The Burnt City - Shows 16 & 17
The one show weekend (that turned into two).
If my last two shows were the ‘Andrea shows’, then this weekend was the ‘Milton shows’. Working in the area, I’d only planned on attending on Friday, but I caved into temptation and booked a last minute Saturday night ticket too.
I started the Friday show with a plan to follow Milton’s Kronos. I know he likes to start in the tenement square early, so a fellow WM was kind enough to swap their red ace with my black one. Sam has a 6th sense for these things, so naturally, he picked me out in the museum opening scene to stay behind and send me on my merry way to Mycenae! I sprinted through the museum, and arrived at tenement square, just as Milton emerged from room VIII, and followed him for a magical loop. I’ve seen Kronos a few times now, and in my opinion, no one else plays Kronos as well - the bits of his loop I’ve seen before were elevated and it was utterly fabulous. I was fortunate to get into both closed door interactions with my loop finishing with his incredibly intense 1:1 just after reset.
After a decompress and a stiff drink, I decided to have a wander around to fill in some of the gaps that I’ve previously missed. I’ve seen most of Iphigenia’s loop but never the start. So I picked her up after the invasion and followed her through the reset to the party. I’ve seen the party plenty - so went back over to Troy to pick up Louis’ PolyM. A couple of novel castings meant that everyone in the world was following Clytemnestra- and PolyM was almost deserted. Only two of us followed him leaving the club, and I was lucky to be picked for my second 1:1 of the night. As the blinding got underway, I headed over to Mycenae for the finale, leaving PolyM to the other white mask, who I was happy to see got the walk down(over).
Show 17 was an impulse buy, and when I arrived at Woolwich, I’d not looked at the cast list, nor really considered what I may do. I found out Ali had played Hades for the first time in forever in the matinee, and was, as such, swamped. Given he was so busy early on, I wondered whether this may be the night to get the first Hades 1:1, so I hung out in Mycenae with the boys for a while, before heading over to the greenhouse in time for Hades to arrive. When he got there, he already had a follower, but I joined them anyway…alas it was not meant to be!
So I just enjoyed the space, wandered about and waited for something to capture my attention…and what captured my attention was Jordan’s PolyD. His PolyD was my first Burnt City 1:1, way back near the start of the run, and I haven’t really done a PolyD loop since. I picked him up near the end of the 1st loop and then spent the 2nd loop with him. It’s amazing to see how this loop has developed, and his parkour elements are beautifully choreographed and delivered. No 1:1 this time, but you can’t win them all!
For my final loop, I decided to finish the way I started with a Milton masterclass, and oh, what a loop it was. For me Zagreus and Eury bring light to the City, and his loop was incredible. I’ve never felt quite so fortunate; by the end of the loop I had such a strong connection with the character, I felt a sense of grief to let him go. He gifted me with interaction after interaction and for just a small amount of time his world was my world.
I’m not due back again for a couple of months - but I don’t think I can last that long……