National Theatre's Propstore

Walking along the South Bank this week I noticed the National Theatre's summer café/bar, 'Propstore'. It makes up part of the National Theatre's Inside Out campaign, which aims to bring a taste of what goes on inside the theatre to the outside spaces of London.  The pop-up café does this brilliantly, being built from stage sets and scenery, and filled with props from past productions. 

The townhouse set from Comedy of Errors makes up part of the outside of Propstore

As if the outside of Propstore isn't dramatic enough, there is so much to look at once you get inside, with luggage tags explaining the significance of each prop. A goose puppet from War Horse adorns the bar, not to mention the crocodile from Peter Pan and monkey from Once in a Lifetime….and that's just the animals. Even the practical items are theatrical -- the light fittings hail from She Stoops to Conquer, and the bar is made from a pool table covered in old scripts. 

Seating in Propstore overlooked by the tortoise from Really Old, Like Forty Five

I have never felt so genuinely delighted by the sight of a café and so compelled to go inside.  Whether it will convince more people to venture inside the theatre, I don’t know, but what a unique and creative idea, and such a welcome change from the generic coffee shops and branded restaurants we are so used to. I love it.

Propstore will be open until 29th September -- don't miss it!

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

If you haven’t seen the Sweeney Todd musical yet, you really need to get down to the Adelphi before the end of the current run.  I finally got around to seeing it yesterday, and absolutely loved every minute.   

Even before the auditorium lights went down, the ensemble appeared on stage one by one, setting the scene of a dark and grimy London.  Speaking as someone who always arrives early, but hates waiting for shows to start, I was immediately won over by this detail. And the rest of the show didn’t disappoint either. The multi-level set design in particular was incredibly clever, and that alone could have kept me mesmerised for the duration of the show. 

Predictably enough though, it really boiled down to a two man show. You know you’re always going to be in safe hands with Michael Ball (despite being almost unrecognisable in the role of Sweeney) but Imelda Staunton was the real showstopper for me. I had no idea she could sing so well, and the comedy she brought to the role of Mrs Lovett was much needed in such a dark story. I’d never expected to laugh so much, and believe me it was a relief after some of the more sinister scenes. Throat-slitting I can handle, but Judge Turpin’s scenes of rape and self-flagellation made for very uncomfortable viewing.

An honourable mention has to go to Jason Manford too, in his short-lived role of Signor Pirelli. I’d been expecting him to handle the comedy, of course, but again was pleasantly surprised to see him hold his own vocally alongside Michael Ball.  I think Jason himself says it best -- "Anyone that's wondering what a comedian is doing singing in the West End should remember that once upon a time Frank Spencer became the Phantom - this is the West End, where anything can happen."

Sweeney Todd is on at the Adelphi Theatre until 22 September 2012. Book tickets here.

BT ArtBoxes

This week saw the end of the BT ArtBoxes project -- an artistic celebration of the iconic red telephone box. Just like the Big Egg Hunt earlier this year, artists and designers from around the UK each took a fibreglass replica and transformed it into a unique artwork to be displayed in the streets around London.

I wish I had seen more of the boxes, but with all the rain this month, walking the streets of London hasn’t been the most appealing way to spend my weekends. I admit it -- I'm a fair-weather art enthusiast. I did spend one Sunday afternoon searching out ArtBoxes though, and it was just as much fun as I’d hoped. Despite the torrential showers (which, fittingly enough, we had to dodge into a genuine red phone box to avoid) and the ink from the map I had printed running so badly that I couldn’t see where I’d been and where I was supposed to be heading next, we managed to find around twenty of the boxes. 

Here are a couple of my favourites:

‘Long Distance’ by Benjamin Shine

I’ve been a big fan of Benjamin Shine since his ‘Egg Letter Box’ in the Big Egg Hunt and Taxi Elephant in the Elephant Parade back in 2010, so I was excited to see his contributions to this project. I had read about his ‘Box Lounger’ which unfortunately I didn’t see in person, but this one was a complete surprise as I rounded a corner in Leicester Square. Great fun, and really popular with passers-by of all ages. I love how well the leaf-eating giraffe connects the ArtBox with its surroundings, where other boxes perhaps looked a little out-of-place. Apparently it represents the extending reach of communication through technology, but I think mostly it’s just fun to see a giraffe in a phone box.

‘Cell Phone’ by Bert Gilbert

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I love wordplay, so this ArtBox really made me smile. It was also the most tactile of all the ArtBoxes I saw, and it’s always nice to see people interacting with an accessible artwork.


Many of the ArtBoxes are currently on eBay and the rest will be sold at a gala auction at the National Portrait Gallery tomorrow, with all proceeds going to ChildLine for their 25th anniversary.