Martin ThomassonJust under a ten minute stroll from Piccadilly railway station, allowing that your sense of direction is better than mine, (head down Fairfield St, turn left onto Travis St, then right into Gidding Rd), you’ll find the Track Brewery Company’s...
Erich Kästner was an exceptional writer of fiction for children (Emile and the Detectives is perhaps his best known work). Identical is a new musical adaptation of another of Kästner’s tales, Lisa and Lottie. If you’ve seen any of the film versions...
First of all, an apology to the woman sitting next to me (a total stranger) for blurting out the reveal (in a determined stage whisper). I’m sure she was ahead of me on this, but even so… I’m sorry. (Note to self: Button it!) Written by Matthew...
Let’s pretend we’re contestants in that popular BBC quiz show, “Pointless”. “Identify these famous female vocalists, mimicked by LV in Jim Cartwright’s hit play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.” A: Parisian chanteuse, affectionately known as the...
An older friend regularly liked to recite the following: “Never assume. To assume is to make an ‘ass’ of ‘u’ and ‘me’.” She did this for two reasons. Firstly, she was aware that I find such modern homilies twee and irri-tating. Secondly, she...
It was a very smart move of Tim Firth to adapt his 1998 TV comedy, Neville’s Island, for the stage in 2013. It has rarely – if ever – been out of production since. It looks like being another smart move for him to realise (or be...
Old Etonian, Eric Blair – better known to us as George Orwell – walked-the-walk rather more determinedly than most bourgeois left-leaning artists and intellectuals. His early works of social criticism (Down and Out in Paris and London...
Alcina’s love island casts its spell on Martin Thomasson You all, of course, know the story of Alcina. She (disguised as a he) is in love with him (who sings a bit like a she), but he (who sings a bit like a she) is bewitched by her (not her...
The clown/jester Rigoletto is not well-liked, but is good at his job – essentially, to make fun of the vulnerable for the amusement of his boss, the Duke of Mantua, and the duke’s hangers-on. The Duke is a ruthless and incorrigible womaniser...
Imagine, in your youth, doing something so terrible that you can never make it right. Even to try to explain your conduct sounds like a feeble attempt at rationalisation. All that is left to you is to hold your peace and serve your time. Marvin has...