Category Archives: Uncategorized

Theatre in Lockdown

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Theatre Al Fresco

So, this is one place none of us in the UK will be visiting for theatre at present. However, the arts’ community hasn’t forgotten its audience and there are a huge number, almost an overwhelming number, of things to watch online.

Yesterday was a highlight for me as Whatsonstage.com streamed the UK premiere of Pride and Prejudice the musical on their Facebook channel. That sentence is way up there with things I never expected to say anytime. However, I spent the afternoon watching it.

Music and lyrics by Paul Gordon and directed by Robert Kelley, the play picks out the iconic moments and comic/tragic highlights of Jane Austen’s wonderful book. There was a strong cast, but I particularly enjoyed Mary Mattison’s Lizzie. She had two songs I very much look forward to hearing become staples of the musical theatre canon. Her song refusing Mr Collins and her song when she realises she’s misjudged Mr Darcy were both memorable and beautifully rendered.

Yesterday’s broadcast was free, but you can pay to watch, try www.streamingmusicals.com

A-NOTHER NIGHT AT THE OPERA – KATYA KABANOVA

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Janacek’s, Katya Kabanova at the Edinburgh Festival theatre last night was a wealth of surprise. It’s a sombre tale of dysfunctional family, a failing society and, I thought, mental illness – with wonderful music.

LAURA WILDE’S, Katya conveyed all the bewilderment of the person not coping. Her inner life is on a diffrent plane to the rest of the world and that initially attracts, but ultimately, at least where her husband and her lover are concerned, frustrates. Only the foster daughter of the family, Varvara, dramatically realised by Polish mezzo-soprano HANNA HIPP, fights Katya’s corner with passion and releases her, for a while, from the prison of the family house.

Sex may have been invented in the sixties, but there was a lot of it in Janacek’s fictional world. Hypocritical among the oldies, exuberant and life-affirming for Varvar and Vanya and fatal for Katya. The modernity of Janacek’s vision is breath-taking.

Catch it at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre on Saturday 23rd March.

Summer Season Treats – Pitlochry Festival Theatre

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All you need to know...

All you need to know…

Leaving Edinburgh for an overnight stay in Pitlochry is always an activity full of excitement and joyful anticipation. The stationary traffic around Perth’s huge roundabouts throws a dash of cold water over that. We got through eventually and arrived at our B&B, the delightful Derrybeg – hosts Ryan and Bea – in time to change.

First up this time was dinner in the wonderful theatre restaurant. I love it. The food is imaginative, well cooked and nicely presented, but the real attraction is the fantastic outlook over the Tummel and the canopy where you can watch the gulls wheeling in and out. Not quite the toucans of Costa Rica, but possibly more skilled aeronautics.

TRAVESTIES by Tom Stoppard, directed by Richard Baron

Mark Elstob could also be seen from the restaurant going over some of his lines. No wonder as the play is hugely demanding of its main character, Henry Carr. I thought Elstob captured the aged Carr reminiscing and the man in his prime seduced by performance beautifully. It helps audience understanding to have some familiarity with The Importance of Being Earnest which Stoppard used as the framework, but the play exists in its own merit, too.

CHICAGO by Fred Ebb, Bob Fosse and John Kander, directed by Richard Baron

Who doesn’t think they know everything they need to know about Chicago, Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly? There might be opportunity for you to reconsider. Baron’s fast-paced production, with the musicians on-stage throughout, is a searing indictment of how sensationalism skews justice, perception and truth. The theatre was sold out for the matinée and sitting with my book in the shade, I saw coaches leave for Dundee, Laurencekirk & Forfar.

QUALITY STREET by JM BARRIE, directed by Liz Carruthers

Anything by JM Barrie is close to my heart and Quality Street in particular as it’s the last play I ever appeared in. Following our wonderful production of Arms and the Man by Shaw, we in 6th year at West Calder High School were very keen to repeat the triumph. However, the poor head of English, the late Doctor Lillian MacQueen, was a lot less keen. Eventually, she agreed to a curtain raiser of the first scene of Quality Street. I played Miss Susan. I have no idea who else was in the cast, so if you know please leave a comment.

Pitlochry did not disappoint and it was the perfect farewell after the hectic Travesties and Chicago. The clever round set was a delight and the ladies used it well, entering and leaving with just the right amount of fluttering. As always, Barrie’s understanding of the vicissitudes of life as a woman are laid bare, but with humour and a wry glance at what might have been. His mastery does not pall.

All runs continue and you can buy your tickets here

WRITE – so, this is from PITLOCHRY FESTIVAL THEATRE

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WRITE – an opportunity from PITLOCHRY FESTIVAL THEATRE.

Taking a short break from the theatre of my life to bring this NEW AND FANTASTIC LOOKING OPPORTUNITY to any writers among my readers.

Short Play Submissions

But – dinnae hang aboot. Closing date is 31 January 2018 at 5pm. Electronic submissions and RULES, folks. Check out the rules.

