Our revels now are ended....

Day Ten has come & gone in Frome Festival and all the festivallers are knackered. In previous years I've reported throughout the week ~ daily, even, one year ~ and now there's far too much to mention everything that was exciting or delightful or for varied reasons simply splendid,  so I'll just pick out a few personal highlights ~ there's a much more extensive album on my facebook page.

MUSIC was amazing throughout. The Frome Street Bandits provided a superb opening for the first big open-air event, parading through the sunny evening streets to perform in the market yard for the Food Feast, and Pete Gage Band gave a storming session at The Cornerhouse on the final day.  I absolutely loved Al O'Kane's Magical Folk Garden at Archangel, four nights of superb folk-rock performances in a mesmerically decorated environment, where I was stunned by the Bookshop Band, overwhelmed by the Cedar, entranced by the lively Pigeons, and enchanted by Emma Shoosmith & Al O'Kane himself. There was music everywhere in town throughout the week, from really great little folk, country, & jazz bands in pub courtyards & gardens to memorable sell-out sessions at the Cheese & Grain like the marvellous Billy Bragg.
  VISUAL ARTS enhanced the festival vibe everywhere too, with over fifty artists in the Open Studios trail and other small events too ~ I especially liked Mutartis Boswell's weird pieces in the Cellar, Robert Lee's strange things in boxes, and Ciara Nolan's big black&white photographs of Humans of Frome at the Silk Mill- a good place to pause between events for tasty Peruvian tapas in the courtyard and wine...

DRAMA is always a major interest for me, though as with all festivals, clashes are inevitable. Nevertheless Fringe Theatre had to be my priority: our production Time Slides was on for two nights, the second of which sold out completely so we had to send walkups away as over forty people squeezed into the upstairs room at the Cornerhouse to enjoy our three excellent young actors, Gabrielle Finnegan, Tiffany Rhodes & Matt Harrison, with Patrick Dunn adding atmospheric live music. There's a great review in the Fine Times Recorder which explains what's going on better than I can, even though I wrote the play... and the feedback is all on our Nevertheless page ~"Very good acting and intriguing thought-provoking script" sums up the general view, I'm happy to report.

The other stand-out production for me was Legends of Frome, an 'immersive theatre' piece devised by the Edventure creative arts course and performed at Sun Street Chapel. Taking as starting point the older traditions of town life like weaving and baking, and using a range of interactive devices involving masks, mime, song and storytelling, this young team involved us as audience, in small groups, in a journey of sensual experiences so that gradually we all became participant performers in the living story of our town. An amazingly ambitious piece that worked extremely well.

WORDS are always a strong element in the festival, and Frome Writers Collective organised some excellent events for prose writers: the first weekend saw Writers in Residence in cafes and pubs throughout the town with a busy Small Publishers' Fair at the Silk Mill, and for the final Sunday there were workshops and a talk from literary agent Jane Judd at the library.  For poets & poetry lovers,  Liv Tork hosted a terrific Hip Yak Poetry Slam at the Archangel and my Festival Poetry Cafe at the Garden Cafe was also a great evening and a full house. Here's our superb guest Steve Pottinger (his scathing satiric poem Stabberjocky has since gone viral) with our new 'Festival Poet Laureate' John Christopher Wood, who will revisit us later in the year as a guest himself, hopefully with more strange odes.

Frome Festival more than any other I've known is a real community celebration, with so many free events for everyone to join in ~ pubs like the Archangel and the Artisan have hosted childrens' activities by day as well as evening music, and the Childrens' Festival in the market yard was amazing.  There's an 'open garden' trail too, although I didn't have time this year, and so much more ~ I shall keep thinking of people & acts this post hasn't mentioned as I fly off, now, to Greece for a week in Atsitsa Bay on Skyros island...
Have a lovely time, Frome, basking in the afterglow of another really good festival...

