Hi everyone ☺️ My latest UnicornPostbox blog post is progression photos of an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ themed diamond art 💎🎨
My lovely friend Lou bought me this diamond art for Christmas 🎄🎅 I am a little bit disappointed because as the diamond art progressed, the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ themed image became less clear for some reason 🤷♀️ It took me quite a few weeks to complete, so it is a bit of a shame.. nevertheless, here is the finished piece:
My next UnicornPostbox blog post will probably be another diamond art (in a wee while)💎🎨 as there isn’t another pub painting until June, and I have no theatre shows booked as of yet or city breaks to look forward to, ha, so bear with me 😜😜
Thank you as ever for reading/viewing. Much love, Lauren xx
Over the Easter weekend, me and my boyfriend Aaron travelled to Leeds for a lovely little city break away, and to support my sister do a 10k Leeds Running Festival parkrun for Alzheimer’s Society 😊
Arriving in Leeds early Saturday afternoon, we hopped in a taxi to our hotel, the High Bank Hotel, situated on the outskirts of Leeds, in a multicultural community area. We payed for a cheap double room, with a shared bathroom/toilet. In all honesty, it wasn’t too bad, we hardly saw any other guests. However, in hindsight, by the time we’d payed for multiple taxis, the price would have worked out similar had we just booked a city central hotel, with more amenities on the doorstep, and closer to everything
We had a table booked for 5pm at a Chinese restaurant, G-Woo. The food was delicious 😋 I had salt and pepper mushrooms 🍄 for an appetiser and aubergines 🍆 and peppers 🌶 in a black bean sauce. Aaron chose veggie ‘chicken’ (substitute) curry 🍛 and chips 🍟 This was the first Chinese we have eaten together as a couple. The staff were super friendly too. Avoiding more taxis, they advised us which bus 🚌 stop from there to go to get to the city centre cheaply
Arriving in Leeds centre, it was only a short walk to The Light, Leeds. There we filled half an hours time in Funstation, partaking in arcade games, paying for tokens to win tickets 🎟 to choose prizes. We ended up with a white mouse 🐁 chocolate 🍫 and a keyring
Junkyard Golf ⛳️ club Leeds was epic! We had 18 holes of the ‘craziest golf’. 9 holes of ‘Bozo’ and 9 holes ‘Gary’. ‘Bozo’ is a “circus fear-ground” themed crazy golf course with dystopian creepy clowns 🤡 and ‘Gary’ a “garage scrapyard” 90s themed course, with a trippy ultra violet rave room. They were both proper mint. We tippled blue and pink Hooches before ‘Bozo’, and then before ‘Gary’ 😝 And, obviously, despite Aaron fluking a few lucky holes, I reigned victorious, beating him twice 🤪
After Junkyard Golf ⛳️ we had a few alcopops in the very unique Carousel bar, which was shaped circular like a real Carousel, 🎠 horse statues scattered around the circumference of the room. We then hit Turtle Bay 🐢 for 2 for 1 cocktails 🍸 It was the first time I have ever been to a Turtle Bay, with their iconic Caribbean class and soft soothing reggae vibes. I had a vodka passion martini which was beaut, but the rum based strawberry daiquiri was too much for me 🤣
After a cheeky McPlant (I’m a veggie), we ventured towards the Call Lane nightclub and bar vicinity. One venue on Briggate wanted £10 entry, even the indie Stone Roses bar was a fiver each. We avoided these, and cheesy danced in the gay bar ‘The New Penny’ instead. The drinks were absolutely extortionate in ‘Revolution’ on Call Lane, but we found a fantastic little live music gem, showcasing a spectacular Ska band
On Sunday morning (feeling very rough), we got an uber to Roundhay park to watch my sister Beth do a 10k Leeds Running Festival parkrun for Alzheimer’s Society, in loving memory of our beautiful mum, who sadly passed away last year after a long 10 year battle with early onset Alzheimer’s 😢
It was our Beth, her friend Lucy (an avid runner), and Lucy’s friend Amy who participated in the running festival. Beth’s best friend Georgina and another close friend Lorian came to spectate with me and Aaron. Me and Aaron were proper hanging from the night before, we purchased a strong cappuccino and a chocolate 🍫 cookie 🍪 each
The view was very scenic, Roundhay park is massive with beautiful surroundings, a lake and mansion house
They arrived for the race just in the nick of time. Our Beth naively didn’t undertake any kind of training prior to the event, and rocked up without any proper running trainers. Some of it she walked rather than ran. When Lucy (a bit of a fitness fanatic) finished her 10k, she rejoined Beth on the track to spur her on and offer moral support…
But, she did it! 😁 I couldn’t have been happier for her, I felt really emotional actually when she crossed the finish line, and I know mum would be so incredibly proud! 💗 She did amazing, woop woop!
