts over cheerleaders. I am with Tobin on this one "Nothing against cheerleaders, but surely there are better things to sacrifice for."
Tobin says "my mother called home for the sixth time in five hours". There's a fine line between being concerned and being as clingy as a sloth, Tobin's mother is that line. I'm totally chill about being called once or twice (in theory, in reality I hate phone conversations) but five times would really test my patience. The fact that she is calling whilst he is having a movie marathon with friends sucks. I am just relieved that she didn't call throughout the rest of the night. Let's face it, we are all relieved that she didn't call during a date, that would be inexcusable unless it was an absolute emergency.
The romance was cliche, even by John Green's standards. I saw it from the very beginning, which disappointed me majourly. He can do better, I know this because of what I consider to be his greatest book to date "Turtles all the way down." Despite this he was able to redeem himself to a certain extent by making the journey to waffle house thoroughly entertaining. He let himself down again with the characters themselves, he seems to have a fixed idea about what a teenager is and how they act, times have changed. I honestly think that he needs to read more YA books and host more book events to get to grips with teenagers in our society. They aren't as shallow as constantly focusing on hash browns, however they aren't as in touch as to realise what is at stake at every moment in time. They are complex beings with multitudinous personality types and thought processes, as many of those different types needs to be represented in YA books as possible.
When I read about the waffle house and cheerleaders scenario, I immediately thought back to "The Jubilee express" because it sounded familiar. I was absolutely right, there is a reason why all of these stories are contained within a single book. They are all interconnected through both waffle house and starbucks. They all meet each other in "The patron saint of pigs" and the set up is a work of genius.
Unlike the other characters in "The patron saint of pigs." I am not going to challenge anything that Addie did simply because she is human and is relatable, especially when she says " Can't anyone see I'm trying?". If you are interested in more of my thoughts, they are very clearly illustrated through the character of Mayzie (later known as Constance May Billingsley). We all need a Mayzie in our lives to remind us that mistakes are okay and that things can change.
Tinfoil man will forever remain a mystery. When we first meet him in "The Jubilee express" I was incredibly curious, by the end of the book that curiosity was replaced with perplexity. This character comes up in every story so he must have a deeper meaning/significance, I just haven't figured out what it is yet.
I am so beyond happy that Jeb and Addie got back together in the end.
So you are probably wondering what my overall thoughts are, although you could be wondering any number of things. I thought that this book started strong, became weak in the middle and ended on a high note. At times, this book left me in a blizzard and at other times this book made me feel warm and fuzzy. Would I recommend reading it? It depends on what time of year it is, this is a book which should only be read in winter, reading it in summer would be like watching a christmas film in July. Out of all of the authors, I would be more inclined to read more of Maureen Johnson's works.
What are your thoughts about cheerleaders? Do you think that a teenage stereotype is appearing in YA books? What do you think about Addie? Does the tinfoil man have a deeper meaning? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments, we can all have a starbucks and discuss.
That's all for now, thank you so much for reading and stay tuned as soon I'll be discussing "The play that goes wrong".
I have to admit that at times "A cheertastic christmas miracle" baffled my brain because of what I like to call "the cheerleader debate." I understand that in the American school sports system, cheerleading seems to be somewhat of a big deal, what I don't understand is why? Maybe its because I'm a British reader. For those of you who are based in other countries, where cheerleading also seems to be a major deal, allow me to explain. I am aware that cheerleading happens in the UK but that's the extent of my knowledge. Over here, it's only a big deal if you are directly involved in it, which I am not, and even then most schools/colleges don't have cheerleaders at their tournaments/games. To me cheerleading seems to be a thoroughly American thing surrounded by degrading stereotypes, so forgive me if I don't understand why people (in this case, guys) go nuts over cheerleaders. I am with Tobin on this one "Nothing against cheerleaders, but surely there are better things to sacrifice for."
