Postcards from a happy place in book form

Book review: Cartes Postales from Greece by Victoria Hislop

A couple of years ago I read and reviewed Victoria Hislop's last book The Sunrise and was left a little wanting at the end.  I was therefore looking forward to this one nervously.

A couple of months ago I was lucky enough to get a beautiful sampler to this book and my fears were allayed. This book made me think I was back in Greece throughout.

It has a clever structure that allows Hislop to pull together all of the little stories you hear in a place (but aren't enough for a full plot) along with the stories of two other people - all linked thought postcards.

The ending was a little too predictable and trite for me but it didn't ruin the overall effect and the whole time I was reading this book I felt like I was sitting on a harbour-side taverna in the Greek sunshine.  My copy came from the library and  I loved this so much I've asked for a copy for Christmas.  Greece is my happy place and this book took me there on a day I didn't feel well (and had to miss a trip to London).

Theatre 2016: Review Thirty-Two

Jess and Joe Forever, The Garage, Norwich. October 2016.

A very brief review on line had me wishing I could see this in London and I got very excited when an Internet search said this would be in Norwich for one night only - tickets were hurriedly booked.

Why the interest? Well the reviews saying it was fabulous but nothing more for fear of giving away the plot plus the fact that it was set in Norfolk. How could the Norfolkbookworm resist? In a busy month the 70 minute run time was also a bonus!

Like everyone else I'm not going to review the plot more than to say it follows two young people from the ages of 9 to 16 in a series of snap shots of their childhood and it alternates between hysterically funny and tear-inducingly sad in a heartbeat.

It is performed by just two actors and they have you utterly believing in them whatever age they are being. Jess is a rich kid in Norfolk on holiday and Joe is a local.  The Norfolk accent is notoriously hard to perform and for the most part Joe is credible throughout, I didn't wince and it only occasionally slipped into generic 'yokel.'

I wish I could say more about this play but I don't want to spoil it for anyone else who may catch this on tour and I urge you to find it and go and see it.  I'm pleased to see that it has also earned an award nomination for the playwright, Zoe Cooper.

In a stupidly busy fortnight it would have been all too easy to skip this after a long, stressful day at work but I am so pleased we braved the unreserved really uncomfortable seats to see such a great play.

Theatre 2016: Review Thirty-One

The Boys in the Band, Park Theatre, Finsbury, London. October 2016.

Perhaps not enjoying the comedy Greek play had me offending the travel gods as neither of the lines to London were running this weekend and the dreaded rail replacement bus had to be braved.

Happily the play was absolutely worth it, act one was incredibly funny, pushing on farce and then act two sees a party descend into vitriol, anger and sadness.

This isn't a happy play, and none of the characters are particularly nice but as an ensemble piece it is terrific - not a weak link in the cast and so much to love whether in the lines or the acting.

It is a period piece, and some of the lines are eye-wateringly off colour but I feel that some of the nastiest 'jokes' were unacceptable even when the play was new - this is the way that self loathing is deflected out onto other people. Some of the lines are terrible, some of the actions of the characters are terrible but there are also some stonkingly funny lines and scenes as well as some truly tender moments. A great balance.

We also came out wanting to know more about the characters, the story was complete but I wanted to spend a little more time with the characters, to reassure them that things will get better and to know more about their histories. I don't think I'd accept a party invitation from any of them however!

Theatre 2016: Review Thirty

Cambridge Greek Plays 2016, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Cambridge. October 2016.

I can't believe that three years have already gone past since the we had a really mixed experience at the 2013 Greek Play - this time without Rebecca who decided that once was enough!

This time the serious drama was Antigone and not at all a chore to watch.  The cast were uniformly superb as they performed Sophocles's play. This is the third in a trilogy but the story telling was so clear that from the start you knew exactly what was going on, and I found it an emotional watch. Even though this play is nearly 2500 years old the point couldn't be clearer and in today's political uncertain times a play reminding us that dictators who don't listen are dangerous. Is upsetting the accepted status quo the same thing as upsetting the Gods? The setting was also very clever (although one of my companions wasn't so sure), it reminded me of the wonderful Othello at the National Theatre - again something that predisposed me to like this play perhaps.

