Monthly culture: August
Monday, September 5th, 2016 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthFirst came Nine Worlds: love the new venue (Hammersmith Novotel) and felt much less frazzled than in previous years. My Historical Headcanon (concerning Christopher Marlowe) seemed well-received and I was on a couple of interesting panels about historical fiction, fanfiction, writing, etc.
Then to Edinburgh to skew my monthly averages for various types of Culture. I like the shorter-than-usual performances (they averaged an hour): leaves plenty of time for climbing the hills of which Edinburgh is composed, and pausing for refreshment at each summit.
Fossils - Bucket Club
A story about the Loch Ness monster, a missing father, and the lawnmower-theft capital of Norfolk. Collapsed slightly at the end -- lack of closure -- but some excellent lines, and the background music was fab.
Queens of Antifolk
Alt-folk, mostly feminist, occasionally raucous, generally pretty good: according to someone who attended on our recommendation, 'shambolic', but that is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to a music event with a roster that changes daily!
The Snow Child
Short chamber opera by Owain Park based on Angela Carter's short story of the same name. Splendid soprano who held her own against a small, but forceful, orchestra. The staging was sparse and beautiful, the music sparse and modern. Not sure I would have understood the plot without knowledge of the story, but fairytale archetypes were beautifully illustrated.
Callisto: A Queer Epic (by Howard Coase: Forward Arena)
This was the performance I recommended to everybody I met: my favourite of this year's experiences. Callisto entwines four stories: an actress and her passing-as-male husband in Restoration London; Alan Turing and his dead lover's mother; two actresses in a Hollywood porn studio in the 1970s; a young man and his AI companion in a moon colony in The Future.
Not that those stories, or settings, are initially very clear. And the production packs a hell of a lot of thought, feeling and philosophy into an hour. Not to mention betrayal, violent death, mourning, loss and love.
Each of these four stories could have been a play in itself: mixed together, they become a chorus describing four diverse love affairs from very different perspectives. I felt the Turing quarter didn't work as well as the others; was thoroughly impressed by the evolution of language in the Moon quarter; kept scribbling '++good' against the actors' names on the programme I have since lost. Highly recommended.
Mitch Benn: Don't Fear the Reaper
Not a wholly cheerful show this year: too much awfulness in the world in general and Mitch Benn's world in particular. I liked 'Rock'n'Roll Zombie Apocalypse', cheered the anti-Brexit rant, was less charmed by 'I'm not Bitter' in which, by means of mondegreens, Benn gets away with a lot of misogynist insults.
Fire Burn: The Tragedy of Macbeth
We were hoping for the witches' perspective on Macbeth's rise and fall, but instead got an abridged version of the play with each of three witches taking and changing roles from moment to moment. Excellent physical acting and interaction but didn't add much to the original.
Triple Entendre: Love, Life and Other Stuff
On Caro's recommendation: thoroughly delightful vocal trio. Unfortunately it was too dark and I was laughing too hard for any of my notes to be legible.
Octopus
Uxbridge, the near future: three women await interviews with the Department of Immigration. One is an English Rose, prone to statements like 'I love different cultures, they're so enriching'; one is an Anglo-Indian accountant; one, Scheherazade, is a slightly ditzy Iranian artist and punk singer. (And each actress also assumes the role of the interviewer for one of the other characters.) Often very funny, this is a sharp-edged commentary on racism and identity, and the power wielded by pissed-off administrators. The title references the octopus ('my mother once swallowed an octopus whole while swimming from Dover to Calais') which has a genome which looks as though it's gone through a blender. Occasional lapses of coherence but very good.
Driftwood
Five strong young people using one another's bodies as props and climbing frames. Sinew, muscle and gravity, and a delightful playful innocence to even the most suggestive maneouvres.
Handlebards: The Taming of the Shrew
All-female cast of four -- plus some jackets and waistcoats on hangers, and some game recruits from the damp and chilly audience -- performing Shakespeare's most misogynist play. They're all excellent actors, capable of switching characters mid-scene without confusing the audience (a talent that eluded some other performers I saw that week) and making me laugh a lot, despite damp ground and authentic Scottish gloom.
The Berkovian Medea
Gilded youth, literally: fourteen young actors with gold body paint, black lipstick and brief plain costumes, performing a sparse version of Euripides' play that's full of fiery and smoky imagery ('Jason and Medea, fire and shadow', Medea gone 'like smoke upon the wind') and foregrounds Medea as 'the glitch, the snag, the thing that doesn't fit'. A beautiful performance, somehow simultaneously raw and stylised.
Fringe Night at the Museum:
Excellent prosecco and gin cocktails; I spent most of the evening wandering around the upper galleries. Did see Torte e Mort (Marie Antoinette as cabaret artiste and contortionist) and Chef: Come Dine with Us! -- Korean breakdance / clowning / dance and song. Both v. good.
Edinburgh International Book Festival
Accompanied by the lovely![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
uisgebeatha, I saw a couple of Story Shops (short readings of new fiction) and hung out in the Spiegeltent a bit. Also, Frances Hardinge and Sarah Perry -- a fascinating discussion of writing novels set in Victorian England ('Their taboos were in different places' (FH) 'our lifestyle is essentially a Victorian lifestyle' infrastructure, habits, manners (SP) and the modernity of the notion that science and faith are in opposition) and the close relationship between horror and the sublime. Being in the audience for this conversation made me want to be writing again.
