I was told by my friends not to expect “A Play” because Mark Thomas does stand-up, but trust me, Bravo Figaro is very much a play.
Prior to an interval we were treated to 45 minutes or so of incisive comedy during which we learned, among other things, about the art of Book Heckling.
After the interval Mark was joined on stage by a set comprised of a chair and a number of packing cases. Although he is alone on stage this is effectively a four-hander, with his father, mother and brother making their presence felt in the narrative through some surprisingly effective symbolism and occasional interjections from their actual recorded voices.
Mark Thomas’s father, Colin, is a former builder who has a love of opera which he used to play at full blast on a cassette machine from the rooftops of building sites. This was a source of some embarrassment to Mark who, as a teenager, worked on the sites with him. Colin was diagnosed some ten or more years ago with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a degenerative brain condition. For reasons that will only become clear if you go and see the show, Mark decided to organise a concert at his parents’ home in Bournemouth with singers from the Royal Opera House, and the play tells the story of how this came about. This is illustrated by snatches of conversation that he holds with the disembodied voices of his family, each represented on stage by flickering lamps.
Now if this is beginning to sound strange, it isn’t half as strange as just how well it actually works. We actually find ourselves looking at these lamps when they “speak” and when, at the end, Mark leaves the stage with the builders inspection lamp that plays his father and then returns with it to take a bow together, it is a remarkably poignant and touching moment.
The story is told with a beautiful mixture of humour and pathos and has the capacity to make us both laugh out loud and to bring a tear to the eye.
I’m sure that many of those who are regular followers of Mark Thomas’s shows may have expected something of the order of stand-up with a narrative thread behind it. I have never seen him live before and so had little idea of what to expect. I would think though that few could have anticipated anything quite like Bravo Figaro, which is moving, funny, thought provoking and deeply personal. In his preface to the text Mark explains that this is the first time he has been required to write a structured script, mainly to satisfy the requirements of the sound and lighting technicians. What he has achieved is a unique experience that will linger long in the memory.
Bravo Figaro continues to tour venues throughout the UK with dates currently advertised until March.
http://www.markthomasinfo.co.uk/
Thursday, 31 January 2013
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Lincoln (Dir. Steven Spielberg) – FACT Liverpool – 28/01/2013
I’m not big on American films about American subjects, and I’m not big on American history either, so I had mixed expectations of this film. However, I had received good reports of it and of course it has garnered more than a handful of award nominations, so I gave it a go, and I’m very glad I did.
It is extremely difficult to point to anything at all that Steven Spielberg has got wrong in this remarkable picture. The only thing that I really wish he had reconsidered is what seems an over-use of captions. OK, it is helpful to have an occasional pointer telling us that time has passed and we have been spirited to a new location, but when we are treated to a series of captions telling us who the characters are that are coming into shot and what their roles are I lose the sense of cinematic magic for a moment and I’m back in a history lesson. This aside, Lincoln is a towering piece of cinema that quickly justifies the plaudits being heaped upon it.
The low-key unsaturated colour and lighting render the immaculately designed sets and costumes beautifully and give the film a perfect period feel, whether in its smoke-filled rooms or on the battlefields.
There are far too many excellently drawn supporting roles to mention them all, but special note has to go to Sally Field (never usually a great favourite of mine) for her First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones for his genius Thaddeus Stevens, both of which are Oscar nominated.
I can’t claim to have seen all of Daniel Day-Lewis’s film appearances but I’ve seen most, and here he seems to have played what must be the performance of his career in this monumental portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. Much has been said about how true to life his vocal characterisation is and I don’t really know how we can be sure of this (after all, the man died before the advent of sound recording) but it is totally believable. It may have been criticised in many quarters but Day-Lewis did his research and it conforms to the contemporary written accounts, if maybe not to the mental image many Americans prefer to have of how their 16th President sounded.
I expect we owe the physical resemblance partly to the hair and makeup department – surprisingly absent from the Oscar nominations – but mostly to Daniel Day-Lewis himself, whose stoop, gait and facial expressions seem to bring the President eerily to life.
Overall Lincoln is a great piece of ensemble acting and the dialogue is superb, carrying the narrative and the drama whilst managing touches of humour along the way. There has been mixed comment about the use of written records to construct much of the script but for me it was a superbly judged screenplay.
I was struck very early in the film by the stylistic resemblance that John Williams’s score had to the music of Aaron Copland, something that fits the subject matter extremely well. It was during the sequence in which Lincoln is quoting Euclid on Equality that I recognised what appeared to be more or less a direct quote from Copland’s Lincoln Portrait – clearly a deliberate piece of musical referencing and one that seemed remarkably fitting.
