It's so often said that it's almost boring to repeat it. But I will.
'London is full of wonderful cultural activities and events to see or do no matter what your tastes or budget.'
It's true. I imagine it would be impossible to exhaust your options of things you could experience. When tourists come to London this is one of the first things that hits them. But for those of us who live here, and particularly for those of us who have grown up here, we see London less as a cultural hub and more as our, albeit large, hometown. We become accustomed to certain people, certain areas and certain forms of entertainment and get locked into our own little worlds and routines. For me that means working, spending time in North West and Central London mostly and watching theatre and comedy. Those are the things I do. I could write you lists of what's on in the West End, fringe theatres and comedy clubs that go on for pages, but I wouldn't know where to start if you asked me where to see a new band play a gig or where you could watch some sort of sporting match. I just wouldn't have a clue despite the fact that people make near pilgrimages to this very city to do those very activities. Actually it can be quite overwhelming to try to start all over again with a new form of entertainment and learn where best to go, when and how.
However, once in a while, a new friendship or a work event or an ambitious first date will introduce us to something we wouldn't have dreamt of doing (if we knew it even existed). And we might be intrigued, bored, enticed, thrilled, who know's what, by this new experience. Whether we end up adding a new cultural love to our roster or not, at least a brand new bit of London will now be within our reach. Which is why this Monday was so interesting for me.
Over the past year I've met all kinds of people related to the different artistic activities I've taken part in and through them I have experienced aspects of London, and life in general, that are brand new to me. Through looking for companies to advertise in my programme for my Edinburgh show Rachael's Cafe (about a pre-op transgender lady living on the Bible Belt in the USA) in 2011 I met Alex Drummond who advertised her book Queering the Tranny. Alex, in turn, introduced me to Andie Davidson who runs Bramley Press which published the book and I met up with her when she came to see the show in Brighton. This Monday Andie invited me to watch her read from her book of poetry RealIsations at Polari, the gay literary salon at the Royal Festival Hall on London's Southbank. I must admit I doubt that this is an event I would ever have booked to see without such an invitation. Not that I wouldn't expect to enjoy it but I just never really came across it and, if I had done, I might've felt that it wasn't necessarily directed at me as an audience member. While this is of course entirely in my head I know it's the way that a great number of people would naturally feel about not only this event but also others that are clearly directed at and serve a particular sector of society that we don't feel we belong to.
But the whole point of this blog is that this is the wonderful thing about experiencing London through the eyes of others, who are not necessarily Londoners. Polari was like an exciting little world I'd just discovered, like an intimate gathering of literary geniuses and fans ensconced in a friendly little room but right in the centre of London! Up and comers like Andie were on a mixed bill with steadfast names in the business such as Jake Arnott and Stella Duffy. There was poetry, historical fiction, occult novels, a reading from a book with steamy sex scenes that was accompanied by a live reenactment (to some degree), episodes from a serialisation in The Gay Times which started out life as a screen play and then a novel before its move into the newspaper...It was like story time for grown ups, like live audio books, theatre and comedy all mixed with a pop-up bar and bookshop. I can't imagine it's for everyone, I won't deny I was blushing at a few choice moments, but if you like any combination of poetry, novels, storytelling and theatre I'd wholeheartedly recommend Polari. There was something incredibly nice and honest about people simply reading and an audience listening with no soundtrack or flashing lights or set. It was up to the quality of the writing and the delivery of it to shine through and it did so so very brightly.
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