Category Archives: The Blog

Sleepsound

Posted on by
Reply

SLEEPSOUND by emerging Edinburgh Composer and harpist, Fiona Rutherford, is supported by Made in Scotland and was a commission for Celtic connections.

Described as genre crossing music, the small orchestra featured two fiddles, viola, keyboard, cello, double-bass and two harps. Three of the ladies sang in parts.

Sleepsound was a lovely ending to a Festival/Fringe day at Summerhall and the audience in the Demonstration Theatre enjoyed every moment. Rutherford is self-assured and confident in performance, but diffident in accepting the warm applause showered on the group at the conclusion. I do hope we’ll be hearing more of her work.

 

Run continues 13th and 14th at 10.30pm. £12/£10

 

Inala

Posted on by
Reply

Inala is a Dance Ballet. produced by the collaboration of Sisters Grimm and the Ladysnith Black Mambazo Choir, it’s an exciting evening.

There’s no claimed narrative structure, but it’s fun to recognise cocks crowing, people fishing, a street scene. The stage at the Playhouse theatre in Edinburgh is large and it easily houses the nine man choir, five person musical ensemble and a host of athletic and classically trained dancers. Some of the early morning sets with their backdrop of glowing red are particularly evocative. South Africa may see visitor numbers increase.

A soundtrack overlaid the live music and created a believable tropical ambience with cicadas and roaring beasts.

Choreography by Mark Baldwin and Composition by Joseph Shabalala and the choir.

Run ended.

Fringe and Festival 2014

Posted on by
Reply
Memoir by JMB

A shared moment for those in the know.

So, a little late into the action, but enjoyed BLOODY TRAMS by The People of Edinburgh at the Traverse last night.

Bloody Trams is a cabaret rendition. David Paul Jones on the piano plays and sings while actors Nicola Roy and Jonathan Holt perform a script compiled from interviews with folk encountered in Edinburgh.

They made a great hour’s entertainment and the audience hung on every shared joke breaking into laughter at the more recognisable ones. My own hobby horse over the tram debacle has always been the disregard of the small traders whose lives were, and for all we really know, may still be, blighted. The Birthday candle for one of Leith Walk’s holes – mined and then undisturbed for a year – did not feature, but it is remembered.

Did the script give us enough? It’s undoubtedly the way we think and sound as the utterers of the instant sound-bite. Some are reluctant, some are over-keen and at least one was twelve.

I left the theatre with my own prejudices undisturbed – South-side resident who hasn’t been on an Edinburgh tram and will only be on one when bullied into it by the family/friends. The tram truly makes no difference to the way I travel around the city and I’m not yet understanding the ways all the extra council tax will be justified.

I was also a little down-hearted. Edinburgh has an arguably unrivalled public transport system. A huge number of later evening buses could be taking us all over for the cost of those rails.

Perfect Days: Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Posted on by
2

Perfect Days by Liz Lochead and directed by Liz Carruthers is a play of its time: the biological clock as a topic of conversation was once very hot. In the Director’s cut for Perfect Days in the programme, Liz Carruthers confesses she was aware of it throughout her own thirties and had her first child aged forty-one. So one is not surprised by the wonderfully sympathetic tone of the production.

Perfect Days is also about obsession. What is it like to be obsessed by something to the extent that all pride and dignity are set aside by the compulsion to satisfy that obsession? And it’s about a lot of the other small things of life that make a complete personality. Mothers and daughters have their ups and downs, but there’s always time to resolve matters, isn’t there? When we are THE ONE helping with something, we deeply resent anyone else muscling in, don’t we?

And Perfect Days is about language. Sharp Glasgow patter updated to encompass the passage of time since the play made its first appearance.

Everyone adores Barbs, the celebrity hairdresser, and wants a share of her – their share. Her perfect cleaner (Mum), her perfect ex, Davie, her perfect friend, Alice, employee, Brendan and lover, Grant. Barbs wants a baby. She doesn’t want to go on living her perfect life as it’s seen by these others, without that tiny person.

One of the most powerful scenes in the play is Barbs’ attempt to make her mother understand the depth of her longing for the unknown baby. Why won’t her mother agree that single mums can do a good job – didn’t she?

It’s a gleeful celebration of modern urban life and the new family realities. A strong cast, wonderful set and sympathetic direction made the whole production an entertaining and thought-provoking afternoon. Truly worth catching, if you can.

Run, in rep, at  Pitlochry Festival Theatre till Thursday 16th October 2014 at 8pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://goo.gl/pASdjp Mariah’s Marriage amazon US
http://goo.gl/NxYxj5 Mariah’s Marriage UK
http://goo.gl/PKptQg Bella’s Betrothal US
http://goo.gl/5RBzIm Bella’s Betrothal UK

https://www.omnilit.com/product-bella039sbetrothal-1312055-162.html

https://www.omnilit.com/product-mariah039smarriage-1173550-149.html

DICK BARTON: SPECIAL AGENT

Posted on by
Reply

Dick Barton: Special Agent by Phil Willmott is enjoying a short season at Edinburgh’s Church Hill theatre, Morningside road. I caught it on Wednesday’s opening night.

