'Utopia Avenue' by David Mitchell

 25 September 2020

Regular readers may remember that I am a David Mitchell completist, having read all his novels. I was looking forward to his new book ‘Utopia Avenue’ (which I read as an unabridged audio book narrated by Andrew Wincott) – the tale of a fictional English rock band in the late 1960s. But I am sorry to say I found this David Mitchell novel a bit disappointing. I think one of the reasons I have always liked his books is that we are almost the same age (he was born just over six months after me) and we therefore seem to share many of the same cultural references. So it was a surprise to find that he had set ‘Utopia Avenue’ just before we were born, making it more of a researched period piece. It was wonderful to return to Mitchell’s beautifully written prose – deceptively simple with hidden depths. And, for David Mitchell fans, as always there are lots of very satisfyingly oblique references to his earlier novels. Indeed, the high point of ‘Utopia Avenue’ for me was a chapter which connects the universe, and some of the characters, from his fantastical epic ‘The Bone Clocks’ (reviewed here in October 2014) both with ‘Utopia Avenue’ and with the plot of his 18th century historical saga 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet’ (reviewed here in August 2011). Sadly the rest of the new novel is a fairly straightforward tale of the formation, rapid rise and decline of the eponymous band – focussing in turn on each of its four members and their manager. It’s full of period detail and slightly too full of cameo appearances by a host of real 1960s celebrities. You get the impression that David Mitchell is enjoying weaving these actual personalities into his fictional plot a little too much. And some of the cameo appearances are really quite clunky (with people saying “are you Humphrey Lyttleton the jazz trumpeter?”, “Francis Bacon the painter?” etc). I enjoyed following the lives of the five main characters as a kind a soap-opera but the plot didn’t pull the rug from under your feet in the way some of Mitchell’s earlier novels did.

Surrey

 25 September 2020

We were very lucky to have picked last week for our cottage holiday in the Surrey hills: we had glorious weather all week and did lots of great walks in some stunning countryside. We were staying near to the Hampshire border and visited the amazing natural amphitheatre of the Devil’s Punch Bowl – Europe's largest spring-eroded valley, as well as Alice Holt Forest and Frensham Ponds. We also did lovely walks from the home of the naturalist Gilbert White at Selborne, and from Jane Austen’s house at Chawton.

'Twelfth Night' by William Shakespeare, adapted by Stephen Purcell

 10 September 2020

It was wonderful, last Sunday afternoon, to be back at The Place in Bedford (or, more accurately, the car park of The Place) for an open air production of ‘Twelfth Night’ by The Pantaloons. As we arrived the actors were on hand, in face masks and bearing 2 metre long oars from a rowing boat which they used to make sure we positioned our folding chairs sufficiently far apart from our neighbours – so we literally couldn’t have touched other audience members with a bargepole. The show started with the audience being asked to give a cheer and a wave – but when one of the actors suggested we should give another wave, his colleagues quickly jumped in to say “No! No-one wants a second wave!”. We have seen the Pantaloons many times before, most recently their hilarious production of 'The Odyssey' at The Place (reviewed here in April 2019). They are always charmingly silly and very inventive but this production of ‘Twelfth Night’, adapted and directed by Stephen Purcell,  showed them at their most innovative. Delivering Shakespeare’s play with only four actors would be a challenge at the best of times but in this case the actors were two real-life couples and the action was intricately choreographed to avoid any of the multiple characters being played by each actor to come within 2m of someone from the other of the two households. It was very slickly done, didn’t detract from the story and only served to add to the comedy. I have seen ‘Twelfth Night’ more times than any other Shakespeare play (I’ve previously reviewed ‘Twelfth Night’ here six times over the past 15 years). It’s a play that always seems to work and it was great to revisit the familiarity of this classic text, albeit in the austere surroundings of a car park, and to enjoy live theatre again after so many months without it.

'The Merry Wives of Windsor' by William Shakespeare, adapted by Adam Nichols

4 September 2020

Last Sunday we were at the Roman Theatre of Verulamium in St Albans for our first experience of live theatre since the start of the lockdown, watching Adam Nichols’ adaptation of ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ performed by OVO Theatre as part of the Maltings Open Air Theatre Festival. This was Shakespeare as 1980s jukebox musical, with the actors forming an on-stage rock band, tenuously squeezing a huge number of iconic 80s hits into the story of Sir John Falstaff getting his comeuppance. It was very silly and lots of fun with some great singing and wonderful choreography. The production make good use of the unusual outdoor space, with the audience on pairs of seats (each 2m apart from the next pair) in the middle of the ruins of the Roman Theatre. The mixture of a very specific 1980s setting with numerous references to Coronavirus felt slightly odd, but nobody really minded. This was feelgood slapstick, impressively delivered. And the experience of being part of a live audience again was surprisingly emotional.

