REVIEW: CHESTER POETRY PUB TOUR

A night at the pub has a new way with words

This week sees Chester Performs make its quest to cultivate Cestrian culture a late night affair as it launches its first ever Poetry Pub Tour.

    Tim Clare, the award-winning, popular stand-up poet and presenter of the Channel 4 series How To Get A Book Deal, is our host for the evening; an engaging, hilarious and talented wordsmith, Clare was also the creator of the Poetry Takeaway which featured at the 2012 Essar Chester Literature.

    We start at The Bear and Billet, then zigzag our way through rhyme, past metaphor and up Lower Bridge Street via The Cross Keys and Ye Olde Kings Head, before finally ending up at the Marlbororough (Yep, that is spelt correctly) Arms.

    The formula is a winning one: everyone buys a drink, we sit, Tim chats to us and makes us laugh a lot, reads us one or two of his brilliant poems, we chat some more, then move on to the next pub... Sounds simple? Maybe so, but the best things always are.

    To kick things off at the Bear and Billet, Tim recites a poem he has composed about a servant locked in a room for laziness and left to starve, whose ghost is still supposedly heard sobbing to this day. Since the pub, we learn, was the birthplace of John Lennon’s grandmother, the poet cleverly inserts one or two of said Beatle’s lyrics into the verse. To counter any surfeit doom and gloom at the Cross Keys Clare reads a piece, from his first published poetry collection, about ‘Beer Ghost’ – that strange phantom that only ever seems to visit and turn your room upside down when you’ve had a heavy night out.

    Later at Ye Olde King’s Head, with a dozen of us gathered round him and with his trusty uke in hand, Tim delights us with the musical tale of one peculiar, old gent , a row boat and a quest to thwart the Oxbridge boat races, from his album of spoken and sung verses, Jesus buys me Cigarettes.

    The fact that this evening’s event was the first of its kind means that the time spent at each venue is perhaps a little more rigorously observed at first than it should be, but after a pub (and pint) or two the night happily reaches a more natural pace.

   It’s so incredibly refreshing to pass an evening with a mix of such warm and friendly faces from every age group, come together through a love of poetry to share laughs over a drink and learn about the fascinating, and often grisly, history of the city’s pubs in the process.

    Were Chester Performs to make the tour a monthly occurrence, with an ever changing list of venues and visiting poets, the night would quickly become an absolute city favourite both for locals and for curious tourists after something a little different.

   To find out more about Tim Clare and purchase some of his poetry and other writing, visit
http://www.timclarepoet.co.uk/

THEATRE REVIEW: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM ~ Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre

A dreamy way to spend a Midsummer's night

Though rain begins to fall with aptly theatrical timing, nothing can dampen the spirits of the audience members as they sit munching their picnics, eagerly awaiting Chester Perform’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to commence at Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre. It wouldn’t be a British Summer without a shower or two , but luckily the clouds quickly pass to make way for this intriguing interpretation of a timeless work.

In a performance that reiterates the notion of reflection and contrast, we soon learn that the actors playing mortal rulers Hippolyta and Theseus are also cast as the flighty rulers of Faery, Titania and Oberon.  Clever use of actor twins Danielle and Nichole Bird means that Puck, the nimble trickster sprite, appears to zip around the earth in the twinkle of an eye, speedily rushing off stage in one direction only to zoom past again from the other seconds later. Though the two later come to be on stage at the same time, admittedly shattering the ingenious illusion, the production’s duality motif is further highlighted by the antics of the mischievous pair.

The most striking embodiment of this counterpart imagery appears when the acting troupe of simple tradesmen first depart, lifting up a giant metal ring from around the circular stone podium in the midst of the theatre - a symbolic loosening of the girdle of reality and reason - to float in ethereal mimicry of the earthbound mortal world. Only now that this strange doorway in the air is manifest, and the deliciously atmospheric full moon gleams amid the real storm clouds above, can the Fairies enter; attired like a motley gypsy band, they bring no end of mayhem and mischief in their wake, not to mention spark a veritable explosion of carnal yearning in the mortals with which they choose to toy for a night’s sport. . . With the juice of an intoxicating flower smeared about their eyes, we see rival suitors Lysander and Demetrius snarling and writhing like hounds as they hump the earth (as well as the leg of a very bewildered Helena) in a burst of pure animalistic passion.

