The Entertainer

On Thursday October 27^th October, I made a third visit in three days to Cineworld Bolden for a relay of the Kenneth Branagh Theatre series in which he stars as Archie Rice, John Osborne’s Play the Entertainer, a role which Sir Lawrence Oliver made his own on stage and in a film production. The play has been part of my life for over 50 years first with the touring production at Croydon in 1958 with John Slater as Archie Rice. I also remember the 1960 film with Lawrence Oliver and which was subsequently shown on Television which I watched earlier on Amazon Prime.  There was a subsequent TV production but I only had brief visual memories of all previous experiences so the crude directness of the stage play performed by the Branagh company was something of a surprise, particularly racism, homophobia, anti-foreigner lecherous right-wing Archie and his nostalgic father, and where much of it was removed from the 1960 film version.

Archie Rice and his father are part of the traditional musical hall which ended in the fifties and the end of the pier Summer show which was revived in 1970’s and 1980 with performances by stars who made their names in television. My childhood seaside memories including being taken to the seaside shows, the De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill on Sea comes to mind and in my middle age I went to shows at Scarborough and Great Yarmouth. Although the 1960’s film was made at Sheperton a large part of the film is at a coastal resort and at one of the huge open air swmming pools with tiered seating for spectators to watch shows and the beauty competitions. The end of prolonged second world war austerity, the temporary popularity of traditional jazz, the growth of rock and roll, the growth of television, the end of the Empire, the boom in cheap continental holidays, especially to Spain, the more discerning to Greece, Italy and the South of France, the British summer weather were all issues in this play which the play which coincides with the time of the ill-fated Suez War.

Archie discloses to his daughter Jean (played by Joan Plowright in the film for whom Olivier left world famous second wife actress Vivien Leigh wife of twenty years) that his first wife walked out when she found him in bed with his present wife and during the play Archie begins an affair with a girl the same age as his daughter because her father has the money to back his latest show venture. The actress Shirley Ann Field plays a beauty Queen with stage ambitions who Archie chases as just another conquest until finding out that her father is a businessman with money (this man’s wife is played by Thora Hird although what the trio are doing staying at a holiday camp is odd).

The play begins with the arrival of Jean to visit her father and grandfather having run away from a planned weekend trip with her fiancée because of perceived irreconcilable difference. The fiancé only appears at the end of the play but in the film, he takes centre stage, ridiculing his fiancé’s work, critical of her family and her opposition to the Suez War, having joined the in large central London protest at the time against the action of Prime Minister Anthony Eden jointly with France but not supported by the USA after Egypt’s nationalist leader Colonel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, recognised China and made a bid to become the leader of the Arab States. The lack of USA support and opposition at home led to the withdrawal and a major blow to the standing in the world of the UK and national pride until the success of the Falkland’s venture although this came at a high price.

Archie has two sons played in the film by two of the UK’s finest film actors who also had careers on stage and on TV. I have seen nearly all the thirty fiveish films of Alan Bates who was born five years before me and died in 2003. He had first made his in mark on stage in John Osborn’s successful launching the era of the Angry Young Man play Look Back in Anger and Alan became a household name with his film performance Whistle down the Wind with the daughter of John Mills, Haley. In the Entertainer Alan plays a national service conscience objector sentenced to six-month imprisonment and who works as a hospital porter and in the film, he is a stage manager. I have seen Alan Bates in one London Stage play Still Life

The other son who is doing his national service is not seen in the play but is given a role in the film with a send-off at a station by his sister and fiancé. This is the first film role by Albert Finney in a part as a carefree fatalist what will be will be. The capture of this son becomes national news and his execution by Egyptians make him into a national hero, and brings welcome attention to the dysfunctional struggling family. Albert Finney made his international name in the film Saturday Night and Sunday morning in a career which continued with appearances in the Jason Bourne films of the past decade and the Bond movie Skyfall.

A feature of Billy and Archie Rice that they bring nationalism and Patriotism into the their acts through their songs representing a Britain finding it difficult to adjust to the world as it rapidly changed and finding that gunboat diplomacy is not only ineffective but has come back bite through the execution of son. It has taken another fifty years before the public through the parents and relatives of the men who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, those who pressed for the Iraq Inquiry and who questioned the proposed decisions to enter the war between Syrians in what will appear too many to be another forsaken failed state.

Both men are bigots who ought to know better and I can only assume that some of the offensive words used are in the original script and deleted from the film making Roger Liversy who plays Billy appear a warm, understanding and tolerant of his son and grandchildren, nostalgic clinging to the standards of his generation where the truth of life are not mentioned even especially within families. Archie is portrayed as honest in his willingness to save his career and pay the wages of the company by sacrificing his wife who he has used in his stand-up comedy. The word coloured in the 1960 film become black in the play but if this an acceptable modernization to the original text why is reference to wogs retained and used more than once? Are the several references to Poles in the original text or is this also an attempt to bring Archie up to date as a UKIP/national front supporter?

