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Category Archives: General
Kingston
I love it when my stupidity is revealed in all its glory. I went to Kingston yesterday to see PROPELLER’s production of Twelfth Night (incidentally a classic case in my view of a company which has no interest whatsoever in getting underneath the characters or the story but loves to busy itself with tricks and [...]
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BOOK OF MORMON
Interesting! Once again it feels like the entire audience are committed fans who have seen the show fifty times, as everyone is falling about laughing/cheering before the lights have come up. Personally, I thought the production and cast were fantastic – one of the best West End casts I’ve seen for a long time. Boy, [...]
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Margaret Thatcher
I’m finding the exhaustive discussions about Margaret Thatcher very interesting, because in essence it’s a discussion about Britain over the last forty years – who we are, how we got here, what do we want for our country and how do we see ourselves as a nation. Whatever we think of her, it clearly shows [...]
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The joy of comedy
It’s happened again! Alison Fitzjohn and I have been performing BARMY BRITAIN since May last year. We have learnt a huge amount since those first performances and the learning continues: while performing at Kensington Palace last week we accidentally split one of the lines between us – and got a laugh which the line had [...]
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Time to lay off the bankers?
Nearly five years after the crash, we are being urged by some quarters to stop bashing the bankers. The men (and they are mostly men) who brought the world to its knees in an exercise of hubris, greed and plain deceit are asking to be left alone. Given the pain and misery they created for [...]
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How a building can change your life
I’ve just returned from a fabulous speech given by John Harrison at The Old Rep Theatre, as part of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s 100th anniversary. Deprived of their own building while it is being redeveloped, the Rep have remembered The Old Rep and used it as the base to celebrate their centenary. John started his [...]
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2012
So here we are in 2013. I actually never thought we would get to this day with five productions going so wonderfully well over this period. Staging five shows was a tall order by any measure but to have staged all five shows with such fantastic and happy companies, such great stage management teams, such [...]
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Directing
I think I’ve had an insight into why director’s theatre has become so prevalent in British theatre. By director’s theatre, I mean productions where the director’s “vision” swamps the play and the production. I often feel that directors have asked themselves not “what is this play about?” but “what can I do with this play?” [...]
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Acting
I’ve been performing in HORRIBLE HISTORIES – BARMY BRITAIN at The Garrick Theatre since April and yesterday enjoyed two glorious shows, nine months after my first performance. I’m blessed with an amazing acting partner in Alison Fitzjohn and we both knew that the two audiences in yesterday’s packed performances where willing participants of the drama and comedy [...]
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Guns
I’m struck by the thought that 9/11′s horrific events killed 2996 people. Each year. before and since then, about 9,000 Americans shoot each other with hand guns. So since 2001, some 100,000 Americans have killed each other with guns. Following 9/11, America launched wars against Afghanistan and Iraq – killing thousands of children along the [...]
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