Learned some lovely new songs with the Colliers Wood Community Choir yesterday evening. We're rehearsing for a performance with 1000 voices at 2 pm on Sunday 14 September, one of many free events taking place during the Thames Festival.
We will be fundraising for WaterAid, which supports projects for clean water in developing countries. A very good cause! More information http://www.wateraid.org/uk/get_involved/events/event_news/6882.asp
Sponsorship offers gratefully accepted, and looking forward to meeting friends and family at the event.
Tuesday 19 August 2008
Tuesday 12 August 2008
Fallen Apples 9 August at Sharpham Barton Family Camp
It had been raining all day. On the top of our Devon hill we could feel the full force of climate change, it seemed; the wind was blowing a gale, and trying to throw the entire Atlantic onto the grand marquee and the field around it, where around fifty of us had just enjoyed the wettest barbecue of our lives. There was no escape; the constant rain through the week had made a bog of the field and our poncy town cars (not many Chelsea tractors here) and city driving skills were quite unequal to sailing through the mud.
Into this maelstrom strode the Fallen Apples, matadors in their white shirts and black jackets, with only their muddy boots giving them away. From their first note the party took off, they were louder than the flapping tent, the creaking guys, the wild wind and the rain. We danced as they must have danced while Rome burned, with wild abandon loosely chained to the soaring harmonica and pounding double bass, the mandolin and washboard and guitar. And the singing! Highlight for me was a resounding version of Jericho which had everyone singing along. Wonderful music brilliantly performed and with great humour.
Global warming? Bring it on, if we can see ourselves out with a party band this good. Fallen Apples were lifebelts for drowning men and women in a field in Devon last Saturday night.
Into this maelstrom strode the Fallen Apples, matadors in their white shirts and black jackets, with only their muddy boots giving them away. From their first note the party took off, they were louder than the flapping tent, the creaking guys, the wild wind and the rain. We danced as they must have danced while Rome burned, with wild abandon loosely chained to the soaring harmonica and pounding double bass, the mandolin and washboard and guitar. And the singing! Highlight for me was a resounding version of Jericho which had everyone singing along. Wonderful music brilliantly performed and with great humour.
Global warming? Bring it on, if we can see ourselves out with a party band this good. Fallen Apples were lifebelts for drowning men and women in a field in Devon last Saturday night.
Rose Theatre Kingston 26 June 2008
The Burial at Thebes 26 June 2008
A new version of Sophocles'Antigone translated by Seamus Heaney
Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company
It's not often you get the chance to revisit an area of life you've not thought about for thirty years, so when I was offered low cost tickets for this play, which I studied at school, I was keen to go.
Heaney's translation is much more accessible than the version I studied, and I was surprised how quickly I was drawn into the drama of King Creon and his wayward niece Antigone, with arguments about the responsibilities and limitations of power and what happens when you offend the natural order of things.
I was reminded that for the ancient Greeks, tragic dramas were the contemporary soap operas, attracting large crowds with action packed stories designed to induce pity and fear before final resolution and emotional release ("catharsis"). The opening scene with Antigone and her sister arguing the rights and wrongs of defying the king in order to bury their brother, in defiance of the law, was an ancient version of East Enders sisters Roxie and Ronnie having a ruck, with the gods replacing "family innit" as the natural order that must be obeyed.
This story is the sequel to the tragedy of Oedipus, the prince who killed his father and married his mother. They had four children together! Antigone is his daughter/sister and this is the playing out of the family tragedy over succeeding generations. For by the end of it, all the main characters are dead except King Creon, who loses his wife and son as well as his nephews and nieces.
It was a treat to see so many people on stage (12 or 14). While Antigone's role resembles an argumentative teenager (albeit with lofty themes) at times, there was no doubting the emotional power and truth of both her and Creon's performances. The songs were beautifully delivered, relieving tension, changing pace and moving the action onward. An atmospheric production which I found moving and satisfying.
This piece first published by scattered gardener 27 June on Scattered Garden blog.
A new version of Sophocles'Antigone translated by Seamus Heaney
Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company
It's not often you get the chance to revisit an area of life you've not thought about for thirty years, so when I was offered low cost tickets for this play, which I studied at school, I was keen to go.
Heaney's translation is much more accessible than the version I studied, and I was surprised how quickly I was drawn into the drama of King Creon and his wayward niece Antigone, with arguments about the responsibilities and limitations of power and what happens when you offend the natural order of things.
I was reminded that for the ancient Greeks, tragic dramas were the contemporary soap operas, attracting large crowds with action packed stories designed to induce pity and fear before final resolution and emotional release ("catharsis"). The opening scene with Antigone and her sister arguing the rights and wrongs of defying the king in order to bury their brother, in defiance of the law, was an ancient version of East Enders sisters Roxie and Ronnie having a ruck, with the gods replacing "family innit" as the natural order that must be obeyed.
This story is the sequel to the tragedy of Oedipus, the prince who killed his father and married his mother. They had four children together! Antigone is his daughter/sister and this is the playing out of the family tragedy over succeeding generations. For by the end of it, all the main characters are dead except King Creon, who loses his wife and son as well as his nephews and nieces.
It was a treat to see so many people on stage (12 or 14). While Antigone's role resembles an argumentative teenager (albeit with lofty themes) at times, there was no doubting the emotional power and truth of both her and Creon's performances. The songs were beautifully delivered, relieving tension, changing pace and moving the action onward. An atmospheric production which I found moving and satisfying.
This piece first published by scattered gardener 27 June on Scattered Garden blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