 The result is a riotous fight scene with a rainbow spectrum of powder paint bombs blooming in the air with Fairies devilishly providing the unwitting humans with ammunition. Whilst hilarious, it has to be said that the dismayed sense of sisterly betrayal Shakespeare penned in the quarrel between Helena and Hermia is somewhat disappointingly drowned out in the uproar.

Nevertheless, the combined efforts of director Alex Clifton and choreographer Imogen Knight ensure that the Bard’s elegant and ornate Elizabethan words are colourfully expressed in a manner that is enormously entertaining to all the family.  Spectacle is very much the order of the day and we are given it in abundance: lords and ladies chant in candlelit procession; Fairies crow a rustic lullaby on folk instruments; the humble workemens' troupe performs its play-within-a-play to the newly-weds (now seated, like the audience, with drink and picnic in hand) along with a sprightly Morris dance, at both of which the audience continually roar with laughter, clapping and stomping away to the music.

Actors and audience alike delight in the frequent interaction with the gathered onlookers: lordly Oberon smears the charmed flower’s aphrodisiacal juice upon the noses of an elderly couple and cheekily wishes them a good night, whilst Bottom runs about as an ass with a Fairy entourage to steal a swig of prosecco or a mouthful of grapes from stunned picnickers, and lovelorn Helena chases her would-be sweetheart through the seated crowd to take a perilous dive off the terrace above.

Shakespeare’s work continues to speak to us through the ages of the unifying and transcendental power of love whilst convention is well and truly turned on its head, and this production remains faithful to these themes whilst instilling it with a fresh and original vibrancy.

CULTURE PRESERVATION: Help save Chester's historic Kaleyard Gate from destruction

Chester's heritage suffered enormously during the twentieth century, when much was destroyed to make way for its ring road and for modern commercial structures.

Horrifyingly, Chester Cathedral recently proposed a masterplan for the redevelopment of its surrounding area, which includes the destruction of Chester's ancient pedestrian Kaleyard Gate on Abbey Street in order to make way for car access to a Free School soon to be created in Abbey Square. Chester's walls, including the ancient pedestrian Kaleyard Gate, are a Grade I Scheduled Monument, and for the Dean and Chapter to have suggested this is utterly disgraceful and is in violation of English Heritage legislation. 

 Below is a template email to be sent to English Heritage requesting their intervention in this matter in order to preserve Chester's unique and already dwindled history. The message can be edited as you see fit, and can optionally be altered in order to send it to the Cathedral's project team director.

I'd be extremely grateful if you could find take a minute or two to either send a copy of this email to English Heritage or even write a few words of your own expressing your opposition. PLEASE, help save our history!

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LETTER:

To whom it may concern,

As you will be aware, Chester’s historic buildings and monuments suffered colossal blows during the twentieth century, with much of its heritage being erased in the name of “Progress”. 

It is as a concerned citizen of Chester and eager defender of history that I am writing to you. Nearly all of the city walls, including its pedestrian Kaleyard Gate (situated on Abbey St), are a Scheduled Monument with Grade I listing; however, the Dean and Chapter of Chester Cathedral have audaciously proposed the Gate’s destruction as part of a project for redevelopment that has had to be altered once already due to its infringements on heritage conservation.

Operations director for the Cathedral’s master plan, Simon Warburton, recently described the gate as nothing but a ‘hole’ in an interview for the Chester chronicle, appearing to be totally ignorant of the fact that the Kaleyard Gate has existed for almost seven and a half centuries and has, from the very beginning, been part of the history of the Cathedral, with the monks having requested its creation in order to access their vegetable garden. The tradition of the gate being locked at the 8 o’ clock curfew each evening, originally to prevent the attacks from marauding Welshmen, has also been observed since that time, and always by the Cathedral.

