In 1980, “Fame” appeared on our cinema screens, conceived by producer David De Silva and directed by Alan Parker. Set in the High School of Performing Arts in New York City, it was a superb movie that portrayed the lives of the students and teachers at the school. It had superb three-dimensional characters, exuberant dance…
Joe Orton’s The Ruffian On The Stair was originally a radio play first broadcast on the BBC Home Service in August 1964 and based on a novel The Boy Hairdresser which was written by Orton and his partner (and his murderer), Kenneth Halliwell. The title is taken from a poem by William Ernest Henley: “Madam…
A man lies very still in a hospital bed. Two angels in miniskirts and high-heeled boots with feathered wings walk about the stage. A man at a desk scribbles nonsense on a pad with an enormous pen. A woman in a ballgown sits in a chair and twitches. Another woman stands holding two canes that…
There’s a BBC Radio 4 programme called “I’ve Never Seen Star Wars” where celebrities tell presenter Marcus Brigstocke (currently starring as Barnum at The Menier), about the things they’ve surprisingly never done. Well I’m not a celebrity but if invited on, I could tell Marcus that in the thirty plus years it’s been around, I’ve…
Queen Anne, a new play from Helen Edmundson tells the story of the relationship between the Queen and Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough from the time Anne becomes Queen on the death of William III in 1702 to the point when that relationship ends. It encompasses Anne’s political alliance with the Speaker of the Commons,…
I was once taken out to dinner at a well-known restaurant in London. The menu was a work of art with each item described in gushing, descriptive prose going into minute detail about the ingredients and the way it was cooked. By the time I had finished reading it, my taste buds were tingling and…
