In the midst of death we are in life. For the purposes of this evening, both belong to the late Beatle John Lennon. No sooner has he been cruelly dispatched to an early death in New York in 1980 by the crazed gunman Mark Chapman than he embarks on the story of his life. Where is this account coming from? Heaven or Hell? If you are a Lennon fan, which is not quite the same thing as being a Beatles fan, he and therefore we are in the first; if you find him dumb with drink or dull with rage, it is … [Read more...]
GamePlan by Alan Ayckbourn at the The Hen and Chickens
It’s the done thing to say Alan Ayckbourn’s humour turned darker as his life and career grew longer. Yet there was always a powerful underpull of despair beneath the shimmer of well-plotted farce as his characters revealed themselves to be suffering from modern versions of timeless woes: isolation, family break-up, snobbery running to class hatred, marital hostility and depression itself. In this one, written and produced more than a decade ago as the first in his 'Damsels In Distress' … [Read more...]