A blue & yellow week, with a touch of green

With foreign affairs, as they used to be called before we discovered that everything in the world is interconnected, on everyone's mind these days, let's start with the  BIG GIG FOR THE UKRAINE - an evening of soul funk jazz at 23 Bath Street to raise money for Frome's twin town in Poland, Rabka-Zdrój, which has already taken in 500 Ukrainian refugees. Organised at short notice by Emma Harris, this featured the talents of Rivers of England,  Leander Morales, Al O'Kane, Flash Harry, and Emma herself - a brilliant night with great musicians and fantastic sound. The atmospheric red lighting helped create a party atmosphere - this snap of Leander joining Al's set may give a glimpse of the vibe.

Music has been a strong theme of this week, with Paddy's Day celebrations in two venues: At The Sun on Thursday, celtic band Crossing the Rockies cleverly illustrated the division of Ireland by arranging a massive pole to segregate the band members, and this day-late homage to St Patrick was followed next night with another hooley as the Celtic & Transatlantic Music team arrived at the Cornerhouse in force and played throughout the evening. 

Still with an Irish theme: Derry's most widely-known band The Undertones, playing at the Cheese & Grain on Friday, was the subject Eleanor Talbot's Variations on a Theme this week. Mickey Bradley, bassist for the band since its inception & now also a record show presenter on Radio Ulster, is a charming guest with a good memory of the '70s, and is surprisingly modest for a key member of the group responsible for John Peel's favourite track of all time: Teenage Kicks. 

Theatre spot his week is a substitute: Eng-er-land, solo show at the Merlin was sadly cancelled due to illness so instead here's an online production from Original Theatre: The Red, directed by Charlotte Peters. The 'red' is a bottle of wine, which in this two-hander Benedict imagines, as he mourns at his father's funeral, that his dad really wants to watch him drinking. 

The storyline is essentially a list of reasons why an alcoholic should never drink again, and writer Marcus Brigstocke admits the play is basically a summary of his own temptations and truths. It's performed by a genuine father & son combo on a set authentically representing a wine cellar but with constant faint music which is slightly irritating. Bruce Alexander is very good as the probably-also-alchi-but-not-bothered father, but Sam Alexander his son is less convincing as a totally fit non-drinker. Reminiscence replaces story development, as the will-he/won't-he finale is not really in doubt, but my main problem with this as with all online productions is that the cameras don't consistently show the full stage and therefore, to me, it's Not Theatre. It is dramatic, in that people play parts in a rehearsed drama, but the camera-eye rather than the viewers' eye is in control, so it's just a movie that's been shot on one set. 

Moving from drama to poetry: Frome's 'ekphrastic writing' group had a very productive session this month, all creating powerful responses to the Duet of Lines exhibition in the form of pantoums under the excellent tutelage of Jennie Gilling.  Our group's responses can all be seen here, and the exhibition is on until 3 April.

Art with a purpose now, and and Auction for Ukraine at the Silk Mill which opened on Friday evening with wine & live music. The gallery was filled with donations from Frome's creatives - not only wall art, which is wonderful, with artists like Dan Morley contributing, but clothes, earrings, books & toys, and edible goodies.

Finally: at times like these, creativity & entertainment become even more important, which is why Frome is a genuinely awesome place to live: this week's Frome Times includes as well as positive initiatives in response to Ukraine, ongoing aspects of our town's life: volunteer street tidiers, restorative conversations, appreciations for projects like Window Wanderland & the Kindness Festival, green initiatives for children, drama for adults, music for all, and more. And a connection with nature is also vital, so this week's bulletin will conclude with a couple of images from local walks: one of the lakes on the southern side, and the river path from Frome to Mells. Imagine spring flowers & birdsong...    And... breathe.... 

 

 

Dark fantasy, savage satire, & restorative fiction

When Oscar Wilde submitted The Picture of Dorian Gray  in 1890, his editor quickly decided there were “a number of things which an innocent woman would make an  exception to,” and set about purging the novel of any inference of homosexuality.  There was a lot to do, but even with the throbbing veins of passion stripped, the novel was still decried as vulgar, unclean, poisonous, and discreditable, and it wasn’t until 2011 that an uncensored version was eventually published, by Harvard University Press. Wilde's moralistic fairytale has a timeless fascination and has been repeatedly adapted for stage and screen, currently in a  star-studded co-production which acknowledges the sexual passions saturating the story but steers them vividly into contemporary life.  

