It is nearly sixty years since the last radio edition of Hancock’s Half Hour was transmitted in December 1959 - 102 episodes and six series after the first in 1954. So to remember the original broadcasts you have to be, like me, over 70 – most of the audience at Richmond fell comfortably into this category! I usually listened to the Sunday repeat which in 1959 was on the “Light” Programme sandwiched at 6.30pm between “Sing Something Simple” and “Take it From Here”. If this was the golden era of … [Read more...]
Mark Morris Dance Group & Silkroad Ensemble: Layla and Majnun
We often talk about the universality of music - about how it can unite us even if we have no common language or shared core culture. The same applies perhaps even more so to dance. Back in 1980, I went to live outside of Britain for the first time - three years in The Netherlands. Although not a long way away physically it certainly was then in other ways, not least in The Arts. In those pre-internet and pre-satellite TV days we relied on local television and local live performances for our … [Read more...]
Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art at Richmond Theatre | Review
The two Alans, Ayckbourn and Bennett, are perhaps the only two living British playwrights who can be reasonably guaranteed to put bums on seats – at least in the regions. The former is 79 and the latter 84 and whilst the average age of their audiences is somewhat less their work is not designed to have youth appeal. That said the audience for Bennett’s The Habit of Art at Richmond Theatre had a sprinkling of young people dotted among those of more advanced years. This touring production is … [Read more...]
Faust, Alberta – Opera by Simone Spagnolo | Review
Faust Alberta is the second Time Zone production by Pamela Schermann at the Bridewell Theatre in the “Opera in the City” festival following the excellent Orfeo and Euridice. It is an original work by the composer Simone Spagnolo and this was its world premiere. A “Nameless Man” is in a remote cabin surrounded by frozen snowfields. He is not identified even to himself. The music is initially eerie – tonal and melodic but subtle and understated. The Man is indulging in self-analysis and a … [Read more...]
Orpheus and Eurydice at the Bridewell Theatre | Review
Christoph Gluck’s first opera Ezio was performed in 1750 a decade after Handel’s last (“Deidamia” in 1741) and his final opera (Echo et Narcisse) came in 1779 just before Mozart’s brilliant and prolific run from Idomeno (1781) to Die Zauberflöte (1791). Gluck was a bridge between different operatic eras and in particular, he took the art form into a new dramatic direction that we now take for granted. The story is at least as important as the music and dance. The breakthrough came with Orfeo and … [Read more...]
“Present Laughter” at Chichester Coward as Farce
The poster should perhaps have been a clue. Noel (or is it Rufus Hound?) as Garry Essendine dressed in what looks like a clown’s outfit. This was not going to be a conventional production of “Present Laughter”. Coward fans are generally agreed that peak Coward as a dramatist (and performer) were the five undisputed comic masterpieces of the interwar years – “Hay Fever”, “Private Lives”, “Design for Living” “Present Laughter” and “Blithe Spirit”. In all of them wit is paramount – the display … [Read more...]
Steptoe and Son is ‘a rattling good evening in the theatre’
Like me, the audience at the “Museum of Comedy” were mostly of an age to have remembered the original and I’m sure that, also like me, they will have gone away happy and laughing. This is authentic Galton and Simpson - three episodes from the later years of the long BBC television run of the comedy - “Come Dancing”, “Men of Letters” and “Divided we stand”. The scripts have been adapted a bit for the stage but this is kosher Steptoe. This is a touring production visiting eighteen venues over … [Read more...]