Theatre

Theatre has to fight to survive in the increasingly crowded market of multi-media entertainment on offer, including cinema, TV, DVD's, internet surfing and online social networking. So it would be wise to play to its strengths – bearing in mind it's hard to beat the thrill of a live performance.
Its appeal relies partly on the special atmosphere of a shared experience, the immediacy of the interaction between performers and their audience.
The wide variety of drama now available on TV has led to viewers becoming increasingly sophisticated. Chances are they will be able to spot an obvious plot twist a mile off. So traditional theatres which still rely on a safe but predictable repertoire of comedies and whodunits may find their audiences dwindling.
Hence the call for "cutting edge drama" - cracking scripts which are spot-on in capturing current trends and ideas in evolution. A small theatre company can turn around a selection of short, sharp scripts and take them from page to stage in a matter of months. (Compare this to the year or more it takes to bring a movie or TV series to our screens.)
There is a thriving fringe theatre culture in and around London, where smaller venues offer an intimate and informal atmosphere, often pub-based, providing an opportunity to combine a few drinks with a reasonably-priced evening’s entertainment.
While cinema audiences may be lured by the latest blockbuster, theatre-goers are often more discerning, seeking an experience which will make them sit on the edge of their seats not through a car chase ending in a huge explosion, but through the verbal fireworks of dramatic conflict between well-depicted characters.
Stage and screen don’t have to be in direct competition - there is a symbiotic relationship developing between them. Stage plays can become screenplays, and vice versa. One way to attract movie-goers to the theatre is to put one of their idols on stage. Getting a celebrity in the cast is a great way to generate publicity and good box office returns.
Why do movie stars choose to tread the boards for a fraction of their usual salary? For the kudos, the physical and mental challenge of performing live every night and above all, the rapt attention of a live audience, the adulation, the applause.
Surprise, shock, laughter, tears, a roller coaster of emotional responses, all the ingredients of classic theatre, as first advocated by the dramatists of ancient Greece, are just as important today. But for theatre to remain relevant to modern audiences, the basic rules of survival apply – evolve, adapt and move with the times.

Zeitgeist Grand Slam

Zeitgeist Theatre offered up a packed performance of 16 short plays on one night for its Grand Slam at the Bedford, a large pub in Balham housing a theatre in the round.

The two most popular pieces of the evening were humourous ones - Le Sub Text, by Caroline Gold, served up the under-currents of a couple's conversation in a restaurant, with a soupcon of sarcasm from a supercilious waiter; while Clown Noir revealed the dark underbelly of comedy as a purple-haired clown laid aside his modelling balloons and opted for the foam-filled finale of custard's last stand.

Given the time limit of five minutes per slot, several writers went for comedy sketches such as Career Train Wreck by Ben Macnair - a graduate's dream of a glittering career struggles to stay on track.

On a more serious note, the English Class by Rachel Lawrence was based on events she encountered while teaching English to refugees and battered women.

Zeitgeist Theatre

http://www.zeitgeisttheatre.com/

Cutting edge new writing -

"the spirit of the age"

A selection of 16 short plays

in a packed evening of entertainment

Bedford Globe Theatre, Balham

Sunday 28 October at 8pm

Quotation marks

quotation-marks.blogspot.com

For people who are picky about punctuation, a collection of examples of inappropriate use of quotation marks. Some of them are quite funny, such as the ice cream van with the slogan "happy" children. Does this serve as a disclaimer reminding purchasers that the instant gratification of an ice cream doesn't buy lasting happiness?

What's on TV

The fallow summer season of watch-paint-dry TV is now at an end and the Autumn schedules are upon us. Steel yourselves for a plethora of programming in the familiar settings of police stations and hospitals. Sometimes one dead body or deadly disease just isn't enough, it has to be nothing short of serial killings or a horrific accident with ambulance-loads of casualties.

So what's worth watching in the hospital wing? Hugh Laurie makes a welcome return as Greg House, nobly managing the double impediment of walking with a limp and affecting an American accent. It's scary what they do to patients who have the misfortune to contract a mysterious illness. Fishing for clues, frequent misdiagnoses and throwing a cocktail of drugs in the mix often results in a near-death experience, shortly followed by a visionary moment in which the correct cure is found at the eleventh hour.