Tobin says "my mother called home for the sixth time in five hours". There's a fine line between being concerned and being as clingy as a sloth, Tobin's mother is that line. I'm totally chill about being called once or twice (in theory, in reality I hate phone conversations) but five times would really test my patience. The fact that she is calling whilst he is having a movie marathon with friends sucks. I am just relieved that she didn't call throughout the rest of the night. Let's face it, we are all relieved that she didn't call during a date, that would be inexcusable unless it was an absolute emergency.
The romance was cliche, even by John Green's standards. I saw it from the very beginning, which disappointed me majourly. He can do better, I know this because of what I consider to be his greatest book to date "Turtles all the way down." Despite this he was able to redeem himself to a certain extent by making the journey to waffle house thoroughly entertaining. He let himself down again with the characters themselves, he seems to have a fixed idea about what a teenager is and how they act, times have changed. I honestly think that he needs to read more YA books and host more book events to get to grips with teenagers in our society. They aren't as shallow as constantly focusing on hash browns, however they aren't as in touch as to realise what is at stake at every moment in time. They are complex beings with multitudinous personality types and thought processes, as many of those different types needs to be represented in YA books as possible.
When I read about the waffle house and cheerleaders scenario, I immediately thought back to "The Jubilee express" because it sounded familiar. I was absolutely right, there is a reason why all of these stories are contained within a single book. They are all interconnected through both waffle house and starbucks. They all meet each other in "The patron saint of pigs" and the set up is a work of genius.
Unlike the other characters in "The patron saint of pigs." I am not going to challenge anything that Addie did simply because she is human and is relatable, especially when she says " Can't anyone see I'm trying?". If you are interested in more of my thoughts, they are very clearly illustrated through the character of Mayzie (later known as Constance May Billingsley). We all need a Mayzie in our lives to remind us that mistakes are okay and that things can change.
Tinfoil man will forever remain a mystery. When we first meet him in "The Jubilee express" I was incredibly curious, by the end of the book that curiosity was replaced with perplexity. This character comes up in every story so he must have a deeper meaning/significance, I just haven't figured out what it is yet.
I am so beyond happy that Jeb and Addie got back together in the end.
So you are probably wondering what my overall thoughts are, although you could be wondering any number of things. I thought that this book started strong, became weak in the middle and ended on a high note. At times, this book left me in a blizzard and at other times this book made me feel warm and fuzzy. Would I recommend reading it? It depends on what time of year it is, this is a book which should only be read in winter, reading it in summer would be like watching a christmas film in July. Out of all of the authors, I would be more inclined to read more of Maureen Johnson's works.
What are your thoughts about cheerleaders? Do you think that a teenage stereotype is appearing in YA books? What do you think about Addie? Does the tinfoil man have a deeper meaning? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments, we can all have a starbucks and discuss.
That's all for now, thank you so much for reading and stay tuned as soon I'll be discussing "The play that goes wrong".
23/11/2019
A Jubilee in a blizzard
Hello, It’s been a while, welcome back to words of worlds! As promised, this week we will be discussing “Let it snow” by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle.
You are probably wondering why I picked this specific book. First of all it’s November, it’s practically winter. Second of all I got this book as a gift two years ago and have never gotten round to reading it and third of all, It happens to be one of two books, out of the 315 I have on my shelves, with “snow” in the title. I also chose this book because John Green wrote one of the stories and I absolutely love his books, especially “Turtles all the way down”. That being said, I am not afraid to voice my opinion about his story, if anything I tend to be more “vocal” about stories I like.
As there are three stories in one, I will talk about one at a time and treat them as separate entities so without further ado, grab a Black Forest hot chocolate and lets begin...SPOILER ALERT!!!
“The Jubilee express” opens with the most cliché line in Christmas story history: “It was the night before Christmas”. When I saw that line, I was worried that this would turn out to be a children’s bed time story, but Maureen Johnson redeemed herself by making her character spend an entire page and a half discussing her name, Jubilee Dougal. When you hear the name Jubilee Dougal, what are the first things that enter your mind? For me it was the Queen’s diamond Jubilee and “the magic roundabout”. As a result of this random thought train, I am very glad that Jubilee took the time to address the issue before telling the reader her story.