Incredibly, it now wishes to turn its back on all this and seeks to destroy one of the city’s ancient gateways for the benefit of those attending a Free School soon to be created in Abbey Square in partnership with the University of Chester. It is unimaginable that the Cathedral could condone destroying a piece of the city’s already dwindled heritage which is so completely bound to itself in order to shave a few minutes off the school run for a select minority dropping off its children at a school that will no doubt endure for a sum of years that is paltry in comparison to that of the Gate’s age. In light of the fact that Gorse Stacks car park is less than five minutes away, and a car park is in existence on the other side of the Kaleyard Gate in which private parking could be easily developed, it is baffling to think that the notion of bulldozing a large hole in the walls has even been considered.

It is already devastating enough to learn that the plans also include building luxury houses on the city’s sole surviving ancient green, beneath which lie the remains of the Deva Roman fortress barracks rediscovered in the 1920s; this further recklessness cannot be allowed.

I implore English Heritage to intervene and protect the Kaleyard Gate from this madness – for this proposal surely is madness – at all costs and preserve this unique portion of Chester’s illustrious history for future generations.

Yours sincerely,

[INSERT NAME]

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To contact English Heritage: northwest@english-heritage.org.uk 

To contact Chester Cathedral's project team: amie.williams@chestercathedral.com

For further details of the Cathedral proposal: http://www.chestercathedral.com/news/cathedral-masterplan.html

For more about the facinating history of the Kaleyard Gate and surrounds visit: http://www.chesterwalls.info/kaleyard.html

THEATRE REVIEW:CYRANO DE BERGERAC ~ Grosvenor Park Open Air Threatre, July 2013

Cyrano’s success as plain as the nose on his face


The Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre has been delighting its audiences since its launch back in 2010 by champions of Cestrian culture Chester Performs. With nine critically acclaimed productions under its belt, the open air group goes to show it only improves with age as it wows us with this year’s outstanding productions of Othello,A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cyrano de Bergerac.

    Edmund Rostund’s renowned play follows the tale of the nobleman Cyrano, chief Cadet in the French army’s Gascon company and wordsmith extraordinaire who can melt or enflame a heart by merely opening his mouth; he has nevertheless afflicted by an overly large nose. Our hero’s cousin and secret love, the fair Roxanne, is smitten by a handsome but inarticulate new Cadet and so Cyrano embarks on the heart-breaking quest to woo the lady on his friend’s behalf.

      Having previously written for the Grosvenor Park theatre, Glyn Maxwell makes a triumphant return with this striking, new adaption directed by Lucy Pitman-Wallace; no mean feat, with the writer having to tackle a the original work's forty threenamed parts – as well as a host of soldiers, courtiers, poets and more – all inhabiting five utterly different sets, from a baker’s shop to a war-zone, and somehow transform it all into twelve actors performing in one single outdoor space.

   Shuffling the play’s chronology, the nun’s from Act V are ingeniously brought forward to the opening (thus seamlessly framing the plot) as they begin to recount the tale of the soldier-bard from some fifteen years before. Before long, we see the nun’s take on the roles of many of those in the story, suddenly arming themselves and donning plumed hats as they riotously merge with other figures that enter now from all directions in sumptuous period costume, along with the titular protagonist himself played by Edward Harrison. The actor's portrayal of de Bergerac and his legendary panache is superb: sporting a stylised nose cleverly crafted from parchment covered in poetry, Harrison is charismatic, witty and collected with the most perfect theatrical timing.

