'The Luminaries' by Eleanor Catton

20 December 2013

Eleanor Catton broke two records this year, becoming the youngest ever winner of the Man Booker Prize with the longest winning novel, 'The Luminaries'. An 832-page novel is a daunting prospect for the reader but I was intrigued by the reviews and decided to tackle it as an unabridged audio book (lasting more than 29 hours!), narrated by Mark Meadows. 'The Luminaries is a complicated crime mystery set in the New Zealand gold rush of the 1860s. The story opens with Walter Moody, newly arrived in the small town of Hokitika, walking into the lounge of the Crown Hotel to discover an odd assortment of twelve men gathered to discuss a series of violent and puzzling recent events. The truth about what has happened is gradually revealed through the eyes of these twelve witnesses before the remaining gaps in the story are filled in from the point of view of its main protagonists. 'The Luminaries' is written in the style of a Victorian thriller that could have come from the pen of Wilkie Collins (such as 'The Moonstone', reviewed here in June 2009, or 'The Woman in White', reviewed here in October 2012). On the face of it the story is simple tale of love, deceit, greed and treachery, made complicated by its length, the large number of characters, the unreliability of some of its narrators and the non-linear way in which we encounter the main events. Beneath this narrative Eleanor Catton sets herself a remarkable challenge, aligning her characters with astrological signs and planets and relating their interactions with each other to the relevant star charts. The lengths of her chapters get shorter as the book progresses, emulating the waning of the moon as the two principal characters representing the sun and moon (The Luminaries) are drawn apart and then together. The thriller plot is intriguing enough to hold your attention without attempting to understand the astrological underpinning and Catton creates a massive cast of distinctive characters whose names seem to take on a poetic quality. There are quite a few loose ends that do not appear to be tied up (Who did kill Francis Carver? And what role did Adrian Moody play in the events?). But I enjoyed my 29 hours in Hokitika, Kanieri and the Arahura.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

20 December 2013

I was nine years old when the original Star Wars film came out. My friend Anthony won tickets, in a Manchester Evening News competition, to the Manchester première of the film, which made us the first kids in our school to see it. Needless to say, I was a big Star Wars fan. When I got a copy of the original soundtrack album featuring the London Symphony Orchestra (a double LP in a gatefold sleeve containing a free poster – ah, those were the days!), I poured over and over John Williams' detailed sleeve notes and the full list of orchestral players – I can still recite most of the names of the LSO brass section. So it was a dream come true to perform the 'Star Wars Symphonic Suite' by John Williams at the Northampton Symphony Orchestra's Christmas Cracker concert last Sunday. The theme of this year's concert was 'Christmas at the Movies' and the programme also included a medley from 'The Sound of Music' by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Danny Elfman's music for the Tim Burton film 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and a selection of James Bond themes. Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, famously said of the experience: “Acting in this movie I felt like a raisin in a giant fruit salad. And I didn't even know who the coconuts or the cantaloups were.” I felt very similarly about our Christmas Cracker concert: there was so much going on it was hard to take it all in. We had a capacity audience of 600 in the Spinney Hill Theatre at Northampton School for Girls. The stage was packed with a huge orchestra bedecked in tinsel, Santa hats and reindeer antlers. Quite a few members of the audience (and some of the orchestra) had come dressed as their favourite film characters – there was a Clint Eastwood, a Harry Potter, two Batmans and an assortment of Princess Leias! At the interval Imperial Stormtroopers were on hand to guide the audience towards the mulled wine and mince pies. Our excellent compère, Graham Padden, opened the second half of the concert stripped to the waist to bang a gong in the manner of the Rank opening credits. And, two seats to my right, Darth Vader was playing the third Horn part! It was a challenge to concentrate on playing the music amongst everything else going on but I think our performance went well and it was certainly a fantastic, festive occasion.

'Richard II' by William Shakespeare

20 December 2013

On Saturday we were at the Barbican in London to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of 'Richard II'. I think we got some of the last available tickets when I booked, way back in March. David Tennant's return to the RSC in the title role in Gregory Doran's first production as the new RSC Artistic Director made this a very hot ticket. I had worried that more than eight months of anticipation might have made for an anticlimax but we were not disappointed. This was a great production of an unusual Shakespeare play. I had not seen 'Richard II' before but I studied 'Henry IV Part 1' at school and it was fascinating finally to fill in the gaps in the back-story to a play I am very familiar with. David Tennant was excellent as the Messiah-like king, with flowing robes and extremely long hair: his lightning-quick mood turns and comic asides are amazing to watch. When we saw him as Berowne in 'Love's Labour's Lost' (reviewed here in October 2008) I said he was “an electric stage presence - very hard to take your eyes off him”. The same was true in 'Richard II' but this was much more of an ensemble piece and there were also fantastic performances by Michael Pennington as John of Gaunt, Nigel Lindsay as Bolingbroke (who becomes Henry IV) and the magnificent Oliver Ford Davies as the Duke of York. Doran's production was very beautiful with a minimal set designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis making great use of video projection and amazing lighting by Tim Mitchell. And I loved the music by Paul Englishby which featured a choir of three sopranos constantly present on a balcony above the stage together with a band of off-stage trumpeters. 

'Sleeping Beauty' by Sue Sachon

13 December 2013

It’s that time of year again – oh yes it is! On Sunday we were back at the TADS theatre in Toddington for this year’s pantomime. ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was written and directed by TADS stalwarts Sue and David Sachon. This was a magical and charming rendition of the traditional fairy story with all the usual pantomimic elements in evidence. It was an excellently acted and impressively produced show which thrilled an audience packed with very young children. (Though it’s interesting to note that handing out sweets to the audience always makes for the most exciting moment of the afternoon!) In a large cast Judy Palmer’s gormless palace guard, Emily Venn’s twinkly fairy godmother and the ever-wonderful Janet Bray (as both a guard and a fairy) stood out for me. And it was great to see Leanne Lyndsey White – who was excellent as Audrey in the TADS production of Little Shop of Horrors earlier this year (reviewed here in May 2013) – giving another impressive performance as Prince Ferdinand.

'Dodger' by James Benmore

6 December 2013

Great works of fiction create characters that appear to have an existence beyond the particular tale being told. It's always fascinating to wonder what happened to those characters before or after our brief encounter with them. Literary sequels and prequels have an honourable tradition (from 'The Wide Sargasso Sea' by Jean Rhys to the Gregory Maguire's novels 'Wicked' and 'Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister' (reviewed here in March 2008) and Andrew Motion's 'Treasure Island' sequel 'Silver' (reviewed here in May 2012)). There's something particularly compelling about those works that take relatively minor characters from an earlier story and put them centre stage (such as Tom Stoppard's 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'). So I was pleased to discover James Benmore's novel 'Dodger' which brings Jack Dawkins – the Artful Dodger – back to London six years after having been transported to Australia for the theft of a silver snuff box at the end of 'Oliver Twist'. Dawkins discovers that London has changed in his absence: Fagin, Bill Sikes and Nancy are all dead and the introduction of the Peelers has made the business of picking pockets much more hazardous. 'Dodger' takes us back into Dickensian London but it's not Dickens. The characters are great fun and there's an intriguing mystery to be solved but this is an easy and enjoyable read that doesn't attempt a Dickensian style or much social comment. Still, Dawkins is an engaging young adult and his first-person narration (with its cockney accent) is entertaining and often very funny. 

Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert

28 November 2013

On Saturday I took part in a concert with Milton Keynes Sinfonia which celebrated the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten with two works which opened and closed the performance. Britten’s ‘Sinfonia da Requiem’ is a serious, complex, challenging piece – both to play and to listen to. It required huge concentration from the orchestra and our tight, clear performance was a significant achievement which owed much to our conductor, David Knight. We concluded the concert with a very different piece of Britten, his joyous ‘Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’ with its variations on a theme by Purcell culminating in a glorious fugue and triumphant finale. In between the two works by Britten were a stunning performance of the Elgar ‘Cello Concerto by Jacqueline Johnson and Holst’s ‘Ballet Music from The Perfect Fool’ – a lively, tuneful piece with a playfully lopsided 7/8 rhythm. It was an interesting and varied programme which brought an enthusiastic response from a packed audience. 

'Crimson/Red' by Prefab Sprout

22 November 2013

I've always had a soft spot for Prefab Sprout, the 1980s band that gave us 'Faron Young', 'When Love Breaks Down' and 'The King of Rock 'n' Roll'. The new Prefab Sprout album 'Crimson/Red' could be described as completely stripped down. Frontman Paddy McAloon has now dispensed with all the other members of the band and plays all the instruments himself. And yet it still sounds exactly the same – distinctive, melancholic, symphonic pop that could have come from 1988, whilst simultaneously sounding refreshingly, inventively new. All the more remarkable when you learn that McAloon now has impaired hearing and vision. 'Crimson/Red' is a classic Prefab Sprout album – catchy, beautiful, poignant and clever. Caroline Sullivan's review in The Guardian called it “a kind of truculent, Geordie Pet Sounds”. I've been struck by the similarities to another of my favourite 1980s bands The Blue Nile and the influence both may have had on The Divine Comedy (reviewed here in September 2005, July 2006 and June 2010).