Edinburgh People’s Theatre are enjoying their 71st year of productions and fielded a large cast for this production. Although the name, Dick Barton, evokes the great age of radio drama and nonsensical comedy, I’m not quite old enough to remember listening to it. There are plenty who are.

Graham Bell reproduced that evocative BBC broadcasting voice impeccably in his anchoring moments in front of the blacks. His necessarily quick changes from mandatory dinner suit to Colonel Gardener’s more relaxed style occasionally left him breathless, but it all adds to the fun for a loyal audience.

Doubling was the order of the night and the cast handled the complications of that well. Ronnie Millar’s pseudo cockney was better than his RP. The ladies of the cast ventured into some wonderfully daring costumes for their cabaret type scenes.

Some nice singing enlivened the spotlight moments, but I had reservations about one or two and felt the dancing could be sharper. Perhaps that’ll come as the run progresses. Mairi Beaver gave a great rendition of femme fatale (don’t know the German equivalent phrase, sorry) Marta Heartburn.

Great touches from director Iain Fraser and musical director, Anne Mackenzie.

Excellent props.

Run continues Friday at 7.30 and Saturday at 2.30. EPT are to be congratulated for offering a matinée.

Edinburgh People’s Theatre

E-novels by Anne stenhouse

http://goo.gl/pASdjp Mariah’s Marriage amazon US
http://goo.gl/NxYxj5 Mariah’s Marriage UK
http://goo.gl/PKptQg Bella’s Betrothal US
http://goo.gl/5RBzIm Bella’s Betrothal UK

https://www.omnilit.com/product-bella039sbetrothal-1312055-162.html

https://www.omnilit.com/product-mariah039smarriage-1173550-149.html

Pressure by David Haig

Posted on by
Reply

Pressure by David Haig and directed by John Dove, is the final play of the Royal Lyceum’s 2013-14 season, and what a truly memorable finale it is.

For those who don’t know, Pressure is the story of Dr. James Stagg, a plumber’s son from Dalkeith who is selected to predict the weather needed for safe and successful D-Day landings on the Normandy beaches in 1944. He is counterpointed by the effervescent and ‘lucky’ American expert, Colonel Krick.

The central tensions of this spell-binding true story are many. There’s the ongoing World War. There’s the fact the top man is American so why would he, Eisenhower, listen to British reserve and cold science before the ‘luck’ and previous unblemished record of a fellow American. There’s the nearly unstoppable momentum of the arrangements already in place. There’s a woman in the background with a medical history who’s already in early labour.

The 11 strong cast didn’t put a foot wrong and the driving central performances from David Haig as Stagg, Laura Rogers as Kay Summersby and Malcolm Sinclair as General Eisenhower were five-star. No tricks, no flashing lights, nothing but the stripped back truth of how you get the job done when the job is monumental.

Haig’s script is full of delightful snippets and you wonder if he unearthed them in his research. I won’t spoil it by giving examples, but the audience shared several warm laughs when the foibles of their heroes came under scrutiny.

Pressure has a great set by Colin Richmond made in the Royal Lyceum’s workshops.

I really recommend.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Posted on by
2

May I raise a virtual glass to all you lovely visitors who drop by and comment from time to time on my ramblings. We saw the New Year arrive from the Braid Farm Road which snakes along one of the hill tops in this hilly city. Edinburgh lay below us and we could see two of the synchronised fireworks displays and many, many smaller ones across the town and over the Forth away up into Fife. A calm and not terribly cold night enticed lots of people out to do the same. Wetter today and now very dark

Happy New Year to you all. Anne

Neglectful Blogger

Posted on by
Reply

Regular visitors will be forgiven for thinking Write, Watch and Critique has abandoned the delightful job of Writing, Watching and Critiquing plays. Forgiven, but I hope, cheered to learn this is not the case.

A lot of attention has had to be lavished on my partner blog, Novels Now, http://goo.gl/ep3ZIx where news of Mariah’s Marriage and Bella’s Betrothal can be found.

Plays. Last Saturday I visited the Georgian House in Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square for an unusual dramatic offering. The Georgian House Players together with dancers under their Dance Master, Alex Howard, presented scenes from Georgian life.

Dressed in contemporary costume, they took on the concerns of the various members of the household on Christmas Eve 1811. The house at that time was owned and occupied by Mr. Lamont. We were invited to be a party of guests and one of our number was issued with an embroidered waistcoat marking him out as the principle visitor.