After the interval we came back in for Aristophanes's Lysistrata - the comedy.  From the outset the audience is under no misapprehension that this is being played for laughs - the surtitles even tell you so! In this play the women of Greece are fed up of the war and so go on a sex strike until peace is declared. Plenty of scope for humour, and this was really piled up during the performance and for me it just went that little bit too far. I had to spend so much time reading the surtitles that I lost a lot of the action on the stage and it was also so contemporary and politically up-to-date that I also lost the original play.  It was great fun, I laughed lots and it was wonderfully risque at times but I have no clear idea of how the original play panned out.

I'm really glad I went, and it was good to see a packed out house for such a niche production but again for me it was a game of two halves, and this time it was the serious play that was the hit.

Not a space oddity

An afternoon with Colonel Chris Hadfield, National Space Centre, Leicester. October 2016.

After the joys of meeting and hearing the Kelly brothers at the weekend we were on the road again to meet another astronaut - this time the Canadian Chris Hadfield.

We got to the National Space Centre in plenty of time and had a little look around before the event - yesterday however it was full of school children (all of whom seemed to be inspired and enjoying themselves) and so we let them explore and retreated to the quieter areas before heading into the Sir Patrick Moore planetarium for what had been advertised as a q&a with Chris Hadfield.

We were however thoroughly spoilt as we got a wonderful talk and slide show from Hadfield. he has a great sense of humour and this came through in the anecdotes he told and the slides he showed - from the space heroes he thought he'd emulate to the little boy sitting in a box pretending to fly! I'm not sure what the Space Centre team thought of his demonstrations of how water behaves however...

After the talk there was time for questions and again these were answered with great thoughtfulness. He made sure that the children in the audience got to speak as well and again deflected some of the more 'interesting' questions with great humour.

After the talk we also had tickets to the signing session and here we were really surprised and impressed.  Chris Hadfield wasn't sat behind a table just signing but was wandering around and really chatting to everyone who was getting a book signed.  Mum got to ask him about boredom - and again he said that you can't be bored in space (before adding that there are only boring people not boring things!) before signing her book, shaking her hand and giving her a hug. I'm not sure she's stopped smiling yet!

My question was something that occurred to me at the Kelly talk when they talked about their medical training as astronauts. I was reminded of this when Chris Hadfield took a break in signing to talk about his medical training - how would you give CPR in space with no gravity to hold the giver in place and apply the pressure.  Apparently there are two ways. Both people are strapped down, the giver by the thighs, so that the compressions can be given. The alternative is to put your feet on the ceiling and push down on to the unwell person.  After this I also got a handshake and hug so like mum I've also got a silly grin on my face.

This was a great afternoon, and it was so nice to find that Colonel Hadfield is as nice in person as he seems on screen and page. I'm now off to re-read his autobiography.

The Sky Is Not the Limit

Space Lecture's Autumn Event: Mark and Scott Kelly. October 2016.

Another first for the amazing Space Lectures team - not one, but two astronauts to give the talk.  Not only that one of the guests only returned from space on 1st March this year.

As ever the event was wonderful, the Kelly twins make a great double act as they tell their stories with a great deal of humour and self-deprecation. There was also a great deal of light-hearted sibling rivalry on display.

Two people telling their life stories when these people have eight space flights and 500+ days in space between them mean that the talk is always going to be on the superficial side but I felt that I got a good feel for who these men were and how important their military and astronaut careers have been for them.

Both men were refreshingly open - Mark about the terrible events surrounding the assassination attempt on his wife, and Scott regarding the health issues he has (and still is to some extent) experienced following spending almost a year in space.

They took lots of questions - including mine (well mum's) about boredom in space: no they don't get bored on the ISS however long they are up there, many other feelings but not boredom.

The hour and a half event just whizzed by and although this was more of a motivational talk than in-depth biography/history as Tom Stafford treated us to in April but I found it just as interesting and gripping. I'm hoping that both men do write their autobiographies in the next few years.

Tickets are booked to the next event already - another Shuttle commander - and I can't wait.

