Cruise to Greece and Turkey

30 May 2024

We got back this week from an amazing cruise to Greece and Turkey on the Cunard cruise ship Queen Victoria. I had never previously been to either country and the cruise was a great way to sample a number of different places. During lockdown we got hooked on ‘Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics’ on BBC Radio 4 (reviewed here in July 2020) and it was wonderful to bring the classics to life as we visited the sites of the three of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. We are also big fans of the ‘Empire’ podcast (reviewed here in January 2023) and we were looking forward to exploring aspects of the Ottoman Empire. We had a day on the island of Rhodes, visiting the huge Palace of the Grand Masters, home of the Knights of St John until they were thrown out of Rhodes by Suleyman the Magnificent in 1552 and fled to Malta. We were astounded by the ancient city of Ephesus - one of the biggest archeological sites in the world. We visited the beautiful island of Santorini and ancient Olympia, where we walked along the running track of the original Olympic stadium. In Athens we had a great day at the Acropolis, admiring the Parthenon (which is much bigger than I had imagined). It was all very interesting and impressive and it was a beautiful day (which made for some great photos). But I think the highlight of our trip was our two days in Istanbul where we visited the Blue Mosque - an enormous domed hall with beautiful tiling and stained glass windows, quite unlike anything I'd previously seen - a real 'wow' moment. We really enjoyed the Basilica Cistern - a huge underground reservoir, built by the Romans in the 6th century AD. And the Hagia Sofia Cathedral/Mosque is an incredible building - a vast nave beneath a huge dome with golden mosaics from the original Byzantine church alongside giant circular 'medallions' containing Arabic script. The room feels enormous, dark and mysterious, like something from 'Game of Thrones'. We also walked around the Grand Bazaar - a seemingly endless maze of covered lanes of shops which was almost impossible to navigate, with each corridor looking almost identical and apparently containing the same shops. Istanbul was very different to anywhere we had been before, but not exactly in the way we had expected. The city felt busy and vibrant but not intimidating. And its history and strategic importance are fascinating.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

12 May 2024

When we last played the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra, accompanying Lucy Parham in 2007, I wrote here (in November 2007) that the piece always reminds me how nervous I was playing the exposed horn solos in the first and second movements as a teenager with the Didsbury Symphony Orchestra in 1983, accompanying Peter Donohoe, and how relieved I was this time to be leaving those solos to the NSO Principal Horn David Lack. Now that Dave is sadly no longer with us, last Saturday it was my turn again, for the first time since 1983. Our NSO concert, in. St Matthews Church in Northampton, featured the brilliant young Russian soloist, Victor Maslov. There is a wonderful video on YouTube of Victor playing the Grieg Piano Concerto 15 years ago at the age of 11: https://youtu.be/ITJZEN2B87Y?si=5ZVVXUsn_tNwSV8t The 2024 version was even more spectacular: it was a genuinely thrilling performance by one of the most exciting soloists we have accompanied in recent years. Victor seemed to be playing this most famous of concertos neither in a lush romantic style nor in a disciplined classical approach, instead managing to make it feel much more contemporary - a fascinatingly inquisitive modern take on a work that can feel over familiar - but without losing any of the passion. In contrast to my teenage self, this time I found the short horn solos really enjoyable and I was pleased with how they went. But mine was a minor contribution to an incredible performance that will live long in the memory of everyone who was there. Victor Maslov's encore, a short Prelude by Scriabin, was delicate and mesmerising. It was a challenge for the NSO to follow this in the second half of the concert but Brahms' 'Symphony No 4' is a work that deserves to stand alongside the Grieg concerto. It's a lovely piece that demonstrates how Brahms continued and developed Beethoven's symphonic style - built on meticulous syncopated rhythms, driving chord progressions and controlled power. Brahms 4 is one of my favourite symphonies. This was the first time I had played it for more than 25 years but I was surprised how well I still knew the horn parts. It's a lovely symphony, incredibly satisfying to play, in which every note feels carefully crafted. NSO conductor John Gibbons shaped a beautifully controlled performance which was incredibly moving - with Graham Tear's gorgeously measured flute solo in the last movement exemplifying this. We opened the concert with the 'Froissart Overture' by Edward Elgar and also played Laura Rossi's witty musical journey through Italy, 'Jailhouse Graffiti' which was commissioned by John Gibbons to celebrate an April Fools prank he and Laura played on the Ealing Symphony Orchestra in 2005.

