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I found myself in a theatre this evening for the second time in a month. Of course, saying it like that makes it sound like I was surprised, but it’s been planned since the council emailed and offered me a couple of free tickets on Monday to say thanks for promoting the play, My Beautiful Launderette.

I gave one to Paul, and Trevor and Jon who had been thinking about perhaps going anyway, but were only put off by the fact Paul and I had said we wouldn’t, bought another two.

The thing I really like about the theatre, far more than the stories or the acting, is the simplicity of the sets. When we went to see Privates on Parade a couple of weeks ago there was little more than a dressing table and a few camp beds. When we saw Maurice last year it was just a few benches, The Torch Song Trilogy was very little more, and Art was just a living room - a couple of pieces of furniture and a table. Not even any actual Art, except in your imagination.

Tonight, there was just a backdrop, three chairs and three stools, and the cast moved thems around themselves between the scenes. They didn’t just walk them on and plonk them down, either. It was done to music, and beautifully choreographed. At the same time, moving backdrops were projected onto the back of the set.

It was all so well done that I was wondering whether the story had originally been written for the theatre or film, but in the end I decided it must have originally been a film, as the posters in the foyer said it was being presented in conjunction with FilmFour.

The Guardian reviewed this version of the play back on 29th January when it was still in Tunbridge Wells.

It certainly wasn’t the best play I’ve seen, but it was a fun evening out, and we finished off by going to our regular Italian opposite the bus station. I could have eaten what I chose first - it certainly wasn’t as large as the pizzas - but it was excellent, as usual.

Came home to find a pack of free trial goodies on the doormat. They’ve incorporated 12 ‘invisible improvements’, apparently, and they’d like me to try out the three samples. What are they? Sanitary towels.

Out of curiosity I opened them up. Quite an education. They’re like a big fluffy Band Aid.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2002 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.