Staffordshire

4 September 2020

We had a lovely week in rural Staffordshire last week, staying at a cottage outside Audley, near the Staffordshire/Cheshire border. We had mixed weather but enjoyed some great walking in the Peak District, along The Roaches and part of the Gritstone Trail. We also visited Beeston Castle and the gardens of Dunham Massey. But after five months at home it was just lovely to have a break and spend some time in a different place.

'The Constant Rabbit' by Jasper Fforde

 20 August 2020

Regular readers may have noticed my enthusiasm for the comic fantasy author Jasper Fforde: I have previously reviewed 12 of his novels here, from 'The Big Over Easy' (in April 2007) to ‘Early Riser’ (in October 2018). Fforde writes childishly silly books for adults, which won’t be to everyone’s taste but I’ve really enjoyed them. His latest is ‘The Constant Rabbit’ which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Andrew Wincott. Like ‘Early Riser’ this is a stand-alone novel, but it feels closer to Jasper Fforde’s earlier series of Nursery Crimes and Thursday Next books. ‘The Constant Rabbit’ is a bit Jasper Fforde by numbers: we are again in a strange parallel universe, uncannily like our own except for the fact that, as the result of an Inexplicable Anthropomorphising Event fifty-five years ago, there are 1.2 million human-sized rabbits living alongside humans across the UK. This allows Fforde to make some serious points about prejudice and discrimination with talking rabbits standing in for more obvious minorities. But this is not a serious book and, although there are some great gags it feels a little unambitious compared to the much more complex ‘Early Riser’.

'Carousel' by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

 13 August 2020

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Carousel’ was once hailed by Time Magazine as “the best musical of the 20th Century”. Having never seen the show I was intrigued to have the chance to watch the live recording of The New York Philharmonic’s semi-staged production of ‘Carousel’ recorded at The Lincoln Center in New York in 2013, which currently available to watch on YouTube. The New York Philharmonic, conducted by Rob Fisher, is literally centre-stage with the action taking place in front of, and around, the orchestra. This is a production, directed by Glenn Weiss, which concentrates on the singing, with stunning performances by a cast including Kelli O’Hara, Nathan Gunn, Stephanie Blythe, Jason Danieley and Jessie Mueller. ‘Carousel’ is not much of a story, frankly. The plot is fairly thin, and uncomfortably dated in some ways (written in 1945) but the semi-staged performance allows you to gloss over some of these failings. It feels more like an orchestral concert, which enables you to concentrate on the music – and there are some great songs, including The Carousel Waltz, If I Loved You, June Is Bustin' Out All Over and You'll Never Walk Alone. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of dancing (though this may have been a victim of the very limited stage space) but there was one rather brilliant ballet number featuring New York City Ballet dancers Robert Fairchild and Tiler Peck. Overall I wasn’t convinced that ‘Carousel’ is the best musical of the 20th Century but this production is worth watching for the outstanding singing and some wonderful tunes. ‘Carousel’ is available to watch for free until 8 September at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxRMlv-mwxM 

'The Tempest' by William Shakespeare

 7 August 2020

As part of ‘Culture in Quarantine’ the BBC has made available on iPlayer eight live recordings of Shakespeare productions, mainly from the Royal Shakespeare Company: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p089zds8/culture-in-quarantine-shakespeare  I’m fortunate to have seen most of these already, either on stage or in the cinema, and I would particularly recommend watching: Simon Godwin's production of 'Hamlet' starring the amazing Paapa Essiedu (reviewed here in April 2016); Polly Findlay's 'The Merchant of Venice' with Patsy Ferran as Portia (reviewed here in August 2015); and Erica Whyman’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ with an incredibly young cast including Karen Fishwick as Juliet and Bally Gill as Romeo (reviewed here in May 2018). (All of these productions are available on iPlayer for the next 25 days.) Last weekend we watched the recording of Jeremy Herrin's production of ‘The Tempest’ from Shakespeare’s Globe in London. If you’ve never been to the Globe Theatre this recording gives you a good idea of what it is like to be inside this unique auditorium. Regular readers may remember that ‘The Tempest’ isn’t my favourite Shakespeare play but I was won over by Roger Allam’s commanding performance as Prospero. Allam has a wonderful deadpan comic voice, with the ability to turn a seemingly innocent line into comedy gold purely by the insertion of an unexpected pause. Jessie Buckley and Joshua James are great as the young lovers, Miranda and Ferdinand, but it’s worth watching this production for Roger Allam alone: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08b02zz/culture-in-quarantine-shakespeare-the-tempest

