'Pygmalion' by George Bernard Shaw
28 September 2023
On Saturday we were at the Old Vic in London to see Richard Jones' new production of 'Pygmalion' by George Bernard Shaw. Like many people I'm very familiar with the musical 'My Fair Lady' but I don't think I had ever seen the original play that inspired it. The first half of the play feels so close to the musical you keep expecting the characters to burst into those familiar songs. But after the interval the play becomes more interesting, darker and a more philosophical moral discussion. In this production Bertie Carvel plays a fairly unlikeable Henry Higgins with the remarkable Patsy Ferran as Eliza Doolittle and John Marquez almost stealing the show as Alfred Doolittle. We first saw Patsy Ferran in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of 'The Merchant of Venice' (reviewed here in August 2015). She's a wonderful physical actor: her movement across the stage is fascinating and she embodied Eliza's transition from flower girl to duchess beautifully and believably. The Old Vic production drew on the text of both the original 1913 play and Shaw's own Oscar-winning screenplay for the 1938 film version, using excerpts from the music written for the film by Arthur Honegger (reviewed here in December 2005). Although it is presented as a fairly light comedy, Pygmalion's gender politics is more modern than I had expected. But this production is worth seeing for Patsy Ferran's performance alone.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
'Constant Companions' by Alan Ayckbourn
21 September 2023
On Monday we made our first visit to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough to see Alan Ayckbourn’s new play ‘Constant Companions’. Stephen Joseph pioneered theatre-in-the-round and the theatre that bears his name - and where Alan Ayckbourn has premiered almost all of his plays - is a lovely, intimate auditorium, with a steep rake on all four sides, which gives everyone a great view and makes you feel like you are sitting on the stage. ‘Constant Companions’ is Ayckbourn’s 89th play and sticks to his principle of using a simple, single set that would be easy for an amateur theatre company to reproduce. Set in the near future, the play explores the potential evolution of our relationship with sentient machines, as humans grow increasingly attached to the androids they have built as their servants. As always, Ayckbourn’s light comedy disguises darker underlying messages, which here echo the current debates about artificial intelligence. ‘Constant Companions’ is told through three separate but linked alternating stories which each develop through completely different timeframes. Ayckbourn likes to play with concepts of time, but manages to do so in a way that is both quite complex (if you were to try to explain it) but completely clear and understandable (as you watch it). The ensemble cast all capture the fine balance between sit-com caricature and genuine poignancy - with Leigh Symonds as Winston and Naomi Petersen as ED, the ‘faulty’ android he has been sent to repair, providing the emotional centre to the play. This is the ninth Alan Ayckbourn play I have reviewed here but it was wonderful to see a premiere production, directed by Ayckbourn himself, at the Stephen Joseph Theatre for the first time.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
'Wiener Philharmoniker Fanfare' by Richard Strauss
15 September 2023
Like many amateur arts groups, the Northampton Symphony Orchestra has now restarted its weekly rehearsals and we are preparing for our next concert, which is on 14 October. During the period between our Friends Concert each July and the orchestra starting again at the beginning of September I like to keep playing my French horn. This year I set myself the challenge of recording Richard Strauss’s ‘Fanfare for the Vienna Philharmonic’. This joyous fanfare was written for 8 horns, 6 trumpets and 6 trombones. I played all 20 parts on the horn to create a multi-track recording. This project took me most of August. The piece lasts just over two minutes but it was surprisingly difficult to play any of the parts perfectly in just one take. I re-recorded many sections, creating an enormous number of partial tracks. But I decided I wouldn’t cheat by adjusting the pitch or speed of my recordings. About halfway through I did begin to wish I hadn’t embarked on this challenge! But I persevered, and although there are plenty of mistakes in the finished recording it was still very satisfying to complete it. You can hear the results of my vanity project at: https://youtu.be/C-J_m2a6L3w (please be kind about it!)
Labels: Music
'The Husband's Secret' by Liane Moriarty
8 September 2023
Having enjoyed Liane Moriarty's novel 'Apples Never Fall' (reviewed here in September 2022) I have now finished reading her 2013 book 'The Husband's Secret'. I was a little sceptical by one of the cover quotes which described the novel as "literally unputdownable" but I have to say that's not far from the truth. Liane Moriarty is very much the Australian Anne Tyler - writing about suburban domestic family life in which the comfortable equilibrium is threatened by an expected turn of events or someone's sudden desire for a change. 'The Husband's Secret' weaves the stories of three women in short chapters that alternate between their three viewpoints, with their narratives gradually starting to overlap. It is this structure that makes it so compelling, with many chapters ending on a mini-cliffhanger that is often not resolved until the point of view shifts back three chapters later. The novel revolves around an incredibly difficult ethical choice and, while it is too gentle and thoughtful to be classed as a thriller, there are three devastating end of chapter surprises that I genuinely didn't see coming.
