![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slemslempikeLast week Jen took me to see Surrogates, which is a film with Bruce Willis in it. I like going to the cinema with Jen, often they are films that I would not have gone to on my own and they widen my horizons. Sometimes they are The Curse of the Golden Flower. Admittedly once it was Alien vs Predator Requiem, but really it's an overall win. Anyway, in this film people have surrogate bodies that they use to be in public. They don't have to be like your bodies, but Bruce Willis is a plasticky version of Bruce Willis. While the high-end models were meant to be life-like, they were also slightly off - very smooth, not quite real. Except that this was much truer for the male surrogates than the female surrogates. The female ones just looked like the smoothed off women that we see all the time anyway on TV and in magazines.
Last weekend I went to Manchester to see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
notmarcie, chiasmata and irrtum. We went to the Royal Exchange to see Punk Rock, which completely deserves the capitals of "URGENT and SHATTERING". The whole cast was excellent, I liked Jessica Raine as Lily - though she played the role very very similarly to her character in Gethsemane. I'd like to see her do a different kind of role, but she seems to specialise in that sort of teenaged girl.
It takes part in a private grammar school in Stockport (I did wonder how the audience reception might have differed in Hammersmith where they were performing before), all in one room, which is the upper school library, only used by seven students because it's a bit removed from the rest of the school and either boiling or freezing. Lily has recently arrived from Cambridge, and meets the other high-achieving university-bound students. William is odd, telling lies and overly intense, and Bennet is smooth and cool and a horrible bully. They seem to get on as a group, but warily, and occasionally Bennet will move in, "tease" one of the group and get gradually more sadistic until someone intervenes. He has control over them, and he knows it.
The term progresses, and relationships develop. Lily turns down William, and he takes it badly and disappears for a few days. When he returns she tries to tell him she's worried about him and wanted to be his friend, and he tells her not to come to school tomorrow. My reaction was "ha, sounds like a school shooting - hope Bennet gets it". OH GOSH. My reaction had been mostly based on the fact that since the play is set in Britain and not the US, a shooting seemed unlikely. But when he came into the library he did have a gun. And it was very, very tense and horrible. We were somewhat shaky afterwards.notmarcie made me laugh by saying "well, I'm glad I didn't go to a private school". Then she had to head off, and irrtum, chiasmata and I went to Eden where I had a disappointing burger and lovely chat.
On Sunday I went with Jen to see Jon Richardson. He is from Lancaster, though he lives in the south, and this was his first proper show up here (other than uni gigs), and all his family were there. He was worried about saying "spunk" in front of them. He was supported by Matt Forde, who is very genial and I've liked various group shows I've seen him do, but I simply don't think he should do stand-up. It wasn't actively bad, just sort of dull, and he seemed quite lost without other people with him.
I am off to London. This includes the threat of outdoor swimming, the promise of museums and whatever else I can fit in before I come back on Wednesday.
Last weekend I went to Manchester to see
notmarcie, chiasmata and irrtum. We went to the Royal Exchange to see Punk Rock, which completely deserves the capitals of "URGENT and SHATTERING". The whole cast was excellent, I liked Jessica Raine as Lily - though she played the role very very similarly to her character in Gethsemane. I'd like to see her do a different kind of role, but she seems to specialise in that sort of teenaged girl.It takes part in a private grammar school in Stockport (I did wonder how the audience reception might have differed in Hammersmith where they were performing before), all in one room, which is the upper school library, only used by seven students because it's a bit removed from the rest of the school and either boiling or freezing. Lily has recently arrived from Cambridge, and meets the other high-achieving university-bound students. William is odd, telling lies and overly intense, and Bennet is smooth and cool and a horrible bully. They seem to get on as a group, but warily, and occasionally Bennet will move in, "tease" one of the group and get gradually more sadistic until someone intervenes. He has control over them, and he knows it.
The term progresses, and relationships develop. Lily turns down William, and he takes it badly and disappears for a few days. When he returns she tries to tell him she's worried about him and wanted to be his friend, and he tells her not to come to school tomorrow. My reaction was "ha, sounds like a school shooting - hope Bennet gets it". OH GOSH. My reaction had been mostly based on the fact that since the play is set in Britain and not the US, a shooting seemed unlikely. But when he came into the library he did have a gun. And it was very, very tense and horrible. We were somewhat shaky afterwards.
notmarcie made me laugh by saying "well, I'm glad I didn't go to a private school". Then she had to head off, and irrtum, chiasmata and I went to Eden where I had a disappointing burger and lovely chat.On Sunday I went with Jen to see Jon Richardson. He is from Lancaster, though he lives in the south, and this was his first proper show up here (other than uni gigs), and all his family were there. He was worried about saying "spunk" in front of them. He was supported by Matt Forde, who is very genial and I've liked various group shows I've seen him do, but I simply don't think he should do stand-up. It wasn't actively bad, just sort of dull, and he seemed quite lost without other people with him.
I am off to London. This includes the threat of outdoor swimming, the promise of museums and whatever else I can fit in before I come back on Wednesday.
