Misc.

Hello to you. 

Well now, and how is 2013 treating you all so far? I’ve been watching a LOT of telly, mainly due to the fact that I’ve got well back into the Gilmore Girls thanks to my mother’s Christmas present to herself of the complete boxset. Even though I’ve seen every episode at least 7 times (I jest not), it’s still like hopping into a cosy jumper or pulling on your bunny slippers and closing the curtains – comforting and funny and just a cracking good show. Although if you watch too much of it you start speaking really fast and drinking excessive amounts of coffee… Also I can now only ever hear my brother’s impression of Emily Gilmore saying ‘Looorelaaaiii’ (if you’ve seen it you will definitely know what I mean).

I also had a happy evening re-watching Angels in America (romance, philosophy, apocalyptic visions, Emma Thompson dressed as an angel and Meryl Streep dressed as a rabbi – what more could you want?), and yesterday I watched Lie With Me, an ITV drama from 2004 which I got off ebay for like a pound because it has Eve Best in it. It’s not a brilliant show, by any stretch – standard police/victim drama stuff, but at least the acting was good. Andrew Lincoln and Eve Best, good combination.

In more modern viewing, I’ve obviously been loving the new series of Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents on BBC3 – it makes me simultaneously quite want to go out on the lash, and never ever go clubbing again. Quite a feat. There have been quite a few poor innocents this series, sweet daft youths with no experience of the world and lots of boys used to being waited on by over-indulgent mamas, who end up bouncing around the gutters of Kavos or snoozing in A&E. I love that pretty much every family ends up telling their kids they’re proud of them no matter what hideous shit they’ve been up to, it’s oddly heartwarming. There’s only been one boy who has really repulsed me, who was totally unrepentant for his horrible behaviour to girls, and in the face of his parents’ genuine horror and disappointment tried to pass off his misogynist crap as “just how our generation speak to each other” – just hope he grows out of it eh.

One final nerdy TV high point was in a new episode of Glee, where a vision of high-school Rachel tells New York Rachel that she’s orange and has out of control hair. It was BRILLIANT because that’s basically what I’ve been shouting at my screen for the last few months and made me feel like old-school Glee was on my side. Yes I’m a dork.

I also popped in to see Les Mis the other week, after a hearty Nando’s where I nearly froze my head off thanks to a broken heater… got a free ‘chicken cheque’ after complaining though, score. Came home with mascara all over my jumper sleeves which is always a good sign of movie enjoyment I think. Winners of the film were: Eddie Redmayne (voice of an angel, face of an angel), Helena B-C and Ali G (hilario), and that kid who gets shot. Ooh and also Eponine, who apparently was the actress from the stage show. She was BRILLIANT. Less winning (I hesitate to say loser) was: the Crowe. Now I am NOT fussy about singing ability – one of my favourite film performances ever has to be Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia – but Russ seemed to be so busy concentrating on getting it out in tune that he neglected to like, act at all during the songs. Which form quite a large portion (aka all) of the film. He does look good in a hat though, to be totally fair. Anyway I would def watch it again, which is more than I thought I would say. 

New music-wise, I am completely obsessed with Ra Ra Riot’s new album Beta Love. It’s a bit of a break away from their two previous albums, bit more electronic and funky, but it’s a good direction (and obviously draws a bit more on some of the side stuff with Vampire Weekend as Discovery). Top tracks are Angel Please and Beta Love.

Book-wise (because I may as well update you on all the entertainment aspects of my life) I finished JK Rowling’s new one, The Casual Vacancy, on a rammed train journey back from the north with half a Scottish rugby team wedged in the aisle reading over my shoulder. I have always loved her writing style (simple, direct, engaging) so it was good to get back into that, and there are some striking character moments in it (she is good at writing teenagers, you can’t deny), but as a story it was a little bit… dull. Lots of characters, bit of a boring topic and kind of too long to be worth it. I hope she writes something else that’s a bit more cohesive and focussed next.

