Right here, 'Right Now' - February fusion of art, music, and drama.

It was the Frome Tattoo Convention last weekend and Cheese & Grain was filled with ink artists and their human canvasses, all demonstrating the dedication and skill as well as the creativity of their craft. Here's Ghis Melou at work, and Dean Oatley showing the developing work of tattoo artist Jerry Burchill from True Gent Tattoos. Fascinating to watch, and a great group of friendly people.

Hunting Raven Books opened its doors on Monday night for the Frome launch of Debby Holt's 'wickedly funny' new novel The Soulmate.  Debby is always a class act at these events ~ theatrical experience as well as seven novels now ~ and we were entertained by quotes from JB Priestley and Shakespeare as well as wit, anecdotes, and a short reading. I look forward to a longer one now.

Right Now is the first of a French-Canadian season at the Ustinov Studio theatre in Bath, a surreal dark comedy from Catherine-Anne Toupin translated by Chris Campbell. By turns hilarious, erotic, macabre, scary, and sad, it's the tale of a couple who find they've got neighbours like some flats get mice. After an opening glimpse of their struggling relationship, this bizarre trio bursts into their lives led by Juliette - Maureen Beattie awesome in a role that makes TV's predatory Dorien seem a girl guide. Together with her seductively genial partner Gilles (Guy Williams) and their enigmatic son Francoise (Dyfan Dwfor, shape-shifting from gauche to dominating) they upend the lives of Ben and Alice - Sean Biggerstaff and Lindsey Campbell hugely empathetic as the hapless couple hooked into psychological games. An outrageous play directed with dazzling precision by Michael Boyd, with great set & lighting from designers Madelaine Girling and Oliver Fenwick enhancing the capriciously changeable moods. Highly recommended, on till 19th March. (Oh, and you'll never, ever, guess what happens right at the end....)

Every week is live music week in Frome: on Sunday we had bluesy duo Nobody's Business at the Archangel in the afternoon, and the vibrantly funky Flash Harry at the Cornerhouse in the evening.

Roots Grain Bar on Wednesday had two great acts - Irish rock-bluesy solos for  Ian O'Regan and 'darkly sensuous' duo Bonne Nouvelle. And River House Cafe offered something a little different from their usual cocktails on Thursday - an entire supper based on vodka. How did that turn out then? Under the care of 'Tender Loving Kitchen's Jo Harrington, the Vodka Infusions pop-up supper club was a great success: superb food and great ambience, and vodka shots between every course.


I'm off to the Isle of Wight now for a weekend talking about writing at Skyros Holistic Holidays close-to-home retreat The Grange.  The programme notes for that excellent play Right Now identified the perfect situation for a writer as resentment and resilience, defensiveness and defiance but sometimes a break is good too. Weather forecast promises sun..

So is it spring yet?

This was the week we had winter, a day of it anyway, with sub-zero temperatures that took me & my geraniums by surprise, but the return of milder weather in this part of the world has led to a flurry of snowdrops and birds twittering around the trees in a nesting kind of manner. I hope we're not all under-thinking this...
For me this has been a week of mostly planning events ahead, though with the usual excellent live music ~  Feral Beryl with Steve Loudoun at the Grain Bar Roots Session,  Nikki & Griff with Vicki Burke at the Archangel.  And River House laid on an unforgettable Bowie tribute dance night.

Rosie and I spent Sunday morning at Frome FM radio station with Chapter&Verse host John Walton, recording Toxic Cocktails for a new programme, Theatre On The Air, broadcast monthly and also online. We're going to be joining John to consider submissions for this one-hour show through another innovation - the Frome FM Writers Room. Anyone have any short radio plays to submit?

Looking ahead,  seems that February will be fizzing with words events. There's the Poetry Cafe 'Love Night' at the Garden Cafe on 15th, with Frome Festival Poet Laureate Stephen Payne guesting, as well as open mic for poems on any aspect of love ~ lusty or lost, recalled or forgotten... Hunting Raven Books have donated a beautiful hardback collection of love poems for one lucky reader.
And a poem is the inspiration for the new production by the award-winning Mark Bruce Company, whose 'kill for a ticket' Dracula performed to sellout audiences across the country.  The Odyssey is a dance-theatre retelling of Homer's 3000-year old epic tale of a heroic ten-year journey and it will premiere at Frome's Merlin Theatre on February 4th ~ a terrific chance to see a spectacular new production in its home base before it goes to London.

Final footnote for anyone who has an interest in Raymond Carver, script-writing, or just enjoys movies with superlative acting, direction, lighting design and music: I don't know how I missed Birdman when it was released in 2014 but Emily and I watched the DVD last night and it is utterly fantastic. I've now bought a copy to watch it again, and so should you if you haven't yet. Seriously superb. 

Once upon a time... and a very good time it was.

Charles Dickens must be grinning in his grave every time Merlin Theatre Company puts on a play based on one of his books. Following their brilliant Oliver! last summer comes an ensemble musical version of A Christmas Carol directed by Claudia Pepler with a fabulous cast, marvellous set, great visual and sound effects, and some spectacular puppetry. I wish I had pictures of the spine-chilling ghost of Christmas future but here's Marley's ghost taking a final bow, and most of the cast with Simon Huggins superb as Ebenezer Scrooge, charismatic throughout whether ruthless, regretful, or repentant. Dickens never flinched from dark truths, social or psychological, and nor did Chris Blackwood in his script and songs, but from opening to finale this was a feel-good feast for all ages. As entertainment this pushes all the buttons: dewy-eyed moments with Bob Cratchett (Ryan Hughes excellent) and Tiny Tim, hilarity from the housekeepers (Tracey Ashford especially droll as aptly named Mrs Filch) and a still-topical theme in economic inequality.Your wife’s ill health is not my concern, sir ~ the twenty pounds you owe me is my concern, Scrooge tells a despondent debtor in the opening scene. Would that ghosts in chains and 15-foot high skeletons could visit every banker and politician in the land this Christmas.

Elsewhere in Frome, Feast Street is open now each weekend till Christmas, and there's a new coffee shop on the bridge: The River House opened on Saturday night and is already the place to be. "Coffee making is an alchemy, a fusion of science and performance" ~ Ollie Wright, manager.  Sunday saw the last Independent Market of the year, and Frome Writers Collective set up stall in Cheap Street ~ a wise choice as main roads and precinct were jammed and Stony Street was total gridlock.

Frome Independent Filmmakers Collective had a showing of three intriguing shorts from Bargus, including The Tenth Muse scripted by Nikki Lloyd, which won the Salisbury Arts Centre 'Shoot Out' 48-hour film-making challenge. And here's Paul Newman and Jill Harris talking to the writers' group which is invited by Black Swan Arts to respond to each current exhibition. The Open Arts show is on till 10th January.