'Nye' by Tim Price

10 May 2024

On Thursday we were at the Library Theatre in Leighton Buzzard to see the NTLive broadcast of ‘Nye’ by Tim Price, directed by Rufus Norris, live from the National Theatre in London. This was the 100th NTLive performance since this innovative model of broadcasting live theatre to cinemas around the world started in 2009. I think I’ve seen 34 of the 100 broadcasts which have become an artform in their own right. It’s not better or worse than being in the theatre - it’s just different. You don’t quite get the same atmosphere as being in the auditorium with the live actors, but you do get close-ups and viewing angles that you wouldn’t have in the theatre, and you can hear every word much more clearly. ‘Nye’ dramatises the life of the Labour politician Aneurin Bevan and the founding of the National Health Service. Tim Price’s play starts with Bevan (played with wide-eyed wonder by Michael Sheen) in hospital himself, being treated for the stomach cancer that will kill him, and then tells his story through flashbacks and delirious dream sequences (as the morphine kicks in) with the doctors, nurses and other patients in the hospital taking the parts of Nye’s family, friends, colleagues and political opponents. The patient dropping in and out of consciousness, reliving incidents from his life, reminded me a lot of Denis Potter’s TV masterpiece ‘The Singing Detective’: there is even a fully staged song and dance number led by Michael Sheen. Vicki Mortimer’s set constantly reminds you we are in a hospital, with beds tipped on their sides to form the desks of the Tredegar Council chamber and the green benches of the House of Commons conjured up by surgical curtains. Michael Sheen brings a fascinating mixture of naivety, passion and mischief to his Nye Bevan. He is on stage throughout, playing out scenes from various chapters of Nye’s life but always dressed in his hospital pyjamas - reminding me of Arthur Dent in ‘The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. Sharon Small is great as Jennie Lee, Nye’s colleague and wife. Also impressive are Kezrena James, as the nurse who morphs into Nye’s sister Arianwen, and Tony Jayawardena, as the doctor who becomes Winston Churchill. But the lasting impression of ‘Nye’ is its moving tribute to the NHS and the amazing statistics projected across the stage at the end of the play which show how many lives were saved in the first few years of the new National Health Service.

'Real Tigers’, ‘Spook Street’ and ‘London Rules’ by Mick Herron

3 May 2024

I’m still working my way through Mick Herron’s Slough House series of spy novels. Having enjoyed ‘Slow Horses’ (reviewed here in November 2023) and ‘Dead Lions’ (reviewed here in January 2024) I have now raced through the next three books in the series, determined to finish reading the novels before I start to watch the ‘Slow Horses’ TV series. Book 3 ‘Real Tigers’ ratchets up both the comedy and the violence, with the Slough House team of disgraced former spies ending up in a major gun battle (and an amusing episode with a double decker London bus). Book 4 ‘Spook Street’ has the most thrilling plot so far and I think is my favourite to date. And Book 5 ‘London Rules’ is a brilliant exercise in black comedy, featuring a truly farcical political assassination. Mick Herron manages to make the books comically ridiculous while keeping the plots (just about) believable enough that you care about the outcome. And his descriptive writing, conjuring up Dickensian descriptions of contemporary London, is very impressive. I’m looking forward to reading the final three books in the series.

