The fusion edition: science & literature, and life

Copenhagen has had a troubled journey to the main stage of Theatre Royal Bath. Originally scheduled for November 2020,  delayed till January this year and then postponed by further lockdown, Michael Frayn's forensic analysis of the troubled relationship between two wartime physicists has finally arrived on the main stage with a different director - Emma Howlett taking over from Polly Findlay. Current restrictions on spacing and requirement for masks were scrupulously observed throughout - an important aspect for the continuation of live theatre. Perhaps because of this reminder of societal controls, the play, although set firmly in 1941, seemed to evoke relevance to life today in its suspicions, uncertainties, and irrational blaming.  There was no social media then of course, but the whispering anxieties, reappraisals and retellings all seemed to chime with the information chaos we live with now.

It's a known fact that the German physicist Werner Heisenberg met his old mentor, the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, again in Copenhagen 1941, but the nature of the argument they had that night has continued into history unsolved. Michael Frayn has spun from this a trio of options, part historical surmise, part psychological guesswork. Nothing is clarified, yet there's an uncomfortable feeling that Bohr's protege may have deliberately blocked the Nazis' attempt to build an atomic bomb while his mentor, while taking the moral high ground, had supported the work that led to its deadly creation. Philip Arditti and Malcolm Sinclair are great as angry physicists yet irresistible friends, with Haydn Gwynne as Bohr's wife, whose role is to shadow her husband's perplexity. We first meet them all deceased and still baffled, and the insoluble introspections of these two scientists mighty minds prowl the massive space between them, emphasised by Alex Eales' bleak set with an enormous white circle above them shifting like a magnifying glass over their protestations.  Photos Nobby Clark

Another dramatic take on science on Wednesday, as FromeDrama at Merlin Theatre explored the interface between Quantum theory, string theory, relativity, and human emotions. Constellations, by Nick Payne, presents a volley of short interactions between a man (Ben Hardy-Philips) and a woman (Stephanie Mitchell) who don't know/know & love each other, have/haven't been unfaithful, and are dealing with terminal illness/recovery. Here's when Roland admits his love for Marianne, though in another reality this wouldn't have happened. Slickly directed by Andy Cork, with stunning sound (Laurence Parnell) and lighting (Matt Tipper), this production effectively dramatised intriguing questions about life choices, free will, and options for change.  This play, even more than Copenhagen, shows what a long way theatre drama has come since the contentious division between science and literature that shadowed the 1950s, summed up by C P Snow in The Two Cultures. It's a long time since stage drama was considered cosy, even though it was 1965 before Ken Tynan said the first-ever 'fuck' on TV.

It's been a week of fabulous long hot days - until the weekend, sadly - and the gorgeous sunshine allowed me several long walks locally: one to Orchardleigh on a quest for waterlilies on the lake, finding instead woodlands full of birdsong, wild life including baby squirrels, and fields full of sheep and wild flowers including my first orchid this year. 

Both of my writers' group meetings have thrived too: the Fromesbury Group celebrated our late-afternoon meeting in the park with Portuguese custard tarts and a selfie (thanks Debs)

Still on a writerly theme, Frome's famous independent book emporium Hunting Raven is up for another award, nominated as Best Bookshop in the Southwest (Dorset & Somerset to be precise) by Muddy Stilettos - you can click to add your vote. Tina Gaysford-Waller, the Raven's inspiring manager, was also featured in the Big Issue 'Spirit of Independence' issue this week, celebrating the national Independent Bookshop Week, although this had passed rather unnoticed here since every week is independent bookshop week...

It's also been a week of disappointment - expected but still sad, as the Cornerhouse had to cancel several sensational bands in Frome Festival next month. Fortunately most of the programme remains intact: Merlin Theatre will mainly use ECOS amphitheatre, which will have a cover over the stage. This extraordinary construction was, ironically, created to celebrate the UK joining the European Union: you can read its story on the Merlin website - or indeed in my book Frome Unzipped.  The Poetry Cafe will be held there on July 6th, with Liv Torc our fabulous guest - you can hear me extolling her on Frome FM here, starting at 16.14 minutes in.