'Dark' Season Three by Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar

31 July 2020

I’ve written here before about my enthusiasm for ‘Dark’ – the German language Netflix science-fiction/time-travel thriller written by Jantje Friese and directed by Baran bo Odar (reviewed here in December 2017). This week we finished watching the third and final season and it was brilliant. I should warn you that ‘Dark’ is probably the most complicated TV serial I have ever watched – and some might find it frustratingly impenetrable. Something is badly wrong with the small town of Winden in southern Germany, where residents frequently seem to find themselves slipping back 33 years in time (to 1986 but also to 1953, 1920 etc), usually with no means of return to the present. In the past they then encounter their neighbours, parents, grandparents and earlier versions of themselves and (remarkably frequently) end up having children with people they really shouldn’t, for all sorts of reasons. This leads the viewer to spend most of the time trying to work out whether this character’s mother is also his great great great grandmother etc. Indeed by season three Winden is uncannily like Ambridge in that everyone now seems to belong to the same extended family. Happily Netflix has provided an amazing website (and app) which allows you to explore the various family tree branches – but (by first choosing which episode you are up to) with no spoilers (see: https://dark.netflix.io/en). Bizarrely season three, which, in addition to the multiple time-frames, introduces the concept of several parallel universe versions of Winden, actually seems to make the plot easier to follow. And while I’m not sure I fully understood everything, the finale manages to tie up most of the loose ends. As well as the ridiculously complicated plot, ‘Dark’ boasts some great acting and incredible casting: the actors playing the same characters at different ages all look eerily believable. ‘Dark’ is definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea – but I loved it.

'Amadeus' by Peter Shaffer

23 July 2020

We last saw Lucian Msamati on stage as Iago alongside Hugh Quarshie’s Othello in Iqbal Khan’s Royal Shakespeare Company production in Stratford-upon-Avon (reviewed here in June 2015). His Iago was brash, funny, michievous, vicious and scheming – you really couldn’t take your eyes off him.  So it was fascinating to see Lucian Msamati playing Salieri in Michael Longhurst’s National Theatre production of ‘Amadeus’ by Peter Shaffer (available this week on YouTube as part of National Theatre At Home: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/nt-at-home-amadeus). As Iago is a more substantial part than the title role in ‘Othello’, Salieri too is definitely the star of the show in ‘Amadeus’. While I had seen the 1984 film version directed by Miloš Forman, with Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham, I had not previously seen the original play. It’s quite different to the film and makes for a stunning theatrical experience, especially with the National Theatre production featuring a full orchestra on stage. The Southbank Sinfonia, who we previously saw integrated into the action in the National Theatre production of 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour' by Tom Stoppard and André Previn (reviewed here in February 2009), play, act and dance their way through ‘Amadeus’, becoming a vital character in the story. Adam Gillan’s Mozart is an entertaining but obnoxious young genius – cheeky and scatological. But this is Lucian Msamati’s show and he is magnificent as the older, established court composer Antonio Salieri, all too aware of how he is being upstaged by his new rival. Msamati commands the vast Olivier stage and is incredibly funny. The first time we saw him on stage was alongside Lenny Henry in Dominic Cooke’s National Theatre production of ‘The Comedy of Errors’ (reviewed here in February 2012) in which I noted that Lenny Henry more often played the straight man in their comedy double act. But Lucian Msamati is more than just a comic actor: his physical acting (shifting seamlessly from the dying Salieri looking back on his life to his younger self) and his ability to twist his mood on a sixpence are equally impressive. This production of ‘Amadeus’ feels a little too long (at nearly three hours) but it’s a wonderful spectacle and Lucian Msamati is a star.

'25 Trips' by Sierra Hull

17 July 2020

I’ve been enjoying the new album by American country singer Sierra Hull from Tennessee. A child prodigy mandolin player, she made her Grand Ole Opry debut at the age of 10 and played Carnegie Hall at aged just 12. Now 28 years old, her new album ‘25 Trips’ takes her further away from her bluegrass roots to an eclectic mix of gentle acoustic pop. There’s still some fine picking but ‘25 Trips’ feels more like folk/pop than country, at times reminding me of the wonderful Canadian band The Bills (reviewed here in May 2006). There are also clear echoes of the female folk/Americana trio supergroup I'm With Her (Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan). Listen to the title track of ‘25 Trips’ at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmgej01Vm8g