Bellowhead at Bedford Corn Exchange

15 November 2013

As I wrote here in February 2009, “you can’t beat a band that dances to its own tunes”. That band was the amazing English folk big band, Bellowhead (who I have also written about here in October 2006, July 2008 and October 2010). I am pleased to report that they are still dancing and their infectious enthusiasm is still whipping audiences into a frenzy. On Thursday night I was among a standing audience of over 1000 people in the cavernous  Bedford Corn Exchange to see a stunning performance by Bellowhead. About to celebrate their tenth anniversary, Bellowhead have always been a very slick band, mixing inspired lunacy and chaos with strict rhythmic precision. Many of the eleven members of the band play multiple instruments and all participate in dance moves clearly derived from Morris traditions. The mix of musicians from folk, jazz and classical background and the unusual instrumentation (including fiddles, cello, oboe, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, helicon, bagpipes, melodeon and concertina) make for a unique signature sound. Bellowhead rarely put a foot wrong and seem to bring a smile to everyone’s face. Go and see them live if you get the chance – they are truly brilliant.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

14 November 2013

The Northampton Symphony Orchestra’s November concert invariably coincides with the weekend of Bonfire Night and/or Remembrance Sunday. This year we made the most of this coincidence with a remembrance-themed concert at St Matthews Church in Northampton. The music was interspersed with war poems by Wilfred Owen, George Fraser Gallie and Konstantin Simanov, beautifully read by three members of the orchestra – Virginia Henley, Maria King and Nick Bunker. As Virginia stepped forward to start the concert with Owen’s ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, the church bells rang the half hour and she waited a moment for the sound to die away before reading “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” – it was a perfect opening to the evening.

The first piece of music was the beautiful pastoral work ‘The Banks of Green Willow’ by George Butterworth – a charming piece with an aching poignancy in this context as Butterworth was killed at the Battle of the Somme at the age of 30. Another delicate, pastoral English work completed the first half of the concert as the orchestra’s leader Stephen Hague gave a stunning performance of ‘The Lark Ascending’ by Ralph Vaughan Williams. That some of the desperately quiet passages were interrupted by the explosions of fireworks outside only served to emphasise the contrast between the peaceful idyll of the countryside and the brutal reality of war.

In the second half of the concert we played the mighty ‘Leningrad Symphony’ by Dimitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich’s seventh symphony was composed during the Siege of Leningrad in 1941-42 and powerfully evokes the horror of the 872 day isolation of the city which saw almost a third of the population (around a million people) die of starvation. Despite being offered the opportunity to escape the siege Shostakovich decided to stay in the city to work on a one-movement symphony which he wanted to dedicate to Leningrad. I can imagine the look on Mrs Shostakovich’s face when he later announced that it now felt like the work actually needed four movements! Shostakovich did complete the composition elsewhere but after the premiere of the symphony by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra in March 1942, there was a determination to stage a first performance in Leningrad itself, while the siege continued. With many of its players dead or away fighting the war, The Leningrad Radio Orchestra could muster only 14 musicians. Extra players were brought back from the front line and posters were displayed around the city appealing for anyone with a musical instrument to join in. At the end of July an orchestra of professionals and amateurs played the symphony in the Leningrad Philharmonic Hall with the performance broadcast on loudspeakers throughout the city. In a show of defiance there were speakers relaying the concert to German troops stationed outside the city. The NSO concert programme notes suggest that the senior Russian officer on the front was issued with a copy of the score so that he might order his troops to cease fire during the quieter passages!

The Leningrad symphony is a mammoth work, lasting 70 minutes and requiring a large orchestra. In our performance in Northampton, conducted by Alexander Walker, I was one of nine horn players, alongside six trumpets, six trombones, tuba and extensive percussion. This was the first time, as an orchestral musician, that I have genuinely regretted not wearing earplugs for a performance. It was incredibly loud and immensely dramatic – a realisation of the brutality of war in music, though the conflict is contrasted with passages of delicate beauty. There were a host of great solos by Andrea Patis (flute), Kimberley Chang (piccolo), Kathy Roberts (oboe), Simon Cooper (cor anglais), Naomi Muller (clarinet), Peter Dunkley (bass clarinet), Sian Bunker (bassoon) and Nick Bunker (trumpet). And the side drum playing of Matt Butler through the long, relentless, repetitive march that dominates the first movement was truly amazing – controlled, precise and devastating all in its path. For me that famous tune still conjures up childhood memories of the 1978 BBC TV adaptation of John Buchan’s ‘Huntingtower’, but heard in the heart of the symphony it evokes the horror of war, starting as a simple fife and drum melody then growing ever more insistent and grotesque until the bombardment is overwhelming. It was a stunning, moving, exhausting performance and one I will remember for a long time. 

'I Am The Secret Footballer: Lifting the Lid on the Beautiful Game' by The Secret Footballer

8 November 2013

When you hear an interview with a retired politician it's remarkable how often they seem suddenly more knowledgeable, reasonable and sensible than they ever did when they were in office, regardless of where they come from in the political spectrum. The modern media age has bred a generation of people in the public eye who work hard to never say anything of interest. Perhaps the most extreme example of this is the post-match interview with a professional football player who has been extensively trained in the art of clichés and platitudes. Even retirement is no guarantee of openness in the football world as Sir Alex Ferguson's recent, very guarded, memoirs demonstrate. So it is a refreshing change to read an insight on the sport which is genuinely honest and candid. 'The Secret Footballer' started as an anonymous column in The Guardian, exposing the inner workings of the professional game through the eyes of someone still playing at the highest level. The anonymity of the columnist has so far survived investigation, rumour and clue-hunting. Reading the book 'I Am The Secret Footballer: Lifting the Lid on the Beautiful Game' the anonymous author gives a fascinating view of what it is actually like to 'live the dream'. I loved the fact that, when he joined his first professional club, nobody told him that he was only required to train from 10 am – 12 pm each day. At noon he was sitting along in the dressing room waiting to be told what to do next, not realising everyone else had gone home. His perspective on the incredible financial rewards that football brings to a select group of young men, counterbalanced with the insecurity, boredom and depression prevalent within the profession are fascinating. Occasionally the disguise necessary to keep the author's identity secret makes anecdotes quite hard to follow but this is a small price to pay for such an unusually frank read.

'Symphony No 4 (Arctic)' by George Lloyd

1 November 2013

I'm grateful to Alan Garriock for drawing my attention to the work of the British composer George Lloyd (1913 – 1998). I hadn't previously heard of Lloyd – a symphonist and opera composer whose lush, accessible, melodic music seems to have been overlooked (particularly in the 1950s and 60s) by a musical establishment more interested in the avant garde. I've been listening to George Lloyd's fourth symphony, 'The Arctic', which he finished in 1946. It's a lovely piece – tuneful, delicate, rousing and heroic. The style is romantic and a little old-fashioned for the period, recalling earlier British composers such as Holst, Bax and Bantock. It's a very enjoyable work and I'm looking forward to seeking out other pieces by George Lloyd.

'An Alpine Symphony' by Richard Strauss

25 October 2013

It feels somewhat indiscreet to start by revealing a lady’s age, but my good friend Catherine Rose has hardly made any secret about achieving her first half-century. Rather than hiding away and pretending it wasn’t happening, Catherine chose to celebrate her fiftieth birthday by realising her ambition to conduct ‘An Alpine Symphony’ by Richard Strauss. Last Sunday I was part of an orchestra of 125 players which assembled in the hall of Bedford School to spend an incredibly enjoyable day tackling the Alpine peaks of this rarely performed work. The musicians were mainly drawn from three local amateur orchestras (Bedford, Milton Keynes and Northampton) together with professional orchestral players from across the country. The Alpine Symphony requires massive forces, including a wind machine, pipe organ, four Wagner tubas, cow bells and a heckelphone. Perhaps someone should have advised Strauss that this is not a recipe to get your work performed regularly. Nonetheless the Alpine Symphony is a piece held in great affection, particularly by horn players (including Catherine and myself). Instead of the usual four French horns, Strauss asks for eight on-stage players plus twelve offstage horns. On Sunday we managed to assemble a total of fifteen horn players and it was a fantastic experience to play as part of such a huge section. The Alpine Symphony is a glorious piece with some stunning, joyful climaxes. It must be amazing to be commanding such enormous forces by wielding the conductor’s baton – though it must also be completely terrifying. We ended the day with a performance of the symphony to an audience of family and friends. I think it was a pretty impressive rendition – particularly on a single day of rehearsals. It was a wonderful day – which also raised a significant amount of money for Catherine’s three chosen charities. A great way to celebrate a landmark birthday.

'One Summer: America 1927' by Bill Bryson

18 October 2013

Bill Bryson write two kinds of book – the travelogues which detail his first-hand encounters with countries, communities and people across the world, and his extensively desk-researched explorations (of Shakespeare, science, domestic life etc). I think my favourite Bryson is his childhood reminiscences 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' (reviewed here in 2007) which (just about) fits into the second category. I particularly enjoyed his ability to conjure up the characters of a different era. So I was looking forward to Bill Bryson's new book 'One Summer: America 1927' which looks at five remarkable months in which America changed the world. Reading 'One Summer: America 1927' as an unabridged audio book, narrated by the author, I was initially a little underwhelmed. While there was nothing wrong with Bill Bryson's narration, I had just finished listening to the stunning performance of Julian Rhind-Tutt reading Jonathan Coe's novel 'Expo 58' (reviewed here in September 2013) and I'm afraid anyone would have sounded a bit flat after that. Also Bill Bryson's excessive use of statistics is particularly hard to take in without seeing the numbers in front of you. But once he got beyond the statistics and started to build pictures of the key individuals in his story I became gripped. The summer of 1927 in America was witness to an amazing array of events and an incredible cast of characters. Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. In baseball Babe Ruth was breaking every record in the books. The boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney drew the largest crowd to any sporting event ever. The lazy President, Calvin Coolidge, (about whose death Dorothy Parker would later ask “How could they tell?”) decided not to run for office at the end of his (unelected) term while future President Herbert Hoover built his reputation co-ordinating the relief effort after the great Mississippi flood. Al Capone presided over an empire of corruption and extortion in Chicago. Henry Ford ended production of his Model T and embarked on a spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to create a rubber-producing city in the Amazon (Fordlandia). And talking pictures arrived with Al Jolson in 'The Jazz Singer'. It was quite a summer. Bill Bryson takes us chronologically through those summer months – with digressions to fill in the before and after to many of the stories. Lindbergh, Ruth and some of the other main protagonists provide overarching narratives which hold the book together. It's a powerful evocation of an era of prohibition, gangsters, anarchist terrorists, adventurers and celebrities. 