A blast of music to end the week, as Ruzz Guitar's Blues Revue, twice-postponed, finally landed in the Cheese & Grain on Saturday night, playing blues classics with sensational style. Guest Pete Gage on keyboard & vocals took the first hour with Ritchie Blake on bass, joined by Ruzz for some numbers - video taster here. Social distancing ruled out dancing but there was a great atmosphere throughout the evening and I managed to grab a couple of photos - here's Pete & Ruzz playing their version of Ain't Nobody's Business (the video is a lockdown version, the live vibe was terrific.)

And although advance booking doesn't really suit convivial Cornerhouse, it has enabled Graham Dent to bring back jazz on Sunday evening - with Adrian Smith on double bass and bass guitar. Graham (keyboard) and Adrian have recorded a lockdown double album titled Inspiring Detour, and their live performance showcased some of their album tracks - Dat Dere by Bobby Timmons is one. Here's the duo sharing space with the new pub decor.

Wild wuthering, wanton women, & war's shadow

Dramatic highlight this week from Publick Transport at Bristol's Wardrobe Theatre with We Are Brontë, and Sarah Corbett and Angus Barr keeping the promise of their promo: 'anarchic comedy, deconstructing not only gothic themes of love, madness and revenge' in their portrayal of the real and imagined world of Charlotte, Anne, Emily and Bronwin. I did literally ache with laughter, a rare experience in these troubled times - trailer here.  The duo's impressive physical theatre skills overlay a subtext of confusion over stories, plots, and characters, in which the audience are invited to collude - some of the funniest moments came in the impro interruptions when Angus anxiously checks whether we're following while Sarah rolls her expressive eyes whispering hopefully 'we don't want to spell it out...'  Have they read any the books? 'You can find a lot on Youtube' Angus counters defensively.

Frolicking fantasies in Frome too, as Hat Tricks brought a pick'n'mix of wild imaginings to the Three Swans: words - including comedy, poetry, dramatic monologue & story-telling - and music - including songs traditional & original, acapella or accompanied, synthesised, or with haunting harp: an evening of amazing diversity and quality, compered and curated by Jane Flood and David Tanner, who have promised they will do it again next year, so look out for that! Here's Jane & David, and me doing one of me crone poems to a delightfully supportive audience. Thanks Mark Brookes for the snap.

Further literary frolics on Saturday, and the longest meal you can imagine - of 18th century duration in fact. It's 300 years since the alleged birth of Tristram Shandy, the garrulously rambling raconteur conceived by Laurence Sterne, and possibly-his-biggest fan lives in Frome: hence an extraordinary lunch party at 'Shandy Hall' - authentic courses, all punctuated with dramatic reenactions of crucial moments in the narrative.
Most of us managed to find our inner Georgian - in my case something of a strumpet, I fear - this is me, with Suzy Howlett as Mrs Shandy with her forceps-damaged babe about to start his journey in the unsuspecting world. (thanks Neil Howlett) Such was the attention to detail in the immaculate preparations of our host that as well as costumed musicians, we were also treated to short lectures on the historical context from experts in their field - the brutal unreliability of early forceps deconstructed prior to potted shrimps, neurological trauma in the homunculus just before the syllabubs, and the fascinating story of Joshua Reyold's portrait of Sterne, the only one known, mysteriously never sold. My personal contribution was a spurious connection between Frome and the novel, undertaken in appropriately picaresque manner and I'm most appreciative of the attention generously given to this footnote on our long journey through time & times.

