Theatre

My alarm went off just after 8 a.m. this morning, but after 15 minutes or so awake, I ended up falling back asleep until about 10:30 a.m., so I must’ve needed the rest. I got up and went downstairs, and PY and I watched the veterans at the Cenotaph and the laying of the wreaths for Remembrance Sunday. I also made another bacon sandwich using the remaining two rolls from yesterday and the bacon slices.

The weather has been pretty terrible, and it rained for much of the day, so we decided to stay in and sort out the bathroom cupboard. Over time, I guess everybody builds up a collection of personal care items that go out of date. We ended up having quite a clear out, and the cupboard is much better organised; it is much easier to find things now. I have a bag of expired tablets that need to be taken to the chemist for proper disposal. It felt like a very worthwhile thing to do on a rainy afternoon.

At around 6:30 p.m., we were picking up tickets at the Lyric Theatre for the last one of just three performances of a new musical called Babies. I’m not sure what stage a musical has to get to in order to have a performance on a West End stage, but this was a semi-staged production. That meant there was a complete story, all the songs and music, but no real sets.

We had tickets for seats on the side of the auditorium, which, when I sat in the chair, meant I couldn’t really see the stage. I had to lean forward and look out. PY did not like this, so he didn’t see very much at all. I didn’t mind so much, even though there was a portion of the stage that I couldn’t see.

The story revolves around a group of young people having to look after baby dolls (robo babies), as though they were real babies as part of their education. As with most stories about a group of 15-year-old teenage kids, there was a lot of coming-of-age angst in the story, and the premise of looking after a (fake) baby for a week was really a route to tell another coming-of-age story. The music and the book were good, although I thought many of the songs sounded quite similar to each other. There’s a lot to like about this musical, and it will be interesting to see where it goes next, but it is just another story of young people finding themselves. I guess every generation needs one.

After we finished at the theatre, we walked back through London and looked at the Christmas market that seems to have popped up at Trafalgar Square. Everything in town is starting to feel very Christmassy.