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Nutcracker and Imhotep
Last night, I went to see Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker! for the second time (the first was almost exactly ten years ago) and really enjoyed it again. Afterwards, I turned to my friend and said, "I bet when you came out tonight, you weren't expecting to see 13 ballet dancers simulating sex with a giant layer cake!"
Interestingly, my review from ten years ago said I enjoyed the first half (in the dreary orphanage) more than the second half (in the day-glo Sweetland, with all the licking) - but this time, it was the other way around.
Highlights were the female lead's dance with her doll, the ice skating, the humbug bouncer, and the girls in the pink fluffy hats and tutus. As ever with Matthew Bourne ballets, there was a great deal of distinctive characterisation in the corps, and a lot more storytelling than you usually get from a traditional Nutcracker ballet.
Lots of fun, and it felt like the Christmas period had truly begun.
Tonight, we played Imhotep online with some friends - this is the main game version of the two-player variant I played on the Isle of Wight in August. You place stones on ships, then transport them to different locations to get points in various different ways. But, you can be royally screwed by the other players moving your blocks to entirely different places than the one you wanted, and it's very hard to manage how many blocks you have available and when you'll be able to move the ships yourself. I'm not that keen on games where it's in the other players' interests to screw you over, rather than getting points for themselves, and so I found this very annoying at times. I definitely preferred the two-player version, which had less of that, and felt more strategic and easier to figure out.
Interestingly, my review from ten years ago said I enjoyed the first half (in the dreary orphanage) more than the second half (in the day-glo Sweetland, with all the licking) - but this time, it was the other way around.
Highlights were the female lead's dance with her doll, the ice skating, the humbug bouncer, and the girls in the pink fluffy hats and tutus. As ever with Matthew Bourne ballets, there was a great deal of distinctive characterisation in the corps, and a lot more storytelling than you usually get from a traditional Nutcracker ballet.
Lots of fun, and it felt like the Christmas period had truly begun.
Tonight, we played Imhotep online with some friends - this is the main game version of the two-player variant I played on the Isle of Wight in August. You place stones on ships, then transport them to different locations to get points in various different ways. But, you can be royally screwed by the other players moving your blocks to entirely different places than the one you wanted, and it's very hard to manage how many blocks you have available and when you'll be able to move the ships yourself. I'm not that keen on games where it's in the other players' interests to screw you over, rather than getting points for themselves, and so I found this very annoying at times. I definitely preferred the two-player version, which had less of that, and felt more strategic and easier to figure out.