Ed Rex

Laura Marling at Secret Music: a concert without croquet is a concert not worth attending

issue 22 June 2013

The word ‘concert’ means different things to different people. For some it evokes dinner jackets and not clapping between movements; for others, jumping up and down in a stadium, desperately trying to spot the band through a sea of blinking smartphones. But Secret Cinema’s latest brainchild, dubbed Secret Music, is something else entirely: its inaugural production brings Laura Marling’s new album to life and places you right at its core.

Stepping into the grounds of a grand Victorian hospital in East London, transformed for the night into a 1920s hotel, you’re left to explore its various rooms, with their eclectic and unfailingly interesting occupants, at your leisure. I won’t reveal too much, for fear of being blacklisted from future performances, but highlights included croquet on the front lawn, a warm-up act in the chapel and even a psychological evaluation in an upstairs bedroom.

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