Labels: Books
'42nd Street' by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble with songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin
8 September 2023
Having recently seen one of my two favourite musicals, ‘Guys and Dolls’, at the Bridge Theatre in London (reviewed here in May 2023), it was a real treat to see my other favourite musical ‘42nd Street’ at Milton Keynes Theatre last Friday. ‘42nd Street’ is a classic tap dance musical with songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. It is based on a 1933 film but didn’t become a stage musical until 1980. Jonathan Church’s production for Leicester Curve is great fun, with some amazing performances. There’s nowhere to hide with tap, as the audience can hear if any of the steps are misplaced, but the precision in Bill Deamer’s choreography on Friday evening was very impressive. And Nicole-Lily Baisden was wonderful as Peggy Sawyer - the chorus girl getting her big break (“Sawyer, you're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!”). ‘42nd Street’ is a celebration of song and dance - the quintessential show about putting on a show, with the bare minimum of plot. I hadn’t spotted it before but one of the songs (‘Dames’) includes the line “but who cares if there’s a plot or not”. This version of the show didn’t quite match the once-in-a-lifetime experience of seeing Mark Bramble’s stunning production of ‘42nd Street’ at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 2017 (reviewed here in August 2017) with its massive cast of 55 people on stage (compared to 26 in the Leicester Curve production). But the combination of Warren & Dubin’s melodies and the ensemble tap-dance routines are always guaranteed to put a smile on your face.
Labels: Musicals, Theatre
'The Lion House' by Christopher de Bellaigue
1 September 2023
Having become fascinated with the Ottoman Empire after listening to the excellent Empire podcast (reviewed here in January 2023) I was intrigued to hear Rory Stewart (on The Rest is Politics podcast) recommending 'The Lion House', a novel by Christopher de Bellaigue set in the court of Suleyman the Magnificent. 'The Lion House', which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Barnaby Edwards, starts in 1522, two years after Suleyman succeeded his father, Selim I, as Sultan. Christopher de Bellaigue outlines the rivalry and connections between Suleyman's Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire of Charles V, King Francis I of France, King Henry VIII of England, the Pope and the Doge of Venice. He introduces us to some of the key characters in Suleyman's court, including: Ibrahim - the Greek slave who became Suleyman's Grand Vizier; Alvise Gritti - the illegitimate son of the Doge of Venice who served Suleyman as an Ottoman Minister and Regent of Hungary; Suleyman's Polish wife Roxelana; and Barbarossa - the Barbary pirate who was appointed admiral of the Ottoman fleet. 'The Lion House' is more of an old-fashioned, slightly fictionalised, history book rather than a novel. It tells the macro story of Suleyman's Empire from the position of omniscient narrator, with very little dialogue. But it's a fascinating story.
Labels: Books
Edinburgh Festivals 2023
1 September 2023
We had a great time at the Edinburgh festivals last week. This year we decided to go for 5 days rather than our usual 7, but we still managed to see 20 shows - and we chose well. I’m grateful to Kelly for her recommendations which were among our favourites. ‘Beautiful Evil Things’ was a one-woman show from Ad Infinitum in which Deborah Pugh plays the decapitated head of Medusa telling us the story of the Trojan Wars in a tour de force of physical theatre and story-telling. ‘Her Green Hell’ was another amazing one-woman performance, from TheatreGoose, with Sophie Kean playing the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Peruvian jungle, trying to make her way to safety - the remarkable true story of Juliane Koepcke and the 1971 LANSA Flight 508 plane crash. We also loved Out of the Forest theatre’s production: ‘The Brief Life & Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria’. King Boris III chose to ally with Hitler’s Germany rather than Russia in the Second World War but went on to undermine the Nazi’s plans, saving the lives of around 50,000 Bulgarian Jews before apparently being assassinated. Joseph Cullen and Sasha Wilson’s play with a cast of five was a hilarious comic pantomime that also managed to present a fascinating and respectful account of this forgotten episode in European history. We went to two stunning orchestral concerts at the Usher Hall. We saw the Oslo Philharmonic, conducted by Klaus Makela, give a thrilling performance of Shostakovich’s ‘Symphony No 5’. They also accompanied Yuja Wang playing both Ravel’s ‘Piano Concerto in G major’ and his ‘Piano Concerto for the Left Hand’ - which we played with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra a few years ago (reviewed here in November 2017). And we really enjoyed seeing the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra from Venezuela playing the Beethoven Choral Symphony with the Edinburgh Festival Chorus - with conductor Rafael Payare pushing the pace throughout.
Labels: Drama, Festivals, Music, Theatre