We took some singular and group photos of her with her well deserved 10k Leeds Running Festival medal, then headed to the Roundhay Fox for a refreshing dark fruit cider. The weather was gorgeous so it was lovely soaking in the sunshine 🌞 rays.. we wandered through an idyllic little walkway to reach Lucy’s car 🚗 and she drove us home to Doncaster
Once back in Donny, me and Aaron ended our Easter getaway and celebrated Easter Sunday with veggie carverys, Camembert melt in the middle roasts, at Toby Carvery 😋😋
Thank you as always for taking the time to read/view 🥰🥰 My next blog post will be progression photos of an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ themed diamond 💎 art 🎨 I have almost finished..
On Thursday 10th April, 2025, me, my boyfriend Aaron and friends Robyn, Joanne, Sophia, Lou, Emma and her teenage son Lucas attended Cast in Doncaster to see the spectacular Easter pantomime, ‘Pinocchio’
The storyline to this production is centred on a naughty puppet, Pinocchio (Ryan Greaves), who appears to have no morals, and partakes in frowned upon endeavours such as truanting from school. He will only become a ‘real boy’, if he proves himself brave, selfless and true
Greaves is a regular to Cast theatre, appearing in every Anton Benson Productions (ABP) Easter pantomime; ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Wizard of Oz’, ‘Rapunzel’ and ‘Robin Hood’. He co-wrote and directed ‘Pinocchio’! He has a first class degree in acting from Manchester Met School of Theatre and is absolutely hilarious! 😂
Phylip Harries is also extremely funny, the pantomime Dame, who has performed in countless pantomimes throughout the years, and even nominated in 2023 and 2024 for the prestigious Best Dame award at the Pantomime Awards
The malicious baddie this Easter was the well known versatile celebrity Bobby Davro as the sinister Italian Stromboli! This was Bobby’s 48th pantomime, however it is only the first time he has played a villain.
SPOILER ALERT: Stromboli forces Princess Tik-Tok (Kate Salmon), a doll wound by a key, to pretend to be in love with Pinocchio as to convince Pinocchio to be a part of Stromboli’s devious, greedy, money ridden schemes of stardom.
Kate studied at the Royal Central School of Speech Drama, graduating with a distinction Masters, and is an Associate Director for Anton Benson Productions (ABP). She is immensely talented
The Blue Fairy was played by Amanda Henderson in the panto we saw (a fan favourite, playing the lovely staff nurse Robyn Miller on BBC’s Casualty, for a decade). However, in the official programme it includes British media personality Katie Price in the credentials.. which may explain why there were a lot of Katie Price jokes 🤣
There was also special guest appearances from Zippy and George, characters from the popular children’s television programme Rainbow 🌈 Zippy is a five year old orange/brown puppet, with a zip for a mouth and George an eight year old pink anthropomorphic hippo [www.fandom.com]
The band consisted of Jamie Todd, a musical director and keyboard player and Jake Greville, a drummer and sound effects technician. The musical supervisor was Olivia Zacharia, the choreographer Beth Portman and the dancers were from the Allegro Theatre Dance Academy, situated in Doncaster
There were plentiful comical interludes and cheeky ‘dad jokes’, many of which teased Doncaster residents (i.e jokes about living in Doncaster). The Dame, Mama Geppetto flirted throughout with one of the poor adult male audience members! 😜
At one point, huge inflatable balls were bouncing all around the auditorium, water pistols squirting the unfortunate few at the front. There was a really funny scene assembling a table, to which it collapsed but then pretend nails were knocked with an inflatable hammer on poor Mama Geppetto’s head!