'Red Side Story' by Jasper Fforde

26 April 2024

Regular readers may remember that I am a big fan of Jasper Fforde’s silly comic fantasy/sci-fi novels (you can read my reviews of 14 Jasper Fforde books at: https://culturaldessert.blogspot.com/search?q=%27+by+Jasper+Fforde). Jasper Fforde’s 2009 novel ‘Shades of Grey’ (reviewed here in April 2011) is perhaps his most ambitious and complex work, depicting a post-apocalyptic dystopian society far into our future in which social standing is determined by your ability to perceive colour – with the majority of the population only able to see grey and just a privileged few families seeing yellows, greens or reds. It has taken fifteen years for the promised sequel to ‘Shades of Grey’ to arrive but ‘Red Side Story’ (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Chris Harper and Jasper Fforde) was worth the wait. I had forgotten much of the complicated setting and plot of the first book, and I found it a little difficult to get started with its successor. But Fforde’s engaging cast of eccentric comic characters draw you in and, as I realised that ‘Red Side Story’ was going to begin to explain how its surreal future-world had come about, I was gripped. This was a much more satisfying tale where there is real jeopardy and you really care about the fate of the main characters.

'Love's Labour's Lost' by William Shakespeare

24 April 2024

Last Saturday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see the new RSC production of ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ directed by Emily Burns. I had only seen ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ once before (the 2008 RSC production that featured David Tennant as Berowne - reviewed here in October 2008). It’s not the greatest Shakespeare play but it’s interesting to see him trying out elements that would flourish more effectively in his later works. The bickering between Rosaline and Berowne, for example, feels like an early draft for Beatrice and Benedick in ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. And the shambolic performance of ‘The Pageant of the Nine Worthies’ at the end of ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ clearly points the way towards the more complete comic set-piece play-within-a-play ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ at the end of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Emily Burns’ production is lots of fun, very much played for laughs, with some brilliant comic scenes. She sets the play in the present day, at a luxury Pacific island retreat, with the men as billionaire tech bros. The supporting characters are maybe a little too close to pantomime but the four central lovestruck men and the four women who break their resolution of chastity are brilliantly played, particularly by Luke Thompson as Berowne and Ioanna Kimbook at Rosaline. The RSC is always wonderful at finding amazing young actors: 16 of this cast of 19 are in their RSC debut season. I also enjoyed Tony Gardner as the comically frustrated Holofernes (showing a touch of Basil Fawlty to Jack Bardoe’s Manuel-like Don Armado) - but, like much of the play, these scenes are brief, incidental to the plot and don’t seem to go anywhere. It was a very enjoyable, high-quality production of a play that has its limitations.

‘Behold Ye Ramblers’ by Neil Gore

19 April 2024

Last Saturday we were at The Place in Bedford to see the Townsend Theatre production of ‘Behold Ye Ramblers’, a new one-person play, written and performed by Neil Gore, which tells the story of the Clarion movement that started in the late 19th century. In 1891 the journalist Robert Blatchford founded a weekly newspaper called ‘The Clarion’ to draw attention to the conditions suffered by working people in industrialised Victorian Britain and to spread a socialist message. But from the start, Blatchford’s vision was of better support for workers, both in the factories and in their recreational and cultural activities. This led to a large network of local Clarion Cycling Clubs, Vocal Unions, Dramatic Societies, Handicrafts Clubs, ‘Cinderella Clubs’ (for children) and Rambling Clubs, which started the struggle for the right to roam freely across open moors on ancient paths. The Sheffield Clarion Ramblers, founded in 1900, is recognised as the first working class rambling club and survived until 2015. The National Clarion Cycling Club still survives today, as does the People's Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, which began its life in 1911 as the Newcastle Clarion Drama Club. Neil Gore’s play shows the growth of the Clarion movement through speeches, poetry,  and music hall songs, making you feel like you are at a Clarion Club meeting through lots of audience participation. He makes clever use of projections of actual Clarion newspaper pages and posters for Clarion Vocal Union concerts, together with colourised early film of working class communities. It’s a fascinating story which demonstrates the strong socialist roots of many of our everyday creativity traditions today. The tale of The Clarion reminded me a lot of ‘The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists’, so it was interesting to discover that a one-person Magic Lantern show of Robert Tressell’s classic book is going to be the next production from Townsend Theatre. https://www.townsendproductions.org.uk/shows/behold-ye-ramblers/