Jeremy Hardy

16 October 2013

We first saw Jeremy Hardy in about 1997 in Lowestoft. I’ve written here before about that performance (in March 2007): “while on holiday in Suffolk, we were surprised to see the enormous old seaside theatre in Lowestoft advertising an evening with Jeremy Hardy. This theatre, which had Ken Dodd the previous week and Jimmy Tarbuck the following week – seemed an odd setting for a left-wing political alternative comedian. We booked our tickets and, on the night, found ourselves lost in a sea of empty seats with only about a dozen other people but Jeremy Hardy dealt with a potentially embarrassing situation extremely impressively. Quickly abandoning his prepared material he probably worked harder than ever that night and completely won his tiny audience over – one of the most impressive comedy performances I’ve seen.”  Last week we caught up with Jeremy Hardy again at Kettering Arts Centre, as part of his 30^th anniversary tour, and he was even better. He is a very assured performer. Not needing to rely on any theme, props or onstage persona, he simply walks onto the stage and talks continuously for nearly two and half hours (with a 20 minute interval). His delivery sounds like a seamless stream of consciousness, mainly focussing on politics and current affairs. If you look closely you can detect a few prepared sections but mostly it feels improvised rather than scripted. Jeremy Hardy’s politics are uncompromising but his thoughtful, logical, self-deprecating style is very winning, and incredibly funny. It felt like he could have gone on all night, and we would have been delighted if he had.

'Floating Letters' by Tsuumi Sound System

10 October 2013

I'm very much enjoying 'Floating Letters', the new album by Finnish folk/rock group Tsuumi Sound System. I reviewed 'Hotas', the previous Tsuumi Sound System album, here in April 2008. Their music is cheery and inspiring with a rhythmic complexity that demands syncopated toe-tapping. At first it sounds a lot like Scottish folk but the instrumentation, harmony and style continually shifts. Hard to categorise but easy to enjoy. The playing is slick and impressive but always wearing a smile. Here's a taster: http://vimeo.com/53798510

‘Life and Death: Pompeii and Herculaneum’

3 October 2013

Almost a year ago we visited Pompeii for the first time and were bowled over by the scale of the site and the size of the preserved buildings. So we had been looking forward to seeing the exhibition ‘Life and Death: Pompeii and Herculaneum’ at The British Museum. It was so difficult to get tickets for the exhibition when we booked, in May this year, that we ended up going on the final day last Sunday. There were huge crowds waiting for a last chance to see the well-preserved relics of Roman life and, even with the timed ticket system, you had to be very patient to get close to each of the exhibits. The excellent audio guide proved a very useful way to pass the time while queuing. ‘Life and Death: Pompeii and Herculaneum’ wasn’t a very big exhibition but that meant it was possible to explore everything it contained – and this took us a good ninety minutes. The exhibition was laid out in rooms equating to the rooms of a typical Roman villa, making sense of the context of the many artefacts. The quality of preservation of the wooden objects from Herculaneum was amazing. We were also struck by how overtly sexual (by modern standards) many of the pictures and sculptures were. There was one particularly explicit piece (if you’ve seen the exhibition you will know the one I mean!) that was located in a small side room with a notice by the entrance suggesting it wasn’t suitable for children. While I was there one father was getting exasperated by the enthusiasm of his young son (who must have been 7 or 8 years old) to see whatever it was his dad didn’t want him to see. In response to the boy’s pleading “why?” the man eventually shouted “because I’m your father and I’m exercising moral judgement!”. The casts of the bodies of some of the volcano’s victims, captured in agonising poses at the moment of death, provided an eerie and moving end to the exhibition. 

'Othello' by William Shakespeare

27 September 2013

On Thursday we were part of an audience of more than 100,000, in cinemas across the world, to watch a live broadcast from the National Theatre in London of Nicholas Hytner's production of Shakespeare's 'Othello'. This latest NT Live broadcast demonstrated the growing popularity of live screenings of theatre: at Cineworld in Milton Keynes, where we watched the performance, it was being shown simultaneously on three screens, each of which was almost sold out. Hytner's production sets the play in a contemporary military base which could be in Iraq or Afghanistan. The prosaic background of the soldiers' quarters made the action feel more real and the violence was particularly shocking. The scene in the gents toilets, with Othello hiding in a cubicle to overhear Iago and Cassio, was especially effective. 'Othello' is very much a two-hander and both the lead performances here were fantastic. Adrian Lester showed Othello's power and vulnerability in a wonderfully physical performance and Rory Kinnear's Iago was twitchy, shifty, sinister and incredibly funny. Olivia Vinnall was great as a tiny but powerful Desdemona whose despair towards the end of the play was palpable. Watching the production on the big screen showed every minute facial expression as the cameras kept close to the action in a series of small, claustrophobic rooms and it is so satisfying to be able to hear every word of the text so clearly. 

'Expo 58' by Jonathan Coe

27 September 2013

Jonathan Coe obviously has a fascination with the Swiss composer Arthur Honegger (reviewed here in December 2005). Honegger's symphonies feature in Coe's novel ‘The Closed Circle’ and 'Pastoral d'ete' by Honegger provides the backdrop to a key scene in 'Expo 58', the latest novel by Jonathan Coe, which I have just finished reading (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Julian Rhind-Tutt). The 1958 World's Fair in Brussels was one of the first major international gatherings after the end of the Second World War and the exposition, in the shadow of the gleaming new Atomium, provided both an opportunity for optimism about the rebuilding of international relations but also a focus for growing concerns about the development of atomic weapons and the increasing menace of the Cold War. Coe places into this setting a naïve Englishman abroad in the shape of Thomas Foley – a junior clerk from the Central Office of Information, recently married and with a baby daughter – who is sent to work at the Expo for six months. 'Expo 58' is a beautifully constructed comic novel which displays many of Coe's trademark elements but also feels remarkably like a David Lodge book. The civil servant being drawn into a world of international espionage also reminded me of Ian McEwan's 'Sweet Tooth' (reviewed here in January 2013). Jonathan Coe constructs some delicious comic moments as well as a host of easily missed throw-away gags. But he also manages to inject pathos – often between the lines. So much is implied by what characters don't say to each other: the chapter of letters between Foley and his wife is beautifully done. The novel concludes with some cleverly believable revelations but I could have done with a few more twists. Like all good novels I didn't want it to end.

'Daytona' by Oliver Cotton

20 September 2013

Last Saturday we were at Watford Palace Theatre to see 'Daytona' – a new play by Oliver Cotton. 'Daytona' is set in a Brooklyn apartment in the early 1990s – a New York Jewish family environment familiar from the work of Neil Simon and Woody Allen. It is a play about growing old, memory, forgiveness and atonement. The cast consists of three characters – all in their seventies. When Joe's brother Billy reappears out of the blue after an absence of more than 30 years it is an uncomfortable reminder to Joe and his wife Elli of difficult times in their past. 'Daytona' has an almost Chekhovian feel – the dramatic action all happens off stage and is recounted by the characters. Joe thinks he has recognised, by a poolside in Florida, a man who was a Nazi officer in the wartime concentration camp that Joe, Billy and Elli survived. As we begin to wonder whether or not Joe might be mistaken in his assumptions it feels like Cotton is creating a version of Ariel Dorfman's 'Death and the Maiden' in which the ambiguity of identity might never be resolved. Then I began to question whether the dramatic off-stage events had actually happened: we only have the word of one obviously unreliable narrator to go on. But as the play unfolded I realised that Cotton's focus was actually on questioning assumptions of motivation. The characters challenge each other about why they really took the actions they did – today and 30 years ago – and the cleverness of the play is how it shows the dawning realisation as each individual becomes aware of the extent to which they have been fooling themselves. 'Daytona' is a complex and subtle play and was excellently acted by Harry Shearer, Maureen Lipman and, particularly John Bowe as Billy.

'Boxer, Beetle' by Ned Beauman

12 September 2013

Having been so bowled over by Ned Beauman’s novel ‘The Teleportation Accident’ (reviewed here in July 2013) I quickly got hold of his first novel ‘Boxer, Beetle’ (which I have just read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Dudley Hinton). The two books have much in common – a cast of grotesque characters, a fascination with Nazi Germany, a big country house, a rare and extremely peculiar illness, a jigsaw-puzzle plot with a ridiculous number of underlying themes and some great comic set-pieces. And, as with ‘The Teleportation Accident’, Beauman’s writing is delicious and rich in elaborate metaphors. Reading the two books in reverse order ‘Boxer, Beetle’ feels like a practice ground for what would become the later, greater novel but it is still incredibly enjoyable with a macabre humour that makes you both laugh and cringe. The country house murder mystery at the heart of the book reminded me of Jonathan Coe’s ‘What a Carve Up’ but Ned Beauman’s is a unique voice and I can’t wait to see what he writes next.