Theatre 2016: Review Twenty-Nine

The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare's Globe, London. October 2016.

I saw this last year and reviewed it very favourably here. In fact by the end of the year it was in my Top 10 plays of 2015, this time I was with Rebecca and my mum - the former missed it through illness last year and after I raved about it so much mum decided she wanted to see it after all!

However as I loved it so much I was a little scared that it was a mistake to see such a great production a second time...

I needn't have worried as from the very start I was straight back in the Venetian world and wrapped up in the story.  Once more my sympathies moved from character to character and the antisemitism is still as shocking, especially the ending.

What I did notice this time around was the less overt antisemitism. Portia might accept Jessica into her house as Lorenzo's wife but she is always treated with disdain, scorn and is never an equal of the others.  The little looks and actions felt, in some ways, worse than the ending to me - far scarier that is for certain, at least the treatment of Shylock is visible and easy to call out...

By the end the three of us were moved to tears, and yet at times we'd been helpless with laughter.  If there had been tickets left I'd have gone to see this again. As it is I treated myself to the DVD from the shop and can't wait to watch it again.

I think that this will once more end up in my top 10 of the year!

Theatre 2016: Review Twenty-Eight

The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare's Globe, London. September 2016.

I'm used to walking into the candlelit Wanamaker Playhouse and being transported back to the early 1600s, thus is was a bit of a shock to walk in and find that there was 1960s pop music playing and the stage was set for an intimate music gig complete with electric lights. I confess my heart sank, after the recent reworking of Dr Faustus a 'concept' play seemed doomed to disappoint me.


From the very first moment however I was captivated. It was a very clever idea to bring an awkward play to life.  We started in repressed Verona with a young cast all in modest, drab clothes - a place that the swinging sixties certainly hadn't reached.  As they leave for Milan colour and life comes into the world and the music becomes far more upbeat. After the interval we've left Milan and are with the outlaws and now the costumes and music show this by being very 'hippy.' The music had my toes tapping throughout and this was before the audience was encouraged to join in.

The plot of Two Gents is somewhat slight. Valentine and his best friend Proteus live in Milan, Valentine leaves for Milan but Proteus stays behind with his true love Julia.  Proteus' father sends him on to Milan as well where he finds his friend has fallen in love with Sylvia.  All so simple, however Proteus falls in love with Sylvia too and goes out of his way to wreck the budding relationship - this all goes far too far as he tries to rape Sylvia before she is rescued by Valentine and Julia (disguised as a boy trying to discover what has become of her lover).

Even more uncomfortable than this is the way the 'boys' just decide the futures of the girls - fair enough that Valentine and Sylvia remain as a couple but the assumption that Julia will want Proteus again after his actions is incredible.
This production handled this nicely as after the boys have said their piece Sylvia and Julia take to the microphones and sing a lament - it is obvious that they are not accepting of the decisions made on their behalf.

The modernising of the play in setting worked for me entirely because Shakespeare's words had been kept (in fact lines from other plays had been added to one scene to huge comic effect!)and because his plots are universal I believed the story worked brilliantly with a sixties setting.

The cast of 9 were all incredibly talented actors and musicians and the comic character was reined in to maximum effect, and the staging of Crab the dog was very funny. A plot so simple could easily have been tinkered with far too much but in keeping everything as the original except the era it felt fresh and different, everything that updating of Dr Faustus failed to be!

I'm finding it hard to express my love for this show, for me it just really resonated, it started as a touring production and I really hope that tours next year so I can catch it again!

Artistically Inclined

Georgia O'Keefe, Tate Modern, London. September 2016.

I discovered O'Keefe's work through Ansel Adams. They took inspiration from the same locations and he took several portraits of her. I wasn't that familiar with much of her work however, although as soon as I saw some of her pictures, uncredited on posters, I knew they were by her.

From entering the exhibition I was immersed into her world, her colours and her ideas. Each room held images that I was instantly drawn too and even the more abstract works, which I usually skim past, had an impact on me.

I also liked seeing O'Keefe's work put into context with Stieglitz and Adams (amongst others) and I did spend a lot of time looking at them in detail too.

