One of my all time favourite films is Pina...the Wim Wenders tributes to Pina Bausch, so it's hardly surprising that when it was announced that the Tanztheater Wuppertal would be performing during the 'Cultural Olympics' that are now taking place (had you noticed?), we'd get tickets. That was some six months ago, and off we trotted last night.
I think the whole thing was fated. Because we'd bought the tickets so long ago, we'd assumed we'd bought four, and invited two friends. And then we had to de-invite them when we spotted we had just two tickets. The meal before hand was a disaster - the waitress seemed to have left her brain at home, couldn't remember our drink order and it took so long before this became apparent that we were tight for time, and a further ten minutes before anything appeared in a glass. The manager was summoned, my words were stern, and The Cat's Mother ducked...she doesn't like it when I get uppity....and then there was the show itself. Well, there was probably some good stuff, but so much awful nonsense that the good bits were obscured...the German sense of humour seemed to stretch to an ice cream cone being put on a microphone stand with the female dancer eating it whilst talking about how she has to persuade her man to love her. Crude. Unfunny and not entertaining. We expected this performance to be themed on Hong Kong, which it was very, very loosely, but really it was just a hotch potch of dances with music that was often irrelevant interspersed with too much talking. Thank heavens the tube journey home was fine...the carriage was full of 'characters' - the drunken fools that populate public transport late at night.
On the upside...we sat a few seats away from Florence of Florence and the Machine...she's a damn site thinner than she looks on stage. Before the performance she was in the bar with her mate Lilly Cole, who helped strengthen my oft repeated theory that models look infinitely better on the page than in real life (oooh! miaow!). Sorry Lilly.
Whilst we were out, The Boy was baby-sitting, and The Cat was doing her first acting job. As a support player for Secret Cinema...she had a ball after a request came through to the National Youth Theatre for 'work experience'. I'm delighted to have introduced Secret Cinema into our lives and hope it's a first step for her. I'd say more about what she was doing, but you know that Secret Cinema thing.....