'The Impressionist' by Hari Kunzru

12 September 2013

Hari Kunzru’s debut novel ‘The Impressionist’ was highly praised on its publication in 2002 and I the reviews made me keen to read it but for some reason it has taken me more than 10 years to get around to doing so. I wasn’t disappointed. ‘The Impressionist’ is an epic tale that starts in India in the early years of the 20^th century and looks at empire, race and identity against a backdrop of real historical events. The use of comic characters and farcical plots set against extremely serious and often horrific history is carried off remarkably effectively. The tone of the book reminded me a lot of Matthew Kneale’s marvellous ‘English Passengers’. And ‘The Impressionist’ also had echoes of two other debut novels by contemporary British writers – David Mitchell’s ‘Ghostwritten’ with episodes in different settings, and with completely different sets of characters, linked by a single constant but evolving figure; and ‘White Teeth’ by Zadie Smith with its exploration of how Britain’s colonial past is evident in modern Britishness. ‘The Impressionist’ is a brilliant tour-de-force – well worth waiting for.

Norway

12 September 2013

We had a wonderful holiday in Norway on board the P&O cruise ship Adonia. Our two-week cruise took us as far north as Tromso – well above the Arctic Circle – and visited a varied range of fjords and islands. Particular highlights were the beautiful Lofoten Islands and the stunning scenery of Geirangerfjord – surely one of the most beautiful places in the world. We were very lucky with the weather and managed to do a lot of walking. We also really enjoyed our time on board the ship, attending 5 recitals by the excellent pianist Dominic John, a very impressive performance of Noel Coward’s ‘Private Lives’, doing plenty of ballroom dancing and taking part in a playreading of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. You can see a few photos from our holiday at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Norway2013 

'Sherlock Holmes' by Mark Hayward

19 August 2013

We were back in the gardens of Woburn Abbey last Friday to see The Pantaloons' production of 'Sherlock Holmes'. This new adaptation, written and directed by Pantaloon Mark Hayward, combined several Conan Doyle stories (including 'The Speckled Band', 'The Blue Carbuncle' and 'The Hound of the Baskervilles') with the usual Pantaloons mixture of pantomimic clowning and audience interaction (“there is no fourth wall!”, “Watson, stop narrating!”). It was lots of fun. There were just four actors – two playing Holmes and Watson and the other two playing everyone else. As with the wonderful Patrick Barlow stage adaptation of ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’, half the fun is in anticipating how they are going to cope with the challenges this throws up. I particularly enjoyed Holmes turning his powers of observation and deduction on a member of the audience: I suspect his amazingly accurate conclusions may have been influenced by some pre-show research with the audience member's friends and family but the little boy sitting to my right was genuinely amazed (“how did he do that?!”). And The Pantaloons are very good at planting an idea very early in the show that returns triumphantly to resolve the plot at the end. It was a very enjoyably silly evening but it was incredibly manic and overplayed (even by the standards of The Pantaloons) and I wondered whether it might actually have been funnier if more of it had been played straight.

'After the Fire, a Still Small Voice' by Evie Wyld

12 August 2013

I've just finished reading 'After the Fire, a Still Small Voice' by Evie Wyld (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by David Tredinnick). This debut novel tells the parallel story of two generations of an Australian family, with alternating chapters dealing with Frank Collard – escaping, in the present day, to the remote shack that had belonged to his grandparents on the North coast of Australia – and Frank's father Leon, growing up in Sydney several decades earlier. This is a tale of parallels between fathers and sons: Leon's own father's life was irreparably damaged by his experience of fighting in the Korean War and Leon then suffers a similar fate when he is called up to serve in Vietnam. 'After the Fire, a Still Small Voice' is a book about loneliness and the plot moves very slowly, with both main characters spending long stretches of the novel alone. The writing is beautiful and delicate but it's a sad, gentle tale of broken relationships.

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by William Shakespeare

12 August 2013

I really enjoyed the open air production of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' by The Pantaloons that we saw last August (reviewed here in August 2012) so I was looking forward to their return to the gardens of Woburn Abbey last weekend. The Pantaloons are a group of five young actors who bring a comedy-sketch-group approach to open air theatre, full of backchat, audience interaction, improvisation, original music and infectious silliness. Their production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' played well to these strengths but also demonstrated their more serious acting skills. It was a very funny and enjoyable evening. I particularly liked the impromptu use of three members of the audience to play the fairies – Cobweb, Peaseblossom and Mustardseed. While the acting was excellent, the limitations of such a small cast meant that I am not sure anyone who wasn't already familiar with the play would have been able to follow all the intricacies of the plot. Nevertheless it was great fun and I can't wait for The Pantaloons production of 'Sherlock Holmes' which is at Woburn this Friday.

Madrid

8 August 2013

We had a lovely few days in Madrid last week but boy it was hot! The temperature peaked at 41 degrees on Thursday but fortunately it was a very dry heat, so not quite so horrendous as that sounds. Nobody goes to Madrid in August (it's too hot!) and the Madrileños all head off to the coast so the city was very quiet and we were able to visit all the main tourist attractions without having to queue for anything. We took an excellent guided walking tour of the centre, visited the wonderful Prado and Thyssen-Bornemisza art galleries and looked at the state rooms of the magnificent Royal Palace. You can see a few of our photos at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Madrid2013.

WOMAD 2013

8 August 2013

With so much exotic and unusual music from all over the world on show, it might seem surprising to pick a brass band from Manchester as my highlight of the 2013 WOMAD Festival at Charlton Park in Wiltshire. But Riot Jazz are a brass band in the New Orleans tradition of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band or the The Hot 8 Brass Band (reviewed here in January 2013) and their set in the Big Red Tent at WOMAD was thrilling and incredibly engaging. Riot Jazz come with their own irrepressible compere, MC Chunky, whose persuasive patter in a strong Manchester accent had an audience of around two thousand leaping up and down for an hour. Wonderful cover versions of 'Don't You Want Me Baby?' and 'Living on a Prayer' sent us all away smiling (have a listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JVSpjpkZ4U). Other high points of my weekend at WOMAD included the amazing ethereal Tuvan throat singing of Huun Huur Tu, impressively competitive duets of Indian classical music from Debapriya Adhykary and Samanwaya Sarkar, another chance to see the great Malian singer Rokia Traore (reviewed here in December 2008) and Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino – an excitingly energetic band from the heel on Italy's boot who play (and dance) traditional pizzica folk music with an infectious enthusiasm. I wasn't able to stay to see Brazilian legend (and former Minister of Culture) Gilberto Gil (reviewed here in July 2010) close the festival on the Sunday evening so it was great to have had the chance to see Gil and Peter Gabriel in conversation on BBC Radio 4's 'Loose Ends' on the Radio 3 stage on Saturday. Like going to see BBC Radio Scotland's 'MacAulay & Co' before a day at the Edinburgh Fringe, 'Loose Ends' provided the chance to sample several acts performing at the festival in bite-sized chunks and reminded me of Charlie Gillet's much missed Radio London broadcasts from WOMAD. I saw a total of 18 complete performances over the weekend. I really enjoyed Bwani Junction – an indie rock band from Edinburgh who play with an African guitar sound that makes them seem like a cross between Vampire Weekend, Arctic Monkeys and Big Country. These Scottish lads have some authentic African links – the father of guitarist Dan Muir was the manager of the Bhundu Boys (who played at the very first WOMAD Festival, 31 years ago) and Dan has apparently been playing alongside the Bhundus' Rise Kagona since he was 10 years old (which can't have been that long ago as all four members of Bwani Junction looked about 12 to me!). I should also give a special mention to David Wax Museum from Boston, Massachusetts, who play an upbeat mix of old-fashioned Americana with a Mexican influence. The band, who put out their recordings on their own label and have only just managed to arrange distribution to Europe, were making their first visit to England and played a fantastic set on the Charlie Gillett stage on the Saturday evening just as torrential rain arrived. At any other point in the weekend (which was dominated by glorious sunshine) they would undoubtedly have attracted a crowd numbering in the thousands. Instead, they performed to around 200 people huddling under umbrellas. Nevertheless they put on a magnificent show and deserve a much bigger audience. You can see a selection of my photos from the 2013 WOMAD Festival at: http://www.culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/WOMAD2013.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

25 July 2013

On Sunday I played in the annual Northampton Symphony Orchestra Friends Concert – the final performance in our concert season and our opportunity to thank the Friends of the Orchestra for their support throughout the year. This year our programme had a Hungarian theme, including two Slavonic Dances by Dvorak and two of Brahms’ Hungarian Dances. We also played the Haydn Trumpet Concerto with the excellent young soloist Darren Moore who seemed to hit every note perfectly throughout the performance and all the rehearsals. We finished the concert with the exciting ‘Dances of Galanta’ by Zoltan Kodaly – an infectious romp with some devilishly difficult clarinet solos which were magnificently mastered by Christine Hunt. The orchestra now takes its summer break before we turn our attention to the mighty ‘Symphony No 7’ by Shostakovich this autumn.

