Party in the Library!

Posted on March 30, 2012 in Uncategorized

Blackshaw, a young theatre company, invited us along to Party in a Library – sounds a bit naughty, but fear not my book-loving library-respecting friends, this party was not held in an actual library, no, this title merely refers to the dress code, literary inspired happenings and the book-swapping of the evening. Blackshaw have adapted Mervyn Peake’s novel Titus Groan from the Gormenghast books for the stage and quite rightly executed this wonderfully quirky launch night.

The dress code was bookish (interpret as you please) – which gets us on the SYP committee going, hence our fancy dress pub crawl this Sunday! Of course, interpret is the key word here and we were part of the minority in full-on literary character costume. Don’t get me wrong, there were a few pretty amazing outfits: Queen of Hearts, Heathcliff, Mad Eye Moody, but a lot of people were wearing dark-rimmed glasses and brogues that could have been their usual get-up, as geek is so chic right now darling!    

The party had live music downstairs interspersed with open-mic poetry, literary-inspired comedy improv and book readings upstairs, making it an evening for everyone. A bit of culture mixed with booze and dancing is a beautiful combination. Shoot from the Hip were the comedy group who performed completely improvised comedy for us – the experience was a first for most in the audience and they went down swimmingly well. There were also new writers and poets sharing their work, which ties in nicely with Blackshaw’s New Writing Nights that they are hosting.

It was fantastic celebrating Titus Groan’s jump from the page to the stage which is launching this April. It has the perfect setting in The Actors’ Church, Covent Garden and tickets are on sale now. Remember that Blackshaw have invited all SYP members to go along to any pre-show talks or readings for free, so make sure you’re in the know via Twitter and Facebook!

For the record, we at the SYP highly endorse dressing up as your favourite literary character and dancing on a regular basis!