   Indeed, the whole cast ought to be praised for their stellar performances, not least the nuns with their ever-changing roles; perhaps most notable amongst them being the talented twins Danielle and Nichole Bird. Many of the cast also had a chance to showcase their musical accomplishments: during a rousing and rustic Gascon anthem played to lighten the lift hearts before battle; Katherine Toy’s pleasing accordion interludes between and even during scenes; the emotive and truly haunting a capella chanting of what seemed to be a Latin mass during the dual between Cyrano and one hundred men, skilfully choreographed in slow motion by Sue Nash.

   With actors scaling the seating and livelily interacting with audience members happily picnicking mere feet away, Cyrano de Bergerac is an outstanding performance – at times brimming with humour, at others poignant and heart-rending – that is sure to thrill this summer’s theatre goers.

 For more information on this or any other performance, visit: http://www.grosvenorparkopenairtheatre.co.uk/

THEATRE REVIEW: MATTHEW BOURNE'S SLEEPING BEAUTY ~ Liverpool Empire, 4th May

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty Hears Bumps in the Night

The commencement of award-winning choreographer Matthew Bourne’s latest production in 2012 marked the 25^th anniversary of his acclaimed company, and is touring the UK until mid-May when it will continue with a host of international performances. Sleeping Beauty evokes much of the darkness of Charles Perrault’s original fairy tale whilst turning the plot on its head in a bold new retelling of this timeless story of malice, unconquerable love, and hope.  

            In this reimagined version, the King and Queen, desperate for a child of their own, invoke the aid of Carabosse the Evil Fairy who, offended by the lack of royal gratitude for granting their wish, curses the newborn baby, Princess Aurora, to prick her finger upon a rose and die when she comes of age in her twenty first year. The Good Fairy, Count Lilac, though unable to lift the evil curse, transforms it into one hundred years’ enchanted sleep instead. After his mother’s death, the Evil Fairy’s son Caradoc arrives at the Princess’s birthday celebrations and leads the doomed Aurora to her fate. When her secret true love, Leo (alas no prince, but rather the humble gardener’s boy) unintentionally eludes the Good Fairy’s slumberous enchantment over the castle, he must take drastic action and overcome the mortal implications of the long years that lie before him in order to awaken the sleeping princess, battle against Caradoc and his deadly, amorous intentions, and be reunited with his love once more.

Act one begins in 1890 (the year in which Tchaikovsky’s production was actually first performed), act two springs us forward to 1911, and act three then leaps resoundingly into the modern day when Aurora’s bewitched sleep finally ends. Lez Brotherstone, Liverpool-born designer, has created beautiful sets for all these periods and everything in-between. His designs are at the same time delightfully simplistic and gorgeously lavish: The Victorian interior of the castle is dominated by  a wide window through which the full-moon peers, only to be masked by a gigantic velvet drape that splits the stage in half;  the topiaries and rolling expanse of grass in the castle grounds of 1911 create the illusion of a bright and airy Edwardian summer’s day; A strange land of fog and lantern-covered trees acts as the dreamscape of the enchanted sleepers; the elegant red and black 21^st century night club is the stylish haunt of fairies in the present day.  A cleverly designed set of double conveyor belts towards the back of the stage enables the cast to drift ethereally about all these sets, allowing for some incredible choreography.  

   In terms of music, it must be said that the overall impact of the whole piece is weakened to an extent by the lack of a live orchestra, despite the very admirable use of Tchaikovsky’s score by music producer Terry Davies sound designer Paul Groothuis. The thrilling atmosphere an orchestra can generate as it tunes up moments before curtain is something a sound system will simply never be able to match.

The cast performances, however, are truly unimpeachable. Huge credit must be given to dancer Hannah Vassallo, whose accomplished portrayal of the feisty princess is fantastically animated, in spite of the fact she spends a large portion of the performance’s latter half dancing as though asleep as well as blindfolded.