His wife, Greta Scacchi with Branagh, Benda De Banzi with Olivier, and who in the film retains her big explanation of why she has become alcohol dependent, is presented as all the wives who have put up with womanizing men, because of gifted kindness, and from her perspective being a good father, from guilt at having set her cap at him and from fear that being without him, she would be without anyone. Or maybe the underlying reason is more simple, that she did not enjoy sex, she was content for him to get that satisfaction elsewhere if someone else did not do to her what she had done to his first wife. The modern women in 1956 is played by Joan Plowright t and a less worldly accepting in 2016 by Sophie Mcshera-  Daisy of Downton Abbey.  In the film, she invites the fiancé into her bed whatever the landlady’s rules reminding that in childhood we stayed at one family holiday where after breakfast we were not allowed back until time for the evening meal.  Plowright does not batter an eyelid at some of the sayings of the men, you do not look at the mantelpiece when you stoke the fire which are the time had the same impact as the bun in the oven comment in The Cruel Sea.  Mcshera is not happy with a lot of the men talk and in the latest production she rejects the fiancé when he comes calling at the end of film with the position at best ambiguous in the film. I cannot remember if it was the surviving son who makes the comment about a servile public content with the wave of a gloved hand from the golden coach.

In both productions, it is Jean who tells her father the proposed marriage is not acceptable when father seeks to gain her blessing and in both instances, she tells grandfather and he contacts the parents to explain that the suitor is already married with a grown-up family.

Archie and the family are still offered a way out as his wife’s brother has emigrated to Canada and made such a success of a running a hotel that has opened another which he wants Archie to run. In the play the offer includes the air fares while in the film it is Archie’s brother who offers to pay the fares and meet the outstanding debts    having been told of the offer.  The  present play production takes a swipe at Gateshead and Hartlepool of the  950’s, probably justified  given the position of towns in the early 1970’s was town where I first  arrived in the North East  as likely venues for  the end of pier Salad days  type of musical or even the Good Companions of J B Priestley although the stand-up  comedy of Bobby Thompson the Little Waster remains legendry and who made a point of trying to make me belly laugh one evening doing a turn for a Councillor friend at a home for the Elderly, and where in  fact northern comics did turns at the male  dominated social and working men’s club at weekends  when wives and girlfriends were encouraged to also attend.  It was the pubs in the North East who took up the strippers and pole dancing as clubs would have found acceptable the posed nudity with which Archie commenced to dabble to try and get the punters to keep coming through the doors

Archie goes to London to try and get the funds to keep the show going, a new show with a headliners and new costumes but the impresario in question wants to see the goods before putting in the cash for a tour. This reminds reading that it cost a quarter of million to move the original production of Miss Saigon from theatre to theatre. When the deal involving a new wife as a headliner collapses, the grandfather suggests his name is still able to draw in folk and offers to go back on the boards but Jean’s premonition that this will kill him is proved right.  It is as this point that Archie admits he has signed a cheque for the new production on the strength of the withdrawn investment which means he will go to prison, and miss the opportunity to celebrity 21 years of not paying any income tax.

The play ends with Archie making what he knows is his last performance and having rejected the opportunity to go to Canada with his wife and son he accepts going to prison to see if it will bring him to life being dead behind his eyes. In the most revealing admission of the play and using far more crude language than permitted in the film script Archie tells Jean that it was the singing of a blues/gospel black woman at a club when after war he visited Canada that she brought home to him real ability to communicate the emotions of a life through a voice in a song. He tries to do the same on learning of the death of his son but he and we know while a good attempt there something missing in his makeup. At one level, he hopes going to prison will change him although he jokes about it. Those of us who have had the experience know that it can have the opposite outcome destroying without recreating or hardening into the life long criminal.

Those who are critical of the work, pointing out that it is not a great play with music song and dance fail to appreciate that it marks not only the end of an era between Britain’s past and future but was part of a whole genre of theatrical works reflecting life as it was and not life as the middle class wanted it to be portrayed. The Hollywood of the twin-bedded rooms for married couples or the sophisticated interactions of Noel Coward’s Private Lives and Terence Rattigan’s Deep Blue Sea. I have been struck recently how white the audience at Bolden always is. This brings me to the second of the three visits in three days to see the Queen of Kitwe in Uganda.