However as this was supposed to be an O'Keefe exhibition I was a little concerned how many of their works, and how much prominence they were given. At the start of the exhibition I did find that Stieglitz's works were overshadowing O'Keefe's, not in size or colour but quantity. This did reduce as the exhibition continued, and I suppose as he 'discovered' her and was her husband this is understandable but as the tagline for the exhibition is her desire to be taken as the best artist and not just the best female artist I am still a little perturbed.

Unsurprisingly the images from the American southwest were among my favourites, as an amateur photographer I love the colours and light in that area, I could feel the desert warmth shining through. I surprised myself however by liking the more abstract images - the desert through windows created by bleached bones in particular.

Pedernal 1945 / image from Timeout.com

Her images of New York just before the Crash of 1929 were also stunning. Although often stylized or impressionistic I found O'Keefe's work to be incredibly photographic in style, and her ability to make things look three dimensional was stunning.

I think that my admiration and love of her work comes from the fact that she painted scenes that I like to photograph and I now really want to go back to the desert.

Theatre 2016: Review Twenty-Seven

Pride and Prejudice, Theatre Royal, Norwich. September 2016.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the Norfolkbookworm had not read Pride and Prejudice before seeing this at the theatre. Even the brilliant Longbourn hadn't inspired me to read the original but when a friend asked me to see this with him I wasn't loathe even though I did rush into the theatre straight from work and was a little hassled.

I am so pleased that I went, like all good theatre not knowing the plot didn't matter as the story unfolded clearly and with great pacing. Not knowing the original novel I'm not sure what was cut, I'm guessing some smaller subplots, as what we got was very linear and straightforward - I expected Austen to be more complex.

The staging for me was a little fussy and at times I was a bit distracted by it - a revolve has been built on the stage and the main scenery was a metal staircase/balcony. The cast and the props came in and out through this and the movements were all highly stylised. Quite a lot of the run time did seem to be the stage revolving and furniture being moved.

This sounds like I'm ambivalent about the show, and I'm really not - these are all niggles. I liked the actors and also the use of the orginal text into the script. I also liked the feminist message that came through without it feeling out of time for the play. It has also finally inspired me to read the novel.

This is the second touring production from the Open Air Theatre that I've seen and enjoyed in Norwich - I must make an effort to see one in their original location next summer.

Literary locations

 Exploring the locations of a favourite book.

Last year I read When Marnie Was There by Joan G Robinson on Mr Norfolkbookworm's recommendation.  I don't know how I missed it as a child. I know that I loved Robinson's other creation, Teddy Robinson and that I also loved timeslip stories.  All I can think is that I picked it up at the wrong age. Teddy Robinson is definitely aimed at beginner readers whereas the complex plot of Marnie is more suited to those 10+.

Anyhow, it doesn't matter I've discovered the book now and as well as being a top read from 2015 I think it might enter my top books of all time.

Another great thing about the book is that it is set in Norfolk and we can easily get to the village in which it is set. This past weekend there was an added bonus as the Mill, which plays a pivotal role in the plot, was open to the public for the first time in 40 years.

While I really wanted to get to the very top for the views (heights don't bother me) I was defeated by the ladder access. Mr Norfolkbookworm has no fear of ladders but the height was too much for him so sadly we have no views of North Norfolk from the top, but I consoled myself that the plot doesn't revolve around the top floors and so I did walk where the characters had their adventures...

Looking towards Marnie's house

The main village staithe

The channel to the beach

Burnham Overy Mill

With many thanks to the National Trust for opening the Burnham Overy Mill to the public making it possible to fully imagine the whole of the book.

Theatre 2016: Review Twenty-Six

Doctor Faustus, The Barbican, London. September 2016.

I'm easily swayed into going to the theatre and this time it was my friend the Upstart Wren who was keen on seeing this.  I have a love/hate relationship with the RSC but Doctor Faustus is a play I like a lot and so I was quite happy to accompany her.  It all started well, trains were on time, we found the Barbican with no problems and our seats were excellent...

