FIRST TIMER: The Heartbreak Hotel

Yallllowww!!!! So I had a pretty busy 2 days and after a day to catch up on a well-deserved break I was back on my feet to check into the Heartbreak Hotel. No, I just didn’t make that up and yes, it’s another thing I ended up doing. For anyone wondering, all my weeks aren’t this exciting and there are some days where I treat going to the shops for grocery as a trip. But my friend Bee actually stumbled upon this whilst looking for places to eat around central London when our mutual friend decided to visit us. And yes, we all get very easily distracted. So the four of us (Me, Bee, Bottom and the hubby) decided to check out the show, which was based at the Jetty, along the River Thames, near North Greenwich tube station . Now my lovely husband is very very difficult to please and was quiet hesitant about joining us but tagged along as it was a lovely day.

So first things first...lunch!!! Grabbed some Kebab from the Yalla Yalla Beirut food restaurant.My lamb was a bit dry but the chicken tasted awesome...but dont you just love the yellow and black theme that the restaurant had going!!

Heartbreak Hotel is set in a…well, a hotel…which is a temporary theatre platform, by the riverside. Now we had tickets for the 18:30 show but were about 4 minutes late so we had to wait for the next show which was at 19:30.

You check in to the hotel by handing your tickets to the counter and getting a room number assigned to you ( Mine was 103), where you will be handed a sticky label with your name and room number. As we were late we sat by the Bar and snacks area for some drinks. There are some table inside the hotel lobby as well some outside by the riverside. TBT, one hour just flew by.

Then at 19:30 sharp, we made our way to the counter and were showed to our relevant rooms by the receptionist. The hubby and my friend Bottom left for another room (7).

We were led to the corridor by a bell boy where we met some disciples of the ACHE program, who explained what A.C.H.E stood for ( I forget now L) and what they hoped we would achieve by the end of this “experience”.The corridor was filled with A.C.H.E inspirationalists and it did give this whole "cult" vibe. It did get spooky when one of the inspirationalists called me out by my name ....till i realised i had my sticky badge with my name on it ....duh!! When the journey was about to start there was another inspirationalist talking to us from a recording from a small TV monitor.

The hotel corridor looked really dodgy and it looked like somewhere people who fled from the law would end up staying. It’s in these rooms by the corridor where little stories unfolded. Lost souls, couples trying to reconnect, guilt ridden lovers and overly excited camp inspiritionalist , which was my personal favourite. The inspirationlists lead you from one room to another....so basically from one story to another.

I don’t want to say out much about the plot, but this was something new to me and Bee tells me its quiet similar to the Punchdrunk shows but not that polished. The production did have its glitches as we kept bumping into the actors when we were led through the corridors and they kept breaking out of their characters and I also heard one of the guys throwing a tantrum as we started the show about 5 minutes late.To be honest I didnt know what to expect ,the Youtube video looked a bit grey and there were cautionary messages on the tickets and around the place advising if any of the stories made anyone a bit uncomfortable or closer to the reality they should give one of the staff members a shout ...so I was expecting horror but was pleasanly surprised... I liked it as it was something different; hubby hasn’t still made his mind about it.