Miss Saigon over 25 years

Along with the film Casablanca Miss Saigon is the one work which I can experience time and time again.  When it opened in 1989 I had on impulse gone to see if I could get a ticket for a matinee performance after a morning meeting of a national committee. As the start approached and there was still a number of others waiting a young woman jumped out of a taxi and said she had spare ticket for the stalls for which I willing paid the full price arriving at our good seats just as the curtain was rising.  At the interval she complained it was Madam Butterfly, true but only at the level of the basic story and where I believe she failed to appreciate the great tunes and the political aspects of USA imperialism in Asia.  My family had been to see Les Miserables on a family visit to London and I had gone to see Les Miss on my own, not appreciating its length and having to leave early to meet up with the family for the evening performance of Miss Saigon. Of course this meant going to see Les Miserables  again as well as seeing Miss Saigon at least once or even twice after that. I remain convinced that I have written about the work before but cannot presently locate the evidence and could not find wo tape recording of the show among the 200 tapes in my collection which is odd.

You Tube has come to rescue with the full sound track while I write. The musical retains its hold because of the music, the song, the story and its topicality with the Syrian boat people replacing those from Vietnam as they made their way to Bangkok and onwards to the USA and to here in the UK. Most of all the musical remains important to me and others who because of parental and subsequent circumstances feel ourselves to belong to the Bui Doi, the dust of life children without a meaningful identity and without a meaningful home.  On Sunday 16^th of October the relay was in fact a film of the actual anniversary production which took place the previous month.

The latest production makes the use of back screen projection but all the element of the original production is included where in the after show it was admitted that over the year’s emphasis of the acting has become stronger and I felt there is now an even greater edge to the production than the original.

I saw Lee Solanga in the title role of Kim, Miss Saigon as a 17-year-old and she returned to the stage as a mature middle aged person with all the ability to project the emotion of experience she will not have had in the first production.  Lee vied as the star of show with Jonathan Pryce who played the Vietnamese bar owner, brothel keeper, pimp and fixer, the Engineer, for which he won awards, and I found that in some respects the new Kim is outshone by the latest ethnic correct actor who is brilliant as Engineer and praised by Jonathan Pryce who made some great jokes introducing the dancing girls for the showing stopping number towards the end, The American Dream as his careers. Humour there was but despite the glitz of the spectacle this is a very serious work of timeless significance.

The show open with an overture and the sound of a helicopter as we are introduced to the Engineer and his bar brothel as the Americans are about to cut and run. Kim aged 17 years is the latest recruit from the country, as her parent died under the bombing and she fled to the city in search of means of survival with prostitution the only source available. The creators of the show avoided the problem of Madam Butterfly who is underage as 17 years’ old’s remain in a number of USA States but the reality is that children have been forced into the bar brothels sometimes sold by their parents as the only means of their survival or to get sufficiently ahead to break from their cycle of survival poverty. In every town where there is some form of military, or naval base, and  from the last century the airbase, or places sympathetic to the need for fighting men to have relax and recreation breaks when they are at war or far from home, the problem has existed and early on in my work in child care, I was allocated a mother with three children, all by different USA service men, from an airbase in the recent constituency of former Prime Minister David Cameron and where the first was the product of a visit to the base dance when she was only 15.

Every night at the bar run by the Engineer, he appoints one of the girls Miss Saigon the premium lady of the night, and when one become available, he auctions a young virgin, the fresh meat to quote the words of the lyricist by Alain Boubil who also created the original French Lyrics, along with Claude-Michael Schonberg who created the music and the story. They created their first work together in 1973, Les Revolution Francaise and it was in 1978 that they commenced work on what has become their more famous creation, Les Miserables which opened in Paris in 1980.  but it was when the decision was taken to translate the Lyrics into English and for productions to commence in London and New York that through Cameron Mackintosh their work received international recognition. Cameron Mackintosh started theatre life as a stagehand and he is also responsible for to other worldwide ongoing shows, The Phantom of the Opera and Cats. It is also notable that Cameron has donated part of the proceeds of Miss Saigon to a Foundation in support of refugees.  One of the highlights of the anniversary after show was the arrival of Alain, Claude and Cameron in the American Dream Car as the number was performed by Jonathan Pryce with Jon Jon Briones. 

Miss Saigon first opened in 1989 in London and then in 1991 in New York, revived in London in 2014 and opens again in New York next year, It opened in Tokyo 1992 followed  Toronto  1993, Germany Stuttgart, not Berlin  and Hungary 1994, Holland and Austraila1996, and then New Zealand and Sweden with Estonia in 2002, Denmark 2004/2005 and Finland, then Korea 2004 and most interesting perhaps of all Bangkok in Thailand in 2012, also Austria,  Finland and the Philippines and  revivals in Japan in 2004 and again 2008-2009 and 2012, 1914 and 2016 in South Korea, in Canada and Holland. A production has also toured in the UK. The number of productions is mentioned because changes have been made over the years to take account of changing times, the different countries and their varied audience.