The boyfriend she begins (Noah) with is an absolute idiot and needs to learn how to function as a boyfriend. The funny thing about this statement is that it is indirectly what Stuart says to Jubilee from the moment she tells him about Noah.
Noah, you can’t handle having a girlfriend because you don’t have the time for her. You are “a senior, a member of the soccer team and president of the student council” I don’t know anyone who could easily manage that on top of studies and a girlfriend. You should have either dropped soccer to make more time for her or just not have asked her out, her time should not revolve entirely around yours. Noah, Jubilee literally compared you to a politician : “I empathised with people who are married to politicians”.
Unfortunately the whole “politician” thing barely scratches the surface. She needed support and she tried calling you but you put a smorgasbord before her. Are you kidding?! In her situation, most of us would have broken down in despair over the awful situation life put her in and you showed an utter lack of concern. You dismissed her completely and kept finding excuses to leave the conversation, if you wanted to break up with her, you should have. Leading her on was not fair at all. Before you, the reader, say “break ups are difficult and it’s not that straightforward” I must remind you of his reaction when she broke up with him. He didn’t care at all. He literally says that he was expecting it and it is implies he was dodging being straight with her because it was Christmas. That’s not an excuse.
Pretending to be in love with someone isn’t right on any level and it hurts the other person a lot more. It is also incredibly exhausting and the guilt is tremendous. That being said, sometimes we have to learn this lesson the hard way, that’s okay because we learn what to do and a what not to do in the future. I have learned this lesson. I dated a guy, who I had been friends with for two years, for a month. I really struggled to see him as more than a friend and felt nervous about breaking up with him because of his overly-sensitive nature. I kept putting it off until Valentine’s Day. We made plans but when we met up, I gave him my notebook which said everything I wanted to say. Over time we became friends again, but the friendship faded out as our lives went in completely different directions. Moral of the story: a patient, empathetic and sensitive break up can lead to a friendship instead.
A major issue that seriously needs to be addressed is the fact that Jubilee decides to let a guy she had literally just met, take her to his parents house. What the heck happened to stranger danger? What’s worse is that Jubilee even mentions that the recklessness of the situation has crossed her mind, but decides to do it anyway. Put it this way, scary cheerleaders are not an excuse to put your life in the hands of a guy you just met. She should have just stayed in the Waffle House and embraced the situation. I know it works out in the end and the guy ends up being the new love of her life but this is part of the fantasy of fiction, things like this don’t happen in real life! It could have easily gone wrong on so many levels and yet it doesn’t. Is this the message we want to send to YA fiction readers? Do we really want to make it look socially acceptable to let your guard down around complete strangers?
This story isn’t your run of the mill love story. Johnson sets up the plot so that at the beginning the reader knows that the relationship between Jubilee and Noah isn’t great, but we are convinced that it
will get better because of the Christmas Eve smorgasbord date plan. This suddenly falls through and we begin to expect that Jubilee and Noah will find a way to be together. This also doesn’t work out. Then we anticipate that the meet cute between Jubilee and Jeb will result in either a situation where Jubilee cheats on Noah to be with Jeb or Jubilee breaking up with Noah to be with Jeb. We are shocked when this doesn’t happen. When Jubilee meets Stuart, I didn’t think they would end up falling in love with each other, but they did and it turned out to be beautiful!
What I am ultimately trying to say is that this story is gripping because of how misleading it is and it is this quality which makes me want to read more of Johnson’s works.
Do you think this story is cliché? Who did you want Jubilee to end up with? What did you think about Jubilee’s decision to trust a stranger? What springs to mind when you hear Jubilee’s name? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments, we can all curl up under a fluffy blanket and debate.
It is at this point in time that I have realised that this post is going to be incredibly long if I review all three stories in one post, therefore I am going to do three separate posts. Next I will talk about “A cheertastic Christmas miracle” by John Green and after that I will discuss the final story in the book, “The patron saint of pigs” by Lauren Myracle.
That’s all for tonight, thank you for reading and stay tuned for my discussion about “A Cheertastic Christmas myracle” by John Green.