The opening was promising too - the roles of Faustus and Mephistopheles are shared between two actors and at each performance the decision as to who plays which role is decided by striking matches, however as the characters were dressed identically at this point I can't remember whether the owner of the match that went out first played Faustus or Mephistopheles - already not a good sign for the play!

I got more hopeful as the start did show Faustus surrounded by books, but my reading of him is that he feels he has learnt all he can from the books he has but wants more which is why he makes his pact but in this version he starts by throwing books away in disgust and I had the feeling that he was bored by them not that he was a renowned scholar.

It just went downhill from here on. The text had been drastically cut but the time filled with lots of modern dance and whitewashing of the stage. I never felt that the good and bad angels were actually fighting for Faustus, they merely seemed bored and one of them could barely speak the line.
A moment of levity came with the appearance of the deadly sins although even this became smug and self referential as covetousness appeared to look like Antony Sher's Richard III - a role he played for the RSC...

image from Findingshakespeare.com

My biggest discomfort from the play came ultimately from the feel of the piece. I found it to be incredibly anti-Semitic in tone.  At times, to stress the evil events, a black and white film is played at the back of the stage - this reminded me utterly of the propaganda films created by Goebbels during the late 1930s and early 1940s, also the words Faustus speaks to conjure throughout the play were certainly not the Latin of the original and had, to my ear, the harshness and cadences of Hebrew. 

I'm not the only one who has been made uncomfortable with this - other have commented that the students/devils have the look of Jewish scholars.

I'm pleased I saw this version of the play for it reminds me how good the Globe's version from 2011 was. I think that cutting out all of the humour from the play (like Shakespeare Marlowe's plays are a good balance of comedy/tragedy) was a mistake, the play felt unbalanced. I've also read the play since seeing it and I don't think I like the additions either. 

Ultimately I never believed in either of the leads - possibly because Mephistopheles looked just like Richard O'Brien when he played RiffRaff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Book review - Secret Diary of Henrick Groen 83 1/4

Growing Old Disgracefully.

I can't stop talking about this book it is The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole meeting the 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared set in Amsterdam.

Hendrik is in a retirement home and not happy to be growing old and weaker, but at the same time he is also reveling in his age and complaints.  The book made me laugh, gulp and cry but at no point was it ever predictable which is what makes it such a great book for me.

The diary format could be jaded and old hat but the characters and setting make it a step above and the chance to read a Dutch diary other than The Diary of Anne Frank was a real treat.  I'm recommending this book to everyone and anyone!

Geek counting

Number crunching the books.

A near disaster with a glass of water and 11 years of  reading diaries saw me decide to type up all the books I've listed in various diaries and journals over the past decade.

It has (unsurprisingly) taken me quite a while to get through the various notebooks and diaries, and while I don't have the stereotypical doctor handwriting sometimes deciphering my notes was interesting.  I'm also pretty sure that I've lost a couple of months from 2009 - I can't believe that I only read 8 books in three months even with a trip to Canada and a new job.

The stats from January 2005 to December 2015 are now crunched and even I was quite surprised to discover that in ten years I'd noted 2973 books.

It is very clear that when I still worked in book retail I read a lot more, however I was a children's specialist and for several years part of the team responsible for selecting the 5-8 book of the month meaning that every month I read an awful lot of shorter reads. At some point in my record keeping I decided not to note down what are commonly known as 'picture books' - everything has 48 pages or more.

Since starting work in the library I can see that I read a lot more non fiction and that I take a lot more gambles on my reading, there is no pattern at all to what I read - I really will try anything.

One thing that also came through from my notes is just how often I re-read a few authors, a couple of these are typical mid-twentieth century school/family story authors and the third is a contemporary, feminist, fantasy author.  On average I read many of the books by these authors once a year.
I was a little surprised that books I consider favourites, such as Little Women, don't feature highly on my rereads list but other books by Alcott, such as Eight Cousins, reoccur much more often.

