theatre
Saw two theatrical things recently. Well, saw more than that, cos I see a lot of theatre, but two were... memorable.
There was a French group (this lot: http://costes.org/virs01.htm - warning contains nudity and blasphemy) who were clearly working hard on shocking as many people as possible, but sadly just managed to bore us. Trust me - it's possible to have two men and one woman on stage naked, apparently (I was towards the back) wanking, pissing, burning pubic hair, sticking things in their arses, performing oral sex with each other and an image of the virgin Mary and STILL have the audience talking amongst themselves rather than paying attention. Dreadful.
Then last night, half a dozen Polish blokes dressed as Santa walked around the city singing songs and giving out presents with an audience of arty types, bored teenagers, random street people, beery lads and people who just happened to walk past. Using a stepladder, they climbed into balconies, onto buses and shops and joked whoever they met. This is not a friendly city - it has a reputation as dirty, ugly and dangerous. There wasn't a security guard or police office in sight. The crowd started off bemused, but by the end the drunks and the guys in death metal T-Shirts were singing along to 'Jingle Bells' and the festival bores were throwing fake snow at the cool teenage girls. Astonishing.
I doubt the two I'm seeing tonight will be any better or worse than these, but I'll let you know if they are.
There was a French group (this lot: http://costes.org/virs01.htm - warning contains nudity and blasphemy) who were clearly working hard on shocking as many people as possible, but sadly just managed to bore us. Trust me - it's possible to have two men and one woman on stage naked, apparently (I was towards the back) wanking, pissing, burning pubic hair, sticking things in their arses, performing oral sex with each other and an image of the virgin Mary and STILL have the audience talking amongst themselves rather than paying attention. Dreadful.
Then last night, half a dozen Polish blokes dressed as Santa walked around the city singing songs and giving out presents with an audience of arty types, bored teenagers, random street people, beery lads and people who just happened to walk past. Using a stepladder, they climbed into balconies, onto buses and shops and joked whoever they met. This is not a friendly city - it has a reputation as dirty, ugly and dangerous. There wasn't a security guard or police office in sight. The crowd started off bemused, but by the end the drunks and the guys in death metal T-Shirts were singing along to 'Jingle Bells' and the festival bores were throwing fake snow at the cool teenage girls. Astonishing.
I doubt the two I'm seeing tonight will be any better or worse than these, but I'll let you know if they are.