Sunday started on a similarly luxurious note with Frome Chocolate Festival, filling Cheese & Grain with sensuous aromas and delicious samples of products carefully sourced by organiser Jo Harrington, all fairly traded and top quality as well as and irresistible.
It's a real family event, with activities for children and a party atmosphere. Here's Kisihi on the Pure Raw Chocolate stall - their rose flavour tastes like turkish delight - and Chocolate Arthouse even sold chocolate shoes...
A very different mood in the afternoon for a Poetry in Motion event led by author Ed Green in memory of his great-uncle Allen, who a hundred years ago was conscripted to leave his farm in Chesterblade to join the fight in France. Ed recently published It Leaves Me The Same, which was the sign-off, hopeful of good health, used by his great-uncle on his letters home, and Ed read from these letters as we walked around the landscape his great uncle never saw again, supplemented by WWI poems selected by John Payne, with Martin Bax & I as readers. Superb landscape made this walk even more unforgettable: from the highest point, the iron age fort believed to part of the St Michaels leyline from Glastonbury to Frome, you can look down at the little village of Chesterblade where our walk begins and ends, and then gaze around an awesome 360º, identifying outlines of Cley Hill, King Alfred's Tower, Glastonbury Tor,  Priddy mast, and Cranmore Tower. 

Our group of around 18 concluded the walk in Chesterblade's little chapel, crouched under massive yew trees painted orange by the setting sun, and all went up to the farm house for tea and chocolate biscuits.


Musical finale this week: here's Scots folk singer Siobhan Miller at Cooper Hall, with ballads ranging from traditional to original, and Canadian saxophonist Terry Quinney
guesting with Graham Dent Trio at the Cornerhouse on Sunday - really enjoyed their take on Charlie Parker's Ornithology...
 And as these lovely mild days fade in a flurry of cold weather warnings, here's Stourhead lake in the mist on Thursday.

Candid Shakespeare, fine art, and spectacular music

Pip Utton, Frome's favourite one-man-showman, has re-presented himself in iconic roles from Hitler and Churchill to Charles Dickens and Charlie Chapman and is now offering another intimate insight in At Home With Shakespeare. In role as the Stratford theatre-manager/playwright, he makes masterly use of that you-do-but-dream  conceit much favoured by the bard himself: this is Shakespeare in 2018, as amused by our misconceptions as delighted by our awe at his words, dreaming his past loves and jealousies even as we dream his presence in our theatre. He teases the audience with quotes, some not even his own, and the intriguing suggestion that his plays were all workshopped with the cast and their impro words then combined, he takes us vividly into the noisy, bawdy, noisy, world of Elizabethan theatre. It's a hugely entertaining performance as well as intriguingly informative, although not all the theories propounded are incontestable, and, to be picky, Shakespeare's neologisms are nowhere near so numerous, and there were chiming clocks in Italy from 14th Century, so impatient Juliet could well have heard one strike nine... But hey, who's counting?

The Black Arts Open Exhibition is now in the Long Gallery, and this year the selection has been well received: it's varied and thought-provoking but every piece has some interest or appeal - in fact doing what a gallery for the community does best. From the precise beauty of small things meticulously painted by Dan Morley to Marian Bruce's dangling mobile of wild wailing faces, there's much to intrigue and ponder on, with several figurative pieces too, like this portrait of her daughter by Kay Lewis Bell.I'd seen this at Shave Farm during last year's Somerset Arts Week, and it was great see it again with the red 'winner' label -among other accessible choices by the judges, one of whom this year was Michael Eavis.
Our Words at the Black Swan workshop on Monday was led by Mike Grenville who encouraged us to consider the entire exhibition as if deciphering its messages from a time in the future... (you can see some of the outcomes here.)

