I’ve been lucky enough to have a friend trace my ancestry back to the middle of the nineteenth century (I have neither the patience or the organisational skills required) – thank you, Janice! This picked up a few surprises as I never realised that my maternal grandfather (who died before I was born) came from Mid Wales [...]
Archive for June, 2008
The Rest of June
Posted in Art, Food & Wine, Travel, tagged Art, Food & Wine, Travel on June 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
June Music Round-up
Posted in Classical Music, Contemporary Music, Opera, tagged Classical Music, Contemporary Music, Opera on June 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Retro pop and lots of opera!
I was lucky enough to get tickets for Paul McCartney’s concert at Anfield in Liverpool. It wasn’t the best of the four concerts I’ve seen him do, but it was a brilliant atmosphere, great sound, superb visuals and lots to sing along to! When he struck the first chord of A [...]
Relocated
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on June 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The design team create an amazing film noir atmosphere. The acting is excellent. You’re intrigued and on the edge of your seat for much of the time. In the end though it’s snatches of horrific stories stitched together with no comprehensible narrative i.e. it’s not a proper play. With this, the over-rated Ugly One and [...]
The Pitmen Painters
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on June 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I lived the first 18 years of my life in a mining village and both my father and brother were miners, so I’m hardly objective when it comes to plays like this.
Lee Hall, as he did in Billy Elliott, has again got to the emotional core of mining communities. This play is much more than [...]
Love
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on June 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A love story set in an old people’s home with contemporary music sung onstage by a community choir – just the sort of intriguing, original and quirky idea we’ve come to expect from the Lyric’s David Farr and his Icelandic chum Gisli Orn Gardarsson.
Unfortuantley on this occasion, it doesn’t really work. The story is slight and the [...]
That Face
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on June 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This isn’t the sort of play you say you like – it’s disturbing and at times harrowing – but you have to admire it as it has a lot to say in 90 minutes through well developed characters and structure.
The performances are uniformly excellent, with Matt Smith becoming deeply moving as the story unfolds.
My companions [...]
The Chalk Garden
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on June 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A real find and a little gem!
How come we are subjected to interminable revivals of Checkov, Shaw and Pinter when there are treats like this just waiting to be produced? It’s beautifully crafted with intelligent and witty dialogue. It’s the Donmar, so we get another one of those terrific realistic designs which transport you to [...]
Bruce Springsteen – Millenium Stadium, Cardiff
Posted in Contemporary Music, tagged Contemporary Music on June 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I’m sorry I can’t join in the euphoria generated by this tour, but in Cardiff the undoubted efforts of the hardest working rock star were wasted thanks to truly appalling sound. It’s very frustrating to see a great band working their socks off for nearly 3 hours to no avail. In the 175 minutes of [...]
Hysteria
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on June 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In the magnificent Great Hall at Barts hospital, the men and women sit separately; the latter interacting with the small Brazilian cast and the former mere observers.
We seem to be in a mental hospital watching as handful of female patients engaging in conversation with randon members of the segregated women.
Much of the dialogue is inaudible and [...]
