Wartime drama, still life, and spiny fungus

This week began dramatically.  

"No man is a hero to his valet" Hegel allegedly said, yet there's always a strong relationship between the server and the served, and perhaps a mutual caring beyond the annoyances that constant close contact inevitably causes. The Dresser was written by Ronald Harwood, who held that role with Donald Wolfit for many years, and recounts a night in the life of bombastic ageing actor on a UK tour during the last war.  A new production at Theatre Royal Bath recreates the glamour and the perils of that fragile, defiant, era, with Matthew Kelly giving an impressive performance as 'Sir' and Julian Clary in the title role. (image: Alastair Muir)   

I've been a fan of Julian Clary since the days of Fanny the Wonder Dog, long before that 1993 fisting gag that led The Sun to claim moral outrage and demand him banned from TV - perhaps surprising from a newspaper which continued to promote naked mammaries for salacious enjoyment for a further  22 years - so I was looking forward to his interpretation of the title role. However, director Terry Johnson possibly decided against having two outrageous characters onstage at one time: while Sir ranted like Lear on the heath,  his dresser's performance was so muted it seemed almost like a rehearsal run-through. This revival, a co-production with Cheltenham Everyman will now tour, with dates already booked till February. 

This has been a particularly good week for wall art in Frome: the Gallery at the Station hosted Simply Still, Holly Brown's debut exhibition of paintings in both traditional oils and experimental use of natural pigments. This display space was converted from an old warehouse and worked superbly for Holly's lovely lucent images.

Twelve Frome artists are participating in Somerset Open Studios which started on Saturday and will run until 3rd October - definitely do pick up a brochure as this is a brilliant opportunity to talk to creatives about their process. Six of the studios at the Silk Mill are open, including Dan Morley whose mezzotint and painted still life images are exquisite: this is one of his 'little ritual' series.

The moving and powerful Portrayal of a Pandemic exhibition curated by Active and In Touch at Black Swan Gallery was extended for an extra week due to continuing interest (thankyou Frome Nub News for using my images to share this news), and David Thompson, winner of the poetry category, met up with the judge of this category Tina Gaisford-Waller, dynamic manager of Hunting Raven Books, at the gallery last week. David 's collection of poems,  Days of Dark and Light, is now published so he joins Pete Gage in the Hobnob Press hall of Frome's poetic fame. Frome Mayor Andy Wrintmore talks in the current edition of The Giant Pod to Pete about Fifty-Six Poems,  his recent collection - (thanks for the shout-out, guys!) - you can listen to the podcast interview here - and here's David discussing his winning poem with Tina. 

In music news: sadly, that exhilarating flurry of outdoor gigs allowed by the long mild evenings has dwindled as we trundle reluctantly into autumn, but with care and flow test kits, indoor options are now being explored. The Octopus Studio in Bruton was the venue for a memorial that was bittersweet but unforgettably brilliant, celebrating with sadness, love, and big talent, a recent loss from the local musician fraternity. I know that Chris read this blog, because we met up sometimes to talk about writing, but his big talent was music and Saturday night was a live music dancing party in his honour. Here's just two of the bands: Brue River, and The Johnsons. 

And finally: top walk of the week was a long prowl around Harridge Wood, about 10 miles from Frome and a stunningly beautiful area of dense foliage, streams, and cascades - bright with sinuous rills, as Coleridge might say. This area was apparently predominantly used for coal-mining for 500 years, from the 1300s onward, so among the overgrown relics of this industry are the 'bell pits' that medieval coal workers used, and the leats they created to carry water to power their shafts. Nature has reclaimed the abandoned areas, apart from some mid -20th century planting of coniferous trees for timber.  The whole area is now primarily a nature reserve, with a bat house, thriving bird life, and a thriving population of butterflies, birds, flowers, and fungi: my thrilling find, since apparently these are only rarely seen, was a spiny puffball, the size of my fist & dark brown - both indications of longevity.