Despite my mixed expectations, I was captivated by this picture from the outset and it certainly didn’t feel anything like its 150 minutes.
I watched Lincoln at FACT Liverpool; for more details see my posting of 24th January. http://www.fact.co.uk/
It is extremely difficult to point to anything at all that Steven Spielberg has got wrong in this remarkable picture. The only thing that I really wish he had reconsidered is what seems an over-use of captions. OK, it is helpful to have an occasional pointer telling us that time has passed and we have been spirited to a new location, but when we are treated to a series of captions telling us who the characters are that are coming into shot and what their roles are I lose the sense of cinematic magic for a moment and I’m back in a history lesson. This aside, Lincoln is a towering piece of cinema that quickly justifies the plaudits being heaped upon it.
The low-key unsaturated colour and lighting render the immaculately designed sets and costumes beautifully and give the film a perfect period feel, whether in its smoke-filled rooms or on the battlefields.
There are far too many excellently drawn supporting roles to mention them all, but special note has to go to Sally Field (never usually a great favourite of mine) for her First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones for his genius Thaddeus Stevens, both of which are Oscar nominated.
I can’t claim to have seen all of Daniel Day-Lewis’s film appearances but I’ve seen most, and here he seems to have played what must be the performance of his career in this monumental portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. Much has been said about how true to life his vocal characterisation is and I don’t really know how we can be sure of this (after all, the man died before the advent of sound recording) but it is totally believable. It may have been criticised in many quarters but Day-Lewis did his research and it conforms to the contemporary written accounts, if maybe not to the mental image many Americans prefer to have of how their 16th President sounded.
I expect we owe the physical resemblance partly to the hair and makeup department – surprisingly absent from the Oscar nominations – but mostly to Daniel Day-Lewis himself, whose stoop, gait and facial expressions seem to bring the President eerily to life.
Overall Lincoln is a great piece of ensemble acting and the dialogue is superb, carrying the narrative and the drama whilst managing touches of humour along the way. There has been mixed comment about the use of written records to construct much of the script but for me it was a superbly judged screenplay.
I was struck very early in the film by the stylistic resemblance that John Williams’s score had to the music of Aaron Copland, something that fits the subject matter extremely well. It was during the sequence in which Lincoln is quoting Euclid on Equality that I recognised what appeared to be more or less a direct quote from Copland’s Lincoln Portrait – clearly a deliberate piece of musical referencing and one that seemed remarkably fitting.
Despite my mixed expectations, I was captivated by this picture from the outset and it certainly didn’t feel anything like its 150 minutes.
I watched Lincoln at FACT Liverpool; for more details see my posting of 24th January. http://www.fact.co.uk/
Friday, 25 January 2013
The German Romantics – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 24/01/2013
Wagner: Overture - The Flying Dutchman, Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.4, Brahms: Symphony No.4
Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko.
A good friend of mine likes to compare music with food and on that basis this programme reads on paper like a real winter warmer of a meal; something to sustain us on a cold January evening when the skies outside threaten more snow. There were no heavy puddings on this menu though.
The biting winds of Wagner’s overture to The Flying Dutchman swept a chill into the hall but were tempered with some luscious warm playing from the woodwind in Senta’s theme. There was a spring in the orchestra’s step for the sailors’ chorus and the overall drama of the piece left me wishing for a chorus to appear on the stage and launch into the opera. The DVD will have to come out at the weekend...
With the Piano moved into position Leif Ove Andsnes arrived for his first appearance at Philharmonic Hall. He told us later that he has left Beethoven aside for some while and that this was his first public performance of the 4th concerto in over 10 years. Maybe revisiting the work after leaving it fallow for so long added something to the freshness of his reading? In any case, he gave an account that balanced lyricism and weight perfectly in a concerto that should always be somewhat introspective. In an open discussion after the concert, he and Vasily discussed how this should never be a work in which pianist and conductor vie for control, being as it is very much an equal dialogue between soloist and orchestra. Let’s hope it isn’t long before Mr Andsnes returns to Liverpool.
After the interval came Brahms’ Symphony No. 4, another work that spends time looking inwards and, as such, needs a performance that allows it to breathe. This is something that seems to come naturally to Vasily, his early training in choral music seems to enable him to shape phrases in a way that feels natural and helps the instruments sing. Returning to our food analogy, the 4th Symphony (like a lot of Brahms) can turn into a rather heavy steamed pudding of a thing in the wrong hands, especially in the final movement which can become very ponderous in its closing pages. Here though it had a lightness of touch that prevented any such thing and the tempi used in the finale, often wildly pulled about and clunky, felt as natural as I can ever recall having heard them. The brass playing in the final movement especially had a nobility about it that brought the evening to a warm and satisfying close.