Some books that I felt sure would appear on this list aren't there and I wonder if it is because I read them before 2005 or if I just didn't note them which is possible, until I found the right journal:

This lets me list the author, title, date read and gives me a line for notes about the book and the layout lets me note my reading for two years in each volume.*

What I found interesting reading back through all of the lists was just how many of these books I could actually remember in some detail. A few I hadn't listed the author but as soon as I popped the books in to a search engine it all came flooding back, looking at the dates I read some books also stirred memories, some good and some less good. Looking at some titles I am instantly transported back to where I read them - Greek beaches, slow trains, plane journeys the lot.

Right all of this typing has eaten into my reading time and as today has been designated #readabookday I'd better get on with it.

*On looking for a picture of my preferred reading diary I've discovered it is now out of print so I am off to bulk order the ones left in stock.

Theatre 2016: Review Twenty-Five

The Deep Blue Sea, Lyttleton Theatre, National Theatre, London. August 2016.

This was a play we were lucky to get seats at, and typically the day after I grabbed three together it was announced that there would be a National Theatre Live performance - the very next day to our visit.  However live theatre is preferable and it was nice for Rebecca and I to meet up with the Upstart Wren.

I have a soft spot for Rattigan - I loved Flare Path when Mr Norfolkbookworm and I saw it back in 2011 and I've also enjoyed films penned by Rattigan or adapted from his plays - and so I was happy to go to see this.  I'm not sure what drew my companions to this one - reviews and the cast I think.

In not booking until late we did have seats right at the back of the Lyttleton theatre and for the first half I felt very distant from the action, however by the end this distance worked and it was as if we were watching the play through the deep blue sea.

Like Flare Path this is a play with very little plot as such but is all about emotion - on the surface and repressed and it grew on me very cleverly. At the interval I thought that the recent film was better viewing but I was drawn deeper and deeper in and by the end I was cheering for Hester.

In many ways this is a very modern play, Hester, ultimately, takes a very brave line and goes her own way. She takes neither of the 'easy' ways out that are on offer to her. The men in the play are less stereotypical than you might expect for the late 1940s and early 1950s and there is just a prescient hint of the relaxation of society that started just a few years later.

On reading around the subject, and the wonderfully detailed programme, it becomes clear that this in someways is an incredibly autobiographical play and this might explain why the characters took so long to grow on me - like real people they are more flawed than you'd like and not people you want to identify with. The callous act with the shilling really drove this home.

The set was fantastic, Hester's flat took the main part of the stage but the other other apartments in the building became visible as needed through clever lighting and it made the play both claustrophobic and a great reminder that one couple's drama is very small fry in the scale of the world.

Rebecca and I enjoyed the play more than the Wren but we've spent the past 24 hours discussing the whole thing a great deal which implies that there was more to this play than first thought.  While Rebecca and I became more and more involved as the story went on out third found it becoming more trite... it would be a dull world if we all had the same views and in being challenged in our opinions has meant that we've had to think more about our views which is always good.

All of us however, and the people sitting next to us, were bothered by the slightly anachronistic feel to the props and sound  - the most important piece of music came from at least 5 years after the play was written let alone set...

I'm pleased I saw this live, and with friends so we could discuss it - but I do wonder if we'd have seen a different play if our seats had been closer to the stage...

Mojo retained

All too often you find me on here bemoaning the fact that once I am back from holiday I find it hard to get back into reading again. I'm never sure if this is because I've read too much in a short period of time or if it is just hard to re-adjust to fitting in real life and books!

This year I don't seem to have been quite so bothered by this real first world problem and this is possibly due to the great books I have been sent by publishers in either physical form or via NetGalley.

Sing to Silent Stones: Violet's Story - David Snell.  (book out now)

This book was sent to me in physical form after I responded to a tweet offering reading copies. It arrived just before we went on holiday and it was just that bit too big and heavy for my luggage.  It was the first book I turned to on return but I wasn't gripped that night, a couple of week's later I picked it up again and promptly lost two days as I fell into the story straight away.

It is the first part of a sweeping family saga covering both World Wars and so was always likely to appeal to me, I loved the detail of the war scenes and the mixed view points. At times I felt like I was reading a biography not fiction but certain scenes do certainly ground the book in fiction, however inspired by family history.