There's a new series of Gray's Anatomy, which continues in the same vein, but the spin-off, Private Practice, featuring Addison (the redhead) hasn't met with favourable reviews.

On the crime scene, Dexter made a grisly debut, but redeems itself with a gripping plotline, interesting characters and a dash of black humour.

The trend towards detective work with a paranormal twist continues - Medium (she sees it coming) the Dresden Files ( a female cop teams up with a wizard) Blood Ties (a female cop teams up with a vampire) and Saving Grace (a female cop meets her guardian angel).

As all these are American it's only fair to mention, Life on Mars - cops in a retro alternate reality - and there is talk of a spin-off.

Moving away from the police station but within the parameters of the paranormal is the much-hyped Heroes, now set for s econd series. The first series saw ex- Dr Who Christopher Eccleston put in appearance as the invisible man (yes that may sound like a contradiction in terms, but he is visible some of the time).

Talking of the Doctor, I hear that David Tennant is to stay on for a while, which I hope will be the case as I've grown accustomed to his face and don't want the dear old doctor to get a new one yet. (I know he has undergone more transformations than a cat has lives, but isn't he getting towards the end of his allowance now?)

Anyway, on the whole, while there is much re-working of tried and trusted themes, it seems there is also a little room for some innovative ideas and fresh new drama.

Treasury of Unusual Words

"Podiacide" : The metaphorical act of shooting oneself in the foot.

B/S - "Bovine scatology": euphemism coined by American general Norman Schwarzkopf

"Kakistocracy" : A system of government in which the rulers are the least competetent, least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.

Definitions from Foyle's Philavery: A Treasury of Unusual Words, by Christopher Foyle.

the Mayan calendar

"Creation is speeding up...if you feel a little overwhelmed from time to time - get used to it - or get over it... it will keep on accelerating."

Mayan Calendar Comes North - 2004 - Part 1
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8689261981090121097

Mayan Calendar Comes North - 2004 - Part 2 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-567329528148516232

Meteor showers

Meteor watching from around 12.15-1.15am - fairly clear sky, after about half an hour spotted one tiny one followed shortly by another. A bit later, two larger ones with tails, one straight after the other. Another little one towards the end. Blink and you miss them, definitely worth the wait, but gazing up at the night sky gets to be a major pain in the neck after about an hour.

Rainy days

As the people of Gloucester recover from the aftermath of the floods, it has to be noted that the area has a history of such problems:

Dr Foster went to Gloucester
In a shower of rain
He stepped in a puddle
Right up to his middle
And never went there again.

In olden days before tarmac and traffic, this rhyme served as a warning to children to avoid jumping into puddles which appeared shallow but could be much deeper.

Dr. Foster is said to refer to King Edward I of England. He travelled to Gloucester in the middle of a rainstorm. When he arrived, his horse fell and both he and the horse ended up in the middle of a huge mud puddle. The townsfolk had to use planks of wood to remove the king and his steed from the mud. King Edward was enraged by this misfortune and refused to return to Gloucester.

So far I haven’t been able to Google an adequate explanation of why King Edward should be called Dr Foster - apart from the obvious fact that Foster rhymes with Gloucester while Edward rhymes with nothing. (although rhymes could be found for the abbreviation versions Ed or Ted).

Da Vinci double take

Claims that a double take of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper reveals a mysterious extra guest have set off a feeding frenzy among internet conspiracy theorists.

The figure appears when the 15th Century mural painting is superimposed with its mirror image, and both are made partially transparent.

The discovery was made by Slavisa Pesci, an Italian amateur scholar, whose maintains that the composite picture appears to depict a figure (possibly a woman) holding a young child.

The double image is rather blurry and faded, making it difficult to draw any firm conclusions.

But the theory is in line with the supposition of the Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, which suggests that Jesus and Mary Magdelene could have married and had a child.

Leonardo da Vinci websites received millions of hits following the announcement.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

websites - www.leonardodavinci.tv, www.codicedavinci.tv, www.cenacolo.biz and www.leonardo2007.com -

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Most quotable line: "Just because you can do magic now doesn't mean to say you have to whip your wands out all the time." (slightly paraphrased, apologies)

Most memorable cameo role: Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange.
Plenty of scope for wild hair, Gothic chic and manic cackling.

