The Haunting of Hill House at Richmond Theatre

As a regular goer to Richmond Theatre, The Haunting of Hill House was an obvious thing to see, particularly as it came with the boast that it came from a best-selling novel and major hit Netflix series. It did not concern me that I had heard of neither!

Prices keep edging up at all theatres and this cost me £40 for my usual seat, Dress Circle  24, even with the ATG+ Opening Night Offer which saved me £10.

Also getting more expensive was the bottle of Staropramen that I had beforehand which had risen to £8.75.

The view of the set from my seat gave a clue to the nature of the production with architectural image projected on to a semitransparent screen at the front of the stage, a common technique these days.

Any doubts about the nature of the play were dispelled at the very start when the auditorium and stage suddenly went dark and there was a loud screeching noise.

And that is about it. The play consisted almost entirely of light and sound effects with little attempt to tell a story or to portray characters. To confirm that the show was more about noise that substance the actors used microphones, which is never a good sign.

Though the show was shallow in content the effects were effective, Clancy Ryan shone through the bluster (helped by a stylish dress) and the story fragments were just about enough to keep me entertained if not stimulated.

Fischer-Z at Oslo, Hackney

I have been a fan of Fischer-Z since 1979 when their single The Worker made an impact and I saw them live, by chance, at an event at Weymouth Pavilion.  Since then I have bought many, but not all albums and also seen them, or John Watts solo, as often as I could, which is not very often for a band who are much bigger in Europe than they are here.

The latest chance to see them play was at Oslo Hackney, a new venue for me, as part of their 50th Anniversary Tour.  One advantage of them not being that big over here is that the tickets were an irresistible £30. Three of us quickly accepted that offer!

Getting there was not too bad, despite being on the far side of London, thanks to the Overground which took us to the door of the venue from Richmond.

I did some exploring, and ticked off a few new roads, beforehand and was struck by the contrast between the many tatty shops you expect to see in poorer area and places like an M&S Food Hall and a Gail's which suggested some pockets of affluence too.

Admittedly it was Sunday but exciting vegetarian food was impossible to find so we settled for a plain pizza in the Oslo bar and that was fine.

Fischer-Z were supported by Kirk Brandon Akoustik, a guitar and cello duo led by Kink the former leader of Theatre of Hate and Spear of Destiny. This was all new to me and went down very well.

There have been many incarnations of Fischer-Z and this was a five piece with, in addition to John on lead vocals and guitar, a lead guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. The sound they produced was richly textured and could be both boisterous or gentle depending on the needs of each song.

And what songs! I did not take a copy of the setlist safe in the knowledge that it would be online; that failed so it is down to my memory. There were songs from through the 50 years and a heavy sprinkling came from the early years with personal favourites like Remember Russia, Battalions of Strangers, So Long, Cruise Missiles, ...

The band seemed to enjoy playing them all as much as I enjoyed listening to them and their performance added to the instrumentation and the sound setup made this a truly exceptional concert. It definitely left me wanting more. Let's hope it is not too long before they are back in London.

London Loop Revisited (Sections 22 and 23)

On Monday 14 September 26 my colleague and I walked London Loop Sections 22: Harold Wood to Upminster Bridge (7km) and 23: Upminster Bridge to Rainham (7km).

For the most part this was following Ingerbourne on tarmac paths through a succession of parks and nature reserves. With a lot of greenery and a proper surface to walk on this was a really enjoyable walk made at a decent pace, around 5.5km/hr.

Being an easy route to follow we took almost exactly the same route as we had done previously. 

The first small divergence (at the top) was when I deliberately went off-route to add a road to my CityStrides Like Map.

The divergence in the middle, by Upminster, was because we had missed the correct turning the first time when following written instructions.

I am not sure how the divergence right at the end happened, we may have taken the easiest route to the station previously or there may have been a change to the route, GoJauntly took us on way, which worked, but we saw no London Loop signs that way.

Unlike the previous day where we failed to find even a cafe, this time we had a big cooked breakfast in Upminster. That is always a good thing to do.

The Truth at Apollo Theatre

I have seen several Florian Zeller plays and films over the years (I even wrote about some of them) and that experience made me want to see The Truth. The names Mangan and O'Hanlon helped too.

Knowing that the dialogue would be the key feature I went for a cheap seat rather than a good one and paid a very modest £35 for Section Grand Circle

Row A Seat 2. I could not quite see all of the stage due to a rail but it was more than good enough and well worth the money.

The Truth is all about when to tell the truth and when to lie, either to protect yourself or to protect the person you are lying to.

The play starts with a simple truth, Stephen Mangan's character is having am affair and we know this because they are in bed together. After that things get more and more complicated as the lies and the truth mix unexpectedly. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that one of the complications is trying to work out who knows about the affair, if indeed they do know, and how they found out.

The dialogue is full of dramatic and unexpected twists delivered brilliantly by the whole cast who twist things further with subtle expressions that we can see but not the person they are talking to.

It is all rather brilliant and extremely funny. The audience laughed, gasped in surprise and clapped all the way through.

Paranormal Activity at Richmond Theatre

xxxxI see almost everything at Richmond Theatre and while Paranormal Activity did not sound like my sort of thing the West End pedigree and my general love of theatre was enough for me to fork out £50 (more than I usually pay) for my usual seat Dress Circle A 24.

As expected, it was a play that used special effects and loud noises to carry most of the drama and little was asked of the characters or of the actors who played them. For some reason a lot of the noise was by grunge legends Soundgarden, and I was happy with that.

The play carried on much as expected with a series of possibly paranormal events that were well staged and often unexpected. Scenes like the one on the sofa got loud gasps from the audience.

Like 2:22 – A Ghost Story, and other similar plays, it ends with a big twist that was most unexpected, in this case that was largely because no clues had been given.

Paranormal Activity was a two-pony, special effects and a surprise ending, and while it was entertaining enough it was not very substantial.