As temperatures plummet and clocks are set to winter, Frome appeared to treat itself to a little music festival. We enjoyed several international visitors: South African Nibs Van Der Spuy at the Grain Bar Roots Session with an excellent set including a moving tribute to Nelson Mandela, and delightful duo Hope Country along with Luke Philbrick and Hannah Scott guested at the Sofar session (Hope is in Wisconsin, where they aren't big on geography, apparently, as the lads' tour was mapped on a tee-shirt image of the UK with Scotland shrivelled and N. Ireland vaporised, which might help Brexit negotiations but would pose issues for the 1.9 million population.) Our Sunday Jazz Club this week featured Bosonova rhythms with the gypsy violin and sultry voice of Azhaar Saffar. Paul Kirtley gathered a posse of local musicians together on Thursday as  'Bare to the Bones' charity event at The Artisan,for a lively jam session of folk/rock/ blues favourites plus some original songs - including Paul's Crones of Avalon with me performing the poem that inspired it. Popular Three Corners were the Saturday night band at The Cornerhouse, another big line-up with a large following, and next afternoon when two favourite Frome bands played at the Three Horseshoes in Bradford on Avon, most of Frome seemed to follow them. The awesome Raggedy Men gave us a stonking set of classic punk tracks, followed by The Back Wood Redeemers' dark revivalists songs of pioneering America, in the Stygian gloom of a cavern-like room where swirling dust glinted gold in the sunlight every time the door opened - wonderful atmosphere and terrific music. So that's four solo performers, a duo, a quartet, a sextet, an octet, and a jam session varying from three to a dozen - all in six days...  Keep it up, Frome, it's fabulous.

Women in costume in love - with music, of course

Shakespeare in Love could be subtitled Shall I compare thee to a saucy rom-com, witty satire, or bardic farce? but whichever you choose it's a total delight. Based on the movie screenplay by Tom Stoppard & Marc Norman, this Lee Hall adaptation for stage at Theatre Royal Bath has a massive cast of superlative actors in terrific costumes in a high-energy romp which is also crammed with allusions to Shakespeare's plays, his life & times, and even to later legends (did Marlow really write all the best lines?) - but you don't need to pick up on any of the references to thoroughly enjoy the show. Designer Max Jones used the circular stage to terrific effect with a set comprising basically no more than a balcony to evoke Romeo's classic love scene, which somehow created pubs, castles, theatres, and even dockland - and the fights were fantastic. Pierro Niel-Mee as Will and Imogen Daines as Viola-aka-Juliet made a lovely couple, Edmund Kingsley was a marvellous Marlow and Geraldine Alexander's imperious Queen added a wicked touch of BlackAdder ("Tragedy is all very well but we very much like a dog") - and every role was well played under Philip Breen's well-paced direction. Highly recommended, on till 13 October then touring the UK ~  images Pete le May

It's easy to forget these days that a mere hundred years ago, the women who campaigned for voting rights were seen by most of the rest of the English population rather like the IRA were in the 70s: violent extremists causing havoc for no justifiable cause. ‘What we’re dealing with here is a lunatic fringe of frigid women’ declares one of the posse of Typical Men at the start of Her Naked Skin at Salisbury Playhouse, Rebecca Lenkiewicz's play set in - and largely about - the early days of the Suffragette Movement. Since their early days of polite propaganda, women had become tired of being ignored & disdained and had embarked on a more violent policy, attacking property & assaulting policemen, starting fires & storming parliament... and then there was the Derby death leap, a decisive moment in the history of women's suffrage which provides the opening of the play.

Lesbianism was the other frequent explanation for their behaviour, as women found genuine camaraderie and intimacy across social classes: that too is an aspect explored in this drama, but the most unforgettable scenes for me were the reconstructions of the treatment of imprisoned women. In one shocking scene we see what force-feeding actually involved, the horrifying brutality paradoxically presented in a strangely beautiful tableaux as a pyramid of men grip the girl so that one nurse, standing aloft like an angel, can pour egg-mix down the long tube forced through her nose all the way to her stomach. Direction is by Gareth Machin, with a strong team of professionals playing the key roles and excellent support from community actors as their protesting supporters.  The number of short scenes in different locations created difficulties in maintaining connection with the action which were not entirely solved by a swiftly revolving stage and quick-drop sets, but this excellent production is really worth seeing. Abigail Cruttenden takes the central role of Celia, but watch out too for naive Eve (Lorna Fitzgerald) defiant Florence (Jane How) and understandably frustrated William (Robert Hands) Showing till 20 October.