You are probably wondering why I picked this specific book. First of all it’s November, it’s practically winter. Second of all I got this book as a gift two years ago and have never gotten round to reading it and third of all, It happens to be one of two books, out of the 315 I have on my shelves, with “snow” in the title. I also chose this book because John Green wrote one of the stories and I absolutely love his books, especially “Turtles all the way down”. That being said, I am not afraid to voice my opinion about his story, if anything I tend to be more “vocal” about stories I like.
As there are three stories in one, I will talk about one at a time and treat them as separate entities so without further ado, grab a Black Forest hot chocolate and lets begin...SPOILER ALERT!!!
“The Jubilee express” opens with the most cliché line in Christmas story history: “It was the night before Christmas”. When I saw that line, I was worried that this would turn out to be a children’s bed time story, but Maureen Johnson redeemed herself by making her character spend an entire page and a half discussing her name, Jubilee Dougal. When you hear the name Jubilee Dougal, what are the first things that enter your mind? For me it was the Queen’s diamond Jubilee and “the magic roundabout”. As a result of this random thought train, I am very glad that Jubilee took the time to address the issue before telling the reader her story.
The boyfriend she begins (Noah) with is an absolute idiot and needs to learn how to function as a boyfriend. The funny thing about this statement is that it is indirectly what Stuart says to Jubilee from the moment she tells him about Noah.
Noah, you can’t handle having a girlfriend because you don’t have the time for her. You are “a senior, a member of the soccer team and president of the student council” I don’t know anyone who could easily manage that on top of studies and a girlfriend. You should have either dropped soccer to make more time for her or just not have asked her out, her time should not revolve entirely around yours. Noah, Jubilee literally compared you to a politician : “I empathised with people who are married to politicians”.
Unfortunately the whole “politician” thing barely scratches the surface. She needed support and she tried calling you but you put a smorgasbord before her. Are you kidding?! In her situation, most of us would have broken down in despair over the awful situation life put her in and you showed an utter lack of concern. You dismissed her completely and kept finding excuses to leave the conversation, if you wanted to break up with her, you should have. Leading her on was not fair at all. Before you, the reader, say “break ups are difficult and it’s not that straightforward” I must remind you of his reaction when she broke up with him. He didn’t care at all. He literally says that he was expecting it and it is implies he was dodging being straight with her because it was Christmas. That’s not an excuse.
Pretending to be in love with someone isn’t right on any level and it hurts the other person a lot more. It is also incredibly exhausting and the guilt is tremendous. That being said, sometimes we have to learn this lesson the hard way, that’s okay because we learn what to do and a what not to do in the future. I have learned this lesson. I dated a guy, who I had been friends with for two years, for a month. I really struggled to see him as more than a friend and felt nervous about breaking up with him because of his overly-sensitive nature. I kept putting it off until Valentine’s Day. We made plans but when we met up, I gave him my notebook which said everything I wanted to say. Over time we became friends again, but the friendship faded out as our lives went in completely different directions. Moral of the story: a patient, empathetic and sensitive break up can lead to a friendship instead.
A major issue that seriously needs to be addressed is the fact that Jubilee decides to let a guy she had literally just met, take her to his parents house. What the heck happened to stranger danger? What’s worse is that Jubilee even mentions that the recklessness of the situation has crossed her mind, but decides to do it anyway. Put it this way, scary cheerleaders are not an excuse to put your life in the hands of a guy you just met. She should have just stayed in the Waffle House and embraced the situation. I know it works out in the end and the guy ends up being the new love of her life but this is part of the fantasy of fiction, things like this don’t happen in real life! It could have easily gone wrong on so many levels and yet it doesn’t. Is this the message we want to send to YA fiction readers? Do we really want to make it look socially acceptable to let your guard down around complete strangers?