'Macbeth' by William Shakespeare

25 July 2013

Having heard nothing but good reports about the National Theatre's NT Live screenings of stage shows in cinemas, I thought it was about time I tried the experience myself. The Manchester International Festival production of Macbeth, starring and co-directed by Kenneth Branagh (with Rob Ashford) was such a hot ticket the entire run sold out within nine minutes of going on sale. So the only way I was going to see it was via the NT Live screening last Saturday, when the final performance in Manchester was broadcast to cinemas across the country. It was magnificent – both the production and the experience of watching it live on the big screen. The show was expertly captured with multiple camera angles (including Busby Berkley overhead shots) making it feel almost like being there, but with a much better view and excellent sound that meant you didn't miss a syllable of the text. It was irritating that there were some problems with the synchronisation of the sound and pictures (at least where we saw it at Cineworld in Milton Keynes) but otherwise the screening was technically excellent. Macbeth was performed in a deconsecrated church in Ancoats - a customised theatre space with a long, thin central performance area running the length of the church and faced on both sides by an audience boxed in raked pews enclosed by wooden boards which made them look more like the spectators at a Quidditch match! The floor was rough and muddy, particularly after the opening battle scene had taken place in driving rain – the increasingly dirty hem of Lady Macbeth’s long dress emphasising the gritty reality of the play. This was a brutal, visceral Macbeth – with believably violent swordfights and plenty of Kensington Gore. Kenneth Branagh managed to make Macbeth a real and sympathetic character, while demonstrating a delicacy and precision in the language of the play. Alex Kingston was a powerful Lady Macbeth and the scene in which Ray Fearon’s Macduff learned of the slaughter of his wife and children was achingly poignant. The whole cast were very strong – with Alexander Vlahos particularly standing out as Malcolm.

'Going to Sea in a Sieve' by Danny Baker

25 July 2013

Usually when you read an autobiography, you might find the first few chapters interesting in seeing how the person's childhood and early career led them to do whatever it is you know them for, but it's the inside story of their successful years that you are really looking forward to reading about. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to warn you that ‘Going to Sea in a Sieve’, the autobiography of writer and broadcaster Danny Baker, finishes in 1982, well before I had come across him. Nevertheless, as a keen listener to Danny Baker's Saturday morning show on BBC Radio Five Live, many of the stories of his childhood were quite familiar to me. Like John Peel's autobiography ('Margrave of the Marshes' by John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft, reviewed here in November 2006), you can really hear the author's voice while you are reading. Danny Baker is a consummate storyteller and his self deprecating wide-eyed wonder makes for a likeable and often hilarious tale. The great potato robbery is the first of many laugh-out-loud incidents in this first volume of the Danny Baker story. 

'The Teleportation Accident' by Ned Beauman

17 July 2013

I was drawn to Ned Beauman's novel 'The Teleportation Accident' by glowing reviews and by the intriguing premise of a theatre set designer in Berlin in the 1930s working to recreate the famous Teleportation Device ("An Extraordinary Mechanism for the Almost Instantaneous Transport of Persons from Place to Place") devised for a Paris theatre in 1679 by the great Renaissance stage designer Adriano Lavicini. The opening chapters made me think I had made a mistake - almost every character we were introduced to seemed unlikeable and the main protagonist, set designer Egon Loeser, is a very unsympathetic anti-hero - cynical, contemptuous and selfish. Also the thrilling notion of the Teleportation Device - where art meets science to create magic - seems quickly forgotten as the story becomes obsessed with parties, sex and drugs. I persevered with the novel (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Dudley Hinton) and began to appreciate the writing - Loseser's cynical railings against the harsh hand that life keeps dealing him are very funny and there are some beautifully witty metaphors with a Raymond Chandleresque swagger which made me laugh out loud. (He had "the sort of moustache that could beat you in an arm-wrestling contest". "The lenses of his glasses were so thick that, like an astronomer observing Neptune, he was probably seeing several minutes into the past".) Also the plot built towards some wonderful set-piece farcical scenes that could have come from Tom Sharpe (the monkey gland episode for example). And as the story moved to Paris and then to Los Angeles, I realised how clever and intricate the plotting was. Like Loeser I had missed or dismissed many references, characters and clues that were to return as elegant explanations for seemingly supernatural puzzles much later in the book. As 'The Teleportation Accident' grew and grew on me I came to appreciate that it is a rather brilliant novel - a very dark comedy spanning centuries with a complex web of themes. It's an entertainingly innovative novel to rank alongside 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' by Jennifer Egan (reviewed here in July 2011). Egon Loeser hates politics, physics and historical literature so it is his supreme misfortune to find himself the main character in a novel about politics, physics and historical literature (though his obsession with public transport does provide him with an interest in another of the book's recurring themes). He thinks himself an intellectual who is having a particularly unfair run of bad luck - but he comes across as a surprisingly naive loser, blundering through major events without appreciating their significance. The Teleportation Device itself has echoes of Christopher Nolan's 2006 film 'The Prestige' in which two rival magicians battle each other to achieve the ultimate illusion, drawing on the seemingly magical physics of Nikola Tesla (himself the subject of  Samantha Hunt's wonderful novel ‘The Invention of Everything Else’, reviewed here in September 2008). But above all 'The Teleportation Accident' is an incredibly funny, terribly clever and extremely enjoyable novel that I look forward to reading again and again - just make sure you pay attention to those opening chapters!

Wimbledon 2013

11 July 2013

As regular readers will remember, we have been extremely lucky in getting tickets in the Wimbledon ballot over recent years. 2012 was the first time in 10 years that we didn't get to the Championships, but we were back this year, with Centre Court tickets for the Ladies' Singles Final last Saturday. It was a glorious day and we were pleased to be sitting far enough back to be in the shade. The final was a little disappointing as Sabine Lisicki failed to find the form that had helped her beat Serena Williams and Agnieszka Radwańska, but it was great to see Marion Bartoli win and, even though the match was a bit one-sided, there was some great tennis from both players. The Men's Doubles Final was more closely contested with the Bryan brothers coming from a set down to defeat Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo. But the most entertaining match of the day was undoubtedly the Ladies' Doubles Final in which Taiwan's Su-Wei Hsieh and China's Peng Shuai beat the Australians Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua. Hsieh and Peng have a most unconventional approach to doubles – rather than taking responsibility for different areas of the court they both seem to follow the ball (and each other) - more like a four-legged singles player! At least three times in the final they clashed racquets as they both tried to hit the ball at the same time. Nevertheless this odd system seemed to work, giving them two opportunities to reach each difficult return (despite leaving large areas of the court uncovered). It was fascinating to watch and a great way to end a fabulous day at Wimbledon. It would have been amazing to have been there the following day to see Andy Murray triumph but, knowing how nervous I got on behalf of Sabine Lisicki, I think the tension might have been unbearable. Watching the Men's Singles Final on the television the day after our visit to Centre Court felt as close as you could get to being there. You can see a selection of my Wimbledon photos at: http://www.culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Wimbledon2013

'The Taming of The Shrew' by William Shakespeare

1 July 2013

The blatant misogyny of Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of The Shrew’ makes it an uncomfortable play for modern audiences. The last production I saw was directed by Lucy Bailey for the Royal Shakespeare Company (reviewed here in March 2012) – a female director who chose to emphasise the framing of the story as Christopher Sly’s dream by situating all the action upon (or within!) an enormous bed. So it was very interesting to see the current Shakespeare’s Globe On Tour open air production of ‘The Taming of The Shrew’ at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts last week. Here the challenges of the play were tackled head-on by neatly reversing Elizabethan conventions and using an entirely female cast. Joe Murphy’s production was well-acted, entertaining, inventive and very funny but the most fascinating aspect was the way in which the gender relationships were explored. When we saw ‘Twelfth Night’ performed by The Lord Chamberlain’s Men with an all-male cast (reviewed here in August 2009), seeing the female parts played by men strangely seemed to make more sense of the conceit of girl dressed as boy. In ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ Petruchio’s final triumph in ‘taming’ Kate was very cleverly undermined by his clear discomfort at what he had created, made all the more obvious by the fact that he was being played by a woman. The cast were universally strong but special mention must go to Kate Lamb’s Katherina, Petruchio played by Leah Whitaker and Remy Beasley's constantly smirking, Welsh-accented, Tranio.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

18 June 2013

Performing a horn concerto, not as the soloist but as one of the horn players in the orchestra, can be an intimidating experience as you tend to worry your performance is going to be unfavourably compared to that of the soloist. The Second Horn Concerto by Richard Strauss is the Matterhorn of the genre and while the two orchestral horn parts constitute mere foothills compared to the peaks the soloist has to scale, they contain some tricky echoes of the solo part and make you work hard to ensure you don’t let the soloist down. I think our performance of the concerto with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra on Saturday went extremely well, with Richard Bayliss stepping in at the last minute to give a wonderfully exciting performance, as our original soloist sadly had to pull out of the concert for personal reasons. And those orchestral horn parts sounded pretty good to me too! The second half of the concert contrasted the concerto, written when Strauss was 78, with the precocious First Symphony by Shostakovich – a graduation piece written at the age of 19. Much closer to Shostakovich’s playful music theatre writing than the later, more serious, symphonies, it was a really enjoyable work to get to know. Our performance featured some impressive solos from Nick Bunker (trumpet), Mara Griffiths (flute), Kathy Roberts (oboe), Christine Hunt and Robert Reid (clarinet), Sian Bunker (bassoon) and William Thallon (piano).

