TeatroVivo’s Miramax Back Catalogue, HMV Shop, Covent Garden, 29^th May 2008

While I was eulogising the cast of ‘Dried and Roasted at the Glitch and Turn, at the Marie Lloyd in Hoxton, I managed to compare their work with TeatroVivo. Ever since I saw their performance at Sainsbury’s at Lee Green, I’ve been a big fan of TV, as I shall call them from now on. Imagine my surprise when one of the cast tells me that he’s doing a performance for them the very next afternoon at HMV. To do with the launch of the Miramax Back Catalogue on DVD. Since I also thought D&R@G&T was terrific, I just had to go. Add to this that my companion at Hoxton works near Covent Garden, and one of the performances was at end-of-work, and you have to sense divine intervention. It’s great being retired. I can turn my plans round on a sixpence.

So up we turned at HMV, and pretended to be buying DVDs. (Actually, I was surprised to discover that HMV sells DVDs for much the same price as ASDA, accompanied by a quite different buying experience).

The journey up to town started with observing a group of young Asians having a good time on the platform. It looked, from the luggage, like someone was going on a trip. Some of them were smoking. Why is that not allowed? What harm can it do? The fag-ends wouldn’t be noticed in among all the other litter; if they were especially careless, it might even get rid of some of the litter. I don’t smoke myself, and I’m not suggesting we should be terribly accommodating, but we seem to have gone out of our way to make life really difficult for smokers. Oh, well: more opportunities for confrontation.

TV productions are really like falling through the screen on your television: you get landed right on the set, with the action going on around you. This was scenes from several Miramax films now out on DVD: I can’t say I recognised or remembered them all, but we certainly had Pulp Fiction, and Chicago, which I especially enjoyed. There are some (phone) photos and videos at http://picasaweb.google.com/mvslavin/TeatroVivoHMVCoventGarden .

The actor from ‘Dried and Roasted’ introduced me to the TV Director, and, of course, as usual, I overdid the enthusiasm. I told her we needed much more of this. Having booked to see a Saki adaptation at the Arcola the following week, I was particularly enthused at the idea of presenting ‘The Unrest Cure’ as a kind of party event, like a kissogram. Those of you not familiar with Clovis at his anarchic best can take a short reminder at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/doklands/Clovis/TheUnrest-Cure.html . Terrific stuff to give a friend as a birthday present, eh?

The way home was punctuated by the Harp, where the beer was good. The Harp gave us a punctuation lesson: It had a gold leaf notice at the back saying “No Smoking Room Upstairs”. Nowadays, that needs to be amended to “No Smoking, Room Upstairs”; or, perhaps, “No Smoking. Room Upstairs”; or even “No Smoking: Room Upstairs”; myself, I favour “No Smoking; Room Upstairs”. All of which mean something slightly different. Something inconsequential for gentlemen to argue over while consuming beer.

There was a chap drinking with his rucksack and helmet at his feet. Since he was covered from neck to crotch in vivid lycra, we guessed he was a cyclist. After a pint or two, I felt the need to warn him we’d noticed several policemen on bicycles waiting outside the pub: probably for him. If he was worried about the breathalyser, maybe he could try and make a run for it. He was on a racing bike, so he might have made it.

Then I got the 10.47 from Charing Cross, which was packed: again.