Friday, February 17, 2023

Support Your Local Library: The Gothic Pub Rock Opera

Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, Cumbria. Wednesday 15-February-2023.

Well that was different. We were given a voucher for Theatre by the Lake as a Christmas present from Nigel and Siobhan. Looking at the program over the following couple of months this looked like it might be entertaining and so it transpired to be.

We decided to have a pre-theatre supper in the associated cafĂ©, booked ourselves in for 6 o’clock and had a tasty lentil and roasted butternut squash dish and a couple of drinks.

Even before the performance started we were amused by the set as it had a number of jokey book spines featuring such titles as "Better than the Film" by A. Smithee - a bit of a cinematic in-joke.

Performed by Black Liver, a husband and wife team it told the tale of a would-be West End musical with a suitably implausible plot involving the threatened destruction of a local library. There was also an amusing interval competition to think up Mills and Boon titles for a romance between an unlikely couple. We laughed. We groaned. 

Photo via Black Liver of this actual performance.

The show was a series of humorous songs, interspersed with audience banter and a running gag involving tribute band evenings. They impersonated a number well known people into the bargain. All very droll and entertaining. Excellent.  

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