Historical art and drama in a sunshiny Easter week

Armageddon RIP -the death of the final conflict- is a powerful concept appropriate for this era,  and this week especially, as Barry Cooper's exhibition at Silk Mill tracks the sombre years of media controlled explosions since the Twin Towers fell, using newspaper front pages overlaid with symbolic imagery (mostly a Gaia figure or a bird) - right up to last week's news of Julian Assange's sacrificial expulsion. Barry is mainly known for his stone carvings - the 'woman howling at the moon' in Longleat is his - but he also has hundreds of superb, quiet, line drawings in the cabinet drawers.

Over in Bristol, the exhibition in College Green Vestibule is all about the Witch, her importance, history, and accessories. Thea Caimbeul along with Rachael Fountain (forager, scyther, archer, taxidermist) have researched enough for a fascinating book, and these museum-style presented items, beside the shadow of the cathedral, are an impressive celebration of women's presence throughout the ages, as a power and a threat. (The 'wings for smudging' are collected from roadkill, if you're anxious!)

Once again, a fat & enthusiastic report on music this week. 'Bare to the Bones' which began as Paul Kirtley organising a few charity jam nights, has become a fixture in the Frome musical diary, with various pubs now hosting these events, and a roughly regular house band. There's always a party atmosphere as well as great music: Friday's event was another 'special' with added energy from the uke-maestro Decades and the marvellous Hoodoos and Paul's mash-up medleys of rock classics all the way down the Root 66 timeline. Here's (most of) the line-up at the end of the night:

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The sun-soaked Bank Holiday weekend was perfect for a walk along the river from Lansdown into Bath for a Sunday afternoon session at the Bell Inn, a great bohemian pub - walls crammed with posters promoting music events and Extinction Rebellion, and stage filled, on this occasion, with Kevin Brown and the Shackdusters including guest guitar wizard Mark Goudswaard. Dancing ensued!
Jazz Jam at the Cornerhouse was suitably mellow for a warm evening, with the sultry sounds of Caroline Waterhouse and John Plaxton, as guest singer & clarinetist respectively, and Graham Dent's popular trio.
Music too at Mells Daffodil Day as the blazing sunshine continued and the 3 mile path along Vallis Vale beside the river, unusually un-muddy, was thronged with walkers from Frome in holiday mood. No daffodils left, but there's always a great fairground atmosphere with food stalls, funfair, and vintage engines on display, and a beer tent big enough to stage several bands throughout the day. Here's the terrific Raggedy Men, punk revivalists with unflagging style & amazing energy, rocking the all-age crowd.

Time to move to drama, and Bristol's Tobacco Factory Theatres has a new production: Our Country's Good was written in 1988 by Timberlake Wertenbaker and inspired by his discovery that in 1788, due to the visionary beliefs of an influential officer in charge of the penal colony in Botany Bay, a group of prisoners were cajoled into putting on a play. The behind-the-scene struggles of a group of antagonistic misfits in rehearsal is not a new device (Shakespeare used it for his mechanicals in Midsummer Night's Dream) but the fact that this is based on actual data recorded in diaries makes this play-about-a-play more intriguing. Dramatic structure is complex, moving between discussions about the purpose of drama to the drama itself which means character differentiation is crucial, and as twenty roles were undertaken by nine actors, the director and designer had a big responsibility. Life in such grim confines equalises everyone to some extent and it may help this sense of fusion to have most of the cast in grey sweat-pants but it does nothing to create the essential hierarchy dominating this micro world.  I thought initially the press images were rehearsal outfits but sadly, they're not. Good performances from the actors, with Heather Williams and Kim Heron outstanding among the women, and Dan Wheeler outstanding among the all-excellent male cast. Images: Mark Dawson Photography

Final footnote: Where the fault lies, the Frome Festival production from Nevertheless Pub Theatre, has begun fine-tuning in rehearsals: Here's Harry and Hal getting into the rather strange zone of Your Time Starts Now. Wednesday July 10th is the date for your diaries - upstairs at the Cornerhouse.

The week clocks changed and so did the weather.

John Mullan is a Jane Austen expert: he lectures & publishes articles about the significance of Emma to modern literature, and is a highly entertaining speaker, as Rosie and I can confirm from a visit to the rather sumptuous Chapel at Bruton for an answer to the question What Matters in Emma? which turns out, wittily, to be Everything. Emma is a valuable study for any writer of fiction: she pre-empted modern novelists in her use of hidden agenda in viewpoint and her dialogue is superbly differentiated. Mr Mullan revels in deconstructing the small pivot points of plot, and points out ~ which I hadn't noticed before ~ that Mr Perry the apothecary (who makes a killing in vale of bored hypochondriacs) is widely quoted by every character but never actually heard to speak.  Of course if you don't like Jane Austen this revelation won't get you spinning with giddy excitement, but I enjoyed the further evidence of Jane's skill, and indeed the whole talk, and appreciated the welcome with rosé and posh nibbles, too.