Booze news: As you know, I am a big fan of the Craft Beer Co in Brixton so I was stoked to discover the one in Angel last week too. This pretty much means that I can access a beardy ale or a deceptive 7% pear cider both near home AND near work! Nice work, world. *hic*

Combining both previous points, I have discovered (through Facebook) a cool tumblr page entitled Book and Beer, a regular update detailing the divine combination that is a good book and a good pint. In the spirit of this, here’s my offering for this week: A book about the sun and some Elbow beer.

I went for a Valentine’s jaunt on the river too this week thanks to my journalist pal, which was super fun. Free bubbly and chocolates on board a Thames Clipper, which zoomed us up to Tower Bridge and then back along to Canary Wharf. It was lovely to see London all lit up at night and stick my head over the edge of the boat into the wind like a gleeful dog. Very invigorating. And followed up by a stroll along the river made me realise how glad I am to be in this city for now. Hooray.

Coming up:

In order of importance, too cool to be chronological: FLEETWOOD MAC, MO’FOS! September 25^th, you cannot come too soon.

However some other pleasing bookings include:

Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall (my mum booked it ok)

The second instalment of the Coveryard in March

Harry Potter studios in April (This is probably the second best thing I will do all year, after the Mac)

OneRepublic at Shepherd’s Bush in April

Noah and the Whale at the Palace Theatre in May

The Mumford & Sons Lewes Stopover featuring Vampire Weekend and some others in July (QUITE excited about this one also)

Also @cakespeareuk has promised me a trip to each of the new RSC productions at the Globe so I’ll be getting my Shakespeare on bigstyle in 2013.

Yehaa.

Brixpig x

Twelfth Night

When: Tuesday 15th January

Where: Apollo Theatre

Why: My dear @cakespeareuk loves a man in a dress (and got up early to get us £10 day seats)

This all-male production of Twelfth Night totally rocked my socks. We got to the theatre early to watch the actors getting ready on stage – here Mark Rylance slapping his make-up on, there Stephen Fry getting his beard fiddled about with. It was a great start to the play and far from spoiling the magic it added to the feeling of authenticity and kind of emphasised the skill we were about to behold – like, you know full well you’ve just seen a modern man cramming a wig on his head, but as soon as the play starts for real it’s instantly a woman in front of you. Kind of showing off their mastery, really. And this play is such a good one to go all-male on, as it just mixes up the cross-dressing that drives the whole play and makes you understand Shakespeare’s preoccupation with it. It’s quite cool to be seeing a play performed by all men when you know that this is what it was written for and how it was always originally performed. And boy oh BOY did those boys do it well. Even the staging was original, with candle chandeliers dripping all over the actors, traditional (and luxuriant) costumes, and on-stage seating to mimic the Globe.

Sneaky stage photo

I have to go all out there and say that there was not a bad second in this production. I quite often get dozing off moments in Shakespeare (even in my beloved Much Ado, always when the fools are up), but there was none of that here. The silly, for-the-groundlings scenes with Sir Toby and Andrew Aguecheek and Maria were amongst the best, despite the scene where they plot Malvolio’s downfall bringing me violent sixth form speech and drama lesson flashbacks (“Go shake your ears!”). Roger Lloyd-Pack, skinny legged and mournful, stuck in a hedge after eavesdropping on Malvolio had me in hysterics, and Paul Chahidi’s mincing, comedy dame with a frankly astoundingly realistic cleavage was perfect as the catty and clever Maria and provided a great foil to the pompous Malvolio. Stephen Fry’s booming presence was hilarious during the picnic rug scene where he tries to seduce Olivia, but lacked a little bit of subtlety and true malevolence at the end when he swears to get his revenge – more petulant than menacing.

The true star turn was obviously Mark Rylance as Olivia, whom I had never seen but had heard gushing praise for from my flatmate and all other sources. His Olivia was flustered, full of tenderness and hesitance, passion and ridiculousness, gliding about the stage as if on casters. His doleful voice was absolute perfection and his performance seemed to transcend gender, if that doesn’t sound too stupid – you logically know it’s a male actor, and a female character, but almost it didn’t seem to matter what was going on in this performance – it was all about the character of Olivia. It was just masterful and I was suitably impressed.

