FORTUNATELY for me, I only have a hazy memory of the film which took its inspiration from the Truman Capote short novel about society girl Holly Golightly, set in 1940s Manhattan, so I approached this new stage adaptation of the same novella, by Richard Greenberg, without too much knowledge of either the film or the…
THE last time we saw Kathryn Tickell was at Bath where she was collaborating with the then festival director, pianist Joanna MacGregor, in a programme that bridged the different disciplines of folk and classical music. They were playing a work composed by Kathryn for piano and the Northumbrian small pipes of which Kathryn is the…
HENRY James’ novel The Turn of the Screw has provided chilling inspiration for composers, filmmakers and playwrights since its publication in 1898. It plays on unnamed fears of the unknown, and as such can be “authentically” adapted to fit the preoccupations of any time. At Pavilion Dance, performing arts students from Arts University Bournemouth brought…
DECLAN Donellan and Nick Ormerod’s adaptatin of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations for Cheek by Jowl was first seen in 2005, and praised as an ensemble re-telling of the familiar story. Since then the writer’s fans have seen Dickensian, the clever reworking of various strands and characters from (and preceding) many Dickens stories into one sprawling…
“HOW lovely that it was introduced by the placenta” is not the quotation I was expecting to be uppermost in my mind as I drove home from such a wonderful, imaginative, fulfilling, beautifully crafted production of one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays in one of England’s finest buildings, but that was what I overheard in…
by Simone Sekers MARCH saw us trawling Macclesfield’s Treacle Market, and by great good luck April found us in my home town of Lewes, in Sussex, looking at another range of local foods. My family left the town for a nearby village when I was ten, at an age when food was, well, just food….
SISTER Act, the musical show based on the Whoopi Goldberg film, depends on a STUPENDOUS central performance … and that’s what it gets from Natasha Green at Street. It’s a feel-good story, and even if you aren’t a fan of 70s disco soul and gospel, the G&SMCS company do it with such energy that their…
IN this anniversary year of Shakespearean productions, many pushing the boundaries of accepted interpretation, Dave Hollis was determined that Shaftesbury Arts Centre shouldn’t miss out. His production of The Comedy of Errors, on stage in Bell Street until 16th April, sets the early play in a circus ring, beautifully but incongruously opening with a Japanese song…
JOHN Foster’s gripping play Shot at Dawn tells the story of two soldiers from the Dorchester Regiment, one an officer, the other a private, on trial for cowardice during the First World War. Although the characters themselves are the products of the playwright’s imagination, what they had to say was real enough, the actual text,…
WHEN Woody Guthrie wrote what would become one of his best-known songs, “This Land Is Your Land,”, he was protesting against the jingoistic patriotism of the song “God Blessed America” and supporting the rights of ordinary people to have access to the beauties and riches of the country. Sian Owen’s new play literally digs deeper…