Dominic North’s acting and dancing skills are excellent, there’s no doubt, but even they can do little to inflate the somewhat regretably lacklustre quality of Bourne’s hero Leo, who tends to remain as two-dimensional as the archetypal figures of Tchaikovsky’s original masterpiece. Indeed, the relationship between the gardener’s boy and Princess Aurora somehow remains disappointingly hollow throughout. Far more convincing is the dark web of emotions belonging to the sinister yet charismatic antagonist Caradoc, whose disdain for Aurora quickly mingles with desire as he dances a seductively menacing pas de deux with her and later caresses her lifeless body in a memorable and skilful dance sequence.

Tom Jackson Greaves, who plays Caradoc, also shines in his alternate role as the Evil Fairy Carabosse, whose brief, regal and menacing presence is keenly felt, not least during the especially haunting moment she conjures up a ghostly vision of the future princess, who dances on stage costumed so as to appear faceless as she eerily prophecies the details of her future curse.

Not without humour, the second half of the performance opens in the year 2011 with a group of true-to-life modern teens vainly posing for pictures outside the briar-ridden gates of the castle, and the beanie-covered head of lovelorn Leo pops out of a tent with his endearingly mini set of wings revealed. Earlier in the performance, masterful puppetry very nearly steals the show as it has the mischievous baby Aurora scrambling about the stage, scaling curtains and sitting up inquisitively in her cot, all whilst interacting perfectly with the cast members.

Bourne’s fairies (three of either sex) are decked in glittering aristocratic finery trimmed with multi-coloured rags to hint at their wild, otherworldliness; each sports an unobtrusive set of delicate wings and a black mask-like strip of shadow across the eyes. Bourne instils these mysterious creatures with a figurative and literal bite: in a vampiric twist, good fairy Count Lilac, played by the talented Christopher Marney, takes heartbroken protagonist Leo (who has accidentally alluded the sleeping charm the fairy earlier placed across the castle) in his arms and sinks his teeth into his neck, granting him immortality and the means to await the awakening of his beloved in one hundred years’ time, reiterating the production’s subtitle: ‘A Gothic Romance’.

Though it is not without faults, Matthew Bourne’s is a strong and visually stunning adaption in which his unique style of choreography flows seamlessly together; his vast imagination takes root and blossoms in order to fill us with child-like wonder, like the storyteller extraordinaire that he is.

For more details on the show, visit:

http://www.new-adventures.net/productions/sleeping_beauty/about

(Photos sourced from the offical New Adventures website)

ARTICLE: GRATEFUL TO GATSBY ~ Jazz Age Revival in the Modern Day

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is unequivocally one of the best literary works of the twentieth century. ‘In my younger and more vulnerable years’ (to quote the opening lines of the novel’s realistically flawed narrator, Nick Carraway), I was introduced to the text at school and was instantly smitten.

         It follows the tale of one enigmatic man’s unquenchable sense of hope as he tirelessly strives to win back a love that slipped through his fingers years before, all amid the corruption and decadence of Jazz Age New York. Though evocative of its era, it is a timeless story that resonates as strongly today as it did then, and with gorgeous prose and short, pacey chapters, The Great Gatsby is a must-read you’ll devour in no time at all and be left wanting more.

      As the excitement grows for the release of Baz Luhrmann’s latest bold new film adaption starring Carey Mulligan and Leonardo Dicaprio, it seems that Gatsby mania has taken hold.

Francis Cugat’s poignant artwork for the original edition of The Great Gatsby (right) so impressed F. Scott Fitzgerald that he decided to reference it in the book itself: ‘I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs’. As well as new editions of this cover, many others are now being released. In particular, Penguin has created a sumptuous new set of Fitzgerald’s stories with beautiful, shimmering Art Deco covers (Below).

Perhaps most influenced of all by the renewed interest in all things 20s is, however, the fashion world, as seen in Sue Wong’s new collection of elegant evening gowns dripping with glittering jewels and embroidered beading. And it’s no small wonder, with Prada having designed the dazzling array of costumes for the film’s actresses, mixing vintage styles with some of its more recent lines to create some strikingly beautiful and daring new pieces (below). 