The whole play was both hilarious and surprisingly romantic – the chemistry between Liam Brennan’s Orsino and Johnny Flynn’s Viola was palpable and engrossing, and their near kiss while Viola was still in her male guise was so convincingly done. Viola and Samuel Barnett’s Sebastian were beautifully played. The music and philosophical fooling provided by Peter Hamilton Dyer’s Feste were expert and moving, and he really tied up the play in its entirety, providing a constant thread in each scene and embodying the spirit of the play.

I’m so thrilled I got to see this production and am seriously crossing my fingers they release a DVD version (as with Much Ado) so that I can relive it.

Verdict: immense.

Brixpig x

Philip Pullman Panel

When: Wednesday 2nd January

Where: Olivier Theatre, National Theatre

Why: I loves me some fairy tales

Philip Pullman appeared at the National Theatre to do a little chat about his new book – a re-telling of some of Grimm’s fairy tales. I’d seen him give a lecture once before at Newcastle Uni, about story telling and his writing, and he’s a very captivating speaker. I always find him interesting because I like a lot of what he says about story telling and his matter-of-fact manner, but I don’t entirely agree with certain aspects of his thought about religion and literature (dissertation, yo). But he was great on the subject of fairy tales on this occasion, on the effect these stories have on children and their importance in the modern world and in defence of fairy tales as a type of fiction.

He spoke quite a lot about the process of writing the Grimm tales, and how his intention was not to create a poetic, imaginative version like Carol Ann Duffy or Angela Carter, but to be true to the original sense of the stories and to keep a rigid simplicity in the telling of them. His main aim was apparently to keep the writing “as clear as glass”, partly through simplicity and partly by viciously eliminating adverbs: “… just use a better verb”. Wise words. He also accompanies each story with notes on previous versions, its background and so on. 

Regarding the tales themselves, one thing which he had found very different to his usual style of writing was that the characters within fairy tales are often blank, almost cardboard cut-out figures to whom interesting things happen. There are no fully developed, deep personalities but rather the stories carry them along without delving particularly far into their motivations and history. This allows listeners to project their own ideas onto the characters, to picture them more clearly and allow their imagination to flourish. It’s sort of a two-way street – you hear the story from one end but contribute just as much back to it with your own imagination and additions to the characters. (I wonder what Pullman would think then of the new Hansel and Gretel film coming out which portrays the siblings fifteen years later, messed up and seeking revenge…).

Pullman also refused any illustrations in this version – to allow it all to appear in your head, as it should. This blankness of the characters also serves a protective purpose, to disconnect you from some of the horrifying scenes in these tales. This lets any young listeners engage with the scary aspects of the stories but also protects them a bit. One other example of this is that in many of the very first versions of some stories, we see a mother figure at the centre of things, but in revised tellings she becomes a step-mother – one step removed from true family, perhaps to make it easier to accept the awful things they do that you wouldn’t want a real mother to be capable of.

Some questions were taken at the end of the panel, and one which I found intriguing was a mother asking whether these stories were problematic in that they don’t offer a reflection of our world, in terms of justice. These tales are very black and white, moralistically, but we don’t live in a world as simple as that. Pullman’s response was that yes, we do also need the more realistic dramas to show how things really are, but it is the whole nature of a fairy tale to be black and white – if it is not, then it’s not a fairy tale. He argued that children do see things in terms of simple right or wrong and so deserve this kind of story too. I also think that at the time when these stories were told as folk tales, the world was just as unfair as it is now, and that these were told as a kind of comfort or a standard to uphold. 

When asked whether he disliked any of the stories, Pullman interestingly picked out a “too pious” tale which has overtly religious themes – where a father prays to the devil and cuts off his daughter’s hands in exchange for money. She goes away and suffers, then prays and gets her hands back. He saw this story as “stupid” and unfair, as there is no punishment mentioned for the father. It’s interesting that he focuses on retribution, as you could view it as a story of pure faith, based on what happens to the girl and her reward for a life of innocent suffering. But I get what he means. The dad sounds like a total knob.

His recommendations for further fairy tale reading included Italo Calvino’s fairy tales, and an old version by Catherine Briggs. He ended by considering the state of oral storytelling today and his sadness that it is a dying art, and urged people to see reading and writing as a gain but not a replacement for telling tales out loud.

The book is out now - it's on my list!

Brixpig x