'The Hanging Tree' by Ben Aaronovitch
17 August 2022
It was 2018 when I discovered Ben Aaronovitch’s series of novels about London police officer Peter Grant who is seconded to the Metropolitan Police’s secret division of wizards dealing with magic and supernatural crimes. ‘Rivers of London’ (reviewed here in June 2018) was a very entertaining blend of real-world policing and fantasy that was clever, thrilling and very funny. Since then I’ve been gradually working my way through the other books in the series and I’ve just finished the sixth novel ‘The Hanging Tree’, which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Kobna Holdrook-Smith. I think this was the best yet - beginning to bring together the historical backstory of magical practitioners that Peter Grant has been trying to understand, and taking Peter and his wizard boss, Detective Chief Inspector Nightingale, ever closer to their arch-enemy – The Faceless Man. It’s a peculiar combination of crime fiction and fantasy, rooted in a very real contemporary London but forever slipping into the magical demi-monde - and never taking itself too seriously.
Labels: Books
'Prima Facie' by Suzi Miller
12 August 2022
On Tuesday we were at the Curzon Cinema at Milton Keynes Gallery to see the NT Live screening of 'Prima Facie' by Suzi Miller from the Harold Pinter Theatre in London. This new play is presented as a partnership with the charity The Schools Consent Project which was set up in 2014 by barrister Kate Parker to send lawyers into schools to teach 11-18 year olds the legal definition of consent and key sexual offences. 'Prima Facie' looks at the issue of consent through the story of Tessa Ensler, a young barrister who has made a name for herself defending men accused of sexual assault. It's a remarkable one-woman play which marks Jodie Comer's West End debut. Justin Martin's production uses an inventive set by Miriam Buether framed with towering bookshelves filled with legal ring binders, and features music by Rebecca Lucy Taylor AKA Self Esteem. Suzi Miller's script is powerful, witty and cleverly constructed. But this is very much Jodie Comer's show and she is superb. Like many monologues, the script would make a good radio play. But Jodie Comer's physical acting is fascinating, constantly moving the furniture to construct different scenes in her story, leaping onto the desk to deliver a speech and pouring a full glass of water perfectly without looking. And her facial expressions, wonderfully clear in close-up in the cinema screening, tell much of the story by themselves. She has an incredible skill for accents (as she demonstrated in 'Killing Eve'), here seamlessly switching between two characters when recounting a conversation. It's a captivating, compelling masterclass in dramatic storytelling which reminded me of Kizzy Dunn’s brilliant one-woman performance of ‘Henry V’ that we saw at the Edinburgh Fringe four years ago (reviewed here in August 2018). 'Prima Facie' is an amazing show - funny, distressing and enraging: an extraordinary solo performance by Jodie Comer.
Labels: Drama, Film, Theatre
'As You Like It' by William Shakespeare
9 August 2022
Last Friday evening we were at Wrest Park in Silsoe to see an outdoor performance of ‘As You Like It’ by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men who specialise in very traditional productions of Shakespeare plays, with an all male cast and Elizabethan costume – giving you a good idea of what it must have been like to see the plays when they were first performed. A year ago, at the same venue, we saw their production of ‘Macbeth’ (reviewed here in August 2021). ‘As You Like It’ provided another opportunity to see one of Shakespeare’s gender-swapping comedies making much more sense than it usually does - as we experienced with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men production of ‘Twelfth Night’ (reviewed here in August 2009). Somehow, with a female actor playing a woman pretending to be a man you never believe anyone would actually fall for the disguise. But when (as it would have been in Shakespeare’s time) it is a male actor playing a woman dressed as a man, it is easier to suspend your disbelief and go with the plot. Peter Stickney’s production of ‘As You Like It’ was great fun, with a very impressive cast including stand-out performances by Ben Lynn as Rosalind and Jonny Warr as Celia.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
WOMAD 2022
1 August 2022
Last weekend saw the return of the WOMAD Festival after a two-year break for the pandemic, and celebrating 40 years since the first ‘World of Music, Arts and Dance’ Festival in Shepton Mallet in 1982. I first went to WOMAD in 2003 and I’ve been at every UK WOMAD Festival since. WOMAD moved to its current home - the enormous Charlton Park, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire - in 2007, and it was lovely to return there last Friday in glorious sunshine. Over the weekend I managed to see 16 full performances, and caught snippets of many others. I enjoyed Khiyo, a band from Bangladesh and the UK who play a rock-version of Bengali folk and film songs. Sam Amidon from Vermont USA gave a stunning performance on the Charlie Gillett Stage, reinterpreting early 20th century American folk music for a contemporary audience. It was lovely to see the Gambian kora player Sona Jobarteh talking about her music and playing duets with her 15-year-old son on balafon in the intimate World Rhythms tent. And it was a real treat to finally get the chance to see the poet and rapper Kae Tempest (whose recordings I have written about here before - in October 2014, October 2016 and August 2019) performing the new album ‘The Line Is A Curve’ in its entirety, to a packed Siam Tent. I liked Afghan singer Elaha Soroor’s collaboration with the group Kefaya - turning Afghan folk songs into rock, electronica and dub. It was wonderful to see Nitin Sawhney again - the highlight of my first WOMAD in 2003 - giving a brilliant performance on Saturday evening. But my pick of WOMAD 2022 was the amazing Korean band ADG7 (Ak Dan Gwang Chil). The group consists of six traditional musicians playing acoustic Korean instruments, accompanying three flamboyantly dressed female vocalists with impressively choreographed routines. They take Korean shamanic folk traditions and present them in a catchy K-pop style. The concept sounds horrendous but the result is surprisingly wonderful. To give you a flavour, here is a clip of the band performing at Womex in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9XTmH8U4nA You can see a selection of my photos from this year’s WOMAD Festival at: https://culturaloutlook.blogspot.com/search/label/WOMAD2022