Four sketches released by Prada for their The Great Gatsby costume designs

Along with hit series such as Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire, The Great Gatsby is also prompting men to look to the iconic styles of the past in favour of sleek tailoring, tie pins and luxurious fabrics. Being an advocate of classic men’s attire, I couldn’t be more thrilled.

In a bid to remain faithful to the look of the period, Catherine Martin, the film’s Academy Awarding-winning Production Designer, approached Brooks Brothers (the clothing company that the author Fitzgerald himself used) to design the clothes for the film’s leading actors as well as all the male extras. To tie in with the film’s release, Brooks Brothers have released a collection based on the garments used in the film, even including their trademark straw boater hats (see below).

Brooks Brothers new Gatsby collection based on the garments they created for Luhrmann's new film.

          Fitzgerald was also a patron of iconic jewellers Tiffany & Co. with whom Martin also collaborated for the film. Tiffany created signature pieces, such as Gatsby’s daisy-themed signet ring (below), as  well as allowed costume designers access to their extensive archives in order to recreate jewellery contemporary to the period,  like the exquisite tiara band (below) sported by actress Carey Mulligan at one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties. What’s more, the jewellers has released its Jazz Age Glamour Collection, decorating the flagship Fifth Avenue store with window displays inspired by the film (below). To show their appreciation for the original book, Tiffany has even granted Orion Books permission to use a design from their archives to create a new book cover.

Some of Tiffany's deco Jazz Age Glamour Collection window displays, New York

               The film will be in cinemas on 10th May, and I not only hope it is able to live up to the hype surrounding it, but that it also does justice to Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. If nothing else, Luhrmann’s adaption has made us appreciate once more all the beautiful artistic triumphs of a bygone era. I leave you with the words of Jay Gatsby himself: “‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’”

MUSIC: SCOTT MATTHEWS ~ Chester Gig REVIEW

Scott Matthews Performance,23/04/13:
What the Night Delivered

(Above image courtesy of www.glee.co.uk)

This is the third time I have been irrestibly drawn to watch the Ivor Novello Award-winning acoustic folk artist perform live now, and I would do so a thousand times more for such an incredible talent.  Scott’s desperately beautiful songs are nothing less than bewitching: his fingers dance effortlessly over the strings and a voice floats suddenly toward you as if from a dream, holding the thronged audience of Telford’s Warehouse, Chester, in hushed awe.

What I find most striking about Scott’s performances is that if you were to close your eyes, you could be forgiven for thinking you were actually listening to hymns being sung to you by some unearthly cello and not a man, so distinctly like the sound of swelling strings is the tone of his voice.

 He is taking this tour, he explains, to get the songs out of his system and learn their personal meanings before recording them in the coming months for what will be his fourth album after Passing Stranger, Elsewhere, and What the Night Delivers.

            Afterwards, he seems genuinely humbled and grateful that people appreciate his work, and is eager to make to time to chat warmly with his fans, without rushing.

Scott’s talent puts to shame the likes of artists such as Damien Rice and recent flavour of the month Ed Sheeran, and though he has a large following and is very much a respected “musician’s musician”, quite why his household acclaim isn’t greater than it is at present is utterly baffling.  Regardless, Scott’s fourth album will hopefully be released at some point later this year, and I simply cannot wait.

To listen to Scott Matthews:
https://soundcloud.com/#scott-matthews-music

To find out more about Scott and his upcoming tour dates:
http://scottmatthewsmusic.co.uk/

 
 

CULTURE: Rogues’ Galleries ~ Storyville

Rogues’ Galleries Storyville: Exploring the art in life’s artefacts

Whilst wandering along Chester’s high street and historic Rows, one passes an alarming and ever-growing number of vacant premises, despite its long-time renown as a ‘shopping city.’ In its on-going efforts to revive the areas failing cultural aspects, local arts producers Chester Performs recently commissioned The Rogues’ Galleries, a whole host of art installations, workshops and projects to breathe life into said empty sites and turn the notion of shopping on its head.

