TERESA SEALE
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DSTRKT - the night club from the movies

9/17/2014

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PictureDSTRKT: View from the top of the runway
For the first time, I'm actually going to review a night club, a snazzy, over-the-top, expensive night club which I got into for free. Score.

Located near Leicester Square in London, DSTRKT is a night club dominated by late-20s to late-30s white and rich clientele.  That is was one of many observations I made during the evening because, to be totally honest, the whole experience was so new to me that I was really happy to just observe my surroundings. 

DSTRKT is a part night club, part restaurant which seems to act as the after-party for certain celebrity clients including Jay-Z.  They have recently remodeled their night-club, and myself and a guest were invited to attend the launch.  Upon entering, my guest and I were given a free cocktail each in the restaurant area.  I had been promised 'lots of food and drink', and, not knowing what that meant, I asked if we were going to be seated for dinner.  No, apparently; I was told that the launch party was in the night club only and we were directed to the correct area.  They lost a point on that one because there was no clarity in the invitation about restaurant versus night club.

They did, however, gain points on the decor.  The night-club is laid out so that a small runway dominates the center.  Booths and tables surround the runway and then more booths sit along the entire edge of the room.  The ceiling was decorated with artistic metal rods and the lighting was a classy combination of candles and dim ceiling lights and lamps. My guest and I found some seats along the edge and waited to see what sort of entertainment, food, and drink might be provided.


The first act on the runway stage was a female band made up of a singer, a guitarist, and a saxophone player.  The three women were dressed in outlandish caped costumes and playing what I'll describe as a mix of punk rock and alternative music.  Following a break, the second act was an interpretive dancer who danced in the same slow, wavy style for a good twenty minutes to half hour.  After another break came the entertainment which claims DSTRKT as its home.  This was a group of costumed entertainers: some of the women wore feathered tails which reminded me strongly of Las Vegas showgirls and the men were dressed in shiny, somehow modern Renaissance attire.  Rather than performing an act, one of the men introduced a chic, pale-painted woman who danced along to a light show which appeared behind her back on a temporary screen.  I couldn't tell if she somehow choreographed her odd dance to the lighting design, but, either way, it was intriguing.

All of the entertainment in combination with the decor reminded me of a blockbuster movie, and, yes I'll admit my naivety, I never considered if such places actually exist.  Once I was accustomed to the new, very foreign environment, my guest and I began making observations about the clientele.  Most of them were, ourselves included, white and in their late-20s or early 30s, and most, ourselves included, primarily treated the entertainment as background noise.  The focus was on the group that you came with.  The club left very little room for mingling with strangers, although, we did discover one 40-somthing gentleman with dreadlocks who was desperate to pick up a lady.  We watched him go from woman to woman, oddly carrying two drinks in his hands (and drinking both of them) at all times.  With every woman he was rejected.  Near the end of the evening, we watched him attempt to chat up one of the few older women, probably 50-something, and, there too, he was kindly rejected.  Poor guy.

While all of this was going on, I was starving and I kept having to act like a cat, pouncing on an tray of food I saw carried by a waiter.  The lack of customer service was appalling.  The waiters only brought the canapés to the same two tables and by the time those two tables had their fill, there was no food left for the rest of the us.  I took to watching the door so that as soon as a waiter would enter, I could walk up to him and ask him for a the small bowl of overly-salted mushroom risotto  or the cream-cheese veggie crackers whose crackers were not even close to crunchy.  The only food that tasted delicious were the mini-burgers.  Those were succulent, juicy, and perfect.  Unfortunately I only got one and it was one I had to hunt down.

Eventually I saw managers directing the waiters to other tables, but the damage had been done. I had been promised 'lots of food and drink' and they did not deliver.  Apparently, we were only supped to get one free drink upon entering, which I got and it tasted average.  Plus, I shouldn't have to work that hard to get my food, and when I do get it, it should taste better.

I enjoyed the evening, but more because it was a new experience for me and less because I felt I was valued as a potential customer.  Decor was excellent, entertainment was interesting, but customer service was terrible.


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The Comedy of Errors

9/1/2014

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Picture
Seeing a performance at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre has all the charm and excitement that you might expect.  Seeing The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare's most farcical play, only triples the enjoyment.  The play, directed by Blanche McIntyre, is the story of two sets of twins who are separated as children.  One pair of twin brothers (both called Antipholus) are, in two different cities, the masters of twin brothers (both called Dromio).  The hilarity ensues when  Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse enter the city of Ephesus where the other Antipholus and other Dromio live.  What follows is over-the-top slapstick humor (as slapstick humor should be) and wonderfully drawn out jokes of mistaken identity.

To start things off, McIntyre has added a ten minute scene of Dromio of Ephesus (played by Jamie Wilkes) as he tries to retrieve a piece of laundry that is hung far too high to reach.  Determined to do his job as Antopholus' servant, he concocts all sorts of ideas to try and get the shirt.  He tries reaching on his toes, jumping, climbing a ladder, and using a rope.  Eventually he has to give up and the shirt remains hung on the ceiling for the majority of the play.  It only falls down after a major scuffle at which point Dromio of Ephesus can finally have some relief on the matter.

This piece of the play, added entirely by McIntyre, sets the tone for the rest of the performance.  The audience is engrossed and humored by Dromio's attempts, and for me, this bit at the beginning endeared him to me.  Indeed, Jamie Wilkes' performance throughout was one of the finest of the evening.  While all of the cast members were fully committed to their roles and held nothing back, Wilkes' performance had a cleanliness to it which was very refreshing.

Second to his performance was that of Simon Harrison who played Antipholus of Syracuse.  Upon entering Ephesus, Antipholus of Syracuse is immediately mistaken for Antipholus of Ephesus and the people of the city treat him with an incredibly warm regard.  His supposed 'wife', at first furious at him for missing supper and worried that he may no longer love her, proceeds to kiss him at which time Antipholus of Syracuse can hardly hold back his pleasure at being so welcomed in a foreign city. The mistaken identity leads Antipholus of Syracuse to a lovely supper at 'home' and a beautiful 'sister-in-law' with whom he immediately falls in love.  As the play continues, Harrison portrays the perfect combination of boyish giddy alternated with a comical fury every time one of the Dromios does something that he didn't ask for. 

Such confusion is the perfect opportunity for Shakespeare to showcase his writing talents, for when it all does come to a head, the back-and-forth between characters makes me laugh just to think of it.  And the Globe's open-air amphitheater structure lends itself to audience participation.  Standing in the yard amongst hundred of audience members, it felt as though we were truly participating in the performance and it added to the overall enjoyment.  The Comedy of Errors at the Globe is one of the most hilarious and purely entertaining shows I have ever seen.  I highly recommend it.


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    I am a filmmaker, actress, writer, and travel-lover from Austin, TX.  I'll use this blog to post updates about my work and reviews about films, my travels, and related topics.

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