My one criticism was that it seemed rushed through the 1930s but by the end I realised that this was necessary to get the book to a suitable end point ready for part two - which I can't wait to read when it is published.


Clover Moon - Jacqueline Wilson (to be published October 2016)

When I started out as a book seller Ms Wilson was the most popular author around, and while she has remained prolific and reasonably popular I started to find her formulaic and stopped following her publication schedule.  I wonder if this  response is not unique as a couple of weeks ago an advance copy of her next book, Clover Moon, dropped through the letterbox - I don't recall her being 'proofed' for well over a decade, and probably longer.

I was intrigued enough to read the book and I was pleasantly surprised by it. It is a historical book, and the content is pretty hard hitting - although not covering the same period in history (or themes) I found it to create images in my mind very similar to those shown in the recent film Suffragette.

I'm not sure that the overt links to another Wilson title, Hetty Feather, were needed and also the ending seemed so open that I wish it had been stated for certain that a sequel is in the works because it didn't word as a standalone for me as an adult reader.

French Rhapsody - Antoine Laurain (to be published October 2016)

I'm a huge fan of the translations of Laurain's work and I was so excited that Gallic Books made this new one available on NetGalley so early.  It is the typical mix of profundity and whimsy this time with more than a dash of politics.
This one took me a little longer to get into than the previous two books but I did fall in love with the characters I was supposed to and had sympathy for the others - what I'd have liked is for the book to have been twice or three times as long so I could spend more time with them all!

Theatre 2014: Review Twenty-Four

Half a Sixpence, Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester. August 2016.

This was our annual outing with Mr Norfolkbookworm's aunt to her choice of show and as has happened over the past few years this wasn't a show we'd have picked ourselves but a day out in Chichester is always a treat.

I approached this one with more trepidation than usual after the unusual decision I made after seeing Mary Poppins last month.  Tommy Steele might have been a great singer/dancer/actor in his day but the film version of Half A Sixpence was awful and I only watched about 20 minutes before giving up.  Mr Norfolkbookworm got to the end and said I'd made a good decision.

I am pleased to report that I loved the entire thing on stage, from the clever set even before the actors appeared, to the costumes, singing, dancing and story the whole thing was an utter delight.

The story had been simplified somewhat from the film and the characters were all clearly defined and I found the show to be beautifully balanced between male and female leads, of course Kipps was the main role but the show wasn't a one-man vehicle like the film appeared to be.  I couldn't tell which were new songs and which were originals as it all seemed to just 'fit' for me.  I loved the relationship between Ann and Flo and I had a lump in my throat when their stories all worked out.

I think that the setting of this show was always going to make it resonate with me, as it is all set in Folkestone which is where my family come from and I could 'see' the real places as well as the beautiful and innovative staging. I also thought that the accents sounded like Kent ones and not bad cockney ones.

I love shows that I am nervous about and then they turn out to be terrific, right now this is likely to end up as one of my top shows of the year and I really didn't expect that as we walked in to the auditorium.

As ever lots of appreciation to all the staff at Chichester (theatre, restaurant and bar) who make going to the theatre with a companion who is elderly and registered disabled so easy - and even let us know that there were reduced tickets for disabled people rather than just selling the best seats in the house.

Theatre 2016: Review Twenty-three

Boys Will Be Boys, Bush Theatre at the Bush Hall, London. July 2016.

This was my final event of a busy few days (three plays/shows, one film and an exhibition in 50 hours!) and neither Rebecca nor I can remember why we picked to see this - a review somewhere must have enticed us.

We landed on our feet with this show - at just 1hr 45 minutes it packed a lot of punch.  The all female cast told a shocking story of sexism in the world of finance but the show was a mix of straight drama, cabaret style anecdote telling and big musical numbers.

The cast of 5 were incredibly talented and throughout the show I was never quite sure where the specifics of  story were going but the feel, that women don't compete on a level playing field with men currently was eloquently told without becoming didactic.