Dorian (Fionn Whitehead) is a student in lockdown at a university where Harry Wotton (Alfred Enoch) is a trendy 'expert', Basil (Russell Tovey) is a software developer and the beautiful Sibyl Vane (Emma McDonald), innocent fourth figure in this tragedy, remains as Wilde envisaged an aspiring actress. They're all excellent in their roles, and so of course are Joanna Lumley and Stephen Fry, slightly underused as Lady Narborough and an interviewer in a version that begins at the end of this dark saga, interrogating the story of Dorian's downfall with techniques from contemporary entertainment as well as stage theatre. The perpetual beauty granted to Dorian exists only online, where his images most matters to him, which is why he dumps Sibyl after her onstage freeze in this retelling of Wilde's fantasy.

The digital sequences of cyber assaults aren’t just gizmos, they evoke the social wildfire of vicious glee that Oscar Wilde’s trial and conviction had aroused in the 19th century. For Lady Narborough and her social acolytes in this contemporary version, homosexuality obviously isn't an issue, but in an era when status exists largely online, fear of humiliation is tightly integrated with social media presence.

Written by Henry Filloux-Bennet and directed by Tamara Harvey, with a raft of co-producers and partner venues including Bristol Old Vic, this unusual and gripping production is available until the end of March, tickets £12 here, recommended especially to everyone with an interest in the future of theatre in a digital era. 

Donmar Warehouse, like many theatrical organisations, is using initiative and internet to maintain a presence for its supporters - over 1000, many in USA,  joined the audience  for Assembly on Youtube on Saturday night.  The 'assembly' has been gathered to imagine the future, and like many of us fails to grasp the range and dangers of the concept.  There's a kind-of childlike simplicity about the storyline, demonstrating how humans can't conceive complete apocalypse so that when the animals' needs and elements's tendencies are involved too the problem of survival becomes acute... maybe this is one for the family to watch together and discuss, though it could be trimmed in duration. This live digital performance is written by Nina Segal, directed by Joseph Hancock, and realised by the Almeida Young Company & the Donmar Local Company.

Mark Thomas, that maverick campaigning comedian who is anti-establishment in an active disruptive way, went on Youtube on Tuesday evening (only) with some 'Vintage Cuts' from his Comedy Product, summarised in his promo as "Stand up, stunts, stories and general transgressive behaviour." Mark, with intermittent comments from his producer, Geoff Atkinson, reminisces on some of his most outrageous escapades as filmed and also as narrated to club audiences over the years - and gives updates on outcomes to some of his social protests. Running for nearly 3 hours and with much topical material requiring explanatory context, this was quite a marathon but Mark has never been deterred by difficulty and the clips he chose, including club performances as well as the stunts, kept the show fascinating throughout.

From setting up a PR stall at an Arms Fair and teaching attending fascist tyrants relaxation techniques (and filming their consequent confessions of use of torture) to chasing up lax regulations around nuclear fuel transportation, Mark has a zany plan to confound any ruthless or incompetent authority. His causes are all issues worth challenging, and they make for good entertainment as Mark doesn't do subtle.

He takes a hot-air balloon trip to Menwith Hill to reveal a spy base and a troop of dancing girls - The Showgirls of Truth - to the House of Commons to discuss matters with their MPs, and he taught the Essex Fire Service how to use a referendum to prevent further cuts in their service. It's a pity Mark couldn't have blown in with cutting-edge paperwork and feisty women to prevent last week's rushed-through legislation banning public protest in the UK, as we take another step to line our country up beside the rest of the fascist states.

At least in Frome, the long history of protest against unfair legislation in England is still alive: enjoy this remaking of Money For Nothing by Martin Dimery (Green Party county councillor) with musical arrangement from David Hynds, video by Patrick Dunn. The adaptation (- with a PPE) is bitingly on point and the visuals superb - the final image, of an exhausted medical worker, is genius. 

