Stephanie Cole as Mrs Higgins. Photo Manuel Harlan.

Pygmalion

Chichester Festival Theatre until 27 August
Written by Bernard Shaw
Directed and Designed by Philip Prowse
With Rupert Everett, Stephanie Cole, Susie Blake, Phil Davis and Honeysuckle Weeks

On Monday, the double bill at Chichester Festival Theatre was Pygmalion and The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist. The two plays could hardly be more different.

Russell focuses with deadly intent on the differences between the working class and their employers. Shaw makes fun of them both.

‘The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman despise him.’ – Bernard Shaw

Behind Shaw’s ability to capture an idea with the right phrase was a passion for crusading. And what he was crusading for was a means to persuade the public that good communication depended on the way words were pronounced. This is where Eliza comes into the picture.

Rupert Everett as Professor Higgins. Photo: Manuel Rupert Everett as Professor Higgins in Pygmalion. Photo: Manuel Harlan.

At the turn of the century, London was one of the few big cities in Europe with large-scale street trading. The main reason for this was widespread poverty, with around 30% of the London population barely hovering on the edge of destitution.

Central to this group were the 400,000 casual traders who, like Eliza Doolittle, relied on the precarious economy of the street for their employment. Yet life for young women like Eliza was beginning to change. In 1911, Parliament passed a bill to prohibit street trading by children and young persons.

Girls’ wages became competitive: they were paid the same, or even more, than boys until their late teens. The retail sector was having a ‘boom’ and jobs as a shop assistant, secretary or factory girl were highly attractive, since they offered the opportunity of working in relative comfort compared to the stress of street life.

The Play

Enter Eliza: a flower seller who is also an ambitious young woman but, alas, a young woman whose awful vowels would shatter glass at 60 paces. First, she is insulted by women coming out of Covent Garden opera house into the rain, and then Professor Higgins appears.

He sneers at Eliza as a ghastly example of indigent young women and mimics her voice. She is outraged but incapable of a coherent response. The professor and kindly Colonel Pickering, both of whom are obsessed with linguistics, take a bet that Higgins can’t turn this cabbage into a Duchess for a night. And so the process begins…

Shaw’s play is full of humour and wit, but its message is no less relevant for today’s incoherent and ill-educated young people than it was when it was first performed. Unfortunately, the play is treated more frivolously than it needs to be at CFC.

Like its popular make-over, My Fair Lady, much emphasis falls on lovely clothes and superficial niceties, some of which are very nice indeed. Who wouldn’t fall in love with a set that rises up through the floor with Higgins playing violin to Colonel Pickering’s astute ear?

Peter Eyre as Colonel Pickering and Rupert Everett as Henry Higgins. Photo Manuel Harlan.

The marvellous Stephanie Cole as Mrs Higgins, however, provides both anchor and point of poise for the play.  Where Rupert Everett often seems too large and noisy for this (elegant) stage, she brings him back to size metaphorically, and through her superbly projected lines. All the same, Everett really does not seem altogether at home in his skin as Professor Higgins.

Honeysuckle Weeks as Eliza in Pygmalion.

As for poor Eliza, Honeysuckle Weeks is – whether by intent or design, I could not tell – almost impossible to understand in the early passages, and the cut glass accent in later acts is equally difficult to comprehend.

In the role of Alfred Doolittle, Phil Davis does a London-born shyster to perfection; well, almost. It has to be said that his predecessor in the film of My Fair Lady, Stanley Holloway, is a hard act to follow, and perhaps Davis would do well to soften up just a little at times.

Susie Blake plays Mrs Pearce with great skill, Peter Eyre is just right as Colonel Pickering, and Peter Sandys-Clarke must have been born in Freddy Eynsford Hill’s shoes. Candida Benson and Marty Cruickshank also play their parts with great skill.

The ending, however, of this adaptation of Shaw’s Pygmalion is quite disconcerting.

The Playwrights

As it happens, both Robert Tressell and George Bernard Shaw were born in Dublin in the second half of the 19th century, and both were socialists, but their lives could hardly have been more different than their interpretations of the world around them.

Tressell died unpublished and unrecognised; a pauper at 41. He was not recognised for his work on socialism until after his death, but gradually became something of a cult figure.

Shaw, who died at 94, was well-connected in The Arts, having earned a good living as a journalist and critic. He remains the only person ever to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938). He received the first for his contributions to literature, and the second for his work in adapting Pygmalion for film.