'American Fiction' by Cord Jefferson

10 April 2024

We first visited The Rex in Berkhamsted, described by the BBC as "possibly Britain’s most beautiful cinema", in 2008. This beautifully refurbished art deco picture house has cabaret tables and large, high-backed swivel chairs in the stalls and rows of the most comfy cinema seats with masses of legroom in the gallery. Last Saturday we were back at The Rex, for the first time in many years, to see Cord Jefferson’s Oscar-winning film ‘American Fiction’. Based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett, the film follows Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison, an American academic (brilliantly played by Jeffrey Wright) who is increasingly frustrated as his Greek-tragedy-inspired novels are filed under ‘African-American Studies’ in bookshops because the author is Black. When publishers reject his latest manuscript for not being "Black enough", he writes an over-the-top parody of stereotypical ‘Black’ books under a pseudonym and (inevitably - and to his immense embarrassment) it becomes incredibly successful. The film is a very funny and intelligent literary satire but it's also a moving family drama with an impressive cast playing well drawn believable characters.

Ribaute, France

5 April 2024

We had a great holiday in France last week, staying in the tiny village of Ribaute on the Orbieu river in the Languedoc, close to the lovely medieval village of Lagrasse - one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. We were in the middle of the Corbières wine region with vast vineyards extending across the flat valley, but also just a few minutes drive from the hills to the south. One of our highlights was driving up narrow, winding mountain roads to see the spectacular Cathar castles that dominate this area. We visited the Château de Quéribus at Cucugnan - a ruin perched on a rocky outcrop at the top of a mountain with 360 degree views which looks exactly like the kind of castle a child would draw. We also saw flamingoes on the salt-water lakes at Peyriac-de-Mer and visited the Abbaye de Fontfroide - a huge former Cistercian monastery. And it was great to revisit the fairytale medieval walled city of Carcassonne (reviewed here in September 2018).

'The Motive and the Cue' by Jack Thorne

22 March 2024

In 1964 Richard Burton asked Sir John Gielgud to direct his Hamlet on Broadway - a production which set the play in a theatre rehearsal room. Two of the cast wrote books about the rehearsals and the tussles between the very different approaches of Gielgud and Burton. Those two books provided the inspiration for Jack Thorne’s new play ‘The Motive and the Cue’, directed by Sam Mendes at the National Theatre in London (which we watched at a NTLive screening at the Odeon Milton Keynes on Thursday). It’s a fascinating exploration of theatre, acting and actors, with ‘Hamlet’ and its father-son relationships providing a clever backdrop both to the relationship between Gielgud and Burton and their relationships with their own fathers. Johnny Flynn is great as the volatile Richard Burton and Mark Gatiss is very moving as Gielgud. Allan Corduner as Hume Cronyn (playing Polonius) also stood out in a large cast and Tuppence Middleton almost stole the show as a wonderful Elizabeth Taylor.

'Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening' by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin

