Category Archives: Theatre

Acting Again…

14 Thursday Sep 2017

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So… I’ve gone back to acting.

Well, not really. It’s not that I’m going to take up acting again. Rather, I’ve acted again after… what, twenty years? It goes like this: as a teenager I decided that I wanted to be an actress, and began to take drama classes when I was sixteen. I happened to find a very, very good teacher – one who had the patience to draw me out and drill me hard. With rather good results, if I say so myself. I worked hard at it for four or five years, thinking that I’d go on with it, and go professional… Continue reading →

Just in case you wonder…

08 Tuesday Aug 2017

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How did Shakespeare in the Jungle go, after all?

The answer is: surprisingly well.

Well, the mosquitoes were many, Chinook-sized, and hungry, and the heat murderous – but, in spite of that – and of and the lack of advertising – the garden filled up to capacity… And let me tell you this: few things galvanize a performance like an unexpected audience. Continue reading →

Patchwork Oedipus

27 Thursday Jul 2017

Posted by in Poetry, Theatre

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I don’t know whether I told you that I was formally adopted into the Other Company – Nina’s people – last April. I was already their resident author, and now am a full member, and will start teaching play-writing in the Company’s school next October. Also – possibly the most thrilling aspect of my change of status – I’ll get to direct my own Lunedì this year… Continue reading →

The Tale of the Strolling Queen

06 Thursday Jul 2017

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We had Of Men and Poets again, last week. A one-off performance in the small garden of the small Virgilian museum in the small town where we like to think Virgil was born. On paper, it was perfect: the summer evening, the right place…

True, because of a couple of last-minute substitutions, and because it came in between other things, Nina settled on a reading, rather than a full performance. But we’ve done this before: it’s still lovely to see, and very effective, so nobody worried a whit.

But perhaps we should have. Continue reading →

Clara and the Maize Sultan

22 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by in Lostintranslation, Theatre

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I have, o Readers, a riddle for you: How is maize like an Ottoman Sultan?

Let me tell you a story. Do you remember Ugo Foscolo and his Salamini/Little Sausages? Do you remember as both I and my friend Dave in the comments wondered how on earth could he have made such a tragedy-killing blunder?

Well, it may be that I know just how… Continue reading →

The Mystery of the Missing Cloak

18 Thursday May 2017

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Caesar’s cloak is missing.

Not that it’s a real cloak, either – just a large square of thick, dark red fabric. In Shakespeare in Words it does double duty: it is the cloak – the one we all know, the one Caesar first put on one summer evening in his tent – and also stands for the body. And it’s perfectly sized, and doesn’t reflect light, and always falls in good-looking folds… And it is missing. Continue reading →

The “No, You’re Crying” Blogathon: Sniffling for Cyrano

13 Saturday May 2017

Posted by in Stories, Theatre, Things

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This post is my entry for the “No, You’re Crying” Blogathon, an event hosted by Moon in Gemini – about our favourite tearjerker films…

What is it that makes us cry, at the movies or elsewhere? Whenever the question crops up, I’m reminded of Uncle Vernon in An Awfully Big Adventure, explaining how the lowest notes of the male voice automatically trigger his lachrymal sacs… Continue reading →