Thursday, July 26, 2012

'The Woman Who Died a Lot' by Jasper Fforde

26 April 2012


It’s some time since I last visited the wonderfully silly parallel-universe Swindon inhabited by Jasper Fforde’s literary detective, Thursday Next (‘First Among Sequels’, reviewed here in April 2009). So it was a great pleasure to reacquaint myself with Thursday’s friends, family, colleagues and enemies in Jasper Fforde’s new Thursday Next novel, ‘The Woman Who Died a Lot’. If you haven’t worked your way through the Thursday Next canon I suspect this would be completely incomprehensible: even an experienced Nextian has to pay attention to work out what is going on. This is a tale of the after-effects of the end of time travel, the use of dodos to explore unpublished fiction and the difficulties of knowing whether the body you are inhabiting is your own or a time-limited replica. I’m not sure whether you would call this science fiction, fantasy or comedy: it’s delightfully silly and very clever. Despite the complexity of the plot ‘The Woman Who Died a Lot’ felt like light relief after Fforde’s very different previous novel 'Shades of Grey' (no, not that one! – reviewed here in April 2011) which I found hard work. I was pleased to be reminded of the tourist slogan of the Socialist Republic of Wales (“not always raining”), to finally twig that ‘Thursday Next’ is itself a line from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and to discover that there is now an annual gathering of Jasper Fforde fans in Swindon (obviously) which is inevitably called the ‘Fforde Fiesta’!

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'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare

26 July 2012


The final performance of the RSC Open Stages National Showcase was an amazing production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Rugby Theatre, directed by Robert Sloan. In this version, set in contemporary Britain, when the Capulet boys first taunt the Montagues in the street it is a shockingly brilliant moment as the Montagues shout back at them in Polish. Portraying the Montagues as an immigrant Polish community, played by Polish-speaking actors, gives the play a fascinating modern slant. The Polish characters sometimes speak Shakespeare’s text translated into Polish (but retaining the rhyming couplets!) but mostly they speak in Polish-accented English. Most believably, at the times of greatest emotion they naturally slip back into their native language. The Rugby Theatre production was excellently acted. Romeo was muscular, tattooed and shaven-headed but betrayed a childish vulnerability. Juliet was outstanding – tiny and clearly very young she was excitable, naïve, emotional and totally believable. This was a very funny production with some assured and witty comedy in the scenes featuring Mercutio and Benvolio (here a tall, bleached-blond Polish girl). The Nurse was played almost as a pantomime dame, appearing in more and more outlandish costumes. Yet it was also an incredibly realistic production: you could feel the angst of Romeo’s Polish-speaking parents and the knife-crime violence of the gangs was frighteningly real. Rugby Theatre made good use of Jon Bausor’s set for the RSC production of ‘Twelfth Night’ (reviewed here in March 2012), Mercutio dangling his feet into the pool of water at the front of the stage and characters getting temporarily stuck in the eccentrically angled revolving door. The biggest audience of the RSC Open Stages National Showcase almost filled the lower levels of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and rose to a spontaneous standing ovation at the end of the evening. It was a brilliant end to two wonderful weekends of amateur theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon: ordinary people: extraordinary performances!

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'Brush Up Your Shakespeare' by Penny Gorman

26 July 2012


On Sunday evening the RSC Open Stages National Showcase moved into the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon for its final two performances. The first of these was ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare’, a marvellous production by the Luxulyan Amateur Dramatic Society from Cornwall, written and directed by Luxulyan member Penny Gorman. ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare’ follows a bored schoolgirl, Suzannah, who is persuaded to take a trip on an open-top tour bus in Stratford-upon-Avon, only to discover that this bus doesn’t visit the usual tourist attractions. Instead it travels through ‘Villains’, ‘Kings’, ‘Tragic Heroes’, ‘Lovers’ and ‘Clowns’. This allows the show to incorporate many of Shakespeare’s most famous scenes, visiting the best-known plays and encountering the most infamous Shakespearean characters along the way. This was an inventive, ambitious and versatile production, featuring some great acting and some very ingenious touches. Puck acts as a linking character throughout the story and is portrayed as a modern teenage girl wearing a hoodie and a mock-French Connection T-shirt bearing the letters ‘PCUK’. And when the ass-headed Bottom becomes infatuated with Titania he performs a striptease, revealing his boxer shorts, the back of which bear the informative word ‘BOTTOM’. ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare’ was clever and extremely entertaining. It felt occasionally as if it hadn’t really decided whether it was aiming at children of Suzannah’s age or adults but it was incredibly enjoyable nonetheless.

