Arcola Theatre — Attraction in London

16-Aug-2024, Der Vampyr by Gothic Opera at the Arcola Theatre. Terrific singing, terrible acting, even more terrible theatre. The rewriting of the opera to fit a more "camp and feminist" approach ended up a mess of dragged out, half acted singing performances, that were only saved by the singing prowness of the performers. The jokes were cringe and didin't land, leaving the audience chuckling with awkwardness. The venue should really think to investing in some AC units, as in the heat of the summer, the stage was stuffy and hot, with at least a dozen peopl in the audience flapping handfans and constantly drinking from water bottles. And why with 2 stages that host at least 50+ people each, you only have 1 set of tiny toilets with 1 closed stool and a 3 man urinal, you only expect to have 8 people going to the bathroom during the breaks?! you know you have a bar that serves mostly drinks, right?! Back on the performance, the singing was in german with english subtitles being projected over the stage, would have been fine if you could see anything, but the fog machine was fogging up the whole place constantly and made the subtitles disappear, also for the whole of art, give the subtitles a color, or some initials, when the singers were doing back&forth or canons, it was hard to keep track of who was saying what, and I would have appreciated if the subtitles stayed and repeated during the refrains, there was so much happening in the lyrics, how do you expect any non-german speaker to remember what the chorus or the refrain was? does it hurt you to duplicate a couple more slides. On the subtitles, during the second half of the show, the subtitles became sloppy, starting late and then having to rush to catch up with the song, maybe keep the AV tech out of the bar during work. I'd love to get my money back, but "unless you had covid, you can't claim anything back", wow, I didn't know it was still 2020, i thought we were four years over the pandemic. Disappointed doesn't express half the disgust me and my pertner had in seeing how the sexy, charming and cunning image of J. Polidori's Vampyre got turned into a loud, dumb, childish character, it's a gothic opera, not a high school cabaret. The songs were kept more or less the same as Marschner's sheets, which then made it so I was watching 2 contrasting plays fighting over the stage light. A poorly written, overacted wannabe-comedy mess, and a dark and sad german operatic. Costumes felt like a last-minute fancy dress trip, looked cheap and straight from a bargain bin. The coffin could have been made by my dad in his shed and the proprs must have been from the same fancy dress store as the costumes as they looked like they came out of a 6th form drama class. Also from a technical perspective, the back of raised platform was visible, showing me all the props, and the blocking of the scenes, only favoured the front of the stage, which menas that us paying for the "best seats" ended up with seeing back of heads and side profiles, that's just poor directing. And can we give the orchestra smaller lights, like reading lights? like any orchestra out there?! The massive projector that illuminated the orchestra throughout the show was so distracting and took what was left of the "magic" out of it. Speaking of things taking the "magic" out, hearing the constant creaking of the actors running up and down the stairs to "magically" appear behind the audience, was just sad. To top it off, the bar staff didn't tell us that we couldn't bring open drinks in the stage, so we had wasted money on drinks that we only had just started....

30/11/22 ABSOLUTELY FREEZING inside theatre 🤯 they opened side door which are leading outsude 4ppl 2go in for at least 15minutes which was enough 2get already cold theatre even more cold... We were shivering the whole performance & got home with huge cold... Knowing this we would stay @ home as Dinner with Groucho was not that good anyway... At least it lasted only 1hr...also uneven staircase on both sides is really bad idea as lots of ppl tripped, especially elderly... Same issue was last month where was group of ppl with white sticks inside theatre with their carers... It took they ages 2 go down & get seated... There's lots of theatres @ London & one would think that they would appreciate & look after their customers... I am afraid that we are not gonna ne returning 2this theatre anytime soon....

24/10 ARCOLA POLTERGEIST Very energetic play, 1-man-show, super intense... Incredible piece from this young actor... Its was brill how he was jumping within seconds fr 1 character 2 other... 1st I was not happy that I sit @ higher row... But then I was k with it when he was unexpectibly jumping from 1side 2the other with no structure going fr quite dialogue 2shouting... Astonishing I can't believe he don't even drink once as he was talking the whole 90minutes....only downfall was his Spitting in the middle of the stage & then on side which was really bad as it was planned o-)...

Venue OK but I dontv like when they give us 5minutes 2come inside the theatre instread of giving us 10-15min 2 calmly come in... Surely this could be sorted somehow as its Everytime when I am there o-(...

Arcola 5/10/22 @ 1930 Interesting place... Wc r only downstairs... 2sets if stairs... Bit strange wc set up, I guess it's space-wise... But what I don't like that anybody can See Me While I. On wc seat as there's quite Big Gap BTW doors next 2 Yr face & also wc paper is Behind U? = not very Comfy 2reach... They should move it elsewhere... Also bin was very dirty considering touching this was not very Happy Experience... Also going down to the stairs to the wc there's wires hanging on top of Yr head with 3x extension leads attached = HSE issue?! The Apology : play was gonna start @ 1930... But @ that time we were still waiting 4them 2open the doors... Finally it start @ 1940 but in following 10-15minutes they were letting more & more ppl in which was really annoying as old wooden flooring gives away with screaming 0-(... Also they had Uneven staircases inside the theatre which is really annoying, especially 4ppl with disabilities... Btw 2night there was 5people at least which have their carers with them & it seems really challenging 4them 2get around = especially to the wc downstairs.... Most if them had white walking sticks with them... As 4 Play itself : really good deep story... 1st half bit slow but 2nd...

I have been attending theatres regularly for over 25 years and this is by far the worst venue I have ever encountered. The venue is totally and utterly incompetent at basic things like communicating when the show starts and starting it on time. I tried 3 shows and encountered the following problems:

1. show started massively late for no good reason (12 August).
2. venue emailed 24 hours before the show stating the wrong showtime. The error was promptly flagged by some recipients, but the theatre did not send out a correction. Many therefore arrived at the wrong time in reliance on an email the venue had sent and knew to be inaccurate. When asked about this the staff told me "That was the Marketing department, not the Box Office. We don't provide refunds."
3. impossible to buy any drinks because the computerised till in the bar is nonfunctional. Other attendees told me this happens regularly.
4. show totally misdescribed, eg. they claim it is an opera when it is actually a musical and nothing about the music is in any way whatsoever reminiscent of opera (No For an Answer). Presumably the misdescription was motivated by wanting to include it in their 'Grimeborn' opera series. This is the first theatre ever, anywhere in the world, that I simply would never go back to while it is under current management. Lots of small venues provide fantastic shows at affordable prices and get all these basic things right -- see Wiltons Music Hall, The Bush Theatre and Jacksons Lane. The incompetence of the staff at this theatre literally beggars belief. Avoid...