Most over-hyped aspect of the film: Harry's budding romance with Oriental beauty Cho Chang, apart from one screen kiss under some fast-growing mistletoe (the plant is more dynamic than the couple) she barely gets a look-in.

Nit-picking niggle: At the beginning of the film, the Pegasus-like winged horses (I think they're called Thestrals?) are visible only to those who have witnessed death. Towards the end of the film, Hermione, Ron et al fly on these horses, apparently unconcerned by the fact that their rides are invisible to them. (I don't think anyone had died in their presence at that point? maybe it's clearer in the book.)

Minor gripe: The film is a little overlong, I suppose the book is long and they were trying to cram it all in, but maybe a bit more judicious pruning could have kept it to the two hour mark.

St Swithin's Day: yet more showers?

The bad news – it rained on St Swithin's Day.

The good news – Met Office records show that in past years, bad weather on this day (July 15) has not always been followed by 40 continuous days of rain.

An old rhyme which has been part of oral tradition since Elizabethan times sums up the legend:

'St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain
Full forty days, it will remain
St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair
For forty days, t'will rain no mair.'

St. Swithin (alternative spelling spelt Swithun) was a Saxon Bishop of Winchester and legend has it that as he lay on his deathbed, he asked to be buried out of doors, at one with nature, where the rain would fall on his grave.

For nine years, his wishes were followed, but then, on 15 July 971, the monks of Winchester attempted to remove his remains to a splendid shrine inside the cathedral . According to legend there was a heavy rain storm during the ceremony, which was taken to be a sign of St Swithin’s protest at the move.

This tale became embellished over time and embedded in folklore.

Fortunately, on numerous occasions in the past, records have shown that rain on this day has not been followed by 40 continuous days of bad weather.

On this occasion perhaps St Swithin could allow for all the retrospective rain of the season to be taken into account and concede that we have already had more than our fair share of storms and showers this summer.

Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction by Esther and Jerry Hicks is along the same lines as The Secret – whose author Rhonda Byrne was originally one of their followers until they went their separate ways.

Esther takes issue with the title of Rhonda’s book, declaring that “Calling the law of attraction a secret is rather like calling gravity a secret.”

The information supplied by Esther is supposed to be channelled from the spirit world. This makes the message somewhat less mainstream, although Esther still has the endorsement of Oprah Winfrey, which has certainly helped with publicity.

Some of the main points of their philosophy are:

You create what you are with every thought. Whatever you think about, you will receive – be it good or bad.

Your state of being is the way you feel about yourself at any point in time.

When you focus on success as the achievement of happiness you place yourself in vibrational alignment with the universe

If you have been thinking hard about something but have not achieved it, you must be focusing on its absence and hence pushing it away (can be a tricky one to fix, that)

Stop worrying about what other people think and focus on what you want out of life.

Chinese State Circus


Imagine the House of the Flying Daggers, minus the unhappy ending, and with special effects created by human resources rather than cinematography.

The Chinese State Circus is packed with performers who are all superheroes in their own right: sword-wielding Wu-Shu warriors, daring hoop divers, jar jugglers, and a human chandelier (nothing to do with spontaneous combustion, this is in fact a contortionist with candlesticks.)

They’ve got all the gear for the part - the costumes, the masks, the props, the special abilities, which combine to produce a superb display of showmanship.

For the Shaolin Wu Shu warriors, training to the peak of physical perfection and mental focus is not just for show but a way of life. They enter the Shaolin temple at an early age to be initiated into Zen Buddhism and Martial arts, and learn special breathing techniques to reach a deep state of meditation, combining positive thinking with clarity of purpose.

Ringside members of the audience are invited to check the weight of bricks and slates which are placed on the head or chest of the Shaolins before being smashed into rubble.

This has taken many years of intense training to achieve and needless to say the performance opens with the obligatory warning “don’t try this at home.”

All sorts of things are juggled in this show, including ceramic pots, plates, and a potato which is tossed into the air and ends up skewered on a knife.

These circus skills are built on centuries of tradition – although the use of motorised rotating hoops is a more recent addition which gives one act a modern twist and ups the ante as acrobats jump back and forth through the gaps. As with all of the performances, it’s an impressive display of agility, spot-on precision and timing.

No animals were harmed in the making of this circus – the bestial element being symbolically provided by the show’s narrator, the Monkey King, and the traditional dance of the Lions, bringers of good fortune.