19 March 2024

When ‘Drop the Dead Donkey’ - Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin’s Channel 4 sitcom, set in the offices of a TV news channel - started in 1990 its unique selling point was the way it weaved in topical news stories (and gags about them) by recording some elements of each week’s show just before it was broadcast. Watching ‘Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening’, the stage reunion of the original TV cast, at Milton Keynes Theatre last Saturday, I was pleased to see up-to-the-minute references to doctored photos of the Royal Family, the Russian presidential election etc. As a fan of the TV series, the stage show was gloriously nostalgic, with all the surviving cast members reprising their roles thirty years on (and a moving tribute at the end to David Swift and Haydn Gwynne). For anyone unfamiliar with the original series I suspect the opening scenes, punctuated by rapturous applause as each character reappeared, was probably a little tedious. But once the plot, and the mystery of why the gang had been brought back together to run a new TV news operation (‘Truth News’) started to get going, it was good fun and quickly fell back into the comic rhythms of a good sitcom. If the satire felt a little tame now, well thirty years is a long time and the news today often feels beyond parody. But it was lovely to see Susannah Doyle, Robert Duncan, Ingrid Lacey, Neil Pearson, Jeff Rawle, Stephen Tompkinson and Victoria Wicks back together again. And interesting to note that, despite the incredibly witty script, it was two brilliant moments of slapstick that got the biggest laughs.

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by William Shakespeare

15 March 2024

When we started the Open Stages project in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2009 - working with hundreds of amateur theatre groups and professional theatre companies across the UK - it was interesting to see one question dominating the discussions at our skills-sharing sessions. What amateur theatre directors most wanted to ask the RSC was whether it is permissible to cut or amend Shakespeare's texts. It always seemed to surprise the RSC staff that they were seen as the definitive arbiters on this question: Shakespeare has been out of copyright for centuries and many RSC productions have taken extremely creative approaches to the plays. Last Saturday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Eleanor's Rhode's new RSC production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and I was struck by the fact that you don't need to change the text to achieve a different take on the play. In this production Duke Theseus was not the strong, authoritative leader he normally appears - an adult amongst the squabbling children. Here, played by Bally Gill (who doubles as Oberon), Theseus is a weak, nervous leader, trying to please everyone and constantly seeking affirmation from Hippolyta (Sirine Saba) - though you could imagine he might have firm views on the proper way to stack the dishwasher! This was all brilliantly conveyed through his body language and voice, without any need to change the words he spoke. It's a great production, in modern costume on a mostly bare stage, allowing the acting and the movement of the actors to dominate. In particular Mathew Baynton as Bottom, Ryan Hutton as Lysander and Rosie Sheehy as Puck demonstrate amazing physicality and balletic movement: movement director Annie-Lunette Deakin-Foster deserves much credit. Eleanor Rhode also works with an Illusion Director and Designer, John Bulleid, and his moments of conjuring and sleight of hand, sparingly used, add to the magic of the play. It's also a very funny production, with real laugh-out-loud scenes involving the lovers and the rude mechanicals. Helen Monks is brilliant as Peter Quince, almost stealing the show from Mathew Baynton: it's the first time I have seen the prologue to Pyramus and Thisbe performed as a rap! It would be impossible not to come out of the theatre smiling.

'Demon Copperhead' by Barbara Kingsolver

8 March 2024

As I have mentioned here before, I found the Hogarth Shakespeare series of books, in which contemporary novelists re-imagined Shakespeare plays, a bit cringe-worthy (with the exception of ‘Hag-Seed: The Tempest Retold’ by Margaret Atwood, reviewed here in January 2022). So, despite many people recommending it, I came to ‘Demon Copperhead’, Barbara Kingsolver’s retelling of ‘David Copperfield’ with some trepidation. But, while ‘Demon Copperhead’ (as the title signifies) is another example of a loosely disguised classic tale in a modern setting, with clever contemporary variations of the character names, I thought it worked extremely well. I think this is because Barbara Kingsolver is interested in updating both Dickens’ story and his exposé of social problems. Her first-person narrator Damon Fields tells the story of his difficult childhood in Lee County, Virginia, in the 1990s. He is born to a drug-using teenage single mother in a trailer, passes in and out of foster care and experiences trauma and tragedy at a very young age. In front of this bleak backdrop, Barbara Kingsolver paints an engaging cast of Dickensian characters to create what feels like it is going to be an entertaining coming of age story about overcoming adversity through friendship. But Kingsolver’s underlying theme is America’s opioid crisis and seeing Demon (and most of his contemporaries) descending into over reliance on drugs and addiction feels painfully real and distressing. ‘Demon Copperhead’ is a brilliantly written novel: it is a tribute to Kingsolver’s skill that you soon forget the Dickens parallel and get sucked into the modern tragedy of a generation lost to drugs. The second half of the novel becomes increasingly uncomfortable reading but it is a compelling commentary on a shameful episode in our recent history of which Charles Dickens would have been proud.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