A great week for music in Frome. Grain Bar Roots Session featured DLM, a class act from a seriously talented trio, and for
Sunday's afternoon spot at the Archangel, Ben Cipolla shared his own songs and some excellent covers from his busking days, including an unforgettable version of Is this Love.
Good Friday's special treat, for some, was the Wurzels at the Cheese & Grain, ably supported by The Back Wood Redeemers ~ possibly the only band to have yelled at a massive crowd 'You want Jesus or Johnny Cash?'
Spring bank holiday Monday is always Daffodil Day in Mells and traditionally most of Frome makes its way along the three-mile river path to join the crowds enjoying this good old-fashioned country fair.

The Acoustic tent sadly had fallen victim to the storms so the line-up had to lose its larger bands, but Shootin' the Crow rocked with their mix bluegrass and rock&roll. We left before the Wurzels came on the main stage, but even two miles away we were still pursued sounds of zider drinking songs... Great day out, and a rainbow too.

I tend to ignore cultural festivals in my ardent chronicles of Frome but this time I'll make an exception & conclude with this delightful image of Sarah at the Co-op counter channeling the true spirit of Easter. Not a hot cross bun, a cool smiley one.

... now that April's there ...

Frome is fashionable for its quirky independent coffee-houses ~ Garden Cafe, River House, Crocker & Wood and Divas to name but a few ~ so you'd expect a frisson of disapproval at the sudden arrival of a chain in our central precinct. A bit like a duck flying into a cattery, perhaps. But the Cordero Lounge, combining cafe with restaurant and bar, opened last week with no dissident voices raised at the massive launch party. This new venue is a tardis, its deceptively short frontage extending endlessly on two levels, both with glamorous decor and lighting. Looks set to be a great addition- especially on Independent Market day when streets overspill with sellers, customers, and the simply curious.
This Sunday we didn't match the density of last month's gridlock, to general relief, so it was far more pleasant browsing the vast selection of stalls, with live music from Frome FM and local writers on the Frome Writers' Collective stall.

Sara Vian with Shehzad Abbas played at the Archangel in the afternoon and Words at the Black Swan poetry group met to write in response to the amazing work of local artists aged 10 to 18 in the Young Open exhibition.
More music to end the day from the monthly Jazz Jam at the Cornerhouse ~ exceptionally good, with several local musicians joining Simon Sax's quartet.
The long weekend of Spring concludes for most of Frome ~ and for much of the southwest too, from the standstill traffic  ~ with Mells Daffodil day.  Mells is only three miles from the town, so the easiest way to visit is on foot through Vallis Vale,  a beautiful walk on the first really warm day of the year as the path follows the river past moss-thick banks shining with celandine, with wild garlic already beginning to scent the air.

The bucolic sounding name of this event is misleading: there are daffodils on the banks of the village, true, and a sprinkling of morris men, but the streets are stiff with stalls and the fields filled with all the paraphernalia of festival: fairground, beer tents, bands, portaloos...  Entry between these two sections is through the graveyard via a slit in the wall only wide enough for one at a time, and it was impressive to see the English politeness of people queuing on both sides as they negotiated with those equally desirous of moving in the other direction. Apart from those who leapt over the church wall, of course.
And Frome Writers' Collective has, amazingly, completed its first year as a support group for all things writerly in the town. The informal monthly meeting upstairs at the Three Swans, saw a (semi)formal handover of The Chair, from Tighe O'Connor to Sue Watts, among other activities like creating a mayoral chain out of haiku.
I'm ending this post with a picture from Stourhead Gardens, just because I like it.  Just another reason at this time of year to always look on the bright side of life...

"There was culture of walking in Victorian times we've lost today," author Peter Clark explained at the start of his talk on Dickens' London at Wells Library. Nietzsche believed "all truly great thoughts are conceived by walking" and Dickens thought nothing of walking 10 or 12 miles a day ~ or rather, he thought it essential for mental balance. Many many of his characters go on long walks and the novelist's own prowls around the city provide the social observation which makes his work so rich. Peter himself is a great walker ~ he celebrated his 70th birthday with a walk up Ben Nevis ~ so we shared walking reminiscences as Wendy drove our posse home to Frome. Currently I'm reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce which expresses through bittersweet fiction how "Life is very different when you walk through it."

Monday was Daffodil Day at Mells, when the village population swells by approximately 1000% as surrounding lanes become mile-long gridlocks and a mini-Glastonbury springs up. Frome is only an hour's walk away through Vallis woods beside the river path which is thick with snowdrops & scented with garlic, and I joined the pilgrims braving icy temperatures, rewarded by Frome Street Bandits in the Music Tent and Bugs in the Nunney-Acoustic-on-Tour.

Sometimes it's great to see a show without a reviewing remit, and as Michael Frayn's Noises Off has arrived at Theatre Royal Bath after a 'triumphant' West End run, there's no need for me to add my two-penn'orth as southwest columnist for Plays International.  So I went along for the promise of hysterical uncontrollable laughter and because I've been a fan of big-name-draw Neil Pearson since Drop the Dead Donkey days. Farce at its best isn't far from satire and the first act brilliantly parodies theatre company back-stage traumas, but after the interval characterisation ebbs and action becomes increasingly manic and less funny. But it's a brilliant production, a clever set and great acting so if your aunty loves farce, take her along.

And finally...it's National Poetry Writing Month, Carrie Etter tells me, so I've recklessly committed to a poem a day throughout April. Some will probably be haiku ~ here's today's, entitled Interflora window:
glitter-sprayed bunnies
profer eggs with toothy grins
Christ must be risen.