There was also an array of comical tongue twisters and rhymes, and so many innuendos which went completely over the heads of the younger audience members… words which rhymed with a ‘wonky’ donkey 🫏 🤪 and words rhyming with women names, for example, Pat and hat, Cath and bath, Pearl and swirl, Ruth and tooth, Jane and plain, Sue and blue, Annie and… 🤣🤣
With regards to musical numbers, quite a few songs came from Disney’s ‘Pinocchio’ such as ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’, ‘Hi-diddle-dee-dee’, and ‘I’ve Got No Strings’, but also others such as ‘Popular’ (Wicked) and ‘The Greatest Show’ (The Greatest Showman). Bobby Davro did an amazing job memorising and reciting hundreds of countries in his ‘Circus Medley’ (Act two)
As aforementioned, Anton Benson is the managing director and producer. The production team were astounding in relation to stage and technical management and production. The lighting, sound, scene, props etc were brilliant, the backstage crew playing a crucial role in ensuring a smooth operation, bringing organisation and dedication, coordinating well.
One very memorable scene, and a great example of clever staging, is where Pinocchio is supposedly drowning in the ocean, with an inflatable shark 🦈 predator pursuing him. The water is theatrically expressed by a blue horizontal cloth, spread out across the stage, to which Pinocchio and dancers stick out various bodily limbs and perform funny ‘drowning’ poses behind the cloth 💙💙
Tik-Tok turned out good in the end, Pinocchio saves the baddie, proving his worth and therefore becoming a ‘real boy’ and well, you could say, all is perfect in panto land..
One element I was somewhat disappointed with however was the matter of Pinocchio’s nose. The norm being, everytime Pinocchio tells a lie, the nose is supposed to grow 🤔 The extending nose prop was only used in one scene, maybe two which I recall, yet (and as I am sure many would agree) it is integral and an important aspect of the original story…
Despite this, I thought the production was exemplary, our bellies hurt from laughing so much, and I cannot wait for the next panto! 😁😁
All information obtained from the official Anton Benson Productions (ABP) ‘Pinocchio’ programme
Thank you ever so much for reading / viewing, I appreciate the support 🥰🥰
My next blog post will possibly be a Leeds travel blog, as I am visiting Leeds over the Easter weekend to support my lovely sister who is doing a charity run for Alzheimer’s Society, in memory of our beautiful mum. I am so proud of her! 😁😁
I am also still on with my ‘Alice in Wonderland’ diamond art 💎 🎨
On the Saturday 22nd March, 2025, my boyfriend Aaron treated me to an early birthday present, a ticket to Steve Steinman’s ‘Vampires Rock: Eternal Love’, at Cast Theatre, Doncaster. There was me, Aaron and our friend Lou. It was absolutely amazing!
Steve Steinman is an extremely successful writer, director and producer, a number one recording artist. In ‘Eternal Love’, 20 original songs are taken from Steinman’s epic ‘Heaven’s Gate’ and ‘Take a Leap of Faith’ number one albums. It is the third in his ‘Vampires Rock’ trilogy and has proved immensely popular. A rock musical like no other, with a mix of musical theatre, vampire seduction, electrifying rock anthems performed by extremely talented musicians, sexy dancing and Steinman’s aka Vampire Baron’s tongue in cheek hilarity 🤣🤣
Alongside his co-star, John Evans as Bosley, Reg Enderby, for the Nottingham show and gig guide reportedly said:
“Steve and John’s comedy timing brought back memories of watching the great Morecambe and Wise” (Eternal Love official programme)
The band was absolutely mint and I was not surprised to read that the dancer playing Ursula, Victoria Farley, was also the choreographer as she really stood out as being sensational. All the dancers put in great effort nonetheless
SPOILER ALERT: The storyline of the production in a sense was unrequited love. Medusa (one of the dancers played by Tanyth Roberts), is madly in love with Baron Von Rockula (Steinman), an old flame. However, he has just wed his new vampire bride, Xena Rock-Heart (Claire Zamore)… yet, all is not what it seems…
Me and some friends have already seen Steinman’s ‘Anything For Love: The Meatloaf Story’ a few months back, showcasing all Meatloaf’s iconic songs. You can definitely tell Meatloaf was a huge inspiration for Steinman’s music and style. It was actually how his career began back in 1994 when he appeared as Meatloaf on the very popular at the time, ‘Stars in Their Eyes’
We haven’t got our tickets yet, however, we are very much looking forward to his upcoming ‘Love Hurts: Power Ballads and Anthems’, featuring songs from the likes of rock legends Whitesnake, Aerosmith, Heart, Fleetwood Mac, Tina Turner, Foreigner, Van Halen, etc. It is going to be wicked!
‘Eternal Love’ was such a joyous feel good production. The vocals were absolutely incredible (especially Tanyth Roberts as Medusa), she is a superstar in the making!