Still with words: a soothing blast, if oxymoronic imagery is allowable, of narration from Bath's Kilter Theatre which in collaboration with A Word in Your Ear is offering Storyopathy, a unusual contribution to lockdown entertainment conceived by Clare Reddaway. "Doctor" Olli leads a session antipathetical to the usual stress of zoom and, although his character's persona is entertainingly parodic, really did create an ethos of  the age-old magic of story-telling with Message in a Bottle by Derek Williams on Thursday.  As one who usually reviews projects from an audience perspective only, it's great report that my story The Invisible Granny is on offer next week: bookable here.

Meanwhile in Frome... nature-watch groups are alert not only to enjoy the buds and birds but also to counter insensitive human invasions. Friends of Easthill Field are campaigning to retain this ancient undisturbed parkland, and on Friday a zoom group discussion featured a film of tree expert Julian Hight explaining to Terésa Hadland why Easthill is particularly valuable. As this open landscape was established around 1830, its elderly trees have reached their most valuable stage, housing over 2000 species of insects and 300 species of lichens as well as providing home to barn owls and other protected birds. A fascinating and informative session.

Music, now: "Somerset's best kept secret" according to Phil Moakes interviewing the duo on Visual Radio Arts last week, Faron and Merle perform as Currer Bell.  Brontë fans will note that this was the pseudonym chosen by Charlotte to overcome Victorian prejudice, writing "I am at a loss to conceive why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man"  This impressive alt-folk duo consider themselves '21st century Victorian philosopher witches' were homeschooled and "often felt like modern Brontës, living on a windy hill and spending our days in the company of books and made-up characters." Like the Bookshop Band, also nurtured in the south-west, their lyrics are often inspired by literature. The Wind in the Willows (36m 40s in) is their take on "the book you're never too grown up for." See what you think... and thanks to Phil Moakes and Maggie Gregory for maintaining VRA, Frome's unique free visual-sound live sessions, an opportunity for bands to self-promote and for music fans to enjoy some of the best sounds around. Meanwhile in the real world there's sad news from the Grain bar that won't be a Roots sessions restart - thanks to Domenic DeCicco for all the good times there - but the Cornerhouse has promised live bands at the July Frome Festival - event submissions are now all in, and the line-up will be published soon...

theatre, art, music words - the 'Back in Business' one!

When theatre goes real-time live again, these free treats from London's costliest theatres will be much missed- do grab them while they're around. The Globe's offering this week was Romeo and Juliet, weighing in at just shy of three hours but superbly performed - Rebekah Murrell as Juliet and Petra Letang as her nurse especially brilliant - and thrilling viewing (unless you're one of the students whose laments that an English lesson is only supposed to be hour long littered the comments online).
Dominic Dromgoole's direction brings out the unruliness of the rival gangs and the youthfulness of the lovers, both initially naive in their notions of romance until sobered into the harsh reality of transgressing clan rivalries.  The sword fights are thrilling but have been filmed rather too close to follow the vital dynamic leading up to Romeo's fatal thrust, but overall there's good coverage of audience excitement.

Thursday night's National Theatre offering of 'Danny Boyle's monster hit Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch as the creature and Jonny Lee Miller as Victor Frankenstein' was as unforgettably amazing as you'd expect from the first two names. Unforgettable especially for the long opening section of electric birth through the creature's long lonely struggle to articulate movement and sound, watching the thing grow into a humanoid and then a lover of poetry and a philosopher under the tutelage of the blind old man: this was full of charm as well as poignancy. When this connection is abruptly broken by the seeing world and the quest for vengeance begins the trajectory is set steadily for melodrama. Mary Shelley's tale of the motherless creature, completed while living in Bath, is a psychological drama as much as a monster story, and the parallels with her own life in terms of loss and disregarded needs are plangent. This brilliant interpretation of a timeless tragedy is on all week, well worth viewing.

