Sputnik Sweetheart at Arcola Theatre

Arcola Theatre (in Dalston) is harder to get to for me since I stopped working by Kings Cross, when I could easily walk there after work (and, occasionally, during work), but I still think of it as one of my regular theatres and I like having an excuse to get back there. Sputnik Sweetheart was such an excuse.

I liked that it was an adaptation of a Japanese novel with weird elements and I very much liked that it was directed by Melly Still whose work I first encountered with Coram Boy at National Theatre in 2007. Since then our paths had crossed a few times at Glyndebourne and Rose Theatre.

My first visit back to Dalston for a while met an immediate problem in that the regular eating place, Route, was (still) hidden behind scaffolding and was closed. A quick replan took me to a nearby pub, Farrs Dalston, which had decent beer and excellent tacos with a Pakistani twist.

The rest of the usual plan worked and I was seated in the front row of the central section, seat A14, which I had paid a modest £27.5 for. Lots of other people had bought seats too and the theatre looked to be sold out.

Sputnik Sweetheart was both weird and delightful. Weird because it jumped around time and space, and delightful because it was a love story, albeit an unusual one.

There was a lot going on with the dialogue and the staging and I am sure that, not being heavily versed in this culture, that I missed much of what was intended but what I could follow and understand was lovely.