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'Much Ado About Nothing' by William Shakespeare

26 July 2012


On Sunday afternoon I joined the crowds in beautiful sunshine at The Dell, the RSC’s open-air performance space next to the river in Stratford-upon-Avon, to watch the Royal Navy Theatre Association production of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ as part of the RSC Open Stages National Showcase. The stage at The Dell is under an open-sided marquee, with views through to trees and foliage behind. We had all just found a spot to sit on the grass in sight of the stage when we were surprised to hear the national anthem – but of course the Royal Navy Theatre Association would start their performance with the national anthem. Outdoor performances of Shakespeare require a different technique: they have to be slightly broader and exaggerated compared to acting in an intimate indoor theatre. The Royal Navy Theatre Association really made the play work in this setting. Much of the comedy was really funny and Sarah Miatt and Tim Stokes were excellent as Beatrice and Benedick. I was also impressed by Surgeon Captain Mike Howell as Don Pedro. ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ starts with soldiers returning from a war and there was an added poignancy to this production knowing that many of the actors have recently returned from active service in Afghanistan. Using genuine contemporary uniforms, and with some added naval references, there was a clear reality underpinning the comedy. Even the uniformed stage crew brought a naval efficiency to shifting the props and furniture. And it was wonderful to see this article about The Royal Naval Theatre Association in The Guardian last week: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/jul/17/shakespeare-amateur-theatre-open-stages?newsfeed=true.

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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

25 July 2012


Rather than try to condense the whole play into one act, Studio Theatre from Salisbury, who won the All-England Theatre Festival/RSC Open Stages Final of the National Shakespeare Competition, presented a performance of one section of ‘Hamlet’ at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon as part of the RSC Open Stages National Showcase last Saturday. After a brief (and extremely effective) résumé of the early scenes of the play, they performed the central part in full, beginning with the arrival of the players and concluding with Hamlet’s departure for England. This was a stunning performance – some of the highest standard amateur acting I have ever seen. All of the cast were outstanding and the actor playing Hamlet gave an incredible performance which would bear favourable comparison with some of the highest profile professional Hamlets of recent years. His movement was compelling and you could see him thinking of and arriving at his lines rather than merely reciting them. Ophelia was an intelligent, thoughtful and believable performance. Claudius was powerful and determined whilst also vulnerable and surprisingly sympathetic. Polonius was serious and officious – more like Malvolio from ‘Twelfth Night’ than the buffoon he is sometime portrayed as. It’s hard to convey how thrilling the Studio Theatre performance was, played very straight without any tricks or gimmicks – just extremely well-acted. A wonderful example of the heights to which amateur theatre can climb.

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‘Witches of Macbeth’ adapted from William Shakespeare

25 July 2012


When we held the original consultative weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2009 at which we designed what became RSC Open Stages, we asked representatives of voluntary arts umbrella bodies to devise a number of options for the project. At the end of the weekend we voted on these options and, famously, ‘competition’ was the winner. We agreed that it was very important that there should be a competitive element to Open Stages and that there should be a route through the project for those amateur theatre groups who take part in competitive drama festivals. The two amateur performances at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon last Saturday as part of the RSC Open Stages National Showcase were winners from the Welsh Regional One-Act Festival and the All England Theatre Festival. Rather than having to shorten their productions for our RSC Open Stages National Showcase, these groups had prepared one-act plays that fitted the double-bill format perfectly. Both were versions of famous Shakespeare plays but they took very different approaches to creating their one-act versions.

‘Witches of Macbeth’ was a fifty-minute adaptation of the Scottish Play, consisting of 17 short scenes with greater emphasis on the role of the witches. In this production, by the Phoenix Theatre Company from Mold, North Wales, the witches were ever-present, lurking in the background in every scene. At first this reminded me of Tom Stoppard’s ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead’ but the witches were far from peripheral to this story. They hovered, unseen, beside Lady Macbeth, putting thoughts into her head and words in her mouth. When Macbeth dispatched assassins to kill Macduff’s wife and children it was the witches he sent. The Weird Sisters were constantly moulding the story and shaping the Macbeths’ destiny.

As well as the witches, the actors playing Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were very strong. When she said “give me the daggers” it was an exclamation of genuine exasperation with her husband. Phoenix Theatre Company coped well with the vertiginously sloping set of ‘A Soldier In Every Son – The Rise of the Aztecs’ which dominated the stage of the Swan Theatre, making it seem like it had been designed for them, The Swan was almost full and there was a great atmosphere. ‘Witches of Macbeth’ was excellent, rattling through the story without ever feeling rushed. 

