dating – and so she thinks

Five Outdoor Dates in Kent

admin — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 09:09:51 +0000

As the Garden of England, when you’re in Kent it’s only right to get outside and play. If you’re about to plan a date with someone new, eschew the usual dinner and wine, and check out some of these ideas.

Visit the loveliest castle in the world

That’s what Lord Conway famously called Leeds Castle. It’s certainly pretty beautiful. Listed in the Domesday Book a castle has been on the site since 1119. Today there’s over 500 acres of beautiful parkland and formal gardens, a maze, activities, a lake, and of course the stunning home. Bought by Lady Baillie in 1926 for £ 180,000 (bargain!) it’s her style you’ll see as you wander round and, if things are going well, imagine your future home together.

See and save some animals

Run by the Aspinall Foundation and committed to conservation the 600 acre Port Lympne Safari Park is home to lions, deer, bear, largest herd of black rhino in the UK, western lowland gorillas, and the only giraffe in Kent. If you are a single parent dating there’s plenty of space for them to run around and animals to look at whilst you guys get to know one another without the worry having to pretend to be an alien/princess/giant mushroom. Just me as a kid?

Punt away

The River Stour passes through the whole county, but nowhere is it more lovely than in the cathedral city of Canterbury. Get a riverboat tour through the city, gazing at the old architecture and clear water. This is the kind of activity that suits everyone, from teenagers dating to over 50s dating, and everything in between. Wrap up warm in winter, bask in summer, and watch the world go by.

Enchanting Austen

Visit the stunning seventeenth century manor at Groombridge Place, take a turn around the formal gardens, get tipsy in the vineyards and lose your heart in the Enchanted Forest. The 2005 film of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, starring Kiera Knightley, was filmed here Groombridge Place with the manor masquerading as Longbourn. And as love stories go, that’s a pretty good one.

Seafood

Every July the seaside town of Whitstable plays host to the Oyster Festival, where Oyster lovers and just lovers both enjoy the sun, sand, seafood and whatever else that famous aphrodisiac leads to. Personally I can’t stand oysters, but champagne – yes please!

Swipe

admin — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 20:11:02 +0000

For some reason, despite the fact that we’re all glued to our phones and screens like an extra limb, and that we communicate with everyone else important in our lives through technology, the idea of meeting a partner online is still slightly taboo. Alyssa Salter of all female theatre company New Match Collective realised how daft this is when she broke off a relationship with a guy she met on Tinder, and ‘realized how awful it is that I felt alone in this experience when at least five of my friends had experienced the same thing.’

It was then, back in June 2015, that she decided to write a show about online dating. Swipe, now performing at the Camden Fringe festival, is an hour long performance of sketches and vignettes exploring dating in the modern world, and how choice can be paralysing, communication confusing, and the whole experience of finding love very much in flux.

‘All the scenarios derive from real experiences, and it contains a lot of my dating trials and triumphs. It’s a very real play that is swimming in the experiences of so many women.’ she says, but it spans the sexes. The tales are drawn from over one hundred interviews with women around the world, and whilst originally intending to be a cast of men and women, in the writing Alyssa realised that she ‘only had a voice for women this time.’ This doesn’t stop it resonating with both sexes though. The small theatre was filled equally with men and women, and the nods and laughter came from both.

Corny chat up lines are nothing new of course, but the ease with which someone can disappear when you only know them from through your phone – ‘ghosting’ they call it; the simplicity of sending a dick pic, wanted or not; the disconnect between the persona you portray on and offline; and the temptation of simply moving on with only a swipe are all very much modern dilemmas.

Love’s not easy. New Match Collective have assembled dating horrors and highs through the lens of technology and modernity to create an hour’s entertainment that’s amusing, entertaining and utterly identifiable.

Running 18th -21st August at The Hen & Chickens Theatre, London, as part of The Camden Fringe. Tickets available here.

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change

admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 16:53:06 +0000

Sedos Theatre
Director: Emma J Leaver
Musical director: Michael Cannon
Producers: Pippa Kyle & Ruth Luckins
Photos by Michael Smith
Book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro, Music by Jimmy Roberts
The words ‘am dram musical theatre’ strike fear in most people, even those fully signed up to all things fringe and kitsch. Thankfully, Sedos are not your usual amateur theatre company, the beautiful Bridewell Theatre, established in 1891 to provide a social, cultural and recreational centre for London’s burgeoning print and publishing trade not a typical location, and as it turns out I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, not the classic musical.
Going into the theatre, my friend and I had reservations. We were thrilled to have our judgements dashed away. I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change is an entertaining and energetic romp through vibrant songs delivered by a clearly passionate cast. Coming with the tag ‘Everything you have ever secretly thought about dating, romance, marriage, lovers, husbands, wives and in-laws, but were afraid to admit’ it’s a gentle poke at the tricky world of love and relationships.
First performed in 1995, it is the second-longest running off Broadway musical. Through a series of sketches and vignettes it explore the themes of love, through all its messy glory. Independent scenes are held together by the overall arc of progressing through life, telling a universal story through personal scenes.
The set is simple, but the twelve person strong cast spirited and they breathe life around the room. They manage to be both authentic and comic, connecting even though we never really learn much about the characters. The mood is jubilant, and the audience regularly laugh out loud. Especially me and my cynical friend.

Bright songs and vivacious dance routines tell the story that we recognise. So we nod in recognition at the pain of a first date and the tussle between wanting to impress and wanting to give up. The fear that comes from not being the ‘perfect’ catch, yet realising that no-one else is either. We sigh and smile expectations of society – and parents – about what singlehood means and how spinsterhood is not a desirable place to be. (Because let’s be honest, in our narrow minded society’s eyes, a single guy is a stud, a single girl is sad). We see wedding day vows being made, and broken, and the changes to a marriage when a baby comes along. Particularly when it comes to sex.
The show doesn’t shy away from sex – and features some very inventive use of the sofa bed, but sex is only one aspect of what it explores. There are tender moments, such as when one character wonders why, despite the practicalities and mundanities of their life, he is still so in love. Marriages break down and the blurring sensations of liberation and let down come to us through one newly divorced woman, and the play almost ends with a funny scene of two older people testing their pick up lines at a funeral.

Of course, that arc is not the same for everyone, and if there are any criticisms it is that the script takes a very heterosexual, very stereotypical position on ‘Love in all it’s forms’ and had some serious issues with body positivity, But then so does our society, and musical theatre isn’t known for challenging societal norms, and it managed a good job of reflecting them.
With humour and spark. I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change is a perfect blend of joyful celebration and satirical mockery of the rituals of the dating game, and the complicated spectrum of emotions that it entangles. Cute, engaging and witty, it’s well worth a watch.
Running until Saturday 12th March – tickets available here.