'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by William Shakespeare
18 October 2019
On Thursday we made a second visit to the Curzon Cinema at Milton Keynes Gallery to see a screening of Nicholas Hytner’s production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', filmed live at the Bridge Theatre in London. This is an immersive promenade performance with the actors moving amongst a standing audience, in a similar way to Hytner’s spectacular production of ‘Julius Caesar’ at the Bridge Theatre (reviewed here in April 2018). Once again the crowd control, by discreetly positioned stewards within the audience, was very slick – with the audience parting at just the right moment to let the actors through. Nicholas Hytner sets the opening Athens scenes of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in a fiercely patriarchal society clearly modelled on the TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. And once the action moves into the forest he references Peter Brook’s legendary 1970 RSC production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by deploying a team of aerial gymnasts on trapezes above the audience. The production is great fun with a multitude of clever gimmicks and additions (maybe too many). Nicholas Hytner’s main innovation – which works wonderfully – is to swap the roles of Oberon and Titania, making the sexual politics of the dream funnier and much less creepy. Gwendoline Christie is magnificent as Titantia/Hippolyta but Oliver Chris threatens to steal the show as Oberon/Theseus. David Moorst is very funny and incredibly athletic as Puck and the lovers are excellent, particularly Tessa Bonham Jones as Helena. The rude mechanicals are also extremely funny – led by Felicity Montagu as Quince and featuring a brilliantly vulnerable performance by Hammed Animashaun as Bottom. The end of the first half of the play and the finale both turn the auditorium into a massive party and it looked like great fun to be part of the promenading audience in the pit. My only criticism was that some of the added tricks and business distracted a little from what are usually the funniest scenes of the play. I don’t think it quite matched the cinema screening of Julie Taymor's amazing 2014 production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at the Theater for a New Audience in Brooklyn, New York (reviewed here in August 2015) but the Bridge Theatre performance was incredibly enjoyable and left me beaming.
Labels: Drama, Film, Theatre
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
14 October 2019
On Saturday I was at St Matthews Church in Northampton for the first concert in the Northampton Symphony Orchestra’s 126th concert season. This concert was part of the 14th Malcolm Arnold Festival and we played three pieces by the Northampton-born composer. The ‘Peterloo Overture’ featured brilliant playing by our percussion section, evoking the violent events at St Peter’s Fields, Manchester on 16 August 1819. Arnold’s ‘Variations on a Theme of Ruth Gipps’ is a rarely performed work that pays tribute to his friend and contemporary – a prolific composer and celebrated conductor who deserves greater recognition. Stolen Face is a 1952 Hammer horror film directed by Terence Fisher for which Malcolm Arnold wrote the music. Philip Lane’s transcription of the score is a mini piano concerto which we performed with Rhythmie Wong – an award-winning pianist from Hong Kong. Rhythmie also joined us to play the ‘Piano Concerto No 2’ by Rachmaninov. Such a well-known virtuosic work is a real challenge for soloist and orchestra but Rhythmie Wong’s performance was flawless and the orchestral accompaniment was impressive – with a particularly beautiful clarinet solo in the slow movement by Naomi Muller. It’s an incredibly emotional piece of music which always moves me to tears
("Oh, no, please, it's only something in my eye"). We finished the concert with another powerfully romantic piece, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Fantasy Overture: Romeo and Juliet' which cleverly portrays the key elements of the story of the star-crossed lovers. It was a lovely concert which played to a packed and enthusiastic audience.
Labels: Concerts, Music
'Ask Again, Yes' by Mary Beth Keane
11 October 2019
I really enjoyed 'Ask Again, Yes', the new novel by Mary Beth Keane, which I've just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Molly Pope. It's a family saga which follows the families of two New York cops who live next door to each other. A shockingly violent incident drives a wedge between the families and has repercussions for decades. Aspects of the story reminded me of 'The Goldfinch' (reviewed here in February 2014) and Mary Beth Keane's ability to make the reader simultaneously sympathise with characters who have diametrically opposed views rivals Jonathan Franzen in 'The Corrections' (reviewed here in Februy 2015). 'Ask Again, Yes' also has a lot in common with 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' by Lionel Shriver (reviewed here in August 2006). This is exalted company for a contemporary novel but is totally deserved. Mary Beth Keane resists a multitude of possible corny plot twists to present a moving and believably realistic picture of flawed people dealing with difficult situations as well as they can.