This production of Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion at Chichester Festival Theatre is directed and designed by Philip Prowse, making his debut with CFT.

Book for Pygmalion or The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists here.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist: L-R, Finbar Lynch, Thomas Morrison and Larry Dann. Photo: Helen Warner

The world premiere of a play about the short, unhappy lives of Edwardian working men and women has opened at the Minerva Theatre.

Based on Robert Tressell’s grim, political novel, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists shows how the capitalist system of the time exploited its workers.

Too close to home for comfort for this member of a modern union, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist comes from the same subversive genre as Oklahoma and Grapes of Wrath. Both of these played during high summer at Chichester last year and, in different ways, depicted the harsh realities of life and death for the working classes of America.

I’m less enthused about The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists than I was over last summer’s partnership. This year, Howard Brenton’s adaptation of the Tressell novel sits alongside Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw’s witty masterpiece about turning a flower girl into someone who can be passed off as a duchess.

The title is the most ‘catchy’ thing about The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. A member of the audience, overheard in the interval, harrumphed: “A left wing harangue about things we know already.” A peal of laughter burst out; much needed laughter because this play lacks the moments of release that Oklahoma provides in such abundance. Even the Grapes of Wrath provides moments of levity.

As any guest speaker knows, when you’re presenting a serious lecture, give your audience a chance to build up steam, and then to let their breath out. In general, the characters lack development; and where subtlety would work better, the acting and direction tends towards hamming things up.

Yes, it is true that the Edwardian period brought harsh times for many. And perhaps they are a metaphor for our own economical times. All the same, I sincerely hope that humanity has learned something from history.

The play opens with a veritable caricature of a typically modern, upwardly mobile couple looking over an old Edwardian building, and buying it for a song from an elderly woman who needs the money in retirement. We are then spun back in time to an earlier refurbishment of the building, and see the plight of the painters and decorators who are employed to fudge, budge and smudge as best they can.

L-R: Will Beer, Tim Frances and Dean Ashton in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Photo: Helen Warner.

The author of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists was himself a painter and decorator, born Robert Noonan, and he wrote just one book before he died a pauper at the age of 41.

His piece de resistance focused on those ‘foolish’ philanthropists who give over their lives, their hopes, and their ethics to pander to their canny employers. In Tressell’s eyes, they have little choice. Locked into circumstances that abort or pervert natural creative urges, they take what they can get, and toady up to their ‘betters’ to stay alive.

A genuinely amusing interlude in the play uses a loaf of bread to depict how the capitalist system takes bread from its workers’ fingers and makes them pay for it time and time again.

The costuming and design throughout the play is cleverly done, with the house metamorphosing into a mini ‘Brighton Pavilion’, despite the ‘bodging’ and ‘splodging’ process to cut costs.

The cast includes a finely drawn Finbar Lynch as the quietly watchful, socialist decorator, Frank Owen; his life in the play mirrored by the author’s life.  Of particular note, however, is Larry Dann (Oh What a Lovely War), who brings the character of veteran worker, Joe Philpott, to life, although his demise within the play is over- contrived, along with a couple of other rather too graphic deaths.

A co-production with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists plays at the Minerva Theatre until 26th August.

Book for The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists here.

Related article

• Painter and decorator Jim Walker on The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (guardian.co.uk)

Michael Moriarty interviews MEP, Baroness Sarah Ludford. Photo Alun Hill 2010.

By Guest Writer, Michael Moriarty

The constant journeying of the European Parliament, once a month, between Brussels and Strasbourg is a complete waste of time and money – not to mention the frayed nerves of MEPs.

This is the opinion of Islington resident, Baroness Sarah Ludford, MEP, when she addressed a fact-finding group of British journalists in Brussels on Wednesday, June 23rd.

In an hour-long meeting with the writers and photographers from the Chartered Institute of Journalists, she outlined her role as a Liberal Democrat Euro-MP, also touching upon such subjects as  Civil Liberties and the European Arrest Warrant since she is spokeswoman for the British Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament on the Civil Liberties, Justice & Home Affairs committee.

But it was when I asked her about her well publicised views on the monthly move of MEPs, support staff, documents and other files from Brussels to Strasbourg for a period of just four days and at the cost of hundreds of thousands of Euros, that she became passionately vocal:

“I find it appalling that the work of the parliament has to be interrupted for just a few days each month just to satisfy the demands of one or two member countries,” she said. “For the most part, it takes up to three weeks just to plan what files and other documents to take, to say nothing of the vast expense and the added cost to the environment in taking unnecessary journeys like this.”

