Dancing with Death, and more cheerful things

"The Dance of Death is August Strindberg’s landmark drama about a marriage pushed to its limits," explains the promotion for the current production, adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewic, at Bath's Ustinov theatre. On a small island, an irrational tyrannical army captain controls his gloomy wife who regrets giving up her dramatic career, both snarling at the other but somehow feeding off this enough to survive. They are joined after a while by the wife's cousin but there’s no real shift in the unpleasant dynamic: it’s like Waiting for Godot without the subtlety or humour.  

Hilton McRae is powerful as the appalling husband; Lindsay Duncan as the appalling wife is more stagey, frittering sympathy by being generally annoying, while the cousin (Grainne Dromgoole) doesn't have much of a role except as a butt for their vindictive games. The set (by Grace Smart) is just that, a set. Changes  to the original play (the gender of the visitor, the repeatedly shouted expletives) seem repellent without resonance and the tone remains level throughout despite accelerating mini-dramas, with a sense of hopeless despair over the entire proceedings.  In short, this is a story of rage and recrimination, irreparably damaged relationships, mistrust and self-inflicted chaos. A story for our times.  photos Alex Brenner

It's always a pleasure and a privilege to be invited to join Eleanor Talbot on her weekly online programme Variations on a Theme and this week's upbeat show features the new-out poetry-&-pictures compilation from Caldew Press, words by me & Hazel Stewart and images from Mel Day. This image is her show's promo: us performing as Live & Lippy back in the day, and us on a weekend trip to Lille a couple of years ago, plus our book covers and launch promo. Her interview starts around 29 minutes into the show. As well as recording us reading some of her favourite solo pieces, Ellie has cleverly managed to create one of our shared poems - What's it like for you? - by splicing our recordings - and also included the soundtrack of one of the videos of us made by Howard Vause - you can view Onomatopoeia here, it's currently registering 8,910 views. Howard also made a great little vid of the poem that's (one of) the title(s) of this odd little volume - online here. It's one of my favourites. 

Black Swan Arts enjoyed a double opening on Friday, with Lucinda Burgess' exhibition On Repetition in the Long Gallery, and the Frome Creatives in the Round Tower.  Lucinda was a garden designer for many years and feels this has significantly informed her interest in materials that appear to change form, sometimes over time as with rusting metal, but also in different viewing conditions - as with poles viewed side-on.

 

In contrast to these thought-provoking large-scale pieces, the Frome Creatives have filled their exhibition area with a huge diversity of work of an extremely high standard - paintings and prints, photographs, ceramics, fabric creations and artefacts in every kind of media - a busy, friendly launch with much chat and bowls of chocolates. Postcards & cards available - recommended.

Music now, and a folksy vibe from Bama Mine from Bristol at Bar Lotte eon Wednesday. The monthly Independent Market survived, just about, the weekend rain, and provided some excellent performers on the Band Stage, including the trio Cura -who will be performing on this year's Farmfest. Sunday evening at The Cornerhouse put on its monthly jazz jam with the usual performers - here's Simon with singer Nicola Maskall, and Dave Wallace on bass.  

Ending this June medley with some out-and-about-this-week images: walking to Mells along the river, and a preview of three novels by Frome writers (to be featured later) displayed in Hunting Raven Books! 

and the roses in my garden. Just because...

May Day fun, frolics & failure...

So.. an odd thing happened just as I was about to post this update: the entire entry disappeared. So instead of an a thoughtful and possibly insightful review of last week, here - one day late -  is a slightly frantic summary: 

Music first, as Saturday night was the hotly-anticipated Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal event at the Cheese & Grain: five superb acts performing to a full & friendly audience, with opening and links from DJ Patmandu. Here's The Back Wood Redeemers who followed Henry Wacey, Back of the Bus, Mighty One, and The Raggedy Men -  all brilliant. A fantastic night of dancing with friends and listening to fabulous music from these great Frome performers.

Sunday was Independent Market day, followed by an afternoon session at Bar Lotte from the truly brilliant Rosco Shakes, with daylight giving a slightly better opportunity to catch a snap of this fabulous funk-blues band. From a laconic version of Ain't nobody's business but my own, to a rocking Kansas city here I come, the Rosco team delivers superbly in its own inimitable style, with Tim literally dancing as he speed-plays the keyboard. 