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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

18 July 2012


The final concert of the Northampton Symphony Orchestra’s season is always a free Sunday afternoon performance to the Friends of the Orchestra. This is a lovely way to thank the Friends for their support throughout the year while also providing the orchestra with the opportunity to explore repertoire that might not easily fit into a standard concert. This year the Friends concert featured Wagner’s rousing ‘Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin’ and the mighty ‘March Slave’ by Tchaikovsky. We also played two pieces with Spanish themes written by French composers – the delightful ‘Espana’ by Chabrier, with its flamenco syncopation, and ‘Carmen Suite No 2’ by Bizet, featuring an excellent off-stage trumpet solo by Nick Bunker. This was a short but heavy programme with some great tunes and powerful themes. I’m not sure whether our audience in the Cripps Hall at Northampton School for Boys chose to cluster at the back of the stalls because the view is better from there or actually started sitting at the front and were propelled backwards by the volume of the music! It was a lovely concert and a nice way to end our 2011-12 season.

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‘MacBeth in Scots’ by William Shakespeare, translated by Robin Lorimer

18 July 2012


Later on Saturday evening the Courtyard Theatre hosted 'MacBeth in Scots', translated from Shakespeare by Robin Lorimer and performed by Edinburgh Theatre Arts as part of the RSC Open Stages National Showcase. From the start we knew we were in safe hands: this was clearly an experienced and confident amateur theatre group. The large cast was packed with talented actors and the staging, costumes and set design were subtle and clever. It was fascinating to spot the most famous lines of the play in slightly unfamiliar form in their Scots versions and I had no difficulty in following the proceedings. Danny Farrimond as MacBeth and Edith Peers as Lady MacBeth conveyed the emotional journeys of the characters with skill and empathy, though Colin McPherson's Janitor almost stole the show in a great comic interlude amidst the tragedy. Edinburgh Theatre Arts will be performing 'MacBeth in Scots' from 6 to 18 August at St Ninian's Hall, Edinburgh, as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

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'Julius Caesar’ by William Shakespeare

18 July 2012


I was back at the RSC Open Stages National Showcase at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on Saturday to see ‘Julius Caesar’ performed by Rainbow Factory from Belfast. This thrilling, fast-moving production set the play on the Shankill Road in the early 2000′s. The crowd scenes featured track-suited teenage mothers with pushchairs and youths in hoodies clutching cans of lager, in front of sectarian murals. This was a Senate of folding plastic chairs which became protest placards, brandished by an angry mob. The young cast brought an urgency and energy to the text, though the lines were often difficult to hear because of their rapid speed of delivery. There was no difficulty following the plot, however, which was clearly communicated. It was an exciting and extremely violent depiction of shifting allegiances and the power of the mob, with knives, guns and balaclavas to the fore. I don’t have a cast list to properly credit the actors but Mark Anthony was, for me, the pick of the performances – an assured actor with the confidence to slow things down occasionally amid the frantic action. And Cassius, Brutus and Julius Caesar were also very strong – believable characters who were compelling to watch. 



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Monday, July 16, 2012

'Baba Shakespeare' by Emmeline Winterbotham

16 July 2012


As I entered the auditorium of the Courtyard Theatre inStratford-upon-Avon on Friday evening I was listening carefully to the pre-show chatter. Two RSC front-of-house staff were deep in conversation with one saying clearly to the other “no, the rules about photography and video recording are same as for any other show”. Someone at the back of the stalls was asking his neighbour “which workshop are you going to tomorrow? I thought I would do the voice one”. And to the side of me someone else was carefully explaining “yes, some amateur theatre groups do light, easy plays but others do really ambitious things”. This was RSC Open Stages: some of the country’s best amateur theatre had come to town. 


It was fitting that the RSC Open Stages National Showcase should begin in the Courtyard Theatre. This was the setting, in November 2009, for the creative planning weekend at which we designed the Open Stages project. More than two and half years ago Voluntary Arts brought 65 representatives of national voluntary arts umbrella bodies to Stratford-upon-Avon for a weekend to work with RSC staff and actors to develop ideas for the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival. Now, at the end of a journey that has included skills-sharing workshops that have brought together amateurs and professionals across the UK, national competitions and more than 260 amateur productions, some of the best RSC Open Stages shows have been given the opportunity to perform in the RSC’s own theatres in Stratford-upon-Avon, alongside professional productions from across the world, as part of the World Shakespeare Festival.


