Musicals and Other Shows

[Katharine]

Not sure if I mentioned it elsewhere, but during the summer I went to see an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's Winter's Tale.

Unlike Macbeth which the same company put on last year, I was unfamiliar with this story, but I found it very enjoyable, although rather sad in places.

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's nice that something slightly more obscure was chosen, Katharine. I enjoy the poignancy of The Winter's Tale, though I've never seen it on stage.

Last summer, I saw an early evening performance of The Railway Children in a large garden in the Cathedral Close in Salisbury. It was performed by a touring company of four, so they had to take on different roles as the need arose. At one point a character was lamenting the absence of Father, which I found amusing because the actor playing that character had played Father at the beginning of the show! Anyway, it was very well done and I liked the folk songs that were woven into the story.

[timv]

' The Winter's Tale' is certainly a memorable play; I acted in it at school in the 1970s and remember it vividly. It's got as much acute emotional drama and displays of characters 'on the edge' of their sanity as 'Hamlet' but is much less well known and performed, mixed up with traditional rural comedy .

There are also mixed-up bits of Ancient Greek legend and drama, including part of the plot of the original, Greek 'Pygmalion' long before George Bernard Shaw's version - in the Greek and in Shakespeare's versions, a statue of a beautiful woman that suddenly comes to life. In The Winter's Tale, the 'statue' is the long presumed dead wife of a paranoid King who became jealous of her for supposedly having an affair with his best friend, refused to accept the child as his, and sentenced her to death (but she 'died in childbirth' first) then had the child sent away to be abandoned on a remote coast - the famous non-existent 'Coast of Bohemia' which shows up Shakespeare's sketchy geography. In fact the child was taken in by a local shepherd and the King -who discovered too late that his wife was innocent and is unaware that she was smuggled away to safety - meets up with her years later after thinking that his family has been wiped out thanks to his behaviour. His wife makes a surprise appearance as a 'statue' and 'comes to life' in the finale after he openly regrets his crazy suspicions. Performing this and seeing it with my friends in the principal roles when I was about sixteen was really powerfully emotional - the peak of our school's Dramatics Society. 'Queen Hermione' as the living statue was genuinely gripping, performed by a girl of my own age with little experience but instinctive brilliance.

There's also the most memorable stage direction in Shakespeare - 'Exit, pursued by a bear'. This is when a bear attacks the courtier who the King has ordered to dump his baby on the shore, and the bear chases him offstage ignoring the child who a shepherd rescues. In our play one of my close friends was the courtier, and he uttered a piercing shriek as the bear 'got him' offstage which was suddenly cut off for effect (by me). We did Shakespeare one year, Brecht the next - not average cliched awkward school shows, but we had a first-class producer.

[Katharine]

Yesterday I went to Norwich to watch The Northern Ballet's production of Beauty and the Beast.

It was quite different to the story line that I'm familiar with, but it was an excellent mix of traditional ballet and some modern elements, even a bit of humour included which I was expecting.

There was a live orchestra and I thought I recognised a couple of bits of music, but couldn't place them. My mother, who had come with me, said that one bit was the them from Jonathan Creek, and towards the end there was something I hadn't heard for many years - "If I Had Words" which was one of my favourite songs from many years ago.

[Katharine]

Last night I saw OMD in Ipswich. I've been wanting to see them for a number of years now, but tickets always sell out really quickly.

They were definitely worth the wait.

[Lucky Star]

Great band Katharine. I’ve never seen them but do love their music. Their new album is very good.

[Ice_Gemz]

I love a good musical, and this week I went to see a favourite, Little Shop of Horrors, at the Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich. It's the second time I've seen it on stage (the first time being at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester about 8 or so years ago), and I loved it.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I'm glad you managed to get tickets for OMD, Katharine. I used to like them back in the 80s but I haven't heard any of their recent music, John (Lucky Star).

Little Shop of Horrors is huge fun, Ice_Gemz. A few years ago, Tony and I saw it at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park. Jemima Rooper (who played George in the 1990s Famous Five TV series) was Audrey and she was a delight to watch.

Yesterday afternoon, Tony and I went to see the play Stranger Things - The First Shadow at the Phoenix Theatre in London. It's a prequel to the Netflix series and gels perfectly with it. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys the series. The play is a real spectacle, with some mind-bending special effects. During the opening scene involving a boat out at sea, we felt the wind and water droplets on our faces, and a mist came rolling in. A compelling story, and Louis McCartney was mesmerising as the tormented Henry Creel.

[W I Pyer]

I love a good musical, and this week I went to see a favourite, Little Shop of Horrors, at the Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich. It's the second time I've seen it on stage (the first time being at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester about 8 or so years ago), and I loved it.

I was lucky enough to play 'the Voice of the Plant', approx. 25 years ago. Fantastic musical.

[Anita Bensoussane]

A great part, Wayne!