                Two such creative rogues, collaborative performance artists Katherina Radeva and Alister Lownie, have decided to set up their living room on the upper floor of a venue on Watergate Row in a piece they have named Storyville. Visitors are encouraged to come and peruse the motley collection of a lifetime’s bric-a-brac: ribbons and buttons, an ironing board, love letters, paintings, theatre props, boots, books, keys, clothes… And amid it all lays a couch, on which the duo invite you to sit for a cup of tea and a natter. They are so warm and charming that their infectious chattiness and contemplative air soon have you sharing, and reflecting on, snapshots of your own life’s history. During my time there, I found myself discussing the surprising violence of water polo one moment and examining the ghostly images from a brain scan the next. Other visitors came and went, and I found it such a refreshing and novel experience to be able to chat with perfect strangers as they shared their own stories or showed off the spoils of a day’s shopping.

Katherina Radeva and Alister Lownie sit amid their relocated belongings at

 Storyville, their most recent artistic endeavour.

             What makes the whole thing even more fascinating is that every item in the room is for sale. The fact that that the performers are sacrificing their personal belongings and keepsakes highlights the whole purpose of the installation: to have us, and indeed themselves, question how and why we apply value to things; not merely monetarily, but emotionally. The significance we apply to an object, the moment in time it encapsulates, how the look or touch of something makes us feel, how we value the lives and experiences of others and ourselves. Kat and Alistair were also particularly keen to find out what the future has in store for each once cherished item: who is it for? How will it be used? What will it mean to the individual?

           For my own part, I was drawn to the intriguing miniature of a woman made of wire and painted plaster that I discovered whilst rummaging through Kat’s sewing box. She seemed delighted that I had found it and carried on digging around until she had produced several other such figures. She revealed to me how she had once designed and made the costumes/set for a dance piece in London and that these had been the 1:50 ratio scale models she had used in the process. The naïve charm and stylised form of each little figure along with the memories and pride that each contained won my heart and I bought them on the spot.

           And what will their future hold? They’ve got pride of place on my bookshelf to bring a smile to my face and remind me of an enjoyable and unexpected hour I once spent in the company of two delightful people whose humble art piece made such a powerful and lasting impression on me.



Far Left/tight: The dancers of theatrical dance piece Daffodils (2005, stood in Radeva's costume creations.
Centre: The tiny figurines used in the design process for the same performance

 Katherina Radeva and Alister Lownie of Two Destination Language create performance works which focus on identity and community. Their work includes theatre shows, interactive installations, one-on-one works and fun participatory projects. Their work has been presented in venues across the UK and internationally. http://www.twodestinationlanguage.com/

For more information on the Rogues' Galleries, visit http://www.roguesgalleries.co.uk/

THEATRE: EQUUS, 2013 ~ Review

Equus proves to be a one-horse race

Tip Top Productions’ five-night performance (5th-9th March, 2013) of Peter Shaffer’s classic play Equus, led by innovative guest director John Young at the Forum Theatre Chester,  goes to show that though Shaffer claimed ‘life is only comprehensible through a thousand local gods’, all you actually seem to need is a handful of local talent.

          The play focuses on psychiatrist Martin Dysart as he deals with Alan Strang, a reserved seventeen year-old who has committed a horrible and seemingly senseless act of violence against several horses. As treatment progresses and Alan’s motives and desires unfold, Dysart starts to find himself questioning his own inhibitions…

The production opens with a silent, bare-chested figure slowly entering into view to place nothing but a mask upon his head in order to portray the fundamental essence of a horse. This, in many ways, epitomises the nature of Young’s interpretation of the play as a whole: stripped back to its raw and most potent elements. Subtly reminiscent of the archetypal masks of Greek Theatre, the abstract simplicity of the headgear’s design echoes the drawing style of Jean Cocteau, renowned for his obsession with the myths of Classical Greece - myths that, like Shaffer’s play, lay bare the truths of the human psyche.

