01 Thursday Oct 2020
Posted in Scribbling, Theatre
Tags
Will it sound awfully cliché if I wonder, is it just me, or do years grow shorter and shorter as I grow older? Because… well, once upon a time, I used to draw my yearly sums, so to speak, at the end of December. A most sensible notion, you’d think, and a fairly common one. Continue reading
10 Thursday Sep 2020
Posted in Lostintranslation, Theatre
Back in May, when we were still locked down, and RAI, the Italian television, was making an effort, I happened to see a long interview with playwright/director Alessandro Serra about his Macbettu – a translation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Sardinian dialect. Continue reading
06 Thursday Aug 2020
Posted in Theatre
This is going to be a rather celebratory post, I warn you.
Because, you see, the Summer Season is over. Continue reading
16 Thursday Jul 2020
Posted in Theatre
Tags
Plans for the future, Shakespeare's Sonnets, Stage adaptations, summer season, William Shakespeare
So last night we had “my” Sonnets… and all went wonderfully well.
But I mean really and truly well, in every conceivable way, so much so that even my usually hyper-critical mother found no fault to pick – and believe me: it’s no everyday occurrence. Continue reading
09 Thursday Jul 2020
Posted in Scribbling, Theatre
Tax-rolls for the names, the Agas Map of London, rope (or not rope) ferries, lute music, woodcuts and their elements, leagues and miles, Estienne’s Guide des Chemins de France, post horses, ruffs and collars, the (not very long) way from the Quai des Bernardins to the Rue des Anglais in Paris, the right way to take a bow, original frontispieces, light hours in November, and Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day, Cadiz 1596, wives inheriting, Channel crossings, Thomas Platter… Continue reading
11 Thursday Jun 2020
Posted in Theatre
So – are we back yet?
A little hard to tell. I mean, theatres are opening again next week. Opening with all sorts of restrictions, as was to be expected – like playing with gloves whenever there are props to be touched, and masks when the actors need to go near each other, and keeping safe distances in the audience, and onstage, and backstage… As I said, nothing truly unexpected, but it will be hard to get used to… Continue reading
14 Thursday May 2020
A few days ago, on the phone, Nina the Director asked how how I would like to adapt for the stage a certain, very famous ghost story.
“Oh,” I said. “That one. I’ve had it on my Kindle for ages, and never quite mustered the courage to read it…” Continue reading
02 Thursday Apr 2020
Posted in Theatre
I think I told you how, back in December, at the dress rehearsal for A Christmas Carol, we had the benefit of a row of rows, complete with screaming match in the green room between Nina the Director and Mrs. Cratchit. It was explosive enough to scare children, upset dressers, and perplex casual viewers – but, as is the case with most of these things, it evaporated quite quickly, and with little or no visible damage. Continue reading
19 Thursday Mar 2020
Giorgio was our Lighting Man. Ah well, he was much more than that. He was a pillar of the Company – had been for five decades. Head Electrician, administrator, Council member, computer wizard, box-office man, prop supervisor… there was little in the day-to-day running of the Company and the Tiny Theatre where Giorgio didn’t have a hand… Continue reading
23 Thursday Jan 2020
Posted in Poetry, Scribbling, Theatre
Robert Stewart Sherrif
I love Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great – and by that I mean the first of the two parts. It may be rougher around the edges than his later work, but it’s breathlessly fiery. With his blank iambic pentameter, with the historical subject-matter, and his unpunished bloodthirsty hero, the boy (all of twenty-three at the time) was breaking ground in many ways – and knew it well. Continue reading