 Bath Festival went virtual too, with a varied menu of free options including Grayson Perry's Art Club, in which he invites viewers to submit their own work, with the chance of  inclusion in his next real-time exhibition "when this is all over." His theme this week is portraits: here's one that artist Nathan Wyburn made of him, using soy sauce and noodles. Grayson was also much taken with the latest trend on facebook, even more popular than the 'ten-albums-that-define-me' one: Recreate artworks with things you find at home now has over 50,00 members and there are some fantastic efforts out there - if you haven't started following yet, you're missing a treat. And in the Golden Oldies corner. Channel 4 is releasing to the world 'Bingeable Box Sets' of comedy classics - every series of Seinfeld, and Father Ted to name but two.

As always there's masses of music online - if you don't have enough of your own favourites tune into Visual Radio Arts where Phil Moakes and Maggie Gregory continue to add new shows: here's No Fixed Abode who played last week.

Sofa continues to stream international acts for free viewing, and individuals musicians are increasingly posting on facebook: Martin Dimery, ex Sergeant Pepper's Only Dartboard Band, has made several of his Beatles songs publicly viewable. Here comes the Sun is one of my favourites.  Frome's jazz-fusion giant John Law offers a preview of his new album CONFIGURATION here prior to its release, and looking wider, Radiohead has posted their archived tour concerts.

Words now, and a fascinating talk from Andrew Ziminski's from his workshop organised on Zoom by Pippa Goldfinger, describing his work as a stonemason, with a focus on the landscape of Wessex. His slide presentation included discoveries from neolithic sites including Avebury, Fyfield Down, West Kennet Long Barrow, Silbury Hill Stonehenge and was supplemented by workshop demonstrations of skills like creating sarsen polishing stones and repairing the carvings in the temple of Sulis Minerva. Buy the book, if you haven't got it already!

From fabulous fact to intriguing fiction, with Bath's Story Friday, the popular community platform initiated by mega-skilled Clare Reddaway, went online last week and continues its Friday evening sessions on the theme of 'Dark Clouds, Silver Linings' read by a team from Kilter Theatre. This week's set included a story from Chiara Vascotto, whose sensuous, visceral, personal style I remember from last year in Skyros. You can listen to her story, read Amy Vickers, here, along with five other intriguing short tales - one by Clare herself.
Liv Tork, indefatigably innovative and creative, continues to collect submissions of 'haiflu' (haiku in time of plague) to create weekly compilations: here's week 6 online, sombre but plangently sincere. Meanwhile Frome Poetry Cafe  is open for any original poems, especially with some tangental connection to 'revenge or redemption (which happened appropriately to be our theme for April) as the page becomes virtual 'open mic' for lockdown times.

And as April moves into May in Frome, where we're lucky enough to have lanes and footpaths close enough to walk miles in any direction, I'll end this week's roundup with images of blossom - the wonderful Judas tree in Victoria park, and a small burst of the hawthorn blossom brimming on every hedge.

Wake me up when September ends

It was National Poetry Day last week and Liv Torc, chieftain queen of the Hip Yak Shack was commissioned by BBC Somerset Sound to create a poem celebrating 'home truths' about the county. Liv visited Hunting Raven Books on Saturday to share this and other poems - you can listen here, and she'll perform this, and her now-viral poem Human Emergency, at the Green Platter event next week - if that's not in your diaries, put it in now!  Poetry's annual day was also marked by a performance in the now-disused Shepton Mallet prison choreographed by Frome's Rosie Jackson - I missed this, but there's an excellent blog account here by Deborah Harvey, one of the poets. The all-male prison closed except for visits 2013 after four centuries of chequered history: I visited it regularly for a while to tutor one of the prisoners who had a yen to write a play and a social worker prepared to support him, and found all the Category C lifers remarkably pleasant.
It's now five years since Flatpack Democracy - a guide to creating independent politics was published by eco-logic books as an account by Frome's IfF councillor & ex-Mayor Peter Macfadyen of the work behind establishing Independents for Frome, who took over the council and still hold it now. Flatpack Democracy 2.0 tells what happened next, which includes national and international connections formed in response to this template, and was launched last week at Rye Bakery (with nibbles and prosecco, Frome's pack isn't too flat for that.) Publisher Peter Andrews followed his role as barman with an intro to Peter Macfadyen's brief talk,which ended with a quiz for each table. Questions like Where was the term 'flat-packing' in this context coined?  (it was Amsterdam) and How many times has Frome's MP voted to reduce spending on welfare (it's 23, shockingly) generated much conversation at the tables, as independent councillors and candidates from Shepton, Bath and Wells had joined us for the event. For anyone interested in how communities function and thrive, Peter's sequel will be as invaluable as his first report, full of realism about group interactions and written with humour as well as the wisdom of experience.

