22?

"Will you walk into my parlour?" said the spider to the fly,
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
 The way into my parlour is up a winding stair, 
And I've a many curious things to show when you are there." 
"Oh no, no," said the little fly, "to ask me is in vain, 
For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."
(Mary Howitt)



Went up to trendy Shoreditch (hipster beards aplenty) to see a performance of  "Betrayal ,a  polyphonic crime drama' performed by I Fagiolini under the direction of  John La Bouchardière.  It's quite hard to describe so I'll quote some of the blurb:


"Fusing voices with contemporary dance, Betrayal is an immersive dramatisation of intense and unsettling music by Carlo Gesualdo, the Italian Renaissance composer whose radical harmonic experiments were unsurpassed until hundreds of years later, and whose brutal killing of his unfaithful wife and her lover made him one of the most notorious figures in classical music. Set in hidden corners of real-life urban locations, Betrayal investigates what could drive someone to such extremes.  "

The venue was a "nightclub performance space" called Village Underground.  As we entered all was in darkness and we were issued with little torches.  No seating or stage just room to wander and inspect "the evidence" in the form of  various articles, incident boards and chalk body outlines on the floor.  The were six body outlines around the room. 
The singers emerged from the crowd to perform the six mini murder dramas.  Six singers partnered by six dancers, The singing and the music were just amazing perfect timings and harmony - supreme musicianship.   The story of love betrayal and murder unfolds and towards the end the protagonists  start to draw their own chalk outlines on the floor ....

An absolutely amazing experience ...I couldn't praise it enough .... here is one of the reviews if interested.

Before the show we had a wander round Shoreditch ... now full of trendy bars with bouncers on the door ... all quite strange really.  The bars and clubs all seemed to have single word names like Kick and Catch...

Just spotted this girl standing at the door .... also notice the lady in the elaborate hat on the right ...

Back blipped as never got round to posting this at the time!