Blog: I Heart Peterborough

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Friday was another big day of CULTURE, starting in the afternoon when myself and my tiny little baby brother (hem hem) took some visiting relatives to the John Soames Museum - ALWAYS a good bet as nobody's ever heard of it and invariably emerge GIBBERING with how overwhelmingly BONKERS it is - and then The Science Museum. As usual in the latter I got a bit overexcited about the FACT of the Actual Existence of Stephenson's Rocket, the Babbage Machine and Apollo 10 ACTUALLY THERE, but this time we also got a talk by our Uncle Mike about the Model T-Ford. He has FOUR of them, and pronounced the ONE in the Science Museum to be workable. "I could drive it right oughta here" he said. He didn't though.

After safely packing them off to John Lewis for SCONES I headed down the road to the Soho Theatre to see "I Heart Peterborough". My course leader on the MA had told us to go and see NEW STUFF there and I could hardly resist something with a title like THAT could I? The evening didn't start well, as I foolishly tried to find a quiet pub for a pint beforehand - in Soho, at 6.30pm, on a Friday: NOT POSSIBLE - but then went up to the show itself and immediately felt at home, for LO! it was a 100 capacity black room with very little air conditioning. Give me a curry just beforehand and I'd've been convinced we were in Edinburgh!

The show itself was BLOODY GRATE. It was Sort Of like two monologues intertwining, but also sometimes becoming a normal play with the two interacting, hopping about to different times. I'd read some reviews saying this was confusing, but it all seemed perfectly reasonable to me. It was also really MOVING, telling the story about a gay bloke from Peterborough and the 15 year old son he has to take in after the son's mother dies, and then the relationship they form. It was surprising and funny and all round ACE - i must admit that a large part of my enjoyment came from the simple fact that they kept mentioning parts of Peterborough and getting it RIGHT (a joke about EYE got a BIG laugh for heaven's sake - who'd've ever thought THAT would happen in a London Theatre?), but I would have loved it anyway. The story was totally original, and the way they did it was ENTHRALLING - even when people came in late making a bit of a racket, and one of the characters spoke to them, it was all so well done it felt even MORE real.

So yes, REVIEW: It was totally BRILL and I'd say "Go and see it" except it's finished now! It was so good, in fact, that instead of getting on the tube at Tottenham Court Road I carried on walking down to Holborn so I could think about it and SMILE for a bit longer. Best thing I've seen in AGES!

posted 22/10/2012 by MJ Hibbett

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