'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.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
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.
Labels: Holidays
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.Labels: Concerts, Festivals, Music