Summer storms & classic drama

The Tempest is tale of turmoil caused by power struggles among the old, redeemed through love by the young. How wonderfully calming then, to sit in Frome's splendid amphitheatre, a circle of twelve massive stones created to celebrate the European Union, and watch a quartet of talented young actors perform this story in the evening sunshine of the day an imposed, unnecessary, vote threw our country into disarray. (This blog is about arts in & around Frome, not politics, but as one of the bard's least attractive characters said, if you prick me do I not bleed?)
So I can't thank you enough, Quantum Theatre, for this totally delightful production. High-energy performances combining physical comedy with impassioned storytelling ensured clear narrative and movingly convincing relationships. Harry Boyd was compelling as Prospero and Pippa Lewis & Charlie Russell were enchanting lovers, with Lewis Newman a poignant Caliban - all also quick-changing into nobles, sailors, servants, and (one of my favourites) a quirky street-band trio of Ariels.  Their website has tour dates ~ catch it if you can.

King Lear by contrast is a drama of storms and divisions with no such happy ending. True, the conspirators all die, but so too does nearly everyone else in a relentless trail of machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders. Bristol Old Vic in collaboration with their Theatre School is offering what director Tom Morris describes as a 'unique exploration' of this massive tragedy: students and professionals working alongside each other in every area from set-making to choreography as well as on stage.
The outcome is truly impressive.

Three big names support the large cast of student actors: Timothy West is the king, shifting convincingly from scary volatile to piteous as his outmanoeuvered rage turns to terrible regret. Stephanie Coles is the surprising but very successful choice as his cryptic fool, and David Hargreaves is a strong Gloucester. The rest of the cast ~ Lear's children and their lovers, his friends and enemies, soldiers, servants and followers ~  all deserve distinctions especially Poppy Pedder as Cordelia, Jessica Temple and Michelle Fox (Goneril and Regan), Joey Akubeze as sly servant Oswald and Tom Byrne as wretched Edgar feigning madness to deal with crazy times, with the overall award for stand-out performance going to Danann McAleer as loyal Kent returning from banishment to serve his master in disguise. There's a lot of disguise and duplicity in this disturbingly prescient story: bad people pretending to be good, sane pretending to be crazy, and wise pretending to be fools. And from the opening moments when a map of this kingdom is physically split,  uncomfortable relevance palpably resonates, especially when gentle Cordelia is rejected for refusing to enhance her status by false hyperbole. Top marks too for sound and visuals, with set, effects and costumes all supportive rather than intrusive, as appropriate for this intense and timeless tale. On until 10 July, and has already collected its first 5 star review so do go if you can. (Booking link above)

If it's all getting too stormy for you right now, there's respite on offer at Theatre Royal Bath where Noel Coward's Present Laughter sets the clock back to an era when a chauffeur called Frobisher awaiting in one's car can be called at a moment's notice to ferry a young lady home, and a milieu where she has just spent the night with one's husband.

This frothy tale of egotism, lust and guile all revolves around Garry Essendine, an actor with a penchant for witty repartee and women, who find him irresistible. Yes, a pattern is emerging: Noel Coward did play the part himself in the 1942 tour. The action follows the complexities of Essendine's life and personality, as he engages with women who either adore him or scold him or both (the exception being his housekeeper, a Mrs-Overall figure who seemed to have come from a different comedy.) It's a thin plot but it does enable much shenanigans and some genuinely funny moments, especially in the second act. Part of the reason this production works is Stephen Unwin's confident direction, a bigger part is eye-candy effect ~ sumptuous set, luscious lighting & lovely ladies in gorgeous frocks ~ and major credit should go to Samuel West in the lead role. His Garry Essendine is totally convincing as a charmer of fluctuating egotism, concealing insecurity under banter, afraid of losing what he values most although he still doesn't know what that is... If you like froth that leaves you pondering on what fools these mortals be, you should go see.