Good luck,

Anne

NORMA Bellini

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Out of the Darkness

Out of the Darkness

NORMA by Vincenzo Bellini is this year’s BIG EIF production.

Written by Vincenzo Bellini in the early nineteenth century, NORMA was set in Gaul where Druid resistance to the occupying Roman army was led and dictated by the High Priestess, Norma. Cue 2016 and we’re morphed into the second world war and German occupation of France. I didn’t really take to this.

Much of the human drama of Bellini’s NORMA is universal and timeless. It doesn’t matter whether we’re in Gaul or France because a wronged woman is a lethal enemy to make in either time-frame. However, there were issues. The scene where NORMA collects all the mistletoe her followers have secreted about their persons would work so much better if the actors were in robes than in 1940s dress. The dramatic climax where her betrayed followers set alight a pyre made of school classroom furniture is saved only by the chorus member who is determinedly snipping off NORMA’s hair. It was a chilling reminder of they way the French treated women identified as collaborators.

All of these issues apart, what of the music – the singers, the period instruments and the chorus?

I enjoyed all of the soloists and don’t have enough technical knowledge to get involved in the arguments about whether a mezzo-soprano should sing a soprano role and so on. I also enjoyed the chorus. Some critics have found them understated. I thought they sounded really good and they were also acting a community under oppression. Would they be loud and joyful – it’s not as if the audience couldn’t hear them.

The I Barrochisti period instrument ensemble’s regular conductor was indisposed and the chorus master, Gianluca Capuano, stepped in to conduct. An excellent job in the circumstances.

Tonight’s off-stage entertainment was provided by the huge number of people we knew in and around our seats. Congrats to the 4 chaps who arrived last and departed first. Hope you made the 10.30 show, wherever it was.

Supposing you’ve read one of my historical romances, I’d love a review. August is ‘leave an author a review’ month. Did you know/ Here’s my collection.

EIF 16 The Destroyed Room

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THE DESTROYED ROOM by Matthew Lenton and Vanishing Point is a much less comfortable evening in the theatre. Three folk left from seats around us when the male character, played by Barnaby Power, described the video showing the death of the Jordanian pilot at the hands of ISIS, frame by frame. Those who conscientiously avoid such graphic material on the web have every right to feel cheated.

The play’s point at that moment was to show how clever such manipulation is.

The script is naturalistic, the behaviours of three folk coming together and falling into one of those conversations – this one started “If you had to destroy one thing in your house, what would it be? – and led on, as scripts must, into deeper and darker territory than might have been expected.

THE DESTROYED ROOM is a play for our times full of the big questions and its performance by three talented actors – Elicia Daly and Pauline Goldsmith joined Power – is incomparable.

Also on stage are two cameras and their operatives sending close-ups of the performers onto big screens. Does it remind us how everything we do today is recorded – or do they just get between the audience and the play? I began to watch for the close-up when any of the three performers held sway, my companion was simple irritated. He’s not on FB and has only ever appeared in one selfie.

I was able to open the sweeties for our neighbour.

Run continues and tickets are here

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL2016 – Interiors

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And we have lift-off…

In-flight entertainment was provided by ‘Wee Hughie”s antics trying to get to Edinburgh for the Preview of Matthew Lenton’s Interiors presented by Vanishing Point.

He’d messed up, ‘Wee Hughie’ had  and the lady  whose telephone conversation with his mum/girlfriend/sister was broadcast on speaker phone to the whole Grand Circle was not pleased. The rest of us were much entertained, although very happy that it was all switched off in response to the authoritative voice from the outer darkness, ‘Switch it off now, Love, switch it off.

So following this, Lenton and Vanishing Point had ground to recover. And recover it they did with a warm, affectionate look at the frailties of both the human condition and a community living on the edge. The polar bears, the narrator informs us, are very hungry at this time of year. Where society is small, the individuals making it up have to get on, compromise and respect one another.

They might also entertain one another and there is a dance routine you should try not to miss.

Interiors is in rep with Vanishing Point’s The Destroyed Room at the Royal Lyceum theatre till Monday 8th August. Tickets from the EIF Ticketing Hub

Do you have my historical romance on your e-reader? Buy for kindle here

Starter’s Orders Pitlochry Festival Theatre

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Pitlochry theatre in the hills

Pitlochry theatre in the hills

Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s 2016 season opened for us with the towering production of CAROUSEL. Musicals often have a dark underbelly camouflaged by sparkling songs, energetic dances and a sharp book. CAROUSEL scores on all levels.

Ferenc Molnar was Hungarian and he wrote the original play, Liliom. According to the programme notes he had already turned down approaches from Puccini and Kurt Weill before agreeing to let Rodgers and Hammerstein have the right to adapt and set it in America.