This was a great week for arts: Mark Brooke's provocative and unusual images of Melissa Stanton-Matthews were on show at the Station Gallery, where on Thursday Melissa also read some of the poems from their shared collection of art and words Meet Me Inside - a candid sharing of feelings about 'being human' in a world that values beauty above other attributes.  Melissa's intimate personal poems chime with the series of portraits Mark created to show the real woman beyond the perfect model, but Melissa is actually very beautiful.

Friday saw a plethora of exciting art show openings: Black Swan has some amazing work from Simon Hitchens, whose Beyond Body exhibition explores the connection between our experiences and those of inanimate matter like rock, to ask questions about our concept of experience: "what makes a being sentient? Is a mountain or stone a being?" Simon is fascinated, he explains, by 'the difference between the human and the non-human – what passes and what outlasts.”

Showing until 26 May and well worth a visit.

Over at the Whittox Gallery on the same night, another thought-provoking exhibition opened. Endangered tells an important story about the life cycle of eels in Britain where sadly they are now close to extinction. Julia Manning's beautiful wood and linocut prints chronicle their amazing journeys from birth in Somerset rivers to finally reaching the Sargasso Sea, and she has been working in schools to raise awareness and hopefully halt their decline. This fascinating and informative exhibition, which also includes some wildlife sketches by Nik Pollard, is showing until 25 June.

Finally in this splendid arty triumvirate of Friday night openings: the Art Fair at the Silk Mill & Bennett Centre was open throughout the weekend - a delightful throng of art and craft of every description. The quality of work by these local makers is fantastic, and their ingenuity is amazing too: Paul Juillerat's felted banners incorporating personal treasures, and esoteric art created from scrap by Matthew Sowter to name just two of the intriguing practices on display along with the paintings and high-quality craft work.

So Friday night in Frome was buzzing with arty vibes but unfortunately I'd booked to see Mark Thomas at the Rondo in Bath and missed all these openings, although did manage a full catch-up around the venues in Frome next day. Mark's lockdown shows had been funny and full-on political so I was hoping for some satisfying satire on the current state of the nation, but disappointingly his focus was on other issues, like having a row with the front rows and giving a  detailed description of his annoying aged mother's toenails, so I left at the interval to enjoy a stroll back through the city and a wait for the bus at Be At One, where barmen wear ear plugs but the vibe is always friendly. Here's Bladud in the Parade Gardens, from my afternoon stroll round the city.

And finally - I think, though I may have missed something as it was a busy week - the continuing benefit of lockdown for me has been Zoom, a portal to art talks and theatre performance when live visits were banned and this week a connection to two interesting meetings hosted by Penny Hay at Bath Spa School of Education, who talked with Liv Torc about the amazing work with the Hot Poets.

 Liv is passionate about poetry and about the urgency of need for awareness of our climate crisis: the Hot Poets project she's spearheading made such an impact at COP26 that the team have been invited to join the UN at COP27.  Liv talked fluently, and often funnily, about the contribution that poetry can make to essential awareness of issues, and about her own writing process: 'I look on it like sculpting a piece of clay - you have to work on it while its wet', she says. 

Later that day  Penny Hay also zoom-interviewed Mikey Please, recent recipient of a Bafta for his Aardman-developed animated film Robin Robin,  Mikey talked entertainingly about his own animations and the process with Aardman - surprisingly, it's so complicated that no retakes are possible meaning everything you see is the first take - and gave credit to all the team who worked on the project, including musicians Ben & Beth Please aka The Bookshop Band, and, especially pleasing for me, my writer/film-maker son Sam.

So there you are, that was the week that got wiped by my system, or at least the shreds remaining in my memory - with a final footnote which is also the reason there's no report here on the May Independent Market, as my morning was shared with 400 others forming a human chain around the Saxondale site currently under threat of cynical development. There's an alternative plan on offer which would benefit us all far more (you can view it here) and the Big Mayday Hug around the site will hopefully have shown how much support this one has, and the level of concern in Frome about the future of this area in the heart of the town.

Art & music, needed more than ever

March is the month we welcome back the Frome Independent, our massively popular monthly market for all things independently produced, whether they're to be eaten, drunk, worn, played with, or looked at admiringly. This first-Sunday-of-the-month initiative really is a great day out, even on a very cold one, with all the central streets of town crammed with stalls of amazing produce and a wonderful atmosphere.  Here's the main street with the busking stage and eatables: there's also craft on the hill and snack stalls everywhere. After the long months of home confinement, this Independent felt like a massive party.