On to music now:  Friday night's treat was local blues band Nasty Habits playing in the City Arms in Wells as storm Callum lashed. It's a pleasant pub and their set had a great response, though last time I was in Wells was for the anniversary screening of Hot Fuzz and it was difficult not to feel the regulars were all part of the NWA plotting for the greater good in the smokers' garden outside...

Saturday saw the massively-anticipated return of the Back Wood Redeemers to Frome's Cornerhouse music pub for an evening of  flamboyant theatricality and much dancing. This awedome 8-piece band always dresses in unique style for their gigs, combining superb musical skills with high energy impact and a big splash of dark humour. Unmissable.
On Sunday the tempo at the pub changes for the early evening jazz session: Keith Harrison-Broninski trio performed with Rosanna Schura and Nathan Mansfield - a lovely melodic round-off to the week. Sunday should have also featured a trip to Cranmore Tower for our 'Poetry Walk' on the theme of autumn, organised by John Payne and Martin Bax, but Storm Callum kicked that one off the schedule by lashing up a mudbath on the paths we planned to use. So here instead is a picture from a walk on Saturday around Stourhead, which for some strange reason maintained serene sunshine the entire afternoon.

Frome on the UP in a week of solid sunshine

Summer has arrived at last, just in time for solstice and for a series of al fresco activities that would probably put Frome in the Guinness Book of Records if there was a category for street celebrations.
Saturday was the Word Up festival, with lively workshops on word-related activities, free to all, throughout the town centre including an inspiring all-age graffiti session from Tom Sturgess in the Cheese & Grain yard (my favourite picture of the entire exciting day, this one ) while within the Grain Bar there was an all-day live music event called 'I Knew Frank Turner Before He Was Famous' with excellent local musicians like Phil Cooper entertaining the cafe's unsuspecting customers.


And as the sun continued to glitter throughout a long evening, Catherine Hill snatched the UP tag and ran with the St Catherine's Summer Festival Pop-Up party... a bit like the Sunday Independent but without the commercial thrust, and with straw bales to sit on with your Aperol spritz and Rye Bakery pizza slice.

The cobbles on Catherine Hill were familiar with evening footfall by then, as the opening on Friday of L'Aperitivo, a new bar at the top of the hill, attracted the size of crowd you would expect on a scandalously sunny evening when drinks and antipasto are free and there's cake too! Congratulations Gabriel, Matt and Chris on a wonderful launch party.
 And to round off Saturday evening, the second garden party of the week (the first was the finale of a challenging creative day in the wonderful surroundings of Cooper Hall) and also in a luscious setting: a Sweet Summer Night's Dream of music, poetry and Indian thali, in the magnificent tiered grounds of the Merchant's House until the light finally faded - as choreographed by Liam Parker who hosts these seasonal events in his family home.

Musical performance segues nicely into this week's music sessions - or at least those I've seen, though there were more: much dancing as The Boot Hill All Stars at 23 Bath Street on Thursday delivered their promised 'banjo music fast, filthy and with more than a little cleavage',  while more sedately the Sofar mystery tour arrived at the Round Tower on Tuesday with several impressive young performers: Here's Billie Alderman, who was followed by Susie Mills with Joel Clements, and Ben Hutcheson with Avril Tricker.

And with unusual neatness, this location also segues into the visual art report, as Friday saw the opening of a fascinating exhibition here of Frome's cloth-making history and all things loomy: Back to Blue is the outcome of collaboration between 3-D artist Hans Borgonjon and painter & printer Sue Conrad  with wool expert Carolyn Griffiths, whose recent book Woad to This is the definitive chronicle of Frome's journey to riches and then rags -  here's a weaving demonstration on the hands-on loom.  HUBnub Gallery has a new exhibition too: Nicky Knowles' Paper Lands - collages that survive the challenge of the dominating windows of the old chapel and look terrific.

Sunday is always jazz day at the Cornerhouse, and this week ends with  'soul jazz funk' - Stevie Wonder songs from Emma Harris with superb trumpet from Gary Alesbrook and John Law on piano with Andy Tween drumming and Dave Wallace on bass. What a week. And it's not even festival yet...