Lady Ludford is now part of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform – a cross-party group of MEPs committed to securing a single seat for the European Parliament. This action saw British, German and Scandinavian MEPs join together to call for an end to the monthly Strasbourg trip.

The 500 mile round-trip journey represents a huge cost to the European taxpayer. Twelve times a year, 732 MEPs with 2000 assistants and many hundreds more parliament staff take to the road from Brussels to Strasbourg. They are followed by removal vans that carry 3500 trunks packed full of folders and papers necessary for a week’s work.  The costs total more than 200 million Euros per year (£140 million).

Lady Ludford also said:  “I really hate this inefficiency.  The European Parliament is becoming a more powerful and politically mature institution.  It needs to get on with its work in a business-like fashion and a full-time single seat in Brussels would reflect that.

“But the Lisbon Treaty now gives some hope because under its provisions, the Citizens’ Initiative, with one million citizen signatures, will force errant member countries to comply with this reform.  Strasbourg will always have a special place in the history of the European Union, but paying this price for symbolism is unacceptable.

“The Strasbourg buck stops with national governments. They bear ultimate responsibility for this needless cost and waste. They must find an amicable way to end the Brussels-Strasbourg circus.”

Further information: Mike Moriarty, Tel. 020 7254 7895

Richard Green Salomon van Ruysdael (1600/3-1670) A river view with the town of Weesp, 1650 Oil on panel, 47 x 63.5 cm

Master Paintings Week runs until 8th July so there is still time to get to London for this prestigious event. It is regarded as an essential destination for private collectors, museum curators, art historians and art lovers around the world.

Following the success of London’s first Master Paintings Week in 2009, 25 dealers and auction houses from Italy, Paris, New York and Stockholm have pulled the stops out; magnificent pieces are on display, and there are still special items for sale.

The selection is mainly of European paintings, dating from the 15th to the 19th centuries, and these are displayed alongside another dealer initiative, Master Drawings London, also running to 9 July.

Tiepolo, Rubens, Turner, Guercino, Brueghel, Murillo, Van Ruysdael, Van Dyck, Constable and Benjamin West are just some of the most famous artists of the western world whose works will be available along with lesser-known masters of very high quality.

Verner Åmell Ltd Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) Portrait of a young woman with a black scarf. Oil on canvas, oval, 57.5 x 47.5 cm

Amongst the earliest pieces are the Bohemian School Martyrdom of St Barbara, c.1390 (Simon Dickinson), and a triptych centred on the Crucifixion by Jacopo di Cione (Florence, documented 1365-1398) (Moretti Fine Art. One of the more recent is a noble Head of an African by Léon de Troy dating from around 1880 (Ben Elwes Fine Art).

Agnew’s will be showing Old Master Paintings at Tryon Galleries while their new Albemarle Street gallery is being refurbished.  Highlights include Benjamin West’s (1738-1820) Cupid and Psyche, painted in London in 1808 but not seen in this country for over a century.

Italian paintings at Agnew’s include the superb Holy Family of c.1609 by Parma artist, Bartolomeo Schedoni (1578-1615). This rare and beautiful painting was, until 2008, only known to modern scholars from a photograph of c.1972 in the Witt Library, by which time the original painting was in the Herman Correa Borguez collection in Santiago, Chile.

Among the fine works to be offered by Verner Åmell will be Portrait of a Young Woman with a Black Scarf by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805). This was part of the celebrated collection belonging to Pierre-Louis Pau Randon de Boisset (1708-1776), who had one of the finest Dutch and Flemish picture cabinets in Europe.

Also of note is the Portrait of David Papillon (1691-1762), standing full-length, holding a bow and quiver, a spaniel at his side by John Closterman (1660-1713).  Papillon was the grandson of David Papillon, the French Huguenot and military engineer who built Papillon Hall in Leicestershire between 1622 and 1624.

Richard Green, who has been dealing in Old Master paintings for 55 years, will feature, among other schools, a number of fine Dutch and Flemish works including A river view with the town of Weesp by Salomon van Ruysdael (1600/03-1670). One of the originators of naturalistic landscape painting and stately river views celebrating the special beauty of

Holland’s inland waterways, of which this is a prime example, it has a distinguished provenance as it belonged to the Marquis of Biencourt.