'Life After Life' by Kate Atkinson

11 June 2013

As regular readers will know, I’ve read the entire output of the contemporary novelist Kate Atkinson, so I had eagerly awaited her latest book ‘Life After Life’. Taking a break from the Jackson Brodie detective novels (such as ‘Started Early, Took My Dog’, reviewed here in April 2011), ‘Life After Life’ (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Fenella Woolgar) feels like a return to the family saga format of Kate Atkinson’s award-winning debut ‘Behind the Scenes at the Museum’. ‘Life After Life’ covers an earlier era than its predecessor, starting in 1910 with the birth of its protagonist, Ursula Todd. And ‘Life After Life’ is a family saga with a twist: in the opening pages Ursula dies before she can take her first breath, strangled by the umbilical cord. But then we rewind and imagine how the scene might have played out differently, with the baby surviving. And this forms the pattern for the book, with Ursula’s life cut unfairly short through a series of childhood accidents, only for her to find a way past each obstacle the next time around. Atkinson enjoys this extended Groundhog Day structure, taking a mischievous delight in making the reader wonder whether Ursula will ever make it out of infancy. But this tale of the parallel lives that we might have led takes on a growing poignancy as Ursula appears to use some distant memory of her previous lives not just to preserve herself but also to try to save her family and friends from the hand of fate. (The love story of Teddy and Nancy which plays out in the background of the novel forms an engaging thread through the story of Ursula’s life.) It was interesting that as you get used to Ursula’s apparent immortality, the next time she gets into a difficult or dangerous situation you begin to stop worrying for her because you can relax in the realisation that danger will be averted by death and rebirth. Then Atkinson pulls the rug from under the reader by having Ursula survive and have to suffer the after-effects of illness or injury – making you realise that sometimes it’s much harder to go on living. ‘Life After Life is a very clever, charming and moving tale of foxes, bears and wolves.

'Hope and Glory' by Stuart Maconie

5 June 2013

I've written here before about Stuart Maconie's ongoing metamorphosis into the British Bill Bryson, through his books including 'Pies and Prejudice' (reviewed here in June 2008) and ‘Cider with Roadies' (reviewed here in March 2009). 'Hope and Glory' is another entertaining and informative addition to the Maconie canon in which he tells a people's history of Britain in the twentieth century. The book consists of ten chapters, each focusing on a key date - one for each decade. Each particular event becomes the starting point for a less linearly chronological exploration of themes that include politics, war, sport, immigration and celebrity. And Stuart Maconie visits many of the scenes of the notable events he is recounting. So the book becomes a mixture of travelogue, history and reminiscence. It's a bit of a mixed bag - and contains a surprising number of proofing and editing errors - but there are some real gems throughout. An easy read that is educational and very enjoyable.

'Blue Remembered Hills' by Dennis Potter

4 June 2013

I first saw Dennis Potter’s play ‘Blue Remembered Hills’ many years ago in an Edinburgh Fringe production at Greyfriars Kirkhouse. The central concept – using adults to play young children without disguising the fact they are obviously adults – works well as a device to explore the nature of childhood, memory and relationships. Appropriately enough, my distant memories of the play proved not entirely accurate when we saw the new Northern Stage production, directed by Psyche Scott, at Watford Palace Theatre last Saturday. In particular, while it was a very impressive production with some great acting, the piece felt much more slight than I remembered it. Written originally for television, it only lasts about an hour – perfect for the Edinburgh Fringe but a bit short played, without an interval, as the main attraction. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable and interesting experience with the actors’ mastery of childlike movement especially impressive. There is a ‘Lord of the Flies’ brutality to the children’s games and a dark ending to the story which echoes its wartime setting. And the distinctive Forest of Dean accents conjure up wonderful memories of ‘The Singing Detective’ (another example of the coma drama subgenre by the way).

'The Ninth Life of Louis Drax' by Liz Jensen

31 May 2013

There's a rich dramatic sub-genre based within the mind of someone suffering from a coma. The dreamlike possibilities have inspired surreal worlds between the living and the dead, for example in 'A Matter of Life and Death' or 'Life on Mars'. One of the best of these coma-dramas is 'Vent' – a dark radio comedy by Nigel Smith which ran for three series on BBC Radio 4 between 2006 and 2009. 'Vent' is a wonderfully inventive, poignant, funny and moving drama with an excellent cast, including Neil Pearson, Fiona Allen, Josie Lawrence and Leslie Ash. The use of sound-effects, music, flashbacks and dream sequences create an experience that could only have been achieved on radio. And the fact that Nigel Smith was writing from his own experience of being in a coma makes the whole thing even more fascinating. 'Vent' is currently being repeated on BBC Radio 4Extra. I was reminded of 'Vent' while reading Liz Jensen's novel 'The Ninth Life of Louis Drax' – an enjoyable macabre psychological thriller. As well as exploring the possibilities of a character in a coma, Liz Jensen uses sections of first person narration in the naïve voice of a young boy which made me think of Mark Haddon's 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' but she combines this with a chilling plot that explores the relationship between a mother and her son that also reminded me of 'We need to talk about Kevin' by Lionel Shriver (reviewed here in August 2006). 'The Ninth Life of Louis Drax' is a clever, gripping and sinister thriller.

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra concert

21 May 2013

A heart-meltingly exquisite rendition of the final gentle aria from Handel's oratorio 'Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità' was a sublime way to end a lovely concert at St John's Smith Square in London last Saturday. This was the encore by soprano Carolyn Sampson with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, directed from the violin by Anne Katharina Schreiber, at the end of a concert of music by Vivaldi, Handel and Telemann with a seagoing theme. The concert was the final event in this year's Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music. The Freiburgers play standing up and were fascinating to watch – their choreography demonstrating the excitement of baroque music that can sometimes seem too restrained. Carolyn Sampson is a stunning singer – particularly in the quieter arias – and got a rapturous reception from a packed and knowledgeable audience. 

‘Little Shop of Horrors’ by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman

16 May 2013

Wikipedia describes ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman as a “comedy horror rock musical” – which, if you examine the links closely is actually two genres “comedy horror” and “rock musical”, each of which have their own Wikipedia entries. I’ve always had a soft spot for ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, having discovered it while at university, when the 1986Frank Oz film came out. It was ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ for those who were uncomfortable without the overt sexuality and transvestism. It was ‘Sweeney Todd’ with catchy 1960s girl group songs. So I was looking forward to seeing the new production of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ by our award-winning local amateur theatre group, TADS, in Toddington last weekend and I wasn’t disappointed. I think the two lead actors were both new to TADS and I suspect they had been headhunted for this production. Barry Hyde made Seymour a suitably nerdy, naïve and sympathetic hero and Leanne White was excellent as Audrey – with an impressively consistent over-the-top New Yoik accent. But the star of the show was Audrey II – the man-eating, soul-singing flytrap – constructed for Sue Sachon’s TADS production by Jake Dudley, David Sachon and Gobstoppers in Berhamsted, operated by Mark Normoyle and voiced by Jonathan Alexander Sachon. Remember, “whatever they offer you, don’t feed the plants!”.

Brussels

16 May 2013

We had a lovely few days in Brussels last week. Our hotel was a few minutes’ walk from the Grand Place – the historic centre of the city. The narrow lanes and enclosed arcades around the Grand Place are very pretty and contain a host of very expensive chocolatiers. I particularly enjoyed the Musical Instrument Museum which is housed in a wonderful Art Nouveau former department store on the Mont des Arts. The museum provides infra-red headsets which allow you to hear each of the historic instruments playing as you approach them. I was fascinated by the bizarre seven-bell trombone created by Adolphe Sax (see: http://www.mim.be/sites/default/files/instruments/trombone%20sax%201288.jpg). We also visited the magnificent Museum des Beaux Arts which boasts  an extensive collection of 17^th and 18^th century Flemish paintings including works by Brueghel and Hieronymus Bosch. Brussels is renowned for its restaurants and we had some wonderful meals. 

Milton Keynes Sinfonia workshop - 'The Rite of Spring' by Igor Stravinsky

3 May 2013

Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring’ may no longer shock in the way it did at its first performance (almost exactly one hundred years ago, on 29 May 1913) but it is still a powerful and emotional work whose supreme challenges attract orchestras like the Matterhorn attracts mountaineers. It is rare for an amateur orchestra to have the opportunity to scale such perilous peaks so it was great to discover that Milton Keynes Sinfonia was planning a one-day Rite of Spring workshop. Last Sunday morning I was among nearly one hundred amateur musicians who assembled in the Hub Theatre in the Open University campus in Milton Keynes to spend a very enjoyable day trying to conquer Stravinsky’s complex and confusing rhythms. ‘The Rite of Spring’ requires a mammoth orchestra including 8 horns, 2 Wagner tubas, 6 trumpets, a bass trumpet, alto flute, 2 contra-bassoons and all manner of unusual percussion instruments. Starting with a nervous ‘play-through’ at 10.30 am, by 4.00 pm we were ready for a complete ‘performance’ which went surprisingly well. This is a great tribute to the skills of our conductor, David Knight, whose enthusiastic and encouraging coaching pulled all the strands together. 

'So He Takes the Dog' by Jonathan Buckley

25 April 2013

I had not heard of the author Jonathan Buckley before reading a piece about him The Guardian a few weeks ago which described his 2006 novel ‘So He Takes the Dog’ as a masterpiece. Intrigued I got hold of the unabridged audio recording of the book (narrated by Richard Burnip). It’s an interesting novel which tells a relatively straightforward tale in a slightly odd way. ‘So He Takes the Dog’ recounts a murder investigation in a small North Devon town. It is more of a police procedural than a murder mystery. We follow the detectives as they piece together a picture of the life of a homeless man whose body is found on the beach. Searching backwards through the dead man’s life to understand how he came to be homeless and the origins of his odd behaviour reminded me of ‘Stuart: A Life Backwards’ by Alexander Masters (reviewed here in August 2010). As the novel progresses, however, you begin to wonder whether it is really about the murder or whether the main story is that of the police officer narrating the tale. And I gradually realised that the odd tone (possibly even more noticeable in the audio version) was due to the fact that his first person narration seems to deliberately avoid ever using the words “I” or “me”. The police officer tells us his name and is happy to refer to himself and his colleague as “we” but never talks about himself in the first person. I began to suspect that this was going to prove incredibly significant but, unless I missed something, we are never told why he has chosen to tell the story in this odd way. I’m not sure I would call ‘So He Takes the Dog’ a masterpiece but I enjoyed reading it.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

25 April 2013

The Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert last Saturday included two very contrasting works. Dvorak’s ‘Symphony No 9 (From the New World)’ is incredibly well-known and instantly likeable but shines through its familiarity. I think our performance brought out both the warmth and the excitement of the work – with an excellent Cor Anglais solo from Simon Cooper. Bartok’s ‘Concerto for Orchestra’ is a much more complex and challenging piece and was much less familiar to the orchestra or its audience. By our final rehearsal we were just beginning to make sense of the music and I there was an intense air of concentration during our performance but I think we managed to demonstrate the magnificence of the piece.

