Witches and Women of the Night

Witches and their travails seemed to have become flavour of the month once again, certainly in this neck of the woods where Witchfinder received its first tentative re-showing in its new truncated 49-minute version. The other day I also watched The Witches of Eastwick on DVD, and witchery was also the theme of The Lady's Not for Burning, Dedham Players 40th anniversary production and one harking back to 1972 when they first performed it, so it's something of an old favourite for them.

The story concerns a disillusioned warrior, Thomas Mendip (Les Chisnall) - who happens to also be the Devil - who wishes to be hung for committing murder, but the far bigger finger of suspicion of the townsfolk falls upon Jennet Jourdemayne (Charlotte Still), who displays all the supposed signs of witchery, such as talking to animals. The Dedham Assembly Rooms are used to innovative and atmospheric effect with a two-sided stage erected in the middle of the Hewitt Hall, and a fine cast of capable Dedham stalwarts and some bright new faces catch the eye, although the themes of this semi-poetic and allegorical play (written by Christopher Fry 3 years after the end of World War II) seemed hard to translate through to the audience.

Then again, there have been the similarly unfortunate female victims of the Suffolk murderer, recently serialised on BBC Television. The prescience of the Suffolk Murders prevented Kerry King from staging Ron Pember and Dennis de Marney's version of Jack the Ripper at the Manifest Theatre in Manningtree in 2007, so instead it was atmospherically re-staged at the Headgate Theatre in Colchester last week, a combination of caustic music hall revue (reminiscent of Oh! What a Lovely War) and dramatic depiction of the East End background to the Ripper murders - an area riddled with poverty and deprivation on almost every corner, so that it was an ideal hunting ground for the Ripper's infamous crimes. The play cleverly sidetracks from naming the Ripper in person (as he was never actually found, of course), although it strongly implies that over-zealous evangelist Montague Druitt (Will Parrick) fits the bill, who is looking to clean up Whitechapel either one way, or the other.

In the case of both Jack the Ripper and The Lady's Not for Burning, it is less a case of who the actual criminal is, but what the impoverished and sometimes misguided society perceives him to be. (Indeed, the name "Jack the ripper" was coined by one of the many hoax letter writers.)

As the Suffolk Murders have sadly demonstrated, the women are still the victims, even in these enlightened days of equality, particularly in the more impoverished areas, then as now.

Where Have I Seen These Two Before?

Or should they be called "Want" and "Greed" (in reverse order).

The game's up, Gordon

With all the kerfuffle about a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition raging at the moment, what's being swiftly forgotten is Gordon Brown's moving, dignified and honourable farewell speech to the nation. I was touched by his tribute (not featured in most news articles) to those killed in the front line overseas. Few prime ministers, such as Margaret Thatcher and John Major, or even Winston Churchill, would have made such an open declaration of pity and regret.

His subsequent acts (some would say manoeuvrings) of the last few days of a hung Parliament, (not unlike Richard Nixon's farewell speech) have been among his noblest acts of his entire political career, enabling ironically, a Conservative and Liberal coalition to come into being.

The last dignified politician has left town - what takes his place will be interesting to see.

Let's be blunt

In a classic episode of the increasingly prescient Yes, Prime Minister, Jim Hacker warns against the dangers of the journalist's microphone - that it's always "alive". It slipped Gordon Brown's memory yesterday, to his cost.

Sadly, both opposition parties have superficial leaders who clearly are concealing their true motives, and the only approachably decent one among them has now shot himself in the foot. How do people want their politicians: honest, or tactless?

Good Things: 21

Sounds of the Sixties
(BBC Radio 2, Saturday mornings)

Staggering to think that this formative decade began 50 years ago. Brian Matthew's mellifluous introductions to the music are as much worth listening to as the music itself.

The Idealism of Naivete

Respect is long overdue for the much downtrodden Liberal Democrats, and the last six decades of almost permanently being shoved into the also-rans in the British General Election race. Nick Clegg's acclaimed showing in the first ever presidential-style debate between the three main leaders may not win him the ticket to No. 10 - although it could well be of benefit to David Cameron if the Labour vote is squeezed.

In past years many of the Liberal Democrats' policies have been plagiarised by other parties; many of their ideas are fine in principle, without the hard-edged cynicism and compromise of ever having to get them made law once in Government. Nick Clegg himself struck me as rather fresh-faced and superficial - and his final 90-second summing up sounded more Party Political Broadcast than future leader of the nation - but much of what he said cried out to the audience as sound common sense.

I can't help but think of scores of his predecessors such as David Steel, Paddy Ashdown and especially Charles Kennedy, who were never allowed the opportunity to impress themselves on national TV in such a way.

Good Things: 20

Dictionaries

Such incredibly informative and surprisingly entertaining things to read. Whenever I find a word that I'm unfamiliar with, I look up its meaning in a dictionary - a great tool for increasing vocabulary and understanding of the language, for young or old.