Stair Sainty Gallery. Louis Gauffier (1762-1801), Ulysses recognises Achilles amongst the daughters of Lycomedes. Oil on canvas, 81.5 x 114 cm Master Paintings Week, London, 3 to 9 July 2010

The gallery will also feature the delightful Portrait of an eight-year-old boy, possibly of the Blauhulck family, holding a horse from the Circle of Jan Claesz (1570-after 1618), which recently came to light in a French private collection.  Such portraits are extremely rare and were only painted in West Friesland, the most northerly part of Holland, especially the town of Enkhuizen where Claesz was born.

Sphinx Fine Art will present The Collectors: Old Master Paintings, an exhibition comprising 100 works by artists that were prized by a dozen of the world’s most exacting patrons, all of whose works are now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg.

The exhibition includes a pair of Italian landscapes by one of Catherine the Great’s favourite artists, Jacob Philipp Hackert (1737-1807), and such historical works as Philips Wouwerman’s (1619-1668) Hawking Party.

The entire exhibition gives a fascinating insight into the tastes of some of the greatest politicians, monarchs, artists, and patrons of the 18th and 19th centuries.

All the London galleries showing during Master Paintings Week are in Mayfair and St James’s, a short walk from one another, and are open until Friday from 10 am to 6 pm.  The auction houses will be open from 9 am to 4.30 pm on Friday.

More information is available here:

Linda Bagaini as the Widow, Rob Ferguson as Bertram, Stanley Walton as Dumain

Don’t miss the chance to see one of Shakespeare’s most rarely performed plays, All’s Well That Ends Well performed by OVO in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

A modern reworking of the bittersweet love story, OVO’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s play is set in Paris in the late 1950s.

It takes the philosophical musings of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir and sets them to the smooth tunes of Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel and Yves Montand.

All’s Well That Ends Well is now halfway through its run and the production has opened to full houses and positive reviews.

The Shakespeare Revue said, “This production is amusing and moving, and something of which OVO can be very proud”. You can view the full review and photos here.

OVO - All's Well That Ends Well - Rob Ferguson as Bertram

There are four more performances this week – from Tuesday 22nd to Friday 25th June.  There are only a few tickets left and Friday is completely sold out.

All’s Well That Ends Well shows at OVO @ Pudding Lane, 29a Chequer Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 3YJ.

Performances start at 8pm nightly.  Remaining tickets, priced £10 or £5 concessions, are available a human being at the Box Office on 07807 521436 or online

Coming Soon
9th – 11th September 2010: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare abridged (guest production – Katalyst)
13th – 23rd October 2010: Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker
17th – 27th November 2010: Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov
10th / 11th December 2010: Food of Love at Christmas
2nd – 5th March 2011: Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin

OVO - All's Well That Ends Well - David Widdowsom as King, Stanley Walton and Matt Broad as the Dumain Brothers, Peter Wood as Lafeu

6th – 9th April 2011: Art by Yasmin Reza
7th – 10th May 2011: OVO New Writing Festival
8th – 18th June 2011: Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
8th – 25th June 2011: OVO Summer Festival of Theatre

OVO is a theatre company based in St Albans in Hertfordshire, England.

The company was founded in 2002 by Adam Nichols and Simon Nicholas and is now run by Adam Nichols and Imogen de la Bere.

CANADA - Music Festival in London - 3 days only!

‘Canadian Blast and The Local’ announce CANADA, the inaugural festival, in London.

The festival will host nineteen top bands from across Canada at eight different London venues on June 29th, 30th and July 1st, 2010.

These venues will play host to four different genres of Canadian music: hip-hop, folk, electro and rock.

There will be performances by Bushwacka, Hawksley Workman, Jully Black, Plants & Animals, Ruth Minnikin, Ghostcat, and many others (see details below).

June 29th
The Union Chapel
CANADIAN TENORS + SUPPORT

June 30th, 7:30pm
229 @ 7.30pm
HAWKSLEY WORKMAN + JULLY BLACK + THE ART OF FRESH + RADIO RADIO

The Lexington @ 7.30pm
DAN MANGAN + ARTUR DYJECINSKI + THE MIGHTY LOW

The Wilmington @ 7.30pm
RUTH MINNIKIN + MAYOR MCCA + RAISING REDWOOD

Blackheart @ 7.30pm
GHOSTCAT + DIAMOND RINGS + ELEPHANT STONE

July 1st 2010:
Village Underground
RICHIE HAWTIN DJ
with
LAYO and BUSHWACKA
(Canada Day Special - produced by Shake It - from 11pm -5am)

And today, Canada will be 143 years old.