I was delighted to be taught a few measures from the Pollonaise and to learn that Mr. Lamont had to have cheese, Ayrshire cheese. A man after my own culinary heart.

New Work

More new drama was on offer at the adjudication of the Edinburgh Writers’ Club’s Drama competition last night. John Binnie conducted a workshop for the club in October and last night he commented on the members’ offerings written thereafter.

John mentioned how several of the plays had a character with Alzeimher’s Disease and that this was evidence of a trend in people’s thoughts and concerns. He also pointed out as he moved through the entries how some were the more dramatic because of their scene setting. One play, called Stuck, had a character stuck to a table by super glue while the metaphorical meaning was in the head of another. The winning play offered good opportunities for the actress to move around the stage and show character in action.

Winner, San Casimally, went for a one woman play called Mother’s Day. John expressed surprise to discover San was a male as he thought the piece captured the female experience so well.

Up next should be my trip to the Royal Lyceum’s Christmas Carol. Looking forward to it already.

International Stages

Posted on by
2

Water Puppeteers – Vietnam

I’ve been on holiday.

 

 

 

 

 

This blog has been shamefully neglected for several months and I’m really sorry about that. However, there is a reason. If you occasionally wander over to Novels Now where I write about my prose work, you will know there have been two historical romances published by MuseItUp this year under my name.

MARIAH’S MARRIAGE and BELLA’S BETROTHAL are available from many online retailers including amazon:

http://goo.gl/NxYxj5 Mariah’s Marriage

http://goo.gl/5RBzIm Bella’s Betrothal

http://goo.gl/f0zFKa MuseItUp’s Bookstore.

They are dialogue rich (would you expect anything else?) books with a lot of between the sexes humour and a frisson of the dark and dangerous underworld of nineteenth century London and Edinburgh.

The drama you ask. What about the drama?

From the picture at the top of this post you can see I was in Vietnam and while there visited Water Puppet shows. The first in Han Noi was in a dedicated tourist theatre. There was a host of lovely folk tales and excellent work with the dragons, fishermen, snakes et al. It was, however, spoiled for me by the constant photography of other audience members. Doesn’t it occur to these selfish peple that if they hold their dinky little camera above their heads for a minute, nobody sitting behind them can see the stage?

Do they care?

The second puppet show was out in the country and a much warmer experience. That’s the one photographed above. More dragons and excellent workmanship and nobody getting between the audience and the performers.

Home again and I’ve seen Crime and Punishment, adapted from the Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel by Chris Hannan, at the Royal Lyceum theatre.

Sadly the run is now finished, and the Edinburgh performances came after the Citizens and Liverpool. It was so good and brought the huge canvas of Russia and its slum people to an audience who might not know much about them. I didn’t and left feeling entertained and enriched.

An ensemble cast gave excellent support to Adam Best playing Raskolnikov. The stage was cluttered with their props and odd chairs, but everything came into its own and the movement from back to front to back was like a mirror of what it’s like to live in such massing, seething crowds.

I was abroad during Dark Road’s run.

I also enjoyed two Matinée + evening days at Pitlochry this summer. Enjoyed it all and made a first tour of the Plant Hunters’ Garden which I really recommend. Talk about hidden gems. It’s really worth getting there a little early for.

 

 

MARK THOMSON TALKS

Posted on by
2

Along with the invitation to renew the annual subscription from the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh this year, came an invitation to join Mark Thomson for a glass of wine and informal chat in the stalls. I’m up for that.

So were several others. A cheery group of annual subscribers gathered and, while one man said he’d been a subscriber for around twenty years, we generally avoided any competition over that.

Me? Well, it’s continuous since 1983, as you ask.

Mark sensibly got the gripes out of the way early. We did not enjoy Guid Sisters – possibly one exception. It was nominated for an award as were six of last year’s seven productions. Personally, Guid sisters is the closest I’ve come to leaving a Lyceum production before the end. Why could one lady not see all the action in Doll’s House. Theatre was written for performance centre stage. I suppose that’s the declamatory style much favoured in the nineteenth century. Now, directors want folk to move. So what’s the defence? Theatre design and, by the way, if you want to watch square on there’s always the tv. This actually chimes with something I heard from the head manager at the EFT: not everyone wants a seat where they can read the super-titles.

Praises: a lady from the Borders is so pleased that the theatre does matinées as it enables her to get home afterwards. Taking Over the Asylum was universally enjoyed.

There’s no Shakespeare next year because there’s no place one would fit the overall arc of productions. Fair enough. And Edinburgh audiences don’t necessarily come out for Shakespeare.

The Young Lyceum will be in performance in July. A version of A Christmas Carol will be this year’s Christmas Show, with some music and suitable for all ages.

How are the actors chosen? Best person for the part, although some will always find a home.

I missed the end as I had another engagement, but it was a good exercise and one I hope they might repeat.