Tell No One

Last night Babs & I went to Secret Cinema's latest event. It clashed quite spectacularly with Planet Angel's Valentine's Ball, which was unfortunate, but I'd bought the ticket back in November for their December event which didn't happen & it got transferred to the next event which took place yesterday.

As always, we didn't have a clue what they would be showing, the only thing we could be certain about what that it would've been incorporated into an impressive show. The dress code was late 40's, which I totally didn't do as I've got no 40's style clothes & couldn't really be bothered to get just for this one evening. So I rocked up in a nice skirt, jumper & boots, which was fine as the place actually was a bit chilly.

We were told to gather at Wapping station at 6.30pm, where we got collected by the Secret Cinema actors who staged a protest, drawing us in & urging us to follow them. So we paraded down Wapping's streets, shouting out our slogans & trying to no get run over by taxis & busses. Our little procession ended at the Tobacco Dock, where we joined the impressive queue. Waiting wasn't all that bad, though, in true Secret Cinema style actors entertained us throughout our wait. Apparently we were queuing up to audition as dancers! Once inside, we started exploring the venue. We seemed to have been transported to 1940's Covent Garden which also doubled as a theatre, complete with make-up rooms, dressing rooms & ballet rehearsal spaces. Downstairs was more market like, with flowers stalls & food vendors, a bar or two & shops. Everything very much hinted towards theatre & ballet, with red ballet shoes featuring rather prominently. Babs had a cupcake while I got a bag of white chocolate popcorn (absolutely yummy!), we watched performers & engaged in conversations with the actors.

It all culminated in a giant dance performance, which ended in a girl almost jumping off a balcony (erm, an actor, obviously) & then got ushered into the cinemas on the upper floor. By that time we kinda were sure that they would be showing "The Red Shoes", which got confirmed after the obligatory short films & Windows advertisements (Secret Cinema's sponsor) had ended. I can't say that I was particularly excited by the choice of movie, maybe they were trying to surf the wave of Black Swan. The Red Shoes felt quite slow & dated (no wonder, it's from 1948), I probably didn't fully appreciate the nostalgia & it being a controversial movie back then. The venue being rather chilly & the chairs pretty uncomfortable didn't help, so we ended up leaving before the end of the film to make sure we catch the last train back into civilization (i.e. to Canada Water & then to Green Park).

All in all it was a very enjoyable experience, having white chocolate popcorn for dinner was rather nice & Secret Cinema's ability to create a wonderful event around a not so interesting movie is impressive. It did feel a bit mass-produced, though, their events keep getting bigger & bigger while being quite expensive (£27.50) - they must make a killing from it & the underground feel some of the earlier events still had is completely gone now. I'll still go again because it's amazing & a good night out, but I also feel the time has come to hunt for the next big thing.