5 March 2024

Last Saturday I played in a Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert which featured a rare performance of the First Symphony by Sir Arnold Bax. The early 20th century English composer was a committed Hibernophile, passionate about Ireland, Irish culture and the Gaelic language. He wrote poetry in Gaelic and named his children Dermot and Maeve. Bax was deeply affected by the 1916 Easter Rising and the execution of Irish rebel leaders by the British Army, but felt unable to speak out as he was then Master of the King's Music. His 'Symphony No 1', completed in 1922, while not publicly connected to the events in Ireland, reflects his anger and grief. As a programmatic work about the armed suppression of protest and rebellion it made for a fascinating comparison with our performance last year of Shostakovich's 'Symphony No 11:The Year 1905' (reviewed here in June 2023) and the 'Peterloo Overture' by Malcolm Arnold (reviewed here in October 2019). Bax's First Symphony is scored for a massive orchestra, including hecklephone (bass oboe), sarrusophone (or contrabassoon), bass flute and two harps. It's a brutal, angry piece, punctuated by some surprising moments of gentle beauty. It took me some weeks of practice to begin to appreciate the music but it really grew on me and I thought we gave a impressively coherent and moving performance of the symphony. Our concert also featured the 'Violin Concerto No 2' by Prokofiev - a stunning performance by Joo Yeo Sir. Both Bax and Prokofiev went out of copyright on 1 January 2024 so I suspect there will be more performances of works by both composers this year. We opened the concert with Bernstein's 'Symphonic Dances from West Side Story' - last performed by the Northampton Symphony Orchestra in 2008 (reviewed here in March 2008). 'West Side Story' is a challenge for any orchestra - both because of its complex syncopated jazz and Latin rhythms, and because it is so well known. As we settled our nerves, took a deep breath and launched into the opening bars, conductor John Gibbons immediately halted the performance and dashed off stage, having forgotten to bring with him the police whistle whose shrill blast halts the Jets and Sharks at the end of the Prologue. Amused and relaxed by this intrusion, the orchestra started again and gave an exciting and slick account of Bernstein's score - featuring a brilliant percussion section, amazing work by Terry Mayo on trumpet and a beautifully controlled flute cadenza by Graham Tear, providing a haunting moment of stillness after the mayhem. It was a wonderful concert, enthusiastically received by a sold out audience at Christchurch, Northampton.