Heliotrope Chamber Ensemble concert

17 April 2013

For an orchestral musician, playing chamber music can be a scary experience. In a small group there is nowhere to hide and you don’t get the lengthy breaks that brass players are used to in the symphonic repertoire. But chamber music is rewarding in a different way to larger works. It is satisfying and enjoyable being part of a small team, where every individual is vital to the whole, everyone gets their moment in the spotlight and everyone has a degree of control over the performance. I was, therefore, both delighted and terrified to have been invited to join the Heliotrope Chamber Ensemble for their concert at Abington Avenue United Reformed Church in Northampton last Saturday.

We were tackling a new piece for double wind quintet by the American composer Jeff Scott. ‘Sacred Women’ was first performed at the Nevada Flute Association Conference in Las Vegas in August 2012 and ours was to be the first performance outside North America. ‘Sacred Women’ celebrates three female deities – the Egyptian god Isis, Caribbean Iemanja and African Mawu. It is a fiendishly difficult piece – tuneful, atmospheric and rhythmically complex. All ten parts are incredibly challenging and it was very hard work trying to fit it all together.

We were fortunate that Frank Jordan and the other regular members of the Heliotrope Wind Quintet had assembled a very impressive group of musicians and we were grateful for the services of conductor Stephen Bell to help us pull it together. We also benefited from working with the recording of the work’s Nevada premiere and some of our group managed to talk to the composer after a recent recital at the Wigmore Hall in London. By Saturday evening, however, it still felt a bit touch and go. Concentration levels were high and nerves were jangling but I think we had all come to really like the piece and we were looking forward to trying to do it justice.

The concert got off to an excellent start with Kimberley Chang playing the lengthy, haunting, opening alto flute solo beautifully. While we may have been guilty of a few missed entries and wrong notes, most of the performance went really well – with several excellent cadenzas, sensitive playing and rhythmic neatness. Even the most complex, multi-layered passage of competing rhythms in the middle of the last movement finished with us perfectly together.

As we approached the very end of the work, however, I was aware that my most difficult solo line was still looming. Out of silence the first horn is required to play a series of unaccompanied notes rising to a long, held, top ‘C’. Top ‘C’ is a note which is theoretically possible on a French horn but rarely called upon. I knew I could manage to hit it but whether I would, at the end of a complete performance of the piece, in the pressure of the live concert atmosphere, was another matter. In the passage leading up to this solo we found ourselves playing at a faster, adrenaline-fuelled, pace than we had rehearsed and by the time we reached the silent pause I could feel my heart pumping fast. I took a deep breath and went for it. I was aware of the top ‘C’ emerging, but it sounded weak and squeaky and I realised I was running out of breath. As I tried to hold the note for its full length, my head began to ache and I could feel that I was close to passing out. I managed to hit the following notes and grab a lungful of air. Then I realised that the others were waiting for me to continue with the next part of the tune. I pushed my way through to the end of the line and recovered sufficiently during the following rests to be able to join in with the final bars of the piece which finished triumphantly.

I am not sure what the audience made of this odd, squealing interlude towards the end of the piece – I hope it sounded worse to me than to anyone else – but overall I think our performance of ‘Sacred Women’ was fairly presentable, with some really excellent playing. I was completely drained at the end – and in awe of those of my colleagues who went on to play two further pieces. I enjoyed the rest of the concert from the audience, discovering two other incredibly tuneful chamber works that were completely new to me.

Eric Ewazen’s ‘Roaring Fork’ is a contemporary wind quintet that conjures up the Rocky Mountains with a feel of Aaron Copland’s American soundscapes. And the ‘Nonet’ by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, written in 1894, is a gorgeous piece for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, ‘cello, double bass and piano. It was a lovely concert and I really enjoyed the experience of working with the Heliotrope Chamber Ensemble towards our performance of Jeff Scott’s ‘Sacred Women’, but I’m looking forward to returning to the relative safety of my position in the ranks of the Northampton Symphony Orchestra.

You can hear extracts from the Nevada premiere of ‘Sacred Women’ at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnvLtIIXO5A and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnf15_FhsHg.

'Parks and Recreation'

12 April 2013

Mock documentaries are hardly a new phenomenon: Rob Reiner’s seminal ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ was released in 1984. But, in recent years, the success of ‘The Office’ (on both sides of the Atlantic) has led to a rekindling of the mockumentary sitcom. For some people the high cringe factor of ‘The Office’ made it almost unwatchable – it was often painfully funny. Greg Daniels’ new US TV series ‘Parks and Recreation’ is much gentler and I’m completely hooked. Leslie Knope, Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation in Pawnee, Indiana (wonderfully played by Amy Poehler) is typical of the naïve, self-deluding, somewhat stupid protagonists of most mockumentaries – but, unlike David Brent, Leslie Knope is a really sympathetic character and we are completely on her side. She’s also slightly more knowing than she first appears, often realising afterwards what a stupid thing she has just done. Actually the whole cast of regular characters in ‘Parks and Recreation’ are pretty likeable: they all have their faults but they are basically nice people. ‘Parks and Recreation’ is also laugh-out-loud funny in quite an old-fashioned way despite the modern mockumentary approach. It creates ridiculous situations (the penguin gay marriage) and treats them seriously. The tone is more Laurel and Hardy than David Brent – and there’s some nice slapstick too. Best of all the nature of the documentary that appears to be being filmed is never mentioned: all the characters give knowing looks to camera but no-one ever explains why there are cameras in someone’s living room. All of ‘Parks and Recreation’ series 2 is still on BBC iPlayer: if you haven’t tried it yet I would recommend taking a look. Who knew local government could be so funny and charming!

'Mr Whatnot' by Alan Ayckbourn

4 April 2013

I’ve always loved comedy dancing – providing it is done with straight-faced seriousness like Laurel and Hardy in ‘Way Out West’ – and there was some great serious comedy dancing in the Northampton Royal and Derngate production of ‘Mr Whatnot’ by Alan Ayckbourn which we saw on Wednesday. Ayckbourn is known for his realistic dialogue and characters but this very early work (this production marks its 50^th anniversary) displays neither of these traits. ‘Mr Whatnot’ is a celebration of mime and comic caricature – and it was laugh-out-loud funny. The Northampton production is directed by Cal McCrystal who was Physical Comedy Director for the National Theatre production of ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ (reviewed here in October 2011) and has previously worked with the marvellous Spymonkey (reviewed here in February 2012). He has created a wonderful combination of physical theatre, mime, dance and slapstick which is charmingly silly. ‘Mr Whatnot’ is a stage cousin of the silent film comedy genre with a character at its heart that could have been played by Buster Keaton or Norman Wisdom. Though there is some dialogue, most of the action is conveyed by mime, involving perfect co-ordination with an extensive range of sound effects. The speechless hero (played here by Juanma Rodriguez) is a loveable chancer with a twinkle in his eye and a strong sense of mischief. There is very little plot, some remarkably over-the-top acting and it’s all terribly childish, but on Wednesday it had a packed audience laughing uncontrollably all the way through. ‘Mr Whatnot’ is not what we have come to think of as an Alan Ayckbourn play but this production was great fun.

'The Virgin Suicides' by Jeffrey Eugenides

4 April 2013

I really enjoyed Jeffrey Eugenides’ 2002 novel ‘Middlesex’ and its successor ‘The Marriage Plot’ (reviewed here in August 2012) but I have only just got around to reading the book that made his name, his 1993 debut novel ‘The Virgin Suicides’ (which was later filmed by Sofia Coppola). The concept of a story about five teenage sisters committing suicide hadn’t seemed very appealing but the book is much funnier than I was expecting. There is a macabre black humour throughout that is extremely entertaining without ever belittling the seriousness of the events. The novel is beautifully written and very witty (“[he] arrived every morning with the hopeless expression of a man draining a swamp with a kitchen sponge”). The story is told by nameless neighbours of the doomed girls through their first-hand observations of the tragic happenings and a series of interviews – many years later – with members of the family and the wider community. Eugenides builds a detailed picture of a neighbourhood containing a host of idiosyncratic characters which reminded me of John Steinbeck’s ‘Cannery Row’. And the way the narrative is constructed through interviews with the ageing protagonists long after the events they are describing made me think of ‘Citizen Kane’. ‘The Virgin Suicides’ does exactly what it says on the cover – but it’s a much more entertaining and enjoyable journey than you might expect.

