Archive for the 'Performance & Music' Category

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The 1950s was a golden age of repertory theatre in the UK. That was a time when an actor might be playing Shakespeare one week while rehearsing for a Noel Coward play the next week and audiences might see Laurence Olivier in the lead role one night and as the second spear carrier the next night. It was also a key transition point as John Osbourne’s kitchen sink drama Look Back in Anger burst onto the scene to the challenge the established expectation of what theatre should be about. What was it like working as an actor at that important time in English theatre?

This is a special Fusion View podcast for the London Theatre Blog. To hear first hand about life in the theatre in the 1950s, I’ve coaxed actor Walter Plinge out of retirement to tell us about his experiences in repertory theatre during that golden age.

You can listen to the podcast interview by clicking on the grey player at the end of this post.

Or, you can listen to this and other Fusion View podcasts by clicking here.

You can also receive this and future Fusion View Podcasts free via iTunes.

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The London Theatre Blog was created by Andrew Eglinton and is full of information, reviews and opinions about all aspects of theatre, with a special focus on the London theatre scene. To find out more, go to www.londontheatreblog.co.uk.

Photo: scene from Look Back in Anger, thanks to www.gre enspot.info

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From our man on the scene, Fusion View brings you an eyewitness account of the recent Edinburgh Festival. David Grantley, poet and micro-short story writer*, reports:

For readers intrigued recently by Yang-May’s account of Brighton (the Saint Tropez of the English South Coast?), Edinburgh may be worth a visit. It is not so much trendy as the Piccadilly of the UK: everyone goes through at some point.

There are several festivals going on at the same time. The Film Festival (first showing of ‘Kill the Messenger’, that brilliant if no doubt controversial TV film), the International Music Festival (of music, opera, ballet), the Fringe (comedy and anything goes with hundreds to choose from), and the Book Festival (authors talk about their work).

Then there is an intermediate thing (I think) which includes The Lady Boys of Bankok (my cousin didn’t fancy, and five minutes for me would be enough) and the something or other of the Penis (Spanish friends recommend, but cousin’s husband didn’t fancy: he doesn’t like looking at what he calls human ‘bits’).

And there are art exhibitions, some good, some ‘interesting’ (cousin insists I see). It wasn’t until I got to Newcastle (the capital of England-lah, if you are young enough to survive it) on the way home that I found the contemporary Scottish artist I like: Michael McVey (please don’t spread the word about until I have bought one). Finally, (still in Edinburgh) there is street theatre (anything goes again). Food is plentiful, inexpensive and varied.

I had been booked to hear Andrew Rowson, cartoonist, on his cartoons, a man called Johnson who wrote the wine map of Europe (his love is only for the wine of France so only gets part of my vote), and Andrew Motion, the poet laureate talking about his autobiography: he came over as a very pleasant very English man (tall, too).

As ever I made a bee-line (wasp, hornet?) for the street theatre. My favourites: Peruvians singing in Spanish and playing all manner of pan-pipes: very jig-enticing sound when not deeply sad. Then some Tibetans, men and women, playing all manner of drum-like objects and a strange trumpet while a tall Tibetan does a dance with a long circular ribbon (if not Tibetan what could they be?). New ears needed: none of the guessable tonalities or tunes of any music I know (Indian, Moroccan, African, Chinese, Beethoven) but fascinating. There are also various magicians and excellent circus-like climbing and juggling acts, and even, this year, a ten-year old (I suppose) doing elementary juggling – he had to get two members of the audience to hold him up so he could be seen. All this free, of course, though donations expected (‘for foreign tourists the £5 note is the one with 100 written on it’).

Can’t imagine a cheaper holiday in the UK once accommodation is found.

Then there are constant oddities. Why was the wine talk sponsored by a whisky company? I came out with a wad of vouchers for free drams of their 12 year old single malt product. A dram is a very generous pouring out of a bottle into a generous glass. Whatever their reputation, the Scottish are never mean with the drink. The drams were poured in a refreshment tent-pub with tables and comfortable seats to the accompaniment of a skiffle and US country-music band. You don’t have to pay for a book-talk to use it. Free kazoos if you want to make a noise. As for the whisky, I like it, but it doesn’t like me. The morning after it takes half the day to stop hating the emphasis on thistles and tartan and everything Scottish (even Lloys-TSB is Lloyds-TSB SCOTLAND). Notable at all the events is the large number of local (= Edinburgh or Scotland in general) people out to enjoy themselves.

Of course I’ve forgotten to mention the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (bagpipes, marching and heavy-metal). But not for me, I’m afraid.

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*Inspired by a post on Fusion View about writing short stories in 55 words only, David submitted a macabre tale to micro short story site www.55fiction.com. Read more here.