'Sneaky Pete' created by David Shore and Bryan Cranston

9 July 2020

If you’re looking for a binge-worthy TV series I would recommend ‘Sneaky Pete’ on Amazon Prime. We’ve just finished watching all three series and it’s been the best thing we’ve watched for a while. Sneaky Pete is an American crime drama series created by David Shore and Bryan Cranston (who has a cameo role in the first series). Giovanni Ribisi plays con-man Marius Josipovic who, on release from prison, hides from the criminal gang he still owes money to by adopting the identity of his cell mate, Pete Murphy, and going to live with the family Pete left at the age of 10 in a small town in upstate New York. This comic-thriller tale of an essentially disreputable figure who you find yourself inexplicably sympathising with has a lot in common with the equally excellent ‘Ozark’ (on Netflix). Both series centre on a family of well-drawn characters who grow and develop through the story, and both boast a plot that gets increasingly complicated and unpredictable. You spend a lot of time trying to remember exactly who knows what about whom. Each of the three series of ‘Sneaky Pete’ builds to a set-piece heist finale with twists you really don’t see coming. It is incredibly violent and scary at times but there is a warm heart to the story and lots of character-based humour. And the cleverest thing is how the family that unwittingly harbours a criminal cuckoo in its nest gradually reveals itself to have plenty of dodgy secrets of its own. ‘Sneaky Pete’ is a thrilling and surprising treat.

‘Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics’

2 July 2020

One of the small pleasures of lockdown has been working through the back catalogue of episodes of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics’. Comedian, and classicist, Natalie Haynes has been taking a fresh look at the ancient world, through 30-minute programmes focussing on particular figures from ancient Greece and Rome, since 2014. All 6 series are available to listen to on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b077x8pc Her natural enthusiasm, detailed knowledge, straightforward approach and hilarious incredulity at the peculiarities of the ancient world are infectious, and we’ve gradually worked (backwards) through all 24 episodes. The most recent programmes (recorded during lockdown) look at mythical characters including Penelope, Eurydice and Helen of Troy. Having exhausted the archive of radio programmes we have now had to feed our addiction by watching ‘Troy Story’ – the event Natalie Haynes recorded for this year’s online Hay Festival Digital. This was a bravura summary of the whole of the Trojan War in just over an hour, in which Natalie Haynes was accompanied by live drawing by the illustrator and cartoonist Chris Riddell. It’s rather brilliant and can be watched on Hay Player, which contains thousands of audio and film recordings from several years of the Hay Festival and costs £10 for an annual subscription: https://www.hayfestival.com/p-16774-natalie-haynes-chris-riddell.aspx

Making Music Virtual Concerts

24 June 2020

This week saw the third fortnightly Making Music Virtual Concert, digitally showcasing Making Music members – leisure-time music groups from across the UK. I’ve really been enjoying these video compilations of both archive performances and online collaborations made during lockdown. It was great to see 2014 Epic Award winners Pandemonium Drummers closing the second concert (9 June) with a typically exuberant performance! This week’s concert features groups including Lofthouse Brass Band, 5Ways Chorus, London Oriana Choir and Suffolk Sinfonia. But the standout performance for me was Stockport Ukulele Players playing 'Psycho Killer' by Talking Heads - who were clearly having great fun! The concerts are free for anyone to view on the Making Music YouTube channel, and remain available to watch after each premiere: https://www.makingmusic.org.uk/news/come-our-making-music-virtual-concert

Cristian Grajner de Sa

18 June 2020

Cristian Grajner de Sa is a young professional violinist, born in 1994 to Italian and Portuguese parents, who is beginning to make a name for himself. I came across Cristian because he happens to live next door to some good friends of ours who have now been listening to him practice for years and have been incredibly impressed by how his playing as developed. Cristian was a BBC Young Musician string finalist in 2012 and has won several international prizes. Last year he made his debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and this month he has launched his first recording – an EP featuring pieces by Kreisler and Sarasate. His playing has a lovely tone and a playful delicacy. Listen at: https://open.spotify.com/album/6v7KjTBOcwrxoKtaqvyZh6

Nicholas Daniel and Julius Drake - BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

10 June 2020

Live music returned to BBC Radio 3 last week with the start of a new series of daily lunchtime concerts broadcast live from an empty Wigmore Hall in London. I enjoyed listening to the recital by Nicholas Daniel (oboe) and Julius Drake (piano) last Thursday, which included works by the English composer and actress Madeleine Dring as well as premieres of pieces written during the lockdown by Huw Watkins and Michael Berkeley, alongside music by Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt and Gerald Finzi. Andrew McGregor’s introductions to the pieces very effectively set them in context and it is great to be able to watch the concerts (live or later as recordings) on the Wigmore Hall website: https://wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/live-music-returns-to-wigmore-hall-in-new-broadcast-series You can also listen again on BBC Sounds at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jnm1