'Rutherford & Son' by Githa Sowerby

3 April 2013

One of the highlights of our visit to the Edinburgh Fringe last August was Hannah Davies’ one-woman show ‘Githa’ which told the story of the early 20th century playwright Githa Sowerby and the amazing success of her first play ‘Rutherford & Son’ in 1912. So I was delighted to see that Northern Broadsides are touring a new production of ‘Rutherford & Son’, directed by Jonathan Miller, edited (and relocated from the North East to Yorkshire) by Blake Morrison and starring Northern Broadsides Artistic Director Barrie Rutter as the patriarchal tyrant John Rutherford. We saw the play at Watford Palace Theatre on Saturday and it didn’t disappoint. It’s a grim tale of a ruthless industrialist who has built a successful family firm (a glassworks) and rules over both the firm and his family with a fierce uncompromising determination. The plight of the women in the family in particular – whom Rutherford barely deigns to talk to – is emphasised by the gloom of the barely lit set. But the Northern Broadsides production manages to find humour amongst the desperation. And ‘Rutherford & Son’ has a very clever and well-plotted twist. An excellent play by a pioneering but largely forgotten female playwright.

North York Moors

3 April 2013

Despite me telling everyone that the last week in March invariably heralds the first warmer weather of the year, our week on the North York Moors proved to be incredibly cold. We were lucky, however, in that we avoided the severe snow that beset many other parts of the country and, while we had some light coverings of snow during the week, our travel wasn’t impeded at all. We loved the North York Moors national park – stunning scenery in a relatively compact and self-contained area. We stayed in a little village called Houlsyke on the North edge of the moors, near to the North York Moors Visitor Centre at Danby. We did some great walks – over Ainthorpe Rigg into Little Fryup Dale, along the coastal path into Robin Hood’s Bay and up Roseberry Topping. We visited Whitby, Scarborough and Filey. It was an area I had never visited before and we will definitely return – but it felt more like Christmas than Easter!

Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert

21 March 2013

The viola is the often the poor relation amongst orchestral instruments, the butt of many jokes, the unglamorous middle of the string section. So it was interesting, last Saturday, to take part in a concert that positively celebrated the musical possibilities of the viola. I was playing with Milton Keynes Sinfonia in a programme which began and ended with fine viola solos by the orchestra’s principal viola player, Julian Pentz, in Elgar’s ‘In The South’ and Vaughan Williams’ ‘Symphony No 2 (A London Symphony)’. The filling in this viola sandwich was William Walton’s ‘Viola Concerto’ – a wonderful but fiendishly difficult work, impressively performed by Emma Sheppard (who was, until last year, the principal viola for English National Ballet). It was a lovely programme and a very enjoyable concert, with some great playing throughout the orchestra and a host of exquisite solos by a variety of players – but this time the limelight belonged to the viola.

'How Music Works' by David Byrne

15 March 2013

In 1985 a school friend lent me his copy of the Talking Heads LP ‘Little Creatures’ – the album that contains ‘Road to Nowhere’ and ‘And She Was’. I listened to the record a couple of times and quickly returned it, saying I thought there were a couple of good songs but I didn’t like the singer’s voice. Ah, the foolishness of youth! A year later I went to see David Byrne’s charmingly quirky film ‘True Stories’, bought the ‘True Stories’ Talking Heads album and was completely hooked. Since then, the music of David Byrne has become an essential part of the soundtrack of my life. I was blown away by his 1989 Latin album ‘Rei Momo’, and his 2001 masterpiece ‘Look into the Eyeball’ is one of my all-time favourite records – though only narrowly beating its 2004 successor ‘Grown Backwards’. So I had been very much looking forward to reading David Byrne’s new book, ‘How Music Works’ (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Andrew Garman). ‘How Music Works’ is part memoir – reminiscing about the early years of Talking Heads, the recording of most of Byrne’s studio albums and the experience of particular live shows – and part Reith Lecture. He looks at how the buildings in which music is performed have influenced compositional style, the process of musical collaboration, the economic models of the music business and the earliest human origins of music. I was particularly interested in his description of the process of developing his disco song cycle about the life of Imelda Marcos, ‘Here Lies Love’ (a collaboration with Fatboy Slim, reviewed here in April 2010). He talks about music education, citing our mutual Brazilian friends AfroReggae, El Sistema in Venezuela and the work of Youth Music in the UK. He also provides a fascinating encyclopaedic history of recording technologies and their effect on the writing, performance and consumption of music. Then, just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, David Byrne devotes a whole chapter to amateurs. He says:

“The act of making music, art, clothes, or even food, has a very different and possibly more beneficial effect on us than simply consuming those things. And yet, for a very long time, the attitude of the state toward teaching and funding the arts has been in direct opposition to fostering creativity among the general population. It can often seem that those in power don’t want us to enjoy making things for ourselves. They’d prefer to establish a cultural hierarchy that devalues our amateur efforts and encourages consumption rather than creation.” 

He goes on to suggest that: 

“by encouraging the creativity of amateurs, rather than telling them that they should passively accept the creativity of designated masters, we help build a social and cultural network that will have profound repercussions”. 

‘How Music Works’ is a little rambling at times, undoubtedly idiosyncratic and very much in David Byrne’s unique voice, but it’s a brilliant book – highly recommended. 

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

8 March 2013

The Northampton Symphony Orchestra was back in the magnificent auditorium of the Derngate in Northampton last Saturday for an evening of ballet music, compered by Angela Rippon. We played an extensive range of ballet excerpts including popular favourites (Tchaikovsky’s suite from ‘Swan Lake’, the ‘Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia’ from ‘Spartacus’ by Khachaturian and the ‘Clog Dance’ from ‘La fille mal gardée’ by Ferdinand Hérold) and the achingly beautiful ending of Prokofiev’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. We finished the concert with the suite from ‘The Firebird’ by Stravinsky – a challenge for any orchestra but one which I think we rose to. Towards the end of the suite there is a moment, after the violence of the famous ‘Infernal Dance’ has subsided and the haunting bassoon melody of the ‘Berceuse’ has died away, when sparse string chords fade away to silence. Then, out of nothing, comes the horn solo that ushers in the finale. It’s a beautiful moment but I can now tell you from personal experience that it is incredibly nerve-wracking being the horn player waiting for what seems like an age to play that solo. It’s not a particularly difficult phrase (there were much more difficult solos earlier in the concert including those performed wonderfully by Kathy Roberts on oboe, Nick Bunker on trumpet and an amazingly beautiful harp cadenza) but, coming at the end of the most difficult piece at the end of a long concert was a bit like stepping up to take a penalty after playing extra time. I am relieved to say I didn’t blast the ball over the bar – it seemed to go okay and the concert ended on a high. 

'The Beginners Goodbye' by Anne Tyler

1 March 2013

It's always a pleasure to get your hands on a new novel by Anne Tyler - one of my favourite authors. Her gentle, amusing and moving Baltimore tales of ordinary people flirting with live-changing events wear their cleverness lightly and manage to be both enjoyable and thought-provoking. I've just finished reading Anne Tyler's latest novel 'The Beginners Goodbye' (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Kirby Heybourne). 'The Beginners Goodbye' is familiar Anne Tyler territory - suburban Baltimore life, polite but strained family relationships and a quirky small business - but it's a very sad book dealing with grief at the loss of a spouse. As with Anne Tyler's previous novel 'Noah's Compass' (reviewed here in May 2010) I got the impression she was rewriting 'The Accidental Tourist'. There are some strong parallels between the two books with the male narrator left alone, moving back to his family home with eccentric sibling(s) and making his living from publishing a series of guidebooks. As with 'Noah's Compass', 'The Beginners Goodbye' feels like a more mature work than 'The Accidental Tourist' but this time I yearned for more light-relief. There is humour and the usual lightness of touch but I missed the comic set pieces of some of her earlier novels.

'One for the Road' by Willy Russell

21 February 2013

The Royal Theatre, Northampton, reopened after refurbishment in 2006 with ‘Follies’ by Stephen Sondheim (reviewed here in November 2006) which was the first production by the Royal and Derngate’s new Artistic Director, Laurie Sansom. This week we were back at the Royal for Laurie Sansom’s final offering before he leaves to become Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Scotland. His Northampton swansong was the appropriately titled ‘One for the Road’ by Willy Russell. I’ve enjoyed Laurie Sansom’s work at Northampton. While avoiding the ambitious excesses of his predecessor, Rupert Goold (a hard act to follow), he has demonstrated a lightness of touch, a mastery of music and a great ability for comedy, across a very varied range of material. Laurie Sansom productions which stand out for me from the past seven years include ‘Follies’, a marvellous ‘Wizard of Oz’ (reviewed here in January 2009), 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' (reviewed here in September 2008) and 'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein' adapted by Lisa Evans (reviewed here in February 2008) – all of which incorporated local amateur actors alongside a professional cast. I also fondly remember Sansom’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s ‘Private Fears in Public Places’ – with the audience seated on the stage, amongst the action (reviewed here in July 2009) and the surreal televisual farce 'Soap' by Sarah Woods (reviewed here in April 2007) with its magnificent revolving stage.

‘One for the Road’ is a Willy Russell comedy originally written in 1976 but significantly revised in 1985 (to set the action in the 1980s). A disastrous dinner party in a new housing estate somewhere in the North of England leads two couples to question what they are doing with their lives and to wish for the freedom of the open road. ‘One for the Road’ feels like a cottage pie (or ‘hachis au parmentier’) incorporating ingredients including Mike Leigh’s ‘Abigail’s Party’ (with John Denver here standing in for Demis Roussos), Tom Stoppard’s ‘The Real Thing’ (but with ‘Wogan’ rather than ‘Desert Island Discs’) and 'Neighbourhood Watch' by Alan Ayckbourn (reviewed here in March 2012) (with its common theme of suburban gnome vandalism). Willy Russell’s play predates all of these so it is a little unfair to suggest it felt derivative. It was a very funny show with a dark Ayckbournian sting in the tail and a nice way to say farewell to Laurie Sansom.