Despite this week being short for me - Spanish sunshine was still the view even on Wednesday - there's a lot of music to report.  Visual Radio Arts featured an hour of The Hoodoos, Frome's 'funky swampy' new sensation - you can watch it here, as VRA keeps an archive of all its shows - with Carl Sutterby stepping out of his Raggedy Man role to interview the band members: here he is talking to multi-talented David Goodman.


The Hoodoos  headlined at the Grain Bar Open Mic on Sunday too, in a crammed programme with a large attentive audience and, unusually for this venue, onstage lighting -welcome in theory but somewhat eyeball-challenging.

Ben Hardy-Phillips, who recently set up this monthly event, has extensive contacts so it was great to see musicians from Glastonbury and Bruton - and young talent like the fantastic foursome '1156'.

Visual art now, and a brilliant new exhibition: Art Interiors: Garden & Home by Steven Jenkins and Jenny Raggett opened on Friday in a party atmosphere at the Silk Mill, a perfect location to display these beautiful ceramics and fabric items as well as wall art - all available to view and buy until 16th October, well worth a visit.

Also a visual treat, here's a glimpse of Patrick Dunn's 'Banco de Gaia' visuals at the Loft on Friday night - perfect for multi-sensational dancing as September ends and there's another Independent Market, where Frome's Red Rebels walk silently through the crowds to remind us that climate change protest is escalating as the new month begins.

A long week but a good one in Frome

We've just enjoyed an unusually music-rich week, even by Frome's standards. Wednesday's Roots Session featured two excellent acts: Garry "the slide guy" Smith from Dorset, and the Ed Goodale Band. Ed credits his Asperger's Syndrome for the insight that enables him to create his impressive songs and lyrics, and the 4-piece lineup includes brother Ollie on drums. On Friday, the brilliant Pete Gage Band returned to a crowded Cornerhouse for a fantastic evening of blues & dancing, and then on Sunday afternoon the monthly Nunney Acoustic Cafe offered a steady stream of talented performers for a full four hours.
All were highly enjoyable, and among my highlights were Frome bands We Don't Scare Easy and Goodman and the Bad Girls, both very recently-formed, and main guest Otto Wilde also from Frome, whose unique performance style could be described as indefinable...

From music to art: the Round Tower at Black Swan Arts is currently crammed with vibrant and varied images created by students at Frome College in a wide range of media, with the corridor also ablaze with colour from the work of the Middle Schools in response to the national 'Big Draw' project. Making a Mark is on till 23rd February - a must-see if you can.


No theatre news from me this week but masses of fabulous poetry: Four superb performance poets from varied corners of the southwest descended on the Old Fire Station in Frome on Saturday afternoon, to record WordPlay for Visual Radio Arts. I had the total privilege of interviewing, in my capacity as trainee presenter, the awesomely creative voices of Birdspeed, Chris White, Josie Alford, and Rhys Ashton Tucker - you can see the result online here. Here's us with producer Phil & camera-person Mags at the end of a scary (for me) but exhilarating hour.

Slight spillage now into the next bulletin, but as I'm late with the week's arts news I'll finish with the Frome Poetry 'Love' Cafe, traditional now for February, with Hip Yak Poetry Shack queen and all-round goddess  Liv Torc (I have now run out of enthusiastic adjectives but it has been that kind of week) as our popular guest. Liv's poems of passion celebrate intimate moments like the wet patch, the great kiss, and the note on the fridge, and they are all witty and poignant and powerfully performed, so the buzz in the Garden Cafe was immense. On the open mic, fourteen readers ranged widely in their responses through humour, reminiscence, social commentary, friendship, passion, and golf... Another wonderful night - here's Liv & me with Cat who read for the first time and will be back to co-guest in a future Frome Cafe (thanks Melina) and we'll do it all again but differently in May!