As we shift slowly from winter to spring, the Silk Mill has an exhibition with a focus on Transient Phases. This features eleven artists who all work at the Bruce Munro studio at Long Knoll, and interpretations are fascinatingly varied: here's Louis Neale who curated the show, a 'forage' artist whose themes are always seasonal: his real passion is fungi, but during winter months the land offers only  bits of crockery thrown up after the harvesting - this is one of his recent works.

Still with visual art, there's a new exhibition in the Black Swan Long Gallery: A Duet of Lines features the very different linear art of Guy Watts and Daniel McGirr.  Guy is well known in Frome for his pen & ink images on prints & postcards, each taking months to complete: this one is 'The oldest Chinese tree in the world', an imagined bonsai designed to create a sense of tranquility. Daniel, from Bristol, works on a massive scale - this piece Late Lights fills a wall - and aims to change perceptions of art. 

Art going viral now: this was the weekend Window Wanderland took over the town for the fifth year, with scores of houses across the town creating illuminated window displays with coloured paper over one weekend in the darkest coldest time of the year. This 'magical walking trail to light up our streets' has become so popular there's no longer a single map of all participating buildings -you download the section of town you think you can cover in an evening! These displays are very varied and often really impressive, with many pleas for peace and love - there's a wonderful visual tribute to the artwork of Charles Rennie Mackintosh too. This incredible peacock display in a bay window in Sunnyside features blue and yellow in a wonderfully hopeful image of connection.

Music now: since restrictions on indoor performances were lifted there's been a performance renaissance in Frome's pubs but the farmyard stage of The Gugg arts centre in Stalbridge also continues to be popular. Friday's relaunch of Open Mic evenings saw diverse acts onstage, ranging from soloists to a lively septet (including me doing a bit of spoken word) Pizzas & a bar made this a great party night.

Back at the cinema again, this time for The Duke - a movie about a working-class socialist activist who pulled off a heist on the National Gallery, and holds a painting to ransom in protest at penalties on old people who can't afford a TV licence, and it's an actual true story, set in in early1960s London (my era, my stamping ground), with Jim Broadbent & Helen Mirren and to top it all, film-rating site Rotten Tomatoes critics ALL gave it the red-tomato of approval... altogether irresistible.  

The duke in question is Wellington, in a portrait by Goya for which the British Government in 1961 paid £140,000 (nearly 3 million in today's terms), a sum which incensed Kempton Bunton, a retired bus-driver & veteran who had already been imprisoned for refusing to pay for his TV licence. He tasked himself with a solo campaign on behalf of the nation's elderly, the climax of which was the theft of this portrait as a bargaining tool.  This is a gentle story; it's been likened to an Ealing comedy, but there are so many searing moments of historical reality, so much tender observation of absurdity, so much humour, and history, and brilliant acting, which all combine to make it much more than that. Check out the promo video here: Roger Michell’s final feature film was designed to make you both laugh and cry, and it will. 

I'm ending this week's 'arts' report in a town where people are free to create and connect - there was a Kindness Festival, too, this week, to "appreciate and celebrate the kindness that already exists in Frome" - at a time we've all been reminded that this is not as normal for a community as it should be, with an image that appeared on Facebook uncredited. Even in desolation, art can bring hope. 

It starts earlier each year... a blogful of festive goodies...

Even in a week crammed with sparkly-season specials, Wednesday evening at Bar Lotte is always a highlight: this week the fabulous Rosco Shakes gave us jazzy blues with great bass from Josh, Ned's amazing drum/vocals combo, Tim sensational on keyboard and Steve on 'sax that gets you eating your knuckles', to quote my companion... unsurprisingly there was dancing before the evening was over. 

And live music ushered in a weekend of festive art markets - here's The Decades at Black Swan Arts' brilliant Makers Market on Friday night, with masses of brilliant craft stalls & a late night cafe too. 

How nice to have a funky festive market crammed with works by local artists, you may think - but this is Frome: in the same weekend we also enjoyed an amazing art fair at the Silk Mill, Midwinter Joyant in Keyford, a Christmas Gift Market at the Cheese & Grain, and a Makers Market in Lower Keyford with mulled wine under tiny glittering lights... and then it was Sunday, time for our nationally acclaimed Frome Independent - market, that is - selling absolutely everything edible, drinkable, wearable, displayable, and above all giveable... if you didn't solve all your present problems there then either you weren't trying or you found too much you wanted to keep yourself.