'Vanya' by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Simon Stephens

29 February 2024

‘Uncle Vanya’ has been my favourite Anton Chekhov play since I saw ‘Vanya on 42nd Street’ - Louis Malle’s brilliant 1994 film which shows André Gregory directing a performance of the play in an empty New York theatre. I also liked Michael Blakemore’s film ‘Country Life’ - an excellent adaptation of ‘Uncle Vanya’ starring Sam Neill and Greta Scacchi, set in Australia just after the end of World War I, which coincidentally also came out in 1994. Last Saturday we were at the Curzon Cinema at Milton Keynes Gallery to see the NT Live recording of ‘Vanya’, Simon Stephens’ new adaptation of the play, recorded at the Duke of York’s theatre in London’s West End. This is an incredible one-person performance of the play by Andrew Scott. Like Jodie Comer’s amazing performance in Suzi Miller’s 'Prima Facie' (reviewed here in August 2022), Andrew Scott commands the stage, and our attention, without a break - playing all the characters. But whereas in 'Prima Facie' Jodie Comer was playing a young barrister recounting her story and re-enacting scenes and conversations, in ‘Vanya’ Andrew Scott is simply performing the play as all the characters, with no need for any framing device. At first this feels more like a radio play as he quickly switches voices in conversations with himself. But his physical performance is as important to how he tells the story. While he doesn’t use any different costumes or hats to distinguish the different characters, his stature, posture and gestures instantly make it clear who he is playing. And seeing his performance on the cinema screen, the close-ups allow us to see a different character emerging simply through a subtle change in his eyes and facial expressions. Simon Stephens has moved the story from Russia to modern-day Ireland and the setting works well. Andrew Scott gives Alexander and Helena Northern Irish and English accents respectively, emphasising that they are the outsiders in this family. There’s a lot of comedy in this tragedy and Scott is very entertaining, but some of the more poignant moments felt a little unemotional without reactions from other actors. One really effective touch was the piano - on stage throughout for Ivan occasionally to tinkle a few notes - which turns out to be an automated player piano, conjuring up Ivan’s dead sister Anna who he recalls playing duets with: seeing the piano keys moving on their own suddenly created the sense of another person on stage to break (or merely to emphasise) the loneliness of this solitary performance.

‘Cahokia Jazz’ by Francis Spufford

23 February 2024

I came to Francis Spufford’s third novel, ‘Cahokia Jazz’, having really enjoyed his debut novel ‘Golden Hill’ (reviewed here in August 2017) and its successor ‘Light Perpetual’ (reviewed here in July 2021). ‘Cahokia Jazz’ (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Andy Ingalls) is another shift of period and style from Spufford - a noir crime tale echoing Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, set in 1920s America. But this is an alternative reality America - a parallel universe in which the fictional midwest city of Cahokia is dominated by a First Nations people who are led by a hereditary monarchy and have embraced a version of European catholicism. The book starts with police officers investigating a murder and has all the tropes of a gumshoe detective story. But the racial and religious backdrop to the mystery - drawn in fastidious detail - creates a deeply unnerving mood. When, towards the end of the novel, one of the characters suggests that they are all living in a dream and none of this is real, it feels cathartically believable: the whole novel has a dreamlike quality. Francis Spufford’s writing is beautiful and he creates an extensive cast of well-drawn, sympathetic characters. The detective partners Drummond and Barrow - one short and talkative, the other huge and taciturn - reminded me of George and Lennie in John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’. And the American period setting of ‘Cahokia Jazz’ made me think of 'The Lincoln Highway' by Amor Towles (reviewed here in February 2022). ‘Cahokia Jazz’ is not quite as satisfying a novel as ‘Golden Hill’ but it’s another fascinating period drama from Francis Spufford and I look forward to seeing which genre he chooses to tackle next.

‘Baraaim Ed-Louz’ by Koum Tara

16 February 2024

I have been enjoying ‘Baraaim Ed-Louz’, the new album by the French band Koum Tara, which explores chaabi - a traditional music of Algeria. Chaabi means 'of the people' and typically consists of Arabic/Berber vocals, set against violins and mandolins, a piano melody and percussion beats. Koum Tara take chaabi as the starting point for a fusion of North African and Western sounds, drawing on jazz and cinematic orchestral strings. The result is a gentle, laid-back blend which is an interesting contrast to the pulsing beats of Algerian rai music, made more popular across Europe by singers such as Cheb Khaled, Faudel and Rachid Taha, ‘Baraaim Ed-Louz’,is a lovely album: here is a sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXKlGtOOppc

'Bumper Blyton: Improvised Adventures For Grown-Ups'