The first National Showcase performance, on Friday, was by the Tower Theatre Company from London. They performed ‘Baba Shakespeare’ – a new play written and directed by Emmeline Winterbotham, suggested by the Merchant Ivory film ‘Shakespeare Wallah’, which itself was based on the real life experiences of Felicity Kendal’s father’s company ‘Shakespeareana’. Set in 1961, ‘Baba Shakespeare’ tells the tale of a troupe of British actors touring an India that no longer values their Shakespearean productions as it once did. The Tower Theatre Company’s production was ambitious and impressive, encompassing a variety of set-piece scenes that included puppetry, Bollywood dancing and excerpts from a range of Shakespeare plays. The cast of 26 included a high proportion of young Asian actors and dancers and the standard of performance was uniformly high. Ian Recordon and Simona Hughes as Tony and Clare Buckingham, Lizzy Barber as their daughter, Lizzie, and Cael King as Sanju Rai, with whom she falls in love, were all excellent – as was Llila Vis as the Bollywood film star Manjula (played in the original film by Madhur Jaffrey). The ensemble playing was very slick, with some great comedy, particularly that involving Ankur Chopra as Gupta. 


The Tower Theatre Company felt at home in the large Courtyard Theatre and the measure of their success was that there were times when I genuinely forgot I wasn’t watching the RSC and had to remind myself that this was an amateur theatre production. ‘Baba Shakespeare’ was a great way to start the RSC Open Stages National Showcase: it is a play about theatre, and about Shakespeare, and there are references within the text to maybe playing upon the stage at Stratford one day. Looking at Shakespeare in an Indian context also emphasises his global reach: this was a fitting first contribution from the UK’s amateur theatre sector to the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival.

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Friday, July 13, 2012

Olympic Torch Relay

13 July 2012


On Monday morning I was in Milton Keynes to watch the Olympic Torch Relay go past. I was surprised how many people had turned up at 8.30 am on a Monday morning: it was packed. And it was surprisingly exciting watching families crowding the route with children sneaking out onto the road to see if the torch was coming. One boy near me had a cardboard and tissue paper replica torch and lots of people were eagerly waving flags. There was a friendly mood with police officers on motorbikes slowing to slap the outstretched hands of the youngsters as they passed. You can read biographies of each of the torch-bearers on the London 2012 website and the variety of personal stories reminded me of the Antony Gormley 'One and Other' project on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. The actual moment the torch went past was fairly fleeting but I got a good look at it and I’m pleased to be able to say I was there the day the Olympic flame came to Milton Keynes. See: http://www.voluntaryarts.org/london-2012-cultural-olympiad/line-the-route-of-the-olympic-torch-relay/ and some of my photos at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=torch+relay

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‘Mrs Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady’ by Kate Summerscale

13 July 2012


In 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher' (reviewed here in April 2009) Kate Summerscale constructed a gripping picture of a real Victorian murder mystery, drawing on a wide range of evidence and research. Her latest book takes a similar approach to tell the story of a very different court case from the same era. ‘Mrs Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady’ deals with one of the first divorce cases brought under the new Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857. Isabella Robinson’s apparent infidelity was discovered by her husband, Henry, when he came across her incredibly candid personal diary. It is this diary that forms the main evidence against her in the trial. The fact that Henry is himself openly unfaithful to Isabella appears to be irrelevant and the sexual inequalities of the time become more evident as the divorce proceeds. As in ‘The Suspicions of Mr Whicher’, Kate Summerscale creates a vivid social history of the Victorian middle classes. It’s amazing how many key characters of the age (including Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens and George Eliot) drift in and out of the Robinsons’ lives. I read ‘Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace’ as an unabridged audio book narrated by Jenny Agutter. I’m not sure it worked so well as an audio book because the need to indicate, by tone of voice, which words are quotations from original source material really breaks up many of the sentences. Though, without this indication much of the book might sound like a fictionalised account which would have seriously reduced its power. Nevertheless it’s a fascinating work and a compelling story.

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Friday, July 06, 2012

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

6 July 2012


Tchaikovsky’s ‘Manfred Symphony’ is a big, heavy, long and loud piece of music. Its length and the technical challenges it presents mean it is rarely performed. I hadn’t heard it before we started rehearsing it for our latest Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert. The Manfred Symphony feels quite different from Tchaikovsky’s other symphonies. It’s a programmatic piece, based on Byron’s epic dramatic poem. At times it sounds almost like a Mahler symphony. The big tunes are stirring and dramatic and I enjoyed tackling the recurring horn call solos. I suspect the Manfred Symphony might have been more fun to play than it was for our audience to listen to but I think we gave a very presentable account of it at the concert. The rest of our programme included another infrequently played work by a well-known composer – the overture ‘In Nature’s Realm’ by Dvořák. This is a gentle, pastoral piece which contains plenty of echoes of other Dvořák compositions (including the New World Symphony) and seems to suggest the influence of Mendelssohn. The concert also featured Mozart’s wonderful ‘Clarinet Concerto’, impressively played by John Sharp. The slow movement in particular is achingly beautiful.

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