In celebration, they are hosting the
5th Annual Canada Day celebration at 10.30am
Trafalgar Square, London

Canadian Blast and Canada Day London present a musical celebration in Trafalgar Square, featuring The Tenors, Richie Hawtin, Hawksley Workman, Sarah Harmer, and others.

The event kicks off at 10:30 am with the Canadian Tenors and dropping of the puck by His Excellency James Wright, High Commissioner for Canada.

Put on some red and white to show your Canadian spirit and join us for the Trafalgar Street Hockey cup, traditional Canadian delicacies, beer and wine with live music and performers all day.

More information here:

Canada Day is a Free event and enjoyable for all ages.

Anyone who purchases a ticket for CANADA - THE MUSIC FESTIVAL will get a free download, featuring one track from every artist at every venue.

In addition, each ticket will be entered automatically into a draw for a free trip to Canada for two, including a cross-country VIA rail journey.

Each ticket will be valid for one venue only and can be purchased at MUSICGLUE, MUSICWEBand SEETICKET. Prices start at £5. The Canada Day Special at Village Underground costs £18 on the door, and £15 for advance tickets.

CANADA comes to London in association with The Line of Best Fit, and is sponsored by Canadian Tourism Commission, VIA Rail, Sleeman Beer and CIBC.

*Please note all venues have an 18+ restriction*

Book through the following outlets:

MUSICGLUE

MUSICWEB

SEETICKETS

Literary research just became a lot easier.

Over 155,000 historical books have been catalogued from National Trust properties and these can now be reviewed online.

They range from spectacular 17th century atlases at Dunham Massey in Cheshire to a rare library of miniature books for children at A La Ronde in Devon.

The catalogue provides instant access to information for scholars and members of the public alike.

You can see not only what books are available in the Trust’s collections but where each book came from. You can even find out how they are bound, who they belonged to, what they tell about the lives of their owners, and which property they ended up in.

The cataloguing project began in 1958 but much of the work has been carried out in the  last five years. However, work is ongoing with over 70,000 books yet to be catalogued.

Mark Purcell, Libraries Curator, has prepared a gazette of the National Trust’s principal libraries, listing the principal book collections.

Click here to access the catalogue and find out where to see the books.

Among the highlights in the National Trust’s library collections are:

•    A Manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, circa 1420 (Petworth House, Sussex)
•    The only copy of the first edition of the Sarum Missal, printed for Caxton in 1487 (Lyme Park, Cheshire)
•    Seven magnificently-decorated bindings from the library of the French Renaissance bibliophile Jean Grolier (1479-1565) (Blickling Hall, Norfolk)
•    The only copy of the earliest known English ABC (ca. 1535) (Lanhydrock, Cornwall)
•    One of only three copies in the UK of the first edition of Shakespeare’s Richard II (1597), still in the gilded livery binding of its original owner (Petworth House, Sussex)
•    The Bible supposedly used by Charles I on the scaffold (Chastleton House, Oxfordshire)
•    The Crafty Chambermaid’s Garland (1771) - a bawdy ballad for north country farmers (Townend, Cumbria)
•    The copy of Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands (1868), inscribed by Queen Victoria to Benjamin Disraeli (Hughenden Manor, Buckinghamshire)
•    A first edition of the Jungle Book (1894), inscribed by Kipling to his daughter Josephine, for whom it was written (Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire)
•    The autographed manuscript of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, inscribed to Vita Sackville-West (Knole, Kent)

About the National Trust
The National Trust cares for 300 inspiring historic houses and gardens across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

From former workers’ cottages to the most iconic stately homes, and from mines and mills to theatres and inns, the stories of people and their heritage are at the heart of everything it does.

People of all ages, individuals, schools and communities, get involved each year with its projects, events and working holidays and over 60,000 volunteers help to bring the properties alive for the Trust’s 3.8 million members.

Find out more about the National Trust.

Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher and Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy

To say I was moved by On the Blind Side would be an understatement. The Brigadier felt the same. We could hardly move from our seats at the end of the film and, like me, he had a damp wodge of tissues screwed up in his hand.