I found the show to be moving, socially aware, funny, shocking, and sensual.  I found Kirsty Bushell, playing Astrid to be the stand out of the show. With no costume changes at all she managed to convey all aspects of Astrid's character with just body posture and facial expressions and towards the end, despite her behaviour, my heart broke just a little for her as she looked so broken.  The rest of the cast were also terrific and as an ensemble this was stunning - it was just a little sad to see how empty the venue was.

If this tours or transfers I'd urge you to go - I know I'd try and get tickets again.

Shakespeare in Ten Acts

Shakespeare in Ten Acts, The British Library, London. July 2016.

In the year that I finished my MA and 400th anniversary of the Bard's death there have been lots of Shakespeare events and exhibition. Perversely I've not seen that many plays etc. this year - possibly because I was concentrating so hard on my dissertation but I  knew that I really wanted to see this exhibition.

I'm pleased that we got there, the concept was really good because it wasn't just about Shakespeare's time but his legacy and this is what a lot of my studying has been about.

Each zone took a different play as a theme and then used printed material, costumes, interviews and videos to put it all in context.

Highlights for me were the copies of the early books, folios and quartos - comparing the three versions of Hamlet was a delight and reading the details about the booksellers and exactly where you'd find their stalls shops really brought the era to life.
Other parts that I liked were the rooms on Othello and non white actors - possibly influenced by seeing Red Velvet and reading about theatre in the eighteenth century.  I also liked seeing the recreation of Peter Brook's iconic white box A Midsummer Night's Dream as I'd read so much about this production.

A great deal of my pleasure from this exhibition came from seeing the actual items that I'd learned about over the past few years - the actual pages of the play Sir Thomas More thought to have been written by Shakespeare for instance but also the layout was really good and as it wasn't too busy at all when we visited there was plenty of time to read everything and walk backwards and forwards to look at things more than once.

After the past few years of study I didn't expect to learn many new things from the exhibition, but there were some quirky details that I did discover and if the exhibition had been a little warmer and I didn't have another play to get to I think I'd have spent even longer poring over the exhibits.

Theatre 2016: Review Twenty-two

Richard III, Almeida Theatre, London. July 2016.

This was the third version of Shakespeare's Richard III that Rebecca and I have seen. The first was the stunning Mark Rylance/all male cast version at the Globe back in 2012 and it is always going to be hard for any other production to come close to this.

The star casting of Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave made getting tickets to this difficult but Rebecca managed it, although the seats were possibly a little more restricted view than we thought from the size/shape of the theatre - not that we were complaining for the price!

The play starts in the modern day with the dig in the Leicester car park where the remains of Richard III were found and this open pit remains on stage throughout, sometimes used for bodies to fall into, and at other times covered but always visible as a reminder of how the play was going to end.

It was a hot night in a dark theatre and I was tired yet I was kept engaged throughout this production which is a real positive but yet again I failed to quite connect with what was on stage.

Fiennes started evil in his portrayal of Richard and it had nowhere to go from this, people were laughing at his lines and actions but for me I didn't find him at all likable at any point and so he never had my sympathy. I also found his very graphic sexual actions, especially the rape, just too much to watch. Scenes like that could never have been performed until recently and the power in these scenes has always, for me, come from the words and again these scenes just felt a way to up the evil even further.  However as I'd never had any sympathy for this Richard I didn't need to see him be nastier still.

The mix of modern costumes and mobile phones along with swords and the famous "a horse" line also didn't work for me, although the main proponent  of this, Hastings played by Globe stalwart James Garnon, did manage to make the language seem natural and to fit with the staging - even when he was using a mobile phone.

My main issue with this production was with the staging, the Almeida is a small theatre and so to have the entire play performed to only 4 rows of the stalls was unforgivable. The attempts at including the audience could never work as so much of the play just didn't reach out.  I think the only time the gaze of those on stage included the circle was the curtain call.  I've also read reviews since seeing the play which talk about clever staging ideas that were totally invisible from our seats, and much of the circle from what I can tell from peeking around in the interval.

This was certainly better than the version of Richard III we saw at the Trafalgar Studios a couple of years back, and  I am a little tempted to go and see this in the cinema at a National Theatre Live broadcast just to see if a 'perfect' view does make a difference.