'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.

'Canada' by Richard Ford

15 February 2013

"First, I'll tell you about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later." The opening sentences of Richard Ford's 2012 novel, 'Canada', seemed immediately destined for classic status. It's an intriguing start to an interesting book (which I read as an unabridged audio book, read by Peter Marinker). The narrator of the novel is Dell Parsons - a 15-year old boy throughout the novel's main events, though the narrative voice is the adult Dell remembering these events. It's 1960 and Dell and his twin sister Berner are the children of an apparently 'normal' family in Great Falls, Montana. 'Canada' looks at the relatively small steps that can transform ordinary lives into the extraordinary. When Dell's father gets into financial difficulties he decides to rob a bank. But he's not really a bank robber and his ineptitude splits his family apart. Though once he has robbed a bank he is a bank robber isn't he? Dell is puzzled by the way in which people become defined (and redefined) by their actions. Despite its focus on dramatic, life-changing events, 'Canada' is a slow book which builds a detailed picture of the ordinary lives which are to be forever changed. And it has a strange structure: halfway through we are suddenly in a new setting with a completely new set of characters in which Dell is the only link to the first part of the novel. Soon, however, we realise that we are following a familiar pattern as Dell's new life is turned upside down. 'Canada' takes us "where many bad events originate, from just an inch away from the everyday".

'Borgen' by Adam Price

7 February 2013

I am a big fan of political drama. I have fond memories of the BBC Radio 4 dramas ‘The House’ by Christopher Lee and ‘Number 10’ by Jonathan Myerson, and the TV adaptation of ‘A Very British Coup’ by Chris Mullin, as well as ‘Yes Minister’ and ‘The Thick of It’. But I can’t think of any better example of the genre than ‘Borgen’ – the Danish TV series by Adam Price. I’ve just finished watching the second series of ‘Borgen’ on BBC Four and I’m getting withdrawal symptoms already. Sidse Babett Knudsen is wonderful as as Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg: you can see the angst in her face as she tries to balance doing the right thing with the need for political compromise. The reality of coalition politics is frustrating and fascinating. The character of spin doctor Kasper Juul (played by Pilou Asbæk) manages to be both despicable and sympathetic and his on/off relationship with journalist Katrine Fønsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) is a constant sub-plot. If you’re missing ‘Borgen’ too I would recommend Vicky Frost’s excellent episode-by-episode blog on the Guardian website, see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/series/borgen-episode-by-episode (but beware of spoilers if you are still watching series two).