On the Blind Side stars Sandra Bullock in her 2010 Oscar award-winning role as Leigh Anne Tuohy, a headstrong white wife and mother who turns around the life of a homeless black boy by taking him out of the cold; figuratively and literally.

Is she a bleeding heart Liberal? No. She just feels in her gut that he deserves more. But shouldn’t she be scared? Yes. She plays a woman who feels the scare, breathes in deeply, and goes ahead and does it anyhow.

Gentle giant, Quinton Aaron plays Michael Ohey with considerable subtlety. He slowly flowers; a remarkable transformation sparked by 10-year-old Sean Junior (Jae Head), who takes charge of Michael’s development. Lily Collins is Collins Tuohy, the sister who risks losing friends to keep a brother.

L-R: Jae Head as SJ, Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher and Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy.

It is SJ who befriends Michael at the white Christian school where he arrives like a beached whale, completely out of his territory.

It is SJ who initiates the tough practice sessions that turn Michael into the football player that every university in the country wants.

Even Michael’s apparent lack of academic prowess can be worked on. Miss Sue (Kathy Bates) is brought in. She encourages, coerces and bolsters Michael’s confidence until he can tackle different subjects in the classroom in the same way that he approaches problems on the football field.

His academic piece de resistance is to write an essay about Tennyson’s poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, where 600 men march into a hopeless situation for the sake of honour. Michael’s comprehension moves a previously implacable teacher to tears. Those of us in the back seats, too.

Written for the screen and directed by John Lee Hancock, On the Blind Side pairs up several completely incongruous types.

Bullock’s performance mirrors that of a feisty little tug coaxing a vast passenger liner into a different shipping lane; in this particular harbour, her son is akin to a Customs speed boat nipping around the ship’s flank. And what is astonishing is that such an unlikely alliance could be based on a true life story.

As Sean Tuohy, Tim McGraw provides the emotional architecture for a very fine balancing act with Sandra Bullock. Passivity is one thing, active quietude is quite another. He gives depth to Bullock’s passion, in the way that velvet sets off a diamond’s lustre.

One sizzling moment in the film between Leigh Anne and husband Sean comes when she broaches the subject of them adopting Michael. “Do I get a choice?” he asks. Fade to Leigh smiling mischievously up at him from the pillows: “You knew I was a multi-tasker when you married me.”

Tuohy Family Christmas card.

Additionally, when you take away their difference in appearance, Sean and Michael have a natural empathy. Both are acute observers; and both have an unusual capacity to adapt.

Flexibility is something foreign to most of those in the aptly-named ‘Hurt Village’ of Michael’s birth; an ugly section of poverty-stricken Memphis. Nor does it come easily to those sitting just a little too smugly in the green parklands of conservative, white America.

McGraw asserts that you don’t have to be a sports fan to appreciate The Blind Side. “Whether or not you are interested in football, or sports at all, the story behind this movie is so heart-warming, I think it will appeal to everyone.”

Producer Broderick Johnson says, “The appeal of this story is the combination of heart and humour, as well as sports, which has had its share of negative press in recent years. It’s very timely, especially in the 21st century, when we have come to understand that there is no set type of family.

“We live in a society made up of different kinds of families, where the only things that really matter are our love and support for one another. I think that’s a wonderful thing, and it’s a message that people can really relate to in this day and age.”

Film Poster for On the Blind Side

The combination of passion and hope in the film is delicately balanced; it could easily have toppled into a mire of sentimentality. Bullock won the best actress Oscar and her first Academy Award for this role.

It has been adapted from the Michael Lewis story The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. This explores the unconventional background of Baltimore Ravens’ left tackle, Michael Oher, who becomes an unlikely but vital part of the Tuohy family.

One of the things that set the film apart was that when the book was published, and even as the movie was being made, much of the real Michael’s story was still unfolding.

Co-producer Andrew A. Kosove explains, “It’s a current events story… but I don’t think that creates complications as much as it creates opportunities.”

“The Tuohys opened up their home and their lives, so we felt a great deal of responsibility to do right by their family, and that’s a lot to live up to,” says Bullock.

“You want people to be entertained, but you also want them to leave the theatre with a genuine understanding of who these people are.”

As we staggered out of the cinema, I told the Brigadier I’d be happy to go back and watch it again. He agreed. What a nice start to a long lunch.

On the Blind Side will be released through Odeon Cinemas on March 26.