Labels: Books
'A Flavour of Flitwick' Fun Palace
11 October 2019
On Saturday morning I was at Flitwick library for the Fun Palace, 'A Flavour of Flitwick'. There were plenty of people taking part in creative and science activities, including lots of very young children. They were painting and drawing, engaging in a foreign language quiz and practicing the strange art of bookfolding (see:
https://youtu.be/S0asVzuW7y4). Local air cadets were supervising a paper aeroplane challenge, a group of adults were playing whist and there was a lot of Lego on the floor. Someone was tentatively tapping out a tune on an upright piano and a circle of chairs, each containing a ukulele, promised more music to come. It was certainly a fun environment, with people genuinely enjoying themselves and trying new things for the first time. This was one of 390 Fun Palaces that took place across the country last weekend, see:
http://funpalaces.co.uk/ Labels: Festivals, Music, VisualArt
Ben Goldscheider
2 October 2019
The 2016 BBC Young Musician competition (reviewed here in May 2016) felt like one of the best ever, with a concerto final at The Barbican in London that featured saxophonist Jess Gillam and ‘cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. The third finalist was the horn player Ben Goldscheider who played the 'Concerto No 2' by Richard Strauss. Ben Goldscheider went on to study at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin and is making a name for himself as a soloist around the world, having played at the BBC Proms and the Berlin Philharmonie. He has benefited from taking part in many young musician competitions in addition to BBC Young Musician, but the only competition in which he won the overall prize was the 2013 Toddington Young Musician of the Year, organised by Toddington Music Society. Last Saturday Ben Goldscheider returned to the Bedfordshire village of Toddington to thank Toddington Music Society for their help in setting him on the ladder to a professional career by performing a recital with the pianist Richard Uttley. They played pieces by Beethoven, Dukas, Tchaikovsky, Hindemith and Richard Strauss. It was great to see Ben play: his technique is amazing and he makes a lovely sound. I was ready and waiting in case he fell ill and they might need to ask if there was a horn player in the audience – but it was probably better for everyone that Ben made it safely through the concert!
Labels: Concerts, Music
'Inspector Drake and the Time Machine' by David Tristram
2 October 2019
One of the highlights of the offerings from our excellent local amateur theatre company TADS over the past ten years, has been the trilogy of ‘Inspector Drake’ plays by David Tristram, starring local amateur actors Joe Butcher and Kevin Birkett as the mercurial Inspector and his intellectually challenged sidekick, Sergeant Plod. We really enjoyed ‘Inspector Drake and the Black Widow’ (reviewed here in April 2009), ‘Inspector Drake and the Perfekt Crime’ (reviewed here in July 2010) and ‘Inspector Drake’s Last Case’ (reviewed here in April 2011). It was wonderful, therefore, to be back at the TADS Theatre in Toddington last weekend to see David Tristram’s new play ‘Inspector Drake and the Time Machine’. But it was sad to discover that this performance was dedicated to the fond memory of Kevin Birkett. Dave Hillman stepped into Kevin’s formidable flat-footed shoes to play Sergeant Plod, accompanying the brilliant Joe Butcher as the Clouseau-like Inspector who seems oblivious of the most obvious things happening around him but still somehow manages to solve the case. It was another festival of corny puns, with much breaking of the fourth wall – and the added plot complications resulting from time travel. And reassuringly, as usual at the end of the play, the Inspector was presented with a briefcase covered in wrapping paper just so that he can say “well, that’s another case wrapped up”.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
