Play On!

19th-22nd November 2008
West Cliff Theatre, Clacton-on-Sea.

Clacton Amateur Dramatic Society. Act I 42m. Act II (and III) 73m.

A company of local amateurs try desperately to rehearse a creaky murder mystery, in spite of the nagging interventions of its author.
Unnervingly realistic in its rehearsal scenes (clearly based on a few of the playwright's experiences), and come the third act turning into complete farce - as the play-within-the-play is performed - this slightly lazily written behind-the-scenes theatrical spoof is played quite straight for the most part, with performances that beautifully capture the essence of their recognisable characters, and suits this group well, making good use of the large West Cliff Theatre.

I almost found it too painful to laugh anymore - most amateur thespians will relate to many of the jokes.

w: Rick Abbot.

d: Bob Sangwell.
s: Brenda White-Robinson, Barbara Tyrrel, Kathryn Cavender, Fred Gregory, Bridget Gregory, Jane Parkinson, Gary Huggins, Graham Tippett, Tracy Lias, Charlotte White-Robinson.

Parental Wisdom

The dreadful case of Baby P is hopefully an extreme instance of such torrid abuse, but it does highlight the inexplicable way that some parents treat their children. On several occasions I have seen mothers (not fathers, although I don't include stepfathers here) threaten verbal or physical punishment on their young ones in the street, for seemingly the most innocuous of reasons. For the vast majority of these cases, the children grow up to be just as belligerent and ill-mannered as their parents.

The social services can only be responsible up to a point. I don't go as far as some people who are saying that the death penalty should be introduced for such offenders, although I can understand the strength of such feelings.

Reviewing One's Goals

I see an Ipswich player has received a wrap on the knuckles (deserved perhaps) for celebrating a goal scored in the 2-0 win at Blackpool on Saturday by giving a alleged "handcuffs" gesture in solidarity with a friend of his who has been sentenced to jail for killing a child in a drunk driving accident.

If you look at the clip, it could also just as easily be interpreted as an "X-Factor" gesture, which another (Brentford) footballer has also been seen to make recently.

Knowing Ipswich Town FC as well as I do, I'm trusting that they are a lot more sensible about things than the BBC are when it comes to meting out punishments. Besides all that, why can't footballers just celebrate a goal by acknowledging the congratulations and then going back to the centre spot?

Someone Who'll Watch Over Me

(Headgate Theatre, Colchester.
Oct 29th-Nov 1st 2008)

Chameleon's Web. Act I 97m. Act II 55m.

Experiences of three hostages held in captivity in Lebanon during the 1980s.
Interesting and engrossing if rather long study of mental and physical hardship, very well crafted with only the occasional slip of theatrical convention into the realistic setting, and with some intense pauses, in between the exchanges of three very disparate characters.

w: Frank McGuinness.

d: Suzanne Bailey, Lindsay Nieuwenhuis.
s: Colin Downer, Will Parrick, Kevin Topple.
set design: Steve Peeling.

Branded

Another storm in a teacup over glib comments made on the lamentable Russell Brand Radio 2 show, with the collaboration of the equally dubious Jonathan Ross. In their case, for both Messrs. Brand and Ross, it's a fairly lucrative cup of tea they sip at the BBC.

Alas, there is a section of the public that seems to revel in such excess, until of course it gets out of hand.

Now the furore has even reached 10 Downing Street, and David Cameron has also raised the matter of this slightly overblown story in the House of Commons - I was horrified to see it get first headline on the BBC TV news.

I'm not too surprised that David Cameron spoke up on the matter though: it was Cameron after all, who was asked on the Jonathan Ross Show if (as a teenager) he ever played with himself in front of a poster of Margaret Thatcher in his bedroom!

In Memoriam: Brian Moore

Although I only had a fairly recent acquaintance with Brian, since 2006, when he played the Colonel in Journey's End, he was just the sort of bubbly, bouncy character who makes any participation in a play worthwhile. He was an army veteran, a dedicated motorbike rider, and an enthusiastic amateur theatre player, both on the dramatic and the musical stage.

We shared some scenes for the first time in the film Witchfinder, where Brian was the Revd. John Eades of Lawford and I was John Stearne. For most of the shooting he was rigged up with a radio microphone for his sermons, which picked up every single inflection, including a hilarious series of outtakes for one particular scene entering an inn/restaurant, which brought the house down on premiere night.

We learned he had terminal cancer earlier this year, but when I saw him again at a Journey's End cast reunion in May, he still remained as bouncy and engaging as ever.

I'm reminded now of a scene in last year's Headgate Theatre production of King Lear, where I played Kent and Brian was the Fool - very much in the style of Max Miller. Andrew Hodgson came up with the idea of having the Fool die in the hovel rather than just disappear from the story as he traditionally does at this point. At the moment when Lear (David Knight) realises his old friend is gone, I had to wrench David away, with similar feelings of loss myself. I find it similarly hard to have lost Brian now.

Tolkien's World

By a combination of circumstances, I found myself visiting Northampton at the weekend. The original intention was to go to a Star Wars convention, which was later cancelled (see previous blog) and to combine it with a visit to a football match at the Sixfields Stadium.

I decided to carry on with my original remaining plans, and watched Northampton Town beat Yeovil Town 3-0 (whilst just down the road their Rugby Union compatriots also defeated Montpelier 51-7 later that evening), and Sixfields is a pleasant little new stadium nestled in a grassy valley. But the most visually striking sight when passing through West Northampton is a giant oddity of a tower, that to all intents and purposes reminded me of something out of J.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

My first impressions were that it was some sort of communications tower on the lines of Birmingham and London's GPO Towers, or some sort of huge factory chimney - with windows - but in actuality, I discover it to be Northampton's Express Lift Tower, used originally for testing lift shafts, and now a listed building.

Curiously also, as a listed building it is one of the youngest of its kind - having been built as late as 1980. Perhaps it's appropriate, that the region of country that was the basis for Tolkien's "Middle Earth" (the Midlands) should have so prominent a construction. I almost expected Christopher Lee as Saruman to step out from the top.