The concert is repeated at 2:30pm on Sunday afternoon, 27th January 2013, and at the time of writing there are still a limited number of tickets available.
Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko.
A good friend of mine likes to compare music with food and on that basis this programme reads on paper like a real winter warmer of a meal; something to sustain us on a cold January evening when the skies outside threaten more snow. There were no heavy puddings on this menu though.
The biting winds of Wagner’s overture to The Flying Dutchman swept a chill into the hall but were tempered with some luscious warm playing from the woodwind in Senta’s theme. There was a spring in the orchestra’s step for the sailors’ chorus and the overall drama of the piece left me wishing for a chorus to appear on the stage and launch into the opera. The DVD will have to come out at the weekend...
With the Piano moved into position Leif Ove Andsnes arrived for his first appearance at Philharmonic Hall. He told us later that he has left Beethoven aside for some while and that this was his first public performance of the 4th concerto in over 10 years. Maybe revisiting the work after leaving it fallow for so long added something to the freshness of his reading? In any case, he gave an account that balanced lyricism and weight perfectly in a concerto that should always be somewhat introspective. In an open discussion after the concert, he and Vasily discussed how this should never be a work in which pianist and conductor vie for control, being as it is very much an equal dialogue between soloist and orchestra. Let’s hope it isn’t long before Mr Andsnes returns to Liverpool.
After the interval came Brahms’ Symphony No. 4, another work that spends time looking inwards and, as such, needs a performance that allows it to breathe. This is something that seems to come naturally to Vasily, his early training in choral music seems to enable him to shape phrases in a way that feels natural and helps the instruments sing. Returning to our food analogy, the 4th Symphony (like a lot of Brahms) can turn into a rather heavy steamed pudding of a thing in the wrong hands, especially in the final movement which can become very ponderous in its closing pages. Here though it had a lightness of touch that prevented any such thing and the tempi used in the finale, often wildly pulled about and clunky, felt as natural as I can ever recall having heard them. The brass playing in the final movement especially had a nobility about it that brought the evening to a warm and satisfying close.
The concert is repeated at 2:30pm on Sunday afternoon, 27th January 2013, and at the time of writing there are still a limited number of tickets available.
Thursday, 24 January 2013
It’s Alive, it’s Alive, IT’S ALIVE!
“Frankenstein” (1931) at FACT Liverpool 23/01/2013
This seemed a good opener for my first posting on this blog, in which I plan on airing my musings over the various musical, theatrical and vaguely artistic diversions that I enjoy in Liverpool and, occasionally, elsewhere.
FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) at Ropewalks Square on Wood Street is a hub of activity containing galleries, exhibition spaces bars and a cafe, as well as a cinema with the X factor. Tucked away behind the bohemian bustle of Liverpool’s Bold Street, it is a hidden gem that is much loved by all that have strayed its way, and if you go there once you’re bound to be back soon.
Currently exhibiting is “Winter Sparks”, a collection of installations that highlight the links between art and science, including a darkened room in which Tesla Coils produce dancing electrical discharges reminiscent of something that belongs in a mad professor’s workshop. Appropriate, then, that among the screenings arranged to accompany the exhibit was the 1931 classic “Frankenstein” in which effects designer Kenneth Strickfaden allegedly used Tesla Coils made by the very Nikola Tesla himself.
The film itself, being such a classic, needs very little explanation but no matter how many times you’ve watched it on TV there is nothing to compare with sharing the experience with an audience, projected on a big screen. For this single showing FACT had arranged to use a digital copy of the film restored for the Universal Centenary release, and thus we got to see it in splendid clarity complete with scenes originally cut by the censor and only recently reinstated. The Monster throwing a little girl into a lake was considered too shocking for a 1931 audience, and Henry Frankenstein declaring that now he knew “...how it feels to be God” was equally beyond the pale. Parts of the film do come across in the 21st Century as unbearably quaint and a little comical, but it has lost none of its style and charm and it was a joy to sit and look up at it on the screen as it was intended.
To set the film in context Dr Sally Sheard, Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine at Liverpool University, gave an introductory talk about the state of British Medicine at the time when Mary Shelley penned the original story, demonstrating that some of the fictional concepts were not so far from being science fact even in 1818.
FACT has three main cinema screens as well as its gallery spaces (seating 254, 136 and 104 people respectively) and a fourth screening room, “The Box”, which offers the more informal seating arrangement of rows of sofas, and it was in this space that we saw Frankenstein.
If you haven’t been to FACT it is well worth popping in for a coffee and a look at what’s on offer. Exhibitions change regularly and screenings range from mainstream cinema, through classic or limited release pictures to live and recorded relays from theatres and opera houses, as well as works showing as part of an exhibit.
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