Then to Edinburgh to skew my monthly averages for various types of Culture. I like the shorter-than-usual performances (they averaged an hour): leaves plenty of time for climbing the hills of which Edinburgh is composed, and pausing for refreshment at each summit.
Fossils - Bucket Club
A story about the Loch Ness monster, a missing father, and the lawnmower-theft capital of Norfolk. Collapsed slightly at the end -- lack of closure -- but some excellent lines, and the background music was fab.
Queens of Antifolk
Alt-folk, mostly feminist, occasionally raucous, generally pretty good: according to someone who attended on our recommendation, 'shambolic', but that is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to a music event with a roster that changes daily!
The Snow Child
Short chamber opera by Owain Park based on Angela Carter's short story of the same name. Splendid soprano who held her own against a small, but forceful, orchestra. The staging was sparse and beautiful, the music sparse and modern. Not sure I would have understood the plot without knowledge of the story, but fairytale archetypes were beautifully illustrated.
Callisto: A Queer Epic (by Howard Coase: Forward Arena)
This was the performance I recommended to everybody I met: my favourite of this year's experiences. Callisto entwines four stories: an actress and her passing-as-male husband in Restoration London; Alan Turing and his dead lover's mother; two actresses in a Hollywood porn studio in the 1970s; a young man and his AI companion in a moon colony in The Future.
Not that those stories, or settings, are initially very clear. And the production packs a hell of a lot of thought, feeling and philosophy into an hour. Not to mention betrayal, violent death, mourning, loss and love.
Each of these four stories could have been a play in itself: mixed together, they become a chorus describing four diverse love affairs from very different perspectives. I felt the Turing quarter didn't work as well as the others; was thoroughly impressed by the evolution of language in the Moon quarter; kept scribbling '++good' against the actors' names on the programme I have since lost. Highly recommended.
Mitch Benn: Don't Fear the Reaper
Not a wholly cheerful show this year: too much awfulness in the world in general and Mitch Benn's world in particular. I liked 'Rock'n'Roll Zombie Apocalypse', cheered the anti-Brexit rant, was less charmed by 'I'm not Bitter' in which, by means of mondegreens, Benn gets away with a lot of misogynist insults.
Fire Burn: The Tragedy of Macbeth
We were hoping for the witches' perspective on Macbeth's rise and fall, but instead got an abridged version of the play with each of three witches taking and changing roles from moment to moment. Excellent physical acting and interaction but didn't add much to the original.
Triple Entendre: Love, Life and Other Stuff
On Caro's recommendation: thoroughly delightful vocal trio. Unfortunately it was too dark and I was laughing too hard for any of my notes to be legible.
Octopus
Uxbridge, the near future: three women await interviews with the Department of Immigration. One is an English Rose, prone to statements like 'I love different cultures, they're so enriching'; one is an Anglo-Indian accountant; one, Scheherazade, is a slightly ditzy Iranian artist and punk singer. (And each actress also assumes the role of the interviewer for one of the other characters.) Often very funny, this is a sharp-edged commentary on racism and identity, and the power wielded by pissed-off administrators. The title references the octopus ('my mother once swallowed an octopus whole while swimming from Dover to Calais') which has a genome which looks as though it's gone through a blender. Occasional lapses of coherence but very good.
Driftwood
Five strong young people using one another's bodies as props and climbing frames. Sinew, muscle and gravity, and a delightful playful innocence to even the most suggestive maneouvres.
Handlebards: The Taming of the Shrew
All-female cast of four -- plus some jackets and waistcoats on hangers, and some game recruits from the damp and chilly audience -- performing Shakespeare's most misogynist play. They're all excellent actors, capable of switching characters mid-scene without confusing the audience (a talent that eluded some other performers I saw that week) and making me laugh a lot, despite damp ground and authentic Scottish gloom.
The Berkovian Medea
Gilded youth, literally: fourteen young actors with gold body paint, black lipstick and brief plain costumes, performing a sparse version of Euripides' play that's full of fiery and smoky imagery ('Jason and Medea, fire and shadow', Medea gone 'like smoke upon the wind') and foregrounds Medea as 'the glitch, the snag, the thing that doesn't fit'. A beautiful performance, somehow simultaneously raw and stylised.
Fringe Night at the Museum:
Excellent prosecco and gin cocktails; I spent most of the evening wandering around the upper galleries. Did see Torte e Mort (Marie Antoinette as cabaret artiste and contortionist) and Chef: Come Dine with Us! -- Korean breakdance / clowning / dance and song. Both v. good.
Edinburgh International Book Festival
Accompanied by the lovely
uisgebeatha, I saw a couple of Story Shops (short readings of new fiction) and hung out in the Spiegeltent a bit. Also, Frances Hardinge and Sarah Perry -- a fascinating discussion of writing novels set in Victorian England ('Their taboos were in different places' (FH) 'our lifestyle is essentially a Victorian lifestyle' infrastructure, habits, manners (SP) and the modernity of the notion that science and faith are in opposition) and the close relationship between horror and the sublime. Being in the audience for this conversation made me want to be writing again.
no subject
Date: Tuesday, September 6th, 2016 06:40 pm (UTC)I looked for you on FB, and turn out to have completely forgotten your surname. I'm at https://www.facebook.com/TheAndrewDucker if you fancy though.
no subject
Date: Tuesday, September 6th, 2016 07:16 pm (UTC)I believe I still have photos of your moment of fame...
no subject
Date: Tuesday, September 6th, 2016 07:34 pm (UTC)