Also see:

http://www.reviewedonline.co.uk/index.html

http://www.thedetour.co.uk/film/film.htm

Mia Waskikowska plays Alice in Tim Burton's version of Lewis Carroll's novel

The ‘Rev Clutter’ and I have just missed Avatar – the 3D experience everyone is still taking about - at the Brighton Marina Odeon. It was, I thought, still showing at the time it had been the previous week.

Clutter looked stern. However, spinning on a sixpence, I noticed that it was just the right time to see Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. A different 3-D adventure? Clutter gave the nod.

So now that you’re sitting comfortably, in Tim Burton’s gothic version of Lewis Carroll’s classic story, Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) is the daughter of Charles Kingsleigh (Marton Csokas), a wealthy man who planned to find profitable shipping routes through the world in the 19th century.

He died before his visions bore fruit, Alice is very nearly grown up, and the shipping routes remain unplundered. It will, however, be a different matter for her if a certain lord gets his way with her. The external world of Alice follows the patterns of her inner world; and chaos inevitably follows.

With a nod to myself about the deafening qualities of modern cinematic sound, I stuck on my noise-reducing earphones. That meant Clutter could enjoy the adverts while I recovered from a hearty brunch at the nearby Witherspoons-upon-Marina. (Good value, too.)

For once, as the film’s titles rolled, there was no grim reminder not to record anything. I don’t suppose you could do it with 3-D. And once I found that 3-D didn’t make me sick, I began to enjoy the utter closeness of everything, although I kept ducking from passing balls or other, more gruesome objects. In the finale, I really did try to catch a glorious blue butterfly.

Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

But this was not Alice the way I’d come to know and love in many guises over the years. Perhaps I was remembering the Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and WC Fields movie made in 1933 or the 1949 version with Joyce Grenfell playing the Ugly Duchess/Dormouse?

Perhaps, though, I hadn’t been paid sufficient attention at the outset. I was blissfully unaware that Alice was in a darkly repressed state, regarding her visits to Wonderland as dreams, except when crises arose: with sniffy Lord Hamish (Leo Bill) proposing a life worse than death, I’d have run away too.

Alice then falls down a rabbit hole about the size of the o2 dome and, along the way, keeps shedding clothes, which is certainly likely to disrupt some dream lives. But I’m sorry; this version of Lewis Carroll’s quirky, enchanting story lacks intrinsic charm.

Remember, too, that Carroll’s heroine was just on the verge of puberty; not a full-blown rose running, primarily, away from herself but inevitably fated, in Burton’s strange Wonderland, to go to war; and to wield a magic sword akin to Excalibur against the Red Queen’s Army.

In the role of errant but helpful friend is Johnny Depp, who, despite the weird make-up, does bring The Hatter to life. The voices of many other characters, including a blue-striped Cheshire cat with an unctuous voice (Stephen Fry) will be familiar to TV drama aficionados. Barbara Windsor voices the Dormouse.

The Red Queen is played with a aplomb and zest by Helen Bonham-Carter, despite the probable discomfort of an unreasonably oversized face, while her sister, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) with ‘normal’ if chalky white features, in the manner of HM Elizabeth I, is a thoroughly unnerving piece of work; not at all my inner child’s idea of a friend: more like a witch than the Red Queen as she stirs severed fingers into a disgusting potion for Alice.

Mia Waskikowska plays Alice in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

Within the film are assorted curiosities and nasties, many of which appear to have been invented so the director could use them to stretch the 3-D opportunities; although the Jabberwocky came to life originally in Lewis Carroll’s poem of nonsense: part of his novel Through the Looking-Glass.

Wonder, in the sense of meaning ‘to be uplifted’, was not a part of this shockingly vivid but primarily asinine experience. In Burton’s Wonderland, Mia Wasikowska’s Alice passes her endurance tests with an air of not ever quite ‘being there’. Perhaps she was over-directed but her declaration of female independence on returning back to the real world simply doesn’t tally.

On the way out, Clutter got talking to three women who might have stepped right out of the quirky cast. None of us knew who the ‘evil’ Knave of Hearts at the Red Queen’s side had been, but research says Crispin Glover. He oozed evil. Luvly bubbly, unlike the smoky essence of blue carburettor fumes that the Caterpillar, played with languorous detachment by Alan Rickman, breathed over everyone in the film.

Just imagine if you could smell everything!

By the way, to coincide with the theatrical release of Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, the 1972 version of Alice in Wonderland has just been re-released on DVD.

