Gosh!

my blog has officially exceeded one post, wow

these last couple of weeks have been culturally damp for me, compared to usual. no films, no exhibitions, and rubbish theatre: i saw the university theatre's production of 'the tempest' last night, and have remembered why i try to avoid amateur Shakespeare at all costs. man that sounds elitist; the reason, it may help me to say, is because i have seen so many shakespeare productions that if they don't do something a little original, i switch off.
i realise i have based my blog around theatre so far. this is mainly because i go through phases of complete indulgence and see at least a play a week, and since i have got back to uni, i have kept this up from pretty much week 1 (or week 11, as newcastle uni so confusingly likes to call it). from seeing such an abundance, i have, as i mentioned in my previous post, some clear ideas of what i enjoy when it comes to theatre. i believe the companies which sum up my tastes most appropiately are:
knee-high - a contemporary theatre company who create their own plays, often building from and adapting a traditional greek or shakespearean piece, using live music and physical theatre.
DV8 - physical theatre and contemporary dance company, and recently, the ETT (english touring theatre). i would have included RSC (royal shakespeare) on the list, but they have been prone to let me down.
(picture- DV8: to be straight with you, at the northern stage, 2007)


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the joys of re-invigoration

by this i mean that curiously old but brilliantly modern, wonderfully useful device that is a radio set. a hugely important part of my existence.

by being head of music of our student radio (NSR), i have had to go out of my way to expose myself to the local music scene, and i have to admit, it is a challenge. when i was growing up in the lovely yorkshire moors, any local band were heavily idolised and there was no way one could not know every members' mum and dad. we all followed them round every venue they played at, which, in turn, unknowingly turned us all into music gurus of the local music scene. there was barely a band within 30 miles of us that i hadn't seen or at least heard of. so it was perhaps a little unsettling coming to newcastle and, in effect, starting this whole process again without even having a scene to follow. i am in the middle of this challenge currently, getting completely lost in the realms and crevasses of the ever-expanding myspace.


the band to focus my attention the most is maybe myrtle tyrtle, who i saw twice last year and consequently acquired a copy of their debut album for radio play. their gypsy folk style and handlebar moustaches seem blaringly incongruous next to the modern indie of radio 1. they somehow manage to turn any gig venue into a kind of manic russian dancing arena, be that at the green festival or legends nightclub. a favourite live track is their cover of 'stand by me'- a song they miraculously turn into another folk classic.

we have also had squares in for a recording session the other week, who were great live. there is only two members but they do so well with one guitar and harmonious geordie voices.
anyway, i will update this on my increasing knowledge of local bands when more come my way.

in the meantime, i need some time with the czech republic.
E

Start Of Something

the idea of winter approaching/accumulating uni work always instills in me some kind of desire to stop the clocks and create a blog. an effort which is usually reversed a few months down the line when I have forgotten my password, but what the heck. here goes.

a vague idea

i would like to cover things that interest me. woah- how innovative! like the average university going liberal 19-year-old this topic encompasses music, film, radio, then art, current affairs... i would like to see this more as a thinktank. blogs are the most self-indulgent expression of one's feelings anyway, an area for uninteruppted talk, a hope for someone to stumble across and what, actually read?

generally, i collect anything that entices me in my tracks, be that passport photos of some unknown, unmemorable boy found outside the union, a cd, an essay from an art exhibiton, a theatre programme. the two main functions of this will be: to force myself to go out of my way more to gain experiences that i can actually talk about, and, on a more practical note, to practise writing. excellent.

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last night i went to see 'four men and a poker game' at the northern stage (possibly the most conviniently placed, impressively educational insitution i use in newcastle). i regret to say that i was utterly disappointed by the performance. after having had a 3 hour workshop with the director earlier in the week, i was geared for engaging work.
before i elaborate on my criticism, however, the play needs some explanation.

'four men and a poker game' is a short play written by bertolt brecht, performed as a monolgue in 3rd person. it recounts a poker game in which 3 men lost all their possessions to the winner, who, even after schedueling a re-match, still wins. the defeated end up killing him by pushing him in the sea to drown, which is where the story ends.
there was no doubt, i believed this play to hold all the key elements to remedy a great brecht play. it is an engaging story which could be interpreted very politically (we were made aware of certain connections from articles set up around the area). it was set in an enclosed area (i would hasten to call it a stage), where audience seating had been propped together as if we were in a bar, immedietely removing the 'fourth wall' of the audience. as well as this, there was live music, in the form of a talented piano player who accompianied the speech. so interestingly enough, 4 out of 5 of all the elements needed to produce a brecht masterpiece were there. the one that was missing- entertainment. an aspect so crucial to any theatrical production, let alone a brecht piece, that it is not even worth considering without it. it was 40 minutes long but it dragged unbearably- the reason my description of the storyline is so vague is down to this reason precisely; i couldn't help but switch off every five minutes.
i realise that there are some fundamental aspects of a piece of theatre which, over the years, i have attuned to what i will find successful, and to give the play some credit, avoiding monolgues is one of them. after that, i think i will go out of my way to.
it's such a shame that a brecht play has never enlightened me, when that really is the sole aim of his playwriting. after seeing the appaling 'mother courage' at the york theatre royal a few years back with school, i was finally ready to give another director a chance, but no, i have been let down again! ah, if only i could speak german so i could see one in the berlin ensemble- that would be like seeing shakespeare at the globe, surely.

i did want to explore more today but got distracted for the last two hours in a debate on monarchy and royalism, so it will have to wait til the next time i have some important work to do.

E