This story isn’t your run of the mill love story. Johnson sets up the plot so that at the beginning the reader knows that the relationship between Jubilee and Noah isn’t great, but we are convinced that it
will get better because of the Christmas Eve smorgasbord date plan. This suddenly falls through and we begin to expect that Jubilee and Noah will find a way to be together. This also doesn’t work out. Then we anticipate that the meet cute between Jubilee and Jeb will result in either a situation where Jubilee cheats on Noah to be with Jeb or Jubilee breaking up with Noah to be with Jeb. We are shocked when this doesn’t happen. When Jubilee meets Stuart, I didn’t think they would end up falling in love with each other, but they did and it turned out to be beautiful!
What I am ultimately trying to say is that this story is gripping because of how misleading it is and it is this quality which makes me want to read more of Johnson’s works.
Do you think this story is cliché? Who did you want Jubilee to end up with? What did you think about Jubilee’s decision to trust a stranger? What springs to mind when you hear Jubilee’s name? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments, we can all curl up under a fluffy blanket and debate.
It is at this point in time that I have realised that this post is going to be incredibly long if I review all three stories in one post, therefore I am going to do three separate posts. Next I will talk about “A cheertastic Christmas miracle” by John Green and after that I will discuss the final story in the book, “The patron saint of pigs” by Lauren Myracle.
That’s all for tonight, thank you for reading and stay tuned for my discussion about “A Cheertastic Christmas myracle” by John Green.
01/11/2019
Announcement!
Hello everyone! Welcome back to words of worlds!
Unfortunately there won't be a main blog update this week. The reason for this is that I'm going on a hiatus from now until the 22nd of November.
You might be asking "Why are you going on a hiatus?" Allow me to cut to the chase. I need to take time out to get my life back on track. My mental health has gone significantly downhill, as a result I've struggled to look after myself. I have a lot of college work to try and keep up with. I am also incredibly sleep deprived. I think that sometimes people need to be reminded that health is just as important as studies/work and that sometimes you need to put your health first. Here's a reminder from me to you, please look after yourself! We all struggle sometimes, there is absolutely no shame in admitting when things are too much and needing to take a break. There is also no shame in asking for help or for the occasional deadline extension.
In the meantime, if you are interested in reading any of my other writing, you can find it using the following link https://www.wattpad.com/user/bookish_hound .
So what happens in the future? This blog will be updated every Friday, starting Friday the 22nd of November. As it's coming up to winter/Christmas, I won't be discussing "the price guide to the occult" until either Friday the 13th of December or January . Instead I will be discussing "Let it snow" by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. On the 29th the subject will be "the play that goes wrong".
If anything changes, i.e. length of hiatus, I will make a post about it.
That's all for the time being, thank you all so much for taking the time to read/skim my blog!! Remember to take care of yourself and I'll see you back here on the 22nd of November.
*update: blog posts will be uploaded randomly due to general life stuff
Unfortunately there won't be a main blog update this week. The reason for this is that I'm going on a hiatus from now until the 22nd of November.
You might be asking "Why are you going on a hiatus?" Allow me to cut to the chase. I need to take time out to get my life back on track. My mental health has gone significantly downhill, as a result I've struggled to look after myself. I have a lot of college work to try and keep up with. I am also incredibly sleep deprived. I think that sometimes people need to be reminded that health is just as important as studies/work and that sometimes you need to put your health first. Here's a reminder from me to you, please look after yourself! We all struggle sometimes, there is absolutely no shame in admitting when things are too much and needing to take a break. There is also no shame in asking for help or for the occasional deadline extension.
In the meantime, if you are interested in reading any of my other writing, you can find it using the following link https://www.wattpad.com/user/bookish_hound .
So what happens in the future? This blog will be updated every Friday, starting Friday the 22nd of November. As it's coming up to winter/Christmas, I won't be discussing "the price guide to the occult" until either Friday the 13th of December or January . Instead I will be discussing "Let it snow" by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. On the 29th the subject will be "the play that goes wrong".
If anything changes, i.e. length of hiatus, I will make a post about it.
That's all for the time being, thank you all so much for taking the time to read/skim my blog!! Remember to take care of yourself and I'll see you back here on the 22nd of November.
*update: blog posts will be uploaded randomly due to general life stuff
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