This stars Peter Sellers as the March Hare. Running around him in ever-decreasing circles are Michael Crawford as the White Rabbit, Dudley Moore as Dormouse. Spike Milligan, Sir Michael Hordern, and Sir Ralph Richardson also feature in the film and Fiona Fullerton plays Alice.

The release marks the centenary of Lewis Carroll’s completion of the Alice novels. The film provides a lavish, relatively faithful adaptation of the children’s story, and brings Sir John Tenniel’s enchanting illustrations to life.

DVD Barcode: 5060000403169
DVD RRP: £7.99
Release Date: 8 March 2010

Jared McNeill, Tunji Lucas and Abdou Ouologu

The essence of Peter Brook’s new play, 11 and 12, is the dispute over whether a certain Muslim prayer should be recited 11 or 12 times. It is based on the book Tierno Bokar by the African writer, Amadou Hampaté Bâ, and draws on vivid experiences from his own life.

Adapted by director Peter Brook in partnership with Marie-Hélène Estienne, 11 and 12 is a fresh, expanded version of the critically acclaimed play, Tierno Bokar. The original was performed in Warwick, using the French language, in 2005.

This new, English-language production by Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord plays at the Barbican, London, until 27th February before extending to an international tour. The cast includes Makram J. Khoury, Tunji Lucas, Antonio Gil Martinez*, Jared McNeill, Khalifa Natour, Abdou Ouologuem, César Sarachu* and Maximilien Seweryn. The music is created and performed by Toshi Tscuhitori.

Makram J Khoury as Tierno Bokar

Makram Khoury is compelling in the gentle way that he brings to life the Koranic teacher, Tierno Bokar. But all the actors in this production bring one to the realisation that there is theatre of a purely entertaining kind, and there is theatre of the kind that marks the mind.

In 11 and 12, the drama explores an extraordinary conflict in West Africa under French occupation. It shows the contradictions that can come about through religious interpretation and how radically these affect everyday life.  The play highlights the importance of living through religious conflicts with personal integrity. “What is God?” one character asks. “God is an embarrassment of the human mind,” responds another.

From my experience of Brook’s theatre in the 80s, I suspect that each theatrical performance is quite different to the last; one senses that there is both discipline and freedom in the way actors operate on the stage and off it.

What goes on behind the scenes is, perhaps, carried through under the lights: the sense of each player being aware of the space between him and others, for instance; the finely balanced  way they move around the stage; and the ability of two actors gaze steadily, unflinchingly into each other’s eyes. At any rate, I found the performance gave momentary opportunities to experience meditation in action: truly vivifying. Momentary, only because the quality of my attention flickers and fizzes.

At the outset of play, the setting for 11 and 12 appears sparse but – just as the desert does – it comes to life under the lights. Likewise, the very first impression of the cast in interaction is that every word and gesture has been pared down to what is essential. There is little chance for identification with any particular role: the actors morph from one character into another, as in Jared McNeill’s moment of high comedy when he reshapes clothing and parodies his mother.

An accidentally discovered phrase well describes the impressionistic way 11 and 12 works upon the mind. “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I will understand.”

In the moments that one can give full attention to the action and dialogue of 11 and 12, which is fast-moving and not over-amplified, the sense of separation from the stage is negligible.

Two men measure each other

On the night I attended, César Sarachu brought refined impact to various characters, not least as a dying man when his hand and arm, raised to the sky, stiffens into immobility. And the arm stays there until it is gently lowered, still rigid, by another actor.  Such attention is not summoned without sacrifice, as G.I. Gurdjieff might say. Another searcher for truth and meaning, akin to that of Tierno Bokar; an influence known also to Brook.

The question one is left tussling with after seeing 11 and 12 is the apt and yet very contradictory meaning of Bokar’s phrase: “My truth, your truth and the truth.”

There was a long pause at the end of the play. A moth danced in the empty space on stage, and we wondered later whether it was a deliberate device; nobody else appeared to see it. The actors walked back on stage together and the audience erupted in applause. They came back a second time, and Jared McNeill brought his hands together and clapped the audience.

Yes, 11 and 12 is challenging drama. It demands focus and tolerance from its audience and perhaps it gives you back exactly what you put into it…

*Antonio Gil Martinez takes César Sarachu’s place at the Barbican until 27th February.

http://www.barbican.org.uk/theatre