Some downer news (see what I did there?), the horrifying bird returned:
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| And it has babies! IT'S MULTIPLYING! |
That night we ate at the first restaurant that I feel compelled to rave about--Barrafina in Leicester Square. It's a tapas restaurant, and it is just perfect. The staff was super attentive; for the first time since we arrived in London it didn't take forever to receive our check and get our card swiped. And the food was straight-up exquisite. We had some crab croquetas that were so delectable, I would seriously consider murdering someone in exchange for a lifetime supply. They were perfectly crispy on the outside, creamy and flavorful on the inside. There was also a fabulous chorizo tortilla (stuffed with chorizo with more chorizo and aioli on top!), broccoli with chili and garlic, and succulent, fall-right-off-the-bone pork ribs. For dessert we had turron (was good, did not change my life) and milhojas (two layers of pastry cream sandwiched between three layers of delicately delicious puff pastry and topped with shaved almonds, changed my life). I highly suggest you go find milhojas right now and eat all of it, forever. Preferably at Barrafina.
After our top-notch dinner, we saw The Play That Goes Wrong. The title pretty much sums up the show: the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society attempts to stage a standard 1920s whodunnit, but things (you guessed it) keep going wrong (imagine the third act of Noises Off for two hours). We can't remember the last time we laughed so much at a play; the performances and gags were hysterical. While the play was a bit one-note--something goes wrong, and then another thing goes wrong, and then even more things go wrong, and then something REALLY BIG goes wrong--it was a note that the entire audience enjoyed immensely. It was a bit like eating a large amount of cotton candy. There's not a lot of substance, and you wish you had some salty snacks to mix it up, but you're still enjoying yourself.
It wasn't perfect; the climax of the play featured a "cat fight" between the only two female characters. There was also an inclusion of the ultra-annoying trope of "all technicians secretly want to be actors." The pre-show and intermission (or "interval" as they call it over here) featured some immersive aspects, which I normally hate, but for some reason the fact that the actors were English made the whole prospect of interaction less intimidating.
There was a bit of breaking the fourth wall (starting with the pre-show, which included a stage technician recruiting an audience member to help her fix a set piece--spoiler alert, it goes wrong). At one point when one character could not find a prop that the audience had seen another character misplace earlier, a woman behind us shouted out "IT'S UNDER THE SOFA!" What followed was a fair amount of back-and-forth between the audience and the actor (who also played the show-within-a-show's director) before he continued with the scripted action. We wondered how often the audience calls out like that--is it a 50/50 chance each performance and there's a plan for each scenario, or was that a rare instance that the actor went along with in the moment?
The show was super impressive on a technical level. Practically everything onstage had to malfunction in a specific way at a specific time. Pre-show set-up must be such a headache! The actors also take quite a beating during the two hour performance; I can't imagine the bruises. We were exhausted just watching it, so I'm sure doing eight performances a week must be extremely taxing. We learned that the show started as a tiny performance in a pub about two and a half years ago, and they've had the same cast since day one. Tonight was the final performance for one of the actors, and the cast gave a heartfelt and tearful farewell to him after curtain call. It was very sweet.
Yesterday was exceptionally joyful. Here's hoping for equally joyful days throughout the rest of the month!
xo
Hannah
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