Frome enjoyed a festival foretaste from local singer/songwriters Al O'Kane and Emma Shoesmith at Archangel on Sunday afternoon ~ you can hear them both in the Magical Folk Garden on Wednesday (if you haven't got a ticket for Billy Bragg, hashtag festivalclash!) And even before Frome Open Studios art trail has opened there's a vibrant exhibition at the Round Tower in the North Hill House end-of-year students exhibition. And now the town is garlanded with bunting as Frome Festival is underway - ten days of even-more-than-usual music, extra drama, open-access artists' studios, and a cornucopia of talks, readings, workshops, tours, trips, and teatime treats in open gardens.
On a personal note I'm excitedly anticipating a great night at the Poetry Cafe on Monday, and another two great nights on Thursday and Friday as Time Slides has now reached the costume-and-music stage of rehearsal, doing what pub theatre does best ~ a make-you-laugh, leave-you-thinking, affordable show.
Don't worry if you didn't get hold of a programme ~ they have nearly as many inaccuracies as a Brexit leaflet (though without the ruthless planning) ~ either look online or just come along, any day between 1st & 10th of July you should find something somewhere that you'll love...

Midweek report: the persistence of glitter

With 'Angry' Sam Berkson as guest, I knew Monday's Festival Poetry Cafe would be good, and it was superlative.  After a stellar line-up for the open mic, with readers from Bristol and Bath joining local poets, Stephen Payne was awarded the title 2015 Festival Poet Laureate, and Sam had time for an extended second set from his new collection.

 Settled Wanderers is the result of Sam's stay in the refugee camps of the nomadic tribes of Western Sahara, working with an interpreter to translate their poetry. Sam's own poems are included too, and read us the one explaining Why you should never do translation in the house of your Saharawi translator, where hospitality and ritual rule supreme and it takes many greetings and cups of tea below the crescent-moon-lit, opal blue desert sky to achieve the first rough sketch of the first ever English translation of one of the great Badi's fifty years' worth of poems. It's impossible to convey this amazing book in snatches, I do recommend you buy it.

The usual festival clashes prevented me from watching Brenda Bannister win the title 2015 Bard of Frome at the short play competition in the Three Swans but she met me afterwards for a personal handover of the winner's cup, and we went up to the Magical Folk Garden at the Archangel to celebrate. Fairies at the door added literal glitter and I listened to lovely Beth Porter and the Availables feeling like Peaseblossom.

Miracle Theatre are always popular with Merlin audiences, who bedeck the amphitheatre in clusters with rugs, cushions, picnic baskets and, when required, mackintoshes and umbrellas. These were required on Tuesday: grey clouds, although enlivened by an interval rainbow, promised & twice delivered downpours. But cacti among the ECOS stones, a saloon bar set, and Ben Dyson mopping imagined sweat from the noon-day heat, all helped to transport us to the parched outback of the Wild West for the tale of The Magnificent Three. The cast are all immensely entertaining, though to be honest this piece is more a showcase for their varied talents than a story and despite their charm & skills it seems more an idea for a script than a fully developed production. No-one is complaining though, and there are some brilliant highlights, like the fake filmic slow-motion fights. And for those who like that sort of thing, there's a lot of toe-tapping and song.

From desert to forest to wild west, where next? Frome Stop the War Campaign took us to the harsh reality of international war-mongering from the build-up to Iraq in 2002 to the coast of Tunisia last week ("the perfect opportunity to bomb Syria."). Where are those WMDs? was horribly funny, in the sense that the satiric sketches while hilariously witty were almost too true to be funny at all. TV journalists Dan Glazebrook and Neil Clark gave us a series of glimpses into top level meetings between the US military and UK government: frank and cynical exchanges based on their shared objective of a permanent war-zone in the middle east. Musical interludes were brilliantly provided by Clayton Blizzard, a rapper from Bristol who claims to 'mash folk and hiphop like the long-lost cousins they are' but he's actually much better, and more political, than that.

There were so many superb events I missed during these last three days... but the fairy glitter from Monday night still faintly twinkles. Magic sparkle V Neals Yard cleanser, a win to the festival sprites.