9 February 2024

On Saturday we were at the Quarry Theatre in Bedford to see 'Bumper Blyton: Improvised Adventures For Grown-Ups'. Using the model of the long-running improv show ‘Austentatious’ (reviewed here in August 2012) which invents a ‘lost’ Jane Austen novel based on audience suggestions at every performance, ‘Bumper Blyton’ does the same thing with Enid Blyton. But, whereas Jane Austen wrote six completed novels, Enid Blyton published 762 books, which provides fertile ground for exploring her style and genre - and rekindling childhood memories for most of the audience. On our way into the theatre we were handed small schoolroom slates on which we were asked to draw something symbolising a childhood hobby or activity. The cast then examined our chalk pictures to choose several elements to weave into their improvised story. It was all very silly and extremely funny. The many surreal flights of fancy made it feel more like a radio comedy show than a stage play, reminding me of Mark Evans’ stage adaptation of his BBC Radio 4 Dickens parody 'Bleak Expectations' (reviewed here in August 2023). ‘Bumper Blyton’ is clearly aimed at adults, and was not afraid to acknowledge the more questionable aspects of Enid Blyton’s work. Using adults to play young children without disguising the fact they are obviously adults (like Dennis Potter’s ‘Blue Remembered Hills’ - reviewed here in June 2013) also provides opportunities for considerably more innuendo than I remember from reading Enid Blyton as a child. ‘Bumper Blyton’ was great fun and ‘jolly japes’. And as they said at the end: “if you enjoyed the show, please come to see it again: it’s improvised so it’s completely different every night - and if you didn’t enjoy the show, please come to see it again: it’s improvised so it’s completely different every night!”

'Dear England' by James Graham

2 February 2024

In 2016, when Sam Allardyce left his post as the England men’s football manager by mutual agreement after one match and 67 days in charge, the England Under-21 team manager Gareth Southgate was hastily appointed as caretaker England manager for the next four matches. Southgate’s transformation, from a player best remembered for missing a penalty for England in the Euro 1996 semi final to arguably the most successful England manager since Sir Alf Ramsey, is told in ‘Dear England’, James Graham’s new play for the National Theatre. We saw the NTLive recording of the play at the Curzon cinema at Milton Keynes Gallery last Saturday. It’s a very funny, enjoyable and moving production, directed by Rupert Goold. The England footballers are brilliantly played by an extensive cast who create impersonations - of Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling, Harry Maguire et al - that are both deliberately cartoonish while also capturing the players’ body language and posture uncannily accurately. Joseph Fiennes does a similar job playing Gareth Southgate - making him both laughably earnest and gently heroic - and Gina McKee is wonderful as the psychologist Southgate brings in to work with the England team. ‘Dear England’ refers to the open letter Southgate published in June 2021 ahead of the delayed Euro 2020 tournament, which addressed a country emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic and focussed on issues of equality, inclusivity and racial injustice. James Graham’s play tells the story of Southgate’s England team and its performances on the football pitch as a way of reflecting on the state of the country over the past few years. But football is the main focus of the play and the thoughtful maturing of the young England players through a range of challenges on and off the field is moving and inspiring.

'State of Wonder' by Ann Patchett

26 January 2024

Having recently discovered the work of the American novelist Ann Patchett - her novel ‘Bel Canto’ (reviewed here in December 2023) was one of my Picks of the Year for 2023 - my expectations were high as I started reading her 2011 novel ‘State of Wonder’. I wasn’t disappointed: ‘State of Wonder’ is another clever, intriguing and surprising tale that moves in directions you don’t expect but always feels believable, particularly in the realistic portrayal of its key characters. Marina Singh is a scientist working for a pharmaceutical firm in Minnesota. When she hears of the death of one of her closest colleagues while he was visiting a research project in the Amazon rainforest she travels to Brazil to find out exactly what happened - taking her far out of her comfort zone. The descriptions of her first few days adjusting to life in Manaus reminded me of my own work trips to Brazil and Cuba. ‘State of Wonder’ is a gripping story which is thought-provoking, unexpected and intelligent. I’m both wishing I had discovered Ann Patchett sooner and relishing the prospect of having her extensive back catologue to work through.