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Showing posts from September, 2020

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The Green, Green Grass of Home: Mr Jones An Aberfan Story - Finborough Theatre

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A life of hope and promise, interrupted, lies at the heart of Mr Jones: an Aberfan Story. The play follows two young people in Aberfan before and after the disaster that killed 144 people, including 116 children. It’s an emotional coming-of-age tale of intersecting lives, family, love, and the shock of tragedy. With two vivid performances and strong characterisations, you feel immersed in 1960s Welsh small-town life. It’s now running at the Finborough Theatre , after performances at the Edinburgh Festival and across Wales.  The Aberfan disaster is well known in the UK but perhaps less so elsewhere. The facts of the tragedy are confined to the programme notes rather than in the piece. On 21 October 1966, the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip on a mountain above Aberfan engulfed a local school, killing many. The play avoids the causes and negligence, instead focusing on those working and building lives in the town.  Writer-performer Liam Holmes plays Stephen Jones, a...
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The elephant in the room: Elephant’s Graveyard @TheProdExch

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Saturday is the last day to catch the live stream of Elephants Graveyard . It's a title that piqued my interest, assuming that it was about a bar where old people go and drink. But it's not that. Instead, it's a combination of oral history, legend and direct to camera straight-faced explanation of the only known lynching of an elephant. Adapted well to the world of COVID with sharp cuts, circus-themed backdrops and the now-familiar multiple camera squares of video streams.  It's not live theatre, but it's a welcome online diversion with an entertaining story that explores spectacle, violence, rumours and revenge. All the things that seem to be near and dear to our hearts at the moment.  Written by George Brant, it is set in 1914 in a small forgotten town in Tennessee where people were bored. So a circus coming to town was a chance to escape boredom and have some fun. But during the parade and freak accident happens. Soon rumours are spreading that culminates in this...
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Signs of life online and in concert...

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While theatre is slowly showing signs of reopening in the coming month I’ve seen my first show indoors. In Italy. A concert. No temperature checks just leave your name and wear a mask throughout the concert. And sit relatively apart from strangers within a small church where the concert was taking place. It was great to see something. Anything. After so many months.  The transmission rates are lower in Italy, and they do appear to be taking Covid19 a lot more seriously than in the UK. Leaving your name and phone number is a requirement. Posters are everywhere reminding people to wash their hands and keep a distance. Indoor spaces are well ventilated. Everyone wears a mask without making a fuss. Hopefully following these simple rules without over-complicating things will allow venues to open up where possible.  Until then, The Public Campaign for the Arts has launched a new online platform, creating an unprecedented support link between UK citizens and their cultural organisat...
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