As there were far too many intriguing & beautiful items to decide which images to include here, this pic is from outside Hunting Raven Books, where Julian Hight was selling his fantastic books of trees around the world.  Which also leads me nicely on to the most unusual book launch I've ever attended: Frome legend Tony Bennett (we have a lot of local legends, you may have noticed) selling his illustrated life story at the Sun Inn, with queues extending outside the door to grab a signed copy of life as fully lived by this truly iconic Fromie - notorious as an award-winning florist as well as for leaping from a blazing bedroom after a bedtime cigarette set his house on fire. Here's Tony signing my copy of He Can When He Will - and he remembered my name. Now that IS fame.

And speaking of Frome's quirky creatives, we also have our own festive Dismaland-alike: Santa's Grotty, the inspired creation of artist and political satirist Kate Talbot, a grim experience of phoney good cheer amid dangling covid microbes, which is entered via Kate's notorious shop Hung Drawn Quoted.  Here's a glimpse of one of the exhibits, though sadly I'm not allowed to give away any of the outrageous lifesize caricatures...  The £5 entry price goes to Fair Frome.

Still with a festive focus, but more cheery and moving out of town now:   

I've been a devotee (which is the posh word for besotted fan) of Stephen Mangan since Episodes, in my view one of the cleverest TV comedy series ever - and he's now taking the lead role in A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic so, since the window for safe travel before winter may soon narrow, this week seemed a good opportunity to scoot up to London and see it.  I haven't visited this venue since leaving London in my late teens - previously I went regularly with my father, dramatic critic HG Matthews, or else on my own, paying 2/- 'on spec' at the door for any seat still available - so it wasn't surprising to find the theatre much changed. Matthew Warchus, the current artistic director, has aimed for an atmosphere audiences will find "accessible, inclusive, and informal", which turns out to mean with friendly attentive staff, lots of loos, and - for this production anyway - a free mincepie on arrival. 

The performance area of my memory,  where I watched a young Judy Dench throwing a tantrum in Franco Zefferelli's unforgettable production of Romeo & Juliet, is now part of the auditorium, and actors used a kind of central corridor between the aisles to perform their high-energy, immersive version of Charles Dickens' tale of a skinflint visited by 'ghosts' that bring remorse and radical life change. 

A Christmas Carol has become as deeply identified with seasonal celebrations as carols themselves - there are 12 in this show - and this is the fifth winter that the Vic has featured this production.  Programme notes identify 'rage, determination and a fiery compassion' as Dickens' motivations, and these would have been inspired in part by his own painful childhood. This Scrooge is never too afraid of the ghosts to argue, but he is moved to tears by his memories. The nightmare aspects of the tale are vivid, but it's a feel-good show too, with a running thread of love and the possibility of new hope, enhanced by the hundreds of tiny lanterns dangling above the storytelling, and the visual surprises.

Ending with exciting news - for me, anyway, and for my erstwhile 'Live & Lippy' performance-poetry partner Hazel Stewart, now living in Cumbria. We revived our lyrical connection during lockdown via zoom, and put together a package of old & new pieces which, to our delight, has now been taken by Caldew Press - here's editor Phil Hewitson zoom-chatting about options, and showing us his upcoming publication of John Hegley's poems about Keats.  So, in this illustrious company, our double-album-on-page of performance poetry pieces What's it Like for You? and Dance for Those Who'd Rather Not will be out early next year! 

Vibrant art & music as autumn starts to fade

It's been a vivid week for visuals: Frome's town centre, already a half-way to a Dickensian Christmas filmset with its cobbles and overhangs, is beginning to sparkle in anticipation of solstice celebrations, and a brilliant exhibition at Black Swan Round Tower gallery is reminding us how art makes a great gift... not just paintings here but wonderful ceramics and garments. Friday night's opening of Together Again, an exhibition by Old Bakery Artists was crammed with superb work, all very well displayed, and with many of the artists themselves present. Cleverly curated to show all the work to advantage despite the sometimes-tricky circular space, this was full of vivid colour and varied textures - Here's surrealist painter Caroline Walsh-Waring with some of her work, and a young visitor admiring the knitted fertility deities on display. 

Another opening on the same night at the WHY gallery displayed some of the immaculate and extraordinary engravings by Chris Pig, who I met outside discussing his work with some of his fans.  His exhibition, Fancy Goods, wasn't so easy to photograph in situ, but you can see one of these impressive works here - an immaculate and tender glimpse of a moment in time in a barbers' shop.