'Olive Kitteridge' by Elizabeth Strout

4 June 2020

Lots of people I know have raved about Elizabeth Strout’s novel ‘Olive Kitteridge’ so I was keen to read it for myself. It’s a structurally interesting book, consisting of self-contained chapters that feel like complete short stories, each focussing on different residents of the coastal town of Crosby, Maine. The main characters from one chapter sometimes appear again in the background of later stories but the eponymous Olive Kitteridge is almost omnipresent – though often playing a supporting role in someone else’s tale. Olive is a retired maths teacher who doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Initially a difficult person to like, it is a measure of the author’s skill that you gradually warm to Olive while still appreciating the reasons why others don’t. The stories of ordinary people whose lives have been changed by some momentous event reminded me of the novels of Anne Tyler and the short stories of Raymond Carver. Elizabeth Strout paints an evocative picture of this small town and it’s fun guessing where each chapter is going as she tends only gradual to reveal the particular trauma that has led a character to where they are now. But this makes for a fairly unremittingly melancholy collection of stories. There is plenty of gentle humour but ‘Olive Kitteridge’ is a sad set of reflections on ageing and the human experience.

'Living with Star Wars' by Mark Burman

29 May 2020

I was nine years old when the original Star Wars film was released in 1977. My friend Anthony won tickets in a Manchester Evening News competition to attend the Manchester premiere at the city centre Odeon and took me as his guest. So we were the first children in our school to see this incredibly anticipated blockbuster, which made us (all too briefly!) extremely cool. I became understandably obsessed with the film and devoured everything I could find out about it. One of my most treasured LPs is still the original John Williams soundtrack featuring the legendary London Symphony Orchestra brass section. This week I have been wallowing in nostalgia, listening to The Documentary Podcast from the BBC World Service, ‘Living with Star Wars’. Originally broadcast in December 2019, this programme by Mark Burman explores the making of ‘Star Wars’, talking to many of those involved (including some no longer with us). It’s interesting to remember how revolutionary the film was at the time and to hear how independent low-budget film-maker George Lucas struggled to realise his vision within the constraints of a major studio movie. I was intrigued by the links to ‘Apocalypse Now’ and Kurosawa’s ‘The Hidden Fortress’ (in which the story is seen through the eyes of the servants, leading to the idea of Star Wars starting as a tale of two droids caught up in the middle of a galactic battle). If you are as geeky as me about ‘Star Wars’ you can enjoy listening to ‘Living with Star Wars’ on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct03mr

'House of Cards' by Michael Dobbs

21 May 2020

I’ve enjoyed reading ‘House of Cards’ – the 1989 novel by Michael Dobbs which led to acclaimed television adaptations on both sides of the Atlantic. I was familiar with the story of Francis Urquhart’s ruthless pursuit of power from the 1990 BBC TV series starring Ian Richardson, but it was good to rediscover this manipulative anti-hero after so many years. The novel, despite having been revised by the author to adopt the alternative ending used in the TV version, feels incredibly dated. Newspaper reporters at the Party Conference have to queue for a free telephone box to phone in their stories and the idea of looking up anything online is still some years away. The plot seems a bit predictable now, and the political skulduggery feels tame compared both to more recent fiction such as ‘The Thick of It’ and to the real political events of the last few years. Nevertheless Francis Urquhart is a great charmingly evil character and the novel is great fun.

‘Concerto for Piano and Orchestra’ by Francis Poulenc

15 May 2020

Yet again I am grateful to Jess Gillam’s BBC Radio 3 podcast ‘This Classical Life’ (reviewed here in January 2020) for alerting me to some wonderful music I wasn’t previously aware of. I’ve quickly fallen in love with the ‘Concerto for Piano and Orchestra’ by Francis Poulenc, which was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to try to improve relations after the Second World War. Poulenc’s music is melodic and playful with lush orchestrations and beautiful tunes. The concerto is an interesting, witty piece, full of surprises but with a gentle, calming feel to it. The slow movement has some of the romantic grandeur of a Rachmaninov concerto while the finale is an intricately rhythmic frolic with a typically cheeky Poulenc ending. You can listen to the Poulenc Piano Concerto at: https://open.spotify.com/album/5Y0jrP57LzsEwfwtqkAiWo?si=FJlUxqOTSQC6Pp41ElHQTw or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q0PDy86jHI