The week when freedom arrived and nobody noticed

Starting, unusually, with a weather report: over 30°C all week until the dramatic storm in the early hours of Saturday morning. As I was born in a German air-raid over London, this seemed a very appropriate start for my birthday, although sadly other celebrations were either rained-off or plagued-off.  But the long hot days were perfect for walking along the river path, and the glorious evenings lovely for a sunset trip to Marston Park.

Friday's trip was a jaunt to Hauser & Wirth, where Green councillor and environmental activist Theo Simon was giving a short talk in the cloisters to chime with the impressive exhibition of works by Spanish pacifist & artist Eduardo Chillida. Theo's personal eco-activism started in '92, inspired by Swampy and the Twyford Down M3 protest: his tales of past action were entertaining but he reminded us that the situation now requires urgent mass direct action.  Theo's also the  songwriter/singer leader of Seize the Day and brought his djembe so his talk was top n tailed with a song. And then to the galleries and the magnificent garden! 

Returning again to the topic of my birthday, celebrations while small were perfectly spaced:  a trip to the cocktail bar with Eleanor Talbot, whose weekly online programme Variations on a Theme is always smorgasbord of tasty talk & tracks, and a garden get-together with two close friends. Sadly my family's visit had to be cancelled - a scenario that many in similar situations will recognise. 

An upbeat note to end this week: Frome's popular new Mayor Andy Wrintmore, featured weekly in the Frome Times, was interviewed by Kerrang under the banner “They kicked party politics out of town”: Spending the day with the punk rock mayor of Frome.

It's a good read, and a particular pleasure for Andy who for years avidly followed Kerrang - "The world's greatest metal / punk / hardcore / rock music publication." Andy's Giant Pod has a new edition too, and his latest Mayoral column in Frome Times (p.25) reflects powerfully on the serious loss to the town centre of the Co-op - and of course Andy is interviewed as a musician in Frome Unzipped - from Prehistory to Post-Punk (pages 186-188) which has it's own page here, with regular updates.

War, slavery, and sunshine as winter officially ends

'Pink Mist' sounds like a lipstick shade or a girly cocktail but for the troops in Afghanistan, it meant the fine spray of blood in the air when a soldier is blown to bits. It's the title of Owen Sheers' extraordinary drama of three young men who, inspired only by paucity of alternatives, go to war and are all terminally damaged. This was first staged at Bristol Old Vic in 2015, returning 2017 and is now available online here until 22 April. 

The play is a kind of surrealist mix of poetry and dance, with high-energy performance and dream-like intensity from a small cast and the interpreter always visible beside the action like a lamenting Cassandra - it's all powerfully effective. The script was inspired by interviews from returned servicemen and their families, which makes it all the more harrowing that none of the soldiers was inspired to enlist for any reason other than frustration with their life options in Bristol, and none gave any consideration at any time to the larger issues of national conflict.  This casebook study of three urban boys who deserved a better life - Arthur, Hads and Taff - shows the ripple effect on families and questions the values of the society we live in. You can read more about the cast and production here:  recommended viewing, if only to appreciate the emotional impact & scope of staged theatre. 

Bristol Old Vic has been providing drama in a variety of ways throughout lockdown, with this week's diversity including an audio play on Radio 3: The Meaning of Zong, directed by Tom Morris and written by Giles Terera, recreates with emotional intensity the true story of the slave ship which in 1781 dumped hundreds of black men and women overboard and successfully claimed insurance for their lost 'cargo'.  Moving between the historical court case with real-life figures of abolitionist Granville Sharp & Olaudah Equiano (Samuel West & and Giles Terera) and imagined mystical scenes from 1781,  it's sometimes difficult to follow, but the facts of the case are dreadful enough to grip the listener throughout.

