WhatADifferenceADayMakes

By Veronica

There must be some way out of here

Soundtrack.

This is the Compagnie Moukden performing their play Paris Nous Appartient, described as a confrontation between Offenbach's operetta La Vie Parisienne and the challenges of urban planning in modern-day Paris. Here's my one-line review:
Worst. Play. Ever.

The long version: Unfortunately, when we arrived the play had already started (early!), and there weren't many free seats, so we slid discreetly into two seats on the front row only a couple of metres from the actors. Big mistake. Getting out discreetly was not so easy, and we knew within 10 minutes that this was what we wanted to do. A series of Offenbach songs were performed with staggering incompetence -- surely if you're going to do operetta you need to find people who can sing in tune? Ouch. 

 "Let's sneak out singly during the next song and meet up outside," whispered S. Unfortunately at this point the singing stopped and one of the characters launched into a lengthy disquisition worthy of a doctoral thesis on the history of the Paris Péripherique and Seine-St-Denis, while the five other people on stage stood around mutely. Fascinating stuff. In the end we just had to get up and leave because it was unbearable. Unbearable enough that when we got home S went straight to the drinks cupboard and poured himself a stiff whisky, not something he is in the habit of doing. Meanwhile I googled the company to find out what on earth the point of it all was, but remained unenlightened. It's depressing to think that public money goes on things like this.

Anyway! Rant over :) We felt like kids let out of detention as we skipped off down the road under the full moon while the rest of the audience nobly remained in their seats.

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