It’s an imaginative interpretation of a story which has been 2,000 years in the telling - without losing its freshness or magic.

*Currently touring: see website for details.

Book review: The Secret

I can let you into the secret straight away – it’s the law of attraction. Like attracts like. I don’t think I’m in danger of giving away too much of the plot by revealing that information.

If you’re at all familiar with New Age thinking it’s likely that you have come across this concept already. Ah, but the real secret – the real secret lies in learning how to apply this law.

In this respect, the author Rhonda Byrne appears to have fared admirably. “The Secret” – the book and the movie - have attracted huge interest with the help of astutely organised media hype.

Now here’s where the real genius lies - much of the book is based on contributed material. Great plan: get other people to do the work for you – throw in advice from some of the most eminent thinkers and philosophers of the age, plus a few movers and shakers from the self-help industry, and voila!

The book draws heavily on inspirational quotes from followers of the so-called "secret" – namely the basic universal principle that like attracts like - so good thoughts attract good things, whereas bad thoughts attract bad things.

The theory is simple enough in itself - putting it into practice is more tricky. So much of what we do is predicated on our belief system, without us always being aware of it, and we may need to change the way we think before we can begin to attract what we want.

Furthermore, focusing on what we don’t want, being a negative form of thinking, is likely to lead a state of mind which only attracts more of the same (ie whatever it is we don’t want).

Rhonda claims that "it is as easy to attract $1million as it is to attract $1" - a statement which follows on logically from the basic law, but while most people would find it easy to imagine receiving the smaller sum, it is much more difficult for them to imagine conjuring up a million from nowhere.

This is why the author suggests that we should start by thinking small - advice which is perfectly sound and which, in most self-help books, would be couched in terms of "aiming for achievable goals".

Rhonda claims all that we desire may be achieved simply by thinking about it and bringing it into being - trusting in the universe to provide rather than going through all that dull process of hard graft.

In the film of the Secret (which I have not seen) a woman is apparently portrayed gazing longingly at some jewellery in a shop window and is then shown wearing it.

This is where Rhonda's advice has attracted some criticism, on the grounds that it is appears to be encouraging materialism and greed and getting what you want without any apparent effort, going against the Protestant work ethic of getting somewhere in life through honesty, dedication and hard work.

While the book takes a somewhat simplistic approach to the whole idea, I'm not sure that the author is really suggesting that money in itself is the route to happiness.

Rather, the main message is that you should follow your dream and go for what you really want and with positive focus, you can turn your desires into reality. This comes with the rider that you should first get clear in your mind what it is that you actually want.

Top ten travel experiences

Helicopter ride through the Grand Canyon
Cruise along the Nile
Treasures of Tutankhamun, Cairo Museum
Chichen Itza, Mexico - outstanding example of a Mayan pyramid
Geysers, hot lakes and bubbling mud pools in Rotorua, New Zealand
Sipping a drink from a coconut shell in Sunda Kelapa, Indonesia
On safari in South Africa.
Museo Del Oro, Bogota, an impressive collection of pre-Columbian gold ornaments
Coral Sands, Harbour Island, Bahamas – beautiful beach with a hint of pink
Christmas in Las Vegas, dancing fountains at the Bellagio: somehow the glitz seems more acceptable at that time of year.

These are a few of my favourites

(not necessarily in order)

What are yours?

half way words

In the three-fold scheme of thought, word and deed, words are half way between imagination and action, opening up a realm of infinite possibilities. Words can be tools in the art and craft of self expression (angels-words) or weapons in the cut and thrust of interaction (angel-swords).

Angelswords

We all love telling stories. We all do it, all the time: over a drink, on the phone, chatting online - capturing the essence of the day's events, while constantly processing this information, picking out edited highlights, the most dramatic incidents, the funniest moments: embellishing, exaggerating for effect, reliving the experience.

Some of these stories may be of the moment and quickly forgotten. Others may stay with us, worthy of recounting, hearing, writing, reading, remembering, re-telling and passing on like Chinese whispers, gradually evolving in the telling.

When we tell a story to someone we take them on a journey and they travel with us through that shared experience. The way to tell a good story is to start with a grain of truth, build it layer upon layer and finally polish it into a little pearl of wisdom. We all love telling stories.