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Link to my review of LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST, currently at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. This is directed by Emily Burns and has Luke Thompson as Berowne. It’s the first RSC production under the new artistic directors, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey and it’s a formidable start. The play is set in a Pacific island resort, with the four men as tech billionaires rather than ‘lords of Navarre’. It all works. It’s a long and highly illustrated review. Here is the Princess of France and her attendants.

Follow the link to the review of THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA currently at the Royal Shakespeare Company. This is Emma Rice’s adaptation of Hanif Kureishi’s coming-of-age novel. It is fast paced, has a superb cast, is very funny and exudes the exuberance and stagecraft we associate with Emma Rice. It bodes well for the new regime at the RSC. Read the review.

CALIFORNIA CONNECTIONS (see link to review) is a York Dance Project production, highlighting the work of three women pioneers: Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Bela Lewitzky. Add a closing piece from the choreographer / producer Yolanda Yorke-Edgell. It was a privilege to see this work at Winchester Theatre Royal, though this is HIGHLY subsidized dance theatre. See the review.

Review of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, the 2024 touring production by Everyman Theatre of Cheltenham (FOLLOW LINK TO REVIEW). We saw it at Southampton MAST. It has vigour, originality and a genuine clown in Tweedy. There are also my thoughts on why Southampton has problems attracting a theatre audience. In this case a 7 p.m. start doesn’t help.

Fontana

Latest addition at Around and Around is the Fontana record label (LINKED). Philips twin label, a hipper twin too. Do read the first section where I compare Fontana images on EPs to a 1960s or 1970s school assembly! Mr Brubeck is headmaster, Dave Dee is the PE teacher etc. Fontana was strong on 60s British beat – Manfred Mann, Spencer Davis Group, Merseybeats, Kiki Dee. Then it had important jazz releases, and was a premier folk label (Joan Baez, Martin Carthy, Julie Felix). Add very rare and expensive discs from the pre-Who High Numbers, Bluesology (Elton John), Jimi Page solo. This is a long one and as usual heavy on visuals.

Review of the two early 60s Harold Pinter one-act plays The Lover and The Collection at Bath’s tiny Ustinov Studio (linked here). As ever, the Ustinov attracts a stellar cast … David Morrissey, Matthew Horne, Claudia Blakley, Elliot Barnes-Worrell. If you can get tickets, go for it, though we could only see two empty seats (fortunately right next to us). I’m fairly sure it will migrate to London. It’s directed by Lindsay Posner, and that’s what normally happens.

I mentioned the pink and blue colour coding for female / male elsewhere, started to post and found it turning into a full length rant. Here it is THE PINK AND THE BLUE (linked)

I’m unable to resist watching The Famous Five, even though the first in the new BBC series was so dire. This one, THE FAMOUS FIVE- PERIL ON THE NIGHT TRAIN (link to review) is better.

Just published! ITALIAN AFFAIRS.

1977. It’s five years on from the events in Foreign Affairs. A new English Language Teaching text book by Graham Donaldson, Intercourse (he thinks it means ‘conversation’),  is about to be launched on an unsuspecting world by the august United Universities Press. Graham wants time off from teaching at  World English Centre (WEC) in Bournemouth for his first promotional tour ever, which will be in Italy. It gives his Director of Studies, Malcolm O’Reilly, an idea. He can go out to the major language teaching conference in Rome and promote WEC at the same time. Gloria, his wife, can accompany him and do a little sightseeing. Graham’s travels take him right around Italy with the UUP reps, the elegant Francesca and the punk-rocker from Blackpool, Luciana. How will the reclusive and bad-tempered Graham take to Italy? The food? The drink? The incessant history? The teachers? The large bottle of olive oil which he has to carry round from place to place? Then there’s Giles, his editor, tagging along to persuade him to become a full-time author. The issues all come to a head when they reach Rome.

Though chronologically the second in the series, it’s the fifth of the comedy series to be written. Readers of the later ones wanted to know just HOW the testy and irritable Graham managed to become world-famous.
Available from Amazon Kindle and as an e-book, only on Kindle.
PAPERBACK PRICE £11.99
KINDLE PRICE (UK) £2.38 (US) $2.99

It’s on Netflix. It’s included. It was perfect viewing for a bank holiday, when one deserves lavish costume drama. Follow the link To DOWNTON ABBEY:” A NEW ERA.