The Pitlochry production opens with a dance routine and the setting up of the carousel where Billy Bigelow is the barker. Apparently having a young and attractive male barker was the key to running a successful carousel as it drew in the girls. Of course being young and attractive can go to a guy’s head and it’s not long before the conflicted Billy is breaking hearts and breaking his own ties with a job and his self-esteem.

George Arvidson delivers a memorable performance as Billy shining as both actor and singer. He’s from Denver and has already been heard as Count Almaviva in the Marriage of Figaro. He’s well supported by the ensemble cast.

The techies and stage designers have had a great time with this production and bring some wonderfully humorous touches to it just when the audience might be feeling the emotional strain of the domestic violence theme. I won’t spoil that because you’ll want to be surprised in your turn.

Our performance was a sell-out.

Run in repertory with matinées at 2pm and evening performances at 8pm until Saturday 15th October 2016.

tickets here Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Anne Stenhouse’s historical romance is here

Prelude and Fugue by Clifford Bax – Theatre Broad for Forth Valley Art Beat Venue 45

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Rebecca Fergus

Prelude and Fugue by Clifford Bax is being produced by Theatre Broad of Stirling for the Forth Valley Art Beat.

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Carol Metcalf

Prelude and Fugue

The play, written in 1918 as one of twelve short verse plays, for this production is set in the 1930s. The company have used the musical interlude ‘Prelude and Fugue’ by Johann Sebastian Bach to allow reflection between the verses of conversation and interior monologue. It tells the story of Rosemary, who a week before her wedding, is having her likeness drawn in Charcoal by Joan. As Joan sketches, the two women discover a dark secret shared by both of them.To save Joan, Rosemary must decide whether or not to reveal all. Will she do the right thing and save the younger woman?

Prelude and Fugue is an excellent choice for an Art Festival and in Rebecca Fergus the company have found the perfect choice to play Joan as she is doubly trained in both Art and Acting. Indeed some of Rebecca’s intriguing pieces adorn the stage. Together with Theatre Broad’s founder member, Carol Metcalf, the women tease out the agonising steps of deciding whether to share a dark secret or not.

Often the revelation of bad news depends as much on whether the hearer can face hearing it as on whether the teller can expose themselves by telling. Perhaps the social repercussions would be greater in 1918/1930 than today, but the effect on trust between friends and lovers certainly wouldn’t.

As apposite for today as for the time it was written, this delightful production of Prelude and Fugue, takes one out of the world of petty concerns to reflect more deeply on a fundamental.

Theatre Broad was founded in 2003 and aims to provide regular, affordable, quality theatre in Stirling, the surrounding area and on tour throughout Scotland and Northern England. Directors, Carol Metcalf and Tangee Lenton have a team of regular actors, associate actors and associate playwrights.

Forth Valley Art Beat is an annual event of Performance, installations, exhibitions, open studios and pop-up studios. It’s situated across the Forth valley and if you visit their 2016 facebook page (link highlighted above) you’ll find out a lot more.

Run continues – take a moment out of your busy day for this lovely dramatized poem with its haunting music.

Venue 45 Cowane Centre, Stirling in the Studio Theatre Mon 13/Tues 14 June at 2.30 and Fri 17/Sat18 at 7.30 Ticket from the Albert Hall, Tolbooth £5. From the venue before performances.

ESCAPED ALONE by CARYL CHURCHILL

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ESCAPED ALONE by Caryl Churchill is the first production I’ve seen in The Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London.

In London for a committee meeting of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, I was able to find a free evening and what a great experience it was. The Royal Court are trying out a short menu of ‘Boards’ for after the performance, so when it’s short or you were short of time getting to the theatre, then there’s a ‘board’ of cheese, charcuterie, smoked fish, or humus to calm that rumbling tum. My companion and I shared a cheese and smoked fish selection.

But you’re wanting to know about ESCAPED ALONE, not what I had for my tea.

The play by veteran writer Caryl Churchill is directed by James Macdonald and features four actresses with impeccable cvs. Linda Bassett, Kika Markham, June Watson and Deborah Findlay. Three of them are drinking tea in a garden when the fourth peeks in and is invited in. Four tales of life in its diverse experiences unfold for around fifty minutes.

So, I’m a little conflicted. Was the play so subtle, I won’t get it until it wakens me in the night some time later, or is it simply a homage to the achievement of survival? The performances were superb. The set great, although I could have done without the flashing light border. The fourth woman also acts a narrator and steps away from the garden to perform long speeches full of apocalyptic horrors – also at times very funny. These out-takes are when the stage is kept black but a surround of flashing red light created.

ESCAPED ALONE (the quote is attributed to the Book of Job and Moby Dick) does, however, stay with you and perhaps that’s its strength. Has the woman across there murdered her husband? Does the woman behind the curtains have agoraphobia? Why are cats terrifying? What caused the terrible rage? It makes you look again at those around – and wonder.

Run continues, Royal Court  Jerwood Theatre downstairs till 12th March