The set does much to channel the themes of the play: a raised wooden dais to evoke the idea of a stable and reiterate the significance and authority of Shaffer’s curious horse god, Equus, the embodiment of worship, forever stamping his hoof to make himself known; an arch framed on either side by bars, through which audience and actors alike enter and exit the venue, to evoke horse stalls and allude to the playwright’s notions of freedom versus imprisonment through society’s accepted norms.

Versatile and carefully employed lighting brings great depth to the piece. At one moment, it offers a subdued fragility to the sex scene (and ensures the nakedness of the actors is tastefully done, without taking away from the strikingness of the image); the next, it imbues the confrontation between Alan and Equus with real menace as a hellish red glare cast up from below merges with smoke that rises suddenly to circle about the actors.

Local thoroughbreds: the cast of Tip Top Productions' Equus

                Though amateur, the actors’ performances remained mostly strong and poignant throughout, and the choreography was always captivating and effective, particularly with its clever use of different levels and heights to tackle the venue’s limited space and ensure the piece is visually stimulating even when the actors aren’t moving.

A bold and thoroughly thought-provoking production, it promises great things from director Young in the near future.

Review: PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER ~ From Book to Film

'[...]his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent.'  

Süskind's novel is one you'll be glad you stuck your nose into.   

   Written in 1985, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (or Das Parfum as it appears in its original German) tells the story of 18th century man gifted from birth with the finest nose in the world. With it, he can detect, and distinguish between, every smell under the sun. 

   Relishing in the thousands of odours he encounters and stores up like ghostly memories in his black heart, he soon becomes obsessed with creating a perfume like no other on earth: a perfume made up of the collected fragrances of beautiful, young woman.  Its crowning glory will be the most intoxicating and elusive female scent he has ever encountered; and he will stop at nothing to possess it...

   Split into lots of short chapters and with eloquent and very pretty prose that are satisfyingly easy to read,  it is the ideal book for dipping in and out of; though, perhaps because of this, you may well find yourself lured into sniffing out "just one more chapter..." after another. It is a very pensive novel, and challenges our notions of beauty, self, and social order, yet all in a manner that refuses to be heavy going or patronising to the reader.

   Due to the fact that much of the book's most poignant moments involve the experiencing of certain aromas and the internal reflections and revelations they incur, it is certainly a difficult book to adapt onto screen. However, despite a certain necessary trimming-down of time periods, Tom Tywker's 2006 film adaption (see trailer above) is largely successful in its portrayal of such a seemingly impossible novel to film; all thanks to a clever use of 'blooming' light effects, camera shots and angles, and (the usual favourite of mine) a superb soundtrack (see right) which manages to beautifully imitate the detection and elusiveness of scents and the veritable ecstasy Grenouille feels in encountering them (best identified in the tracks  'Streets of Paris' (1:51) and 'Meeting Laura' (27:09)).

    Without wishing to ruin the end of either the book or film, the director manages to portray, in a very artistic and tasteful manner, an especially difficult scene from the end of the story (to those of you in the know I need merely say the 'town square' scene) which could potentially have seemed vulgar and ridiculous. It is a film I would very much recommend.



Rachel Hurd-Wood as the intoxicating Laura Richis (Left) and Ben Wishaw as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Right), murderous Perfumer with an extraordinary gift, in Perfume: The Story of  Murderer (2006).

    Without any further gilding the lily, it remains only for me to say that Perfume: The Story of  a Murderer is an intriguing and satisfying book that brings in to question a whole host of ideas of identity and of the finite nature of life.

Rating: ★★★

Softback book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfume-Story-Murderer-Patrick-Suskind/dp/0141041153

Film adaption:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfume-Story-Murderer-DVD/dp/B000MTF09A

   What're you thoughts on Süskind's novel? Does the film adaption live up/surpass to your expectations? Let me know your thoughts!