When you go and see a play because a friends’ daughter is starring in it, the last thing you expect is to actually like it. Be impressed by it. Even moved greatly by it. But you book it. In part for support and in part because its great to visit one of the many ‘new’ fringe theatres that pop up quite regularly, always in really fab old and interesting spaces. This one called ‘The Pleasance’ in the not-quite-so-nice end of Islington. It’s not in the bit where all the Labour Party big-wigs have to live, its in the slightly rougher, as yet still un-gentrified bit by the Caledonian Road.

We booked it weeks ago. And thought, let’s grab a quick bite to eat on the way. So we booked one of the 117 restaurants that come up on Upper Street when you google it. Ok, a few are cafes and bakeries, some are in fact nowhere near Upper Street, but fuck me, 117! That’s a lot. But 116 are completely irrelevant. Because they’ve opened a ‘Meat Liquor’ there. Holy shit. Which elevates to Holy Grail when you learn that unlike its original sister in the West End, where they queue six miles just to eat a Dead Hippy Burger, this one takes reservations!! Well, in theory, as ours was lost, despite the email confirmation, but hey-ho.

And I finally found what all the fuss is about. OMG they make fab burgers.

But first, having our first ‘Isling-centro’ night for a long time, we learned that the epicentre of our evening, Highbury & Islington Corner, was ‘closed for roadworks’. For those unfamiliar with what looks like a fairly nondescript roundabout linking the shitty end of the Holloway Road with the duff bit of Upper Street that has no restaurants, it is in fact a major junction on the A1. That should be a clue. It’s the first road they ever built. The Romans probably built it so they could go to Ottolenghi. If they fancied a change from ‘what more pasta???’ or eating raw babies, like Caligula. Anyway, Waze earned its keep last night, let me tell you.

The play was called Ali & Dahlia. He’s a Palestinian, she’s an Israeli. He’s arrested, she is his counsel. But they have a history. From childhood. They had been lovers. Oh My! It tells the story of them, but coming back to his present predicament, about to stand trial. It is very powerful. Very real. And best of all, it does what Tarantino did for hit men in Pulp Fiction and gave a much maligned and stereotyped class of person, ie terrorists, a personality away from the riots and insurgence. It gave him a context. A life. A family. A lover. Away from the suicide vests and the rock throwing there’s a real boy-becoming-man in there, growing up with his own perspective, which is totally valid.

It is quite a remarkable 3… er, person production.

Happy avoid-Islington Sunday

A xxxx