The whole atmosphere, the ace songs, the impressive choreography, the props, scenes, comedy element…fantastic! It was very funny and ever so sexy 😜😜
Vampires Rock!
On Wednesday 2nd April, 2025, myself, Aaron and our two friends Joe and Lou went to see an adapted stage play of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ at Cast, Doncaster.
This production of ‘Dracula’ marks for the Blackeyed Theatre 20 years as a producing company. Their mission, to tell stories both theatrically and simply, fueling imagination; stripped back and bare. The style is adapted somewhat as the company receives little funding, yet they embrace this situation as an opportunity to push creativity.
True to the novel, the production converses journal entries, letters, telegrams etc
Nick Lane, the director and adapter of this show explains some of his artistic choices in the official programme. Accepting that the character Dracula has been rewritten many times, it is apparent there are many unavoidable associative tropes, yet he wanted to explore the complex side of Dracula as not purely a villain.
The character Mina is liberated as a self-aware, intelligent young woman, far from the norms of Victorian literature. Furthermore, Dr Hennessey and Renfield are played by female actresses instead of male as in the novel. This decision was made to highlight social norms of the time and to add dramatic tension. Nick researched widely “Asylums for Lunatic Women”. In Victorian society women were treated completely atrociously
‘Dracula’, as aforementioned, as an epistolary novel is respected and replicated in this adaptation. There were two key roles for each actor (only six actors in the entire production), and Dracula is played by three male cast members, his de-aging process dramatised by younger actors as the play persists
David Chafer had contrasting roles as both Dracula and Van Helsing, two immensely opposing figures. Richard Keightley, from mega confident Dracula to a timid, anxiety ridden steward. Harry Rundle, a young, physically strong and virile Dracula, dominant and commanding, versus the quieter role of Arthur
With this play, Nick wanted to portray both the familiar and the unexpected.
In cinematic history, Christopher Lee in the 1958 technicolour Hammer Head production of ‘Dracula’, was the first cinematic Dracula to have actual canine ‘fangs’, blood streaming, which became heavily associated until the more recent tendency to highlight the human within the vampire 🧛♂️ The metaphysical soul searching tale, such as with ‘Interview with the Vampire’ Anne Rice (1976)
In Bram Stoker’s novel, 1897, Dracula has a disgusting vile breath, he has fluffy palms, elongated ugly nails, a bulky nose… the overarching theme being the exotic and foreign threat to domesticated England. Invasion. We must remember, Jonathan Harker is a solicitor, travelling to Transylvania to facilitate a move to London. The xenophobic threat, the ‘foreign-ness’ of the count, entwined with the sexual, drinking female English blood (and, gasp, maybe male blood too 😲), penetrative and passionate. Written to horrify, but also to excite thrill and tittilate!
Most Dracula adaptations are inspired by the source, but most deviate from the storyline to fit with issues of their times, i.e. to today’s audience
This production by the marvellous Nick Lane explores the idea of ‘bloodline memory’ in a post pandemic world. The concept is that we all have ‘past lives’, we are reincarnated; our memories are transferred, our souls incarnated multiple times. That, under hypnosis, we can access our ancestor’s memories, feelings, skills, anxieties, phobias etc. This theory is cleverly linked to the vampire myth in the adaptation in the sense that when a vampire penetrates their fangs into an innocent victim, blood is not only drained, but the bloodline virus infects the victim. The vampire’s bloodline, their hundreds and thousands of years of memory dominating the host; supplanting them with centuries of violence; killing, feeding, hunting, until the fever completely overrides the victim’s own personal thoughts, feelings, personality…Eradicating their entire human being to become darkness, seductors of the night, monstrous, abhorrent and Undead.
My personal opinion? It was somewhat sombre, a sophisticated but very serious performance, in complete difference to Steve Steinman’s ‘Eternal Love’! Entirely opposing styles.. and in all honesty, though the Transylvanian accent was most applaudable, I would have appreciated more fangs and drizzling down the neck blood!
(All information obtained from the ‘Steve Steinman’s Vampires Rock: Eternal Love’ and the Blackeyed Theatre’s ‘Dracula’ official programmes)
🧛♂️🧛♂️🧛♂️🧛♂️
For my next blog post, I shall be writing a theatre review of Cast, Doncaster’s Easter pantomime ‘Pinocchio’… so watch this space! 😜😜
Thank you as ever for reading/viewing, much love, Lauren xx
unicornpostbox 
You must be logged in to post a comment.