Southampton's Art House on Saturday featured a zoom-adapted performance of Kevin King of Egypt, a bizarre tale created by poetry performer & psychiatric nurse Rob Gee - who Frome audiences will remember from his popular visits to Merlin Theatre for Poetry Platter events. Kevin has bipolar disorder and we meet him in a mood of strange elation as he decides to break out of the psychiatric ward and head for Egypt. All he needs is his passport and a run of luck, and it seems at times that he may achieve both, as he somehow acquires a policeman's wallet, a malleable taxi-driver, and a small girl called Millie. Kevin is an immensely sympathetic character, despite his extraordinary behaviour: the points he makes about social controls are insightful, and there's a lot that's really funny in this deceptively simple, very skilful, monologue.

A contrast in zoom mood now:  At the Coalface is the title and theme of Frome poet Rebecca Brewin's collection of poems published by Blurb Books: her online launch on Thursday was hosted by Mike Grenville with an introduction from Helen Moore and harp interludes from Vicki Burke. This evocation of mining and miners' lives merges with a mining of the poet's own history, and Rebecca uses the power of lists to summarise, define, and deepen the experiences she evokes. An impressive launch for a complex collection. 

And my tale of The Invisible Granny was Thursday's featured Storyopathy event from Kilter Theatre in collaboration with Clare Reddaway's A Word in Your Ear fiction sessions. Sadly I missed the link to Olly Langdon's reading but my pestering messages got me through the waiting room in time to hear Dr Olly's suggestion of retrouvaille as a key theme which, although his therapist persona is spoofy, I felt gratifyingly insightful.  After the audience dispersed, the page stayed open long enough for a big old catchup chat with friends who'd booked to hear my story of Izzy Quirk who had never been on holiday and what happened when she did. 

Time for another look at a couple of Frome's Podcasters: what's brilliant about these audial sessions is that they aren't time-sensitive so if you miss one you can catch up any time later, or binge on them box-set style. Eleanor Talbot, seen here with Jessie and some of her jewellery designs, hosts Variations on a Theme which this week covers the topic of cover songs. Is the original always the best - or even the best-known? Case in point is the 1982 hit written by Tears for Fears' co-founder Roland Orzabal for the band, but Gary Jules' more powerful cover of Mad World was a massive Christmas hit in 2003.

Andy Wrintmore's podcast guest couldn't be more appropriate in the week we heard Easthill Field has been saved from development by the support team's efforts to research the wildlife and prove its value as ancient meadow, as the Giant Pod with Julian Hight focuses on Frome's punk-rocking self-taught tree specialist. This informative & entertaining session covers a wide range of topics including tree communication, 'forest bathing' in benign pheromones, and protection activism as well as his travels and those great tree books. Andy has now also given the podcast treatment to musician Nick Wilton, another fascinating Frome personality - who I'm proud to say, like Julian - and Andy himself - featured in my book Frome Unzipped - from prehistory to post-punk. So it's good to know 4000 year-old trees and neo-punk are both still thriving in Frome.

And finally... another 'Best Place to Live' list in the Sunday Times, another win for Frome as top place in the south west. Illustrating their accolade with a photo of the rapidly-depleting shops of Catherine Hill, the Sunday Times summary may not delight all residents by its enthusiasm for "tasteful Farrow & Ball tones" as a primary reasons for selection. At £84-119.00 for a 5 litre pot, F&B elegance represents everything that many long-standing residents resent about the 'gentrification' of Frome. Luckily there's a lot more to love about our town, including the passionate interest in its past & present history, reflected by online groups like Frome History & Mystery,  Frome Local, Frome Wildlife Watch, and more. Where else, I wonder, would my photos of a bit of ruined aqueduct, from an aborted idea at the end of the 18th Century, attract 6,824 views on facebook in 3 days? Here's the entries, now blocked: my book Frome Unzipped (p92-93) recounts the sad story of the failed project to create a canal link to Frome, despite the extraordinary inventiveness of James Fussell, and I'm learning more from comments now - including the inevitable financial scandal... (thanks Patrick Moss).