Music has been impactful too, with jazz, funk, and 'twisted blues and religious fervour' enlivening the gathering gloom of late November.  Rosco Shakes brought their upbeat jazz style to Bar Lotte on Wednesday, this time with a different line-up: Steve on sax, Josh on bass, Ned on drums and vocals and guitarist Paul who scan wing his guitar over his head and plays it on his back... whoever said jazz musicians are snobs?

And on Saturday, 23 Bath Street opened its stage for a fundraiser for Fair Frome, an independent community service providing support for the most vulnerable in our community, for whatever reason. This charity is based at the Town Hall and provides a wide range of vital services, especially in the winter.  Two popular local bands played live: Unit 4, a newish funk quartet fielding vocalist Mark with David on guitar, Danny on bass & Pat on drums.  The Back Wood Redeemers followed, with their six-piece band giving a theatrical performance of their of gospel/rock favourites. Dancing ensued, some of it on stage.

Finally: the changing colours of leaves seemed even more vibrant than usual this year but the strong winds brought masses of them down creating rich carpets on our pavements but stripping trees naked. It looked like maybe a little too late for my walk from Heavens Gate to Shearwater on Sunday, but by the lake the trees were still russet and gold: here's my favourite shot. 

The cafe edition - short, but with an otter.

The  Barrel House Ballroom in Totnes has been home to the Word Cafe created & run by Julie Mullen since 2019, and on Thursday Julie introduced a 30-minute film of poetry and music from local poets and performers which hopefully will stay on YouTube because it's delightful. Beautifully filmed in a variety of enticing local locations (cinematography by Chris Plant) this features poetry and music by local creatives, including Matt Harvey, with an acrostic about Totnes to compensate for his recent move to Dartington, and Brian Patten, still ruggedly scouse. Brian Patten was one of my poetry heroes - the title my published collection Crumbs from a Spinning World is derived from one of his poems - and his book launches unmissable, a fact I confided to him after his eighth, Storm Damage, and received the sighed reply 'Yes, we're all getting old.'  That was back in 1995. Here he is now, and here too is Susie David reciting her poem The Sea Calls.

Back in Frome, Black Swan Arts is preparing to reopen its gallery and the cafe reopened on Friday as the River House Cafe relocated - lock, stock, and staff - from its popular but cramped location on the bridge to the spacier premises - with courtyard seating too - of the Black Swan building. It's another upward step for this 17th Century alehouse, nearly demolished in 1974 until rescued & reopened in 1986 as an arts centre. Here's me looking very happy to join the queue on the official opening day. Thanks Emma Warren for the snap! 

Also in Frome: Our last couple of weeks' sunshine has coaxed the swirling mudscape beside the river bank to regain its role as a path, thus widening the range of rambles available in town and beyond. Frome's online Wildlife Watch group, a treasure trove of birds, butterflies, and recently beavers,  been getting excited about otters, and I was lucky enough to spot this sleek-headed little guy in the exquisite garden of Marston Mill on the Mells River after a writing group meeting. 

Drama has been coming at us from all sorts of places since our theatres, initially muted apart from pleas for donations, have regrouped and come back with online options and now National Theatre has premiered their Romeo and Juliet on the telly - Sky Arts on Sunday night. Directed by Simon Godwin and commendably contracted to 90 minutes, this pandemic production of Shakespeare's violent love story becomes a timeless tale of families and passions. Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley are the lovers, but it's Tamsin Greig as Juliet's powerful mother who stands out in a production that changes relationships and scythes speeches but creates the constraints of family dynamics and social controls in a fantastic, and memorable, way. Look out for repeats.

This blog, or rather this blogger, is determined to chicane through our present Troubles, as the Irish so eloquently delineate stuff too big to name, without discussing either of them, nor the western religious calendar,  so this spring holiday bulletin will conclude with a 'poem for today' as chosen by Poem for the Day (1) ed. Wendy Cope which is by Maya Angelou: Still I Rise was written 1978 and is shockingly still relevant, read it and weep. More cheerful is the other choice for today, from Poem for the Day (2) ed. Andrew Motion, which is Adrian Mitchell's ditty to Celia: 

When I am sad and weary
When I think all hope has gone
When I walk along High Holborn
I think of you with nothing on

They later married & lived happily ever after, which shows there's more than one way to look at Easter.