The storyline is established with the arrival of young single USA service men into the bar  with John  now  played by a Black actor arranging to buy Kim ( paraded as  a Virgin)  for his troubled friend Chris and where the presence of Kim is seen as a threat by the experienced Gigi who portrays a young woman still dreaming of finding an American who will sweep her off to the USA and where she and Kim sing the first of the haunting songs in the show, “The Movie in my Mind” and this is soon followed  by “the Dance” with its haunting saxophone and in which the Engineer arranges for the Kim and  Chris who are  genuinely attracted to each other to go  to her room away from the bar.

It is then the number “Why, God” which elevates the work away from a simple sexual exploitation story to the perspective of the USA servicemen in a strange country with a challenging culture and which in my view makes it more significant than Madam Butterfly where Pinkterton always comes across as fitting in only for the purpose of having a young wife and without questioning his role.  The difference is reinforced when Kim gives an account of what happened to her family and how she is in her present situation “Sun and Moon” and Chris wants the relationship to become serious entering into a marriage ceremony according to local tradition and custom, having in effect purchased Kim from the Engineer who wants a Visa to get to the USA as he realizes the USA’s role in the country is ending. This is reinforced by John in a phone call who declares that the situation is falling apart and the USA is abandoning the people as it did in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya subsequently, along with the UK and other interventionist countries, unwilling to devote the resources to establish effective and lasting governments before departure.

This leads to another pivotal moment when the young man, Thuy, betrothed by their parents when adolescents aged thirteen arrives and is stunned to find what has happened. Kim’s rebuke that he changed sides leaving her during the week her parents were killed justifies her new circumstances but those able to take a more detached view of events will have sympathy for the young man brought up in one tradition and coming to recognise that the insurgent army represented the way forward for the majority of people after decades of colonial exploitation by the French and then the USA Americans. His sense of betrayal is matched by the lovers forced to separate in the haunting “Last Night of the World”.

There is then the powerful statement of the success of Ho chi minh, the leader of the revolution with “the Morning of the Dragon” in which we learn that the Vietnamese young nan Thuy has become a commander with authority and demands that the Engineer locates Kim if he wants to retain his freedom. The juxtaposition between the realities of geo politics and the complex emotional relationships between individuals of different cultures is then powerfully portrayed by “I still believe” in which Kim and the present USA wife of Chris unite in their respective love and appreciation of his and their situation.

The intensity of the story is further heightened when Kim and the Engineer is located and Thuy attempts to use his new power to force marriage or she to risk death by his men. Kim defends her situation by introducing her son by Chris which infuriates Thuy more and he issues the ultimatum of survival through without the child, a symbol of his enemy. In desperation she kills Thuy using the weapon Chris had given her for protection when he returned the base in the attempt to secure passage for his bride. Kim pleads with the Engineer help her go to America which he ridicules before realizing that that her son is that of Chris and their entry ticket if he poses as her brother “Let me see his Western nose.” In the new production it is possible to project film of the boatpeople crossing between Vietnam and Thailand, not lost on the Cineworld audience now familiar with the attempts of the Syrians and others to reach mainland Europe. Before the final chorus of the Exodus at the closure of the first act Kim warns of want is to come, “I’d give my life for you.”

Before writing of the Second Act It Is a good point to mention the substantial subsequent change in USA Vietnam relations which occurred with President Clinton came into office and that within a couple of years of the opening of the show in the USA there was official recognition followed by trade agreements in 2000 and 2007 and over one and half million Vietnamese Americans and a large cultural exchange of Vietnam student studying in the USA and making their subsequent homes in the country.

The choice of the number which opens the second Act of the musical is therefore of significance in understanding that the work was always intended to be more than entertainment or to duplicate the tragic sexual exploitation story of Madam Butterfly but of all children like me caught in a no man’s land of no identity and no homeland.

The Bui Doi, the Dust of life is our song and we stretch throughout human history to the children at Calais and the children, the products of Isis and the woman and girls they are using. John on returning home has achieved maturity as a human being and sanity as a former soldier by representing an organization seeking to trace the fathers of the children abandoned in Vietnam and across Asia and receives a report that Kim is alive with a child, a bar girl in Bangkok and he contacts Chris with the news. 

This throws Chris into turmoil because he has not told his wife of the relationship and is someone who he genuinely loves as she attempts to cope with the distance between them and his nightmares, the consequence of his experience and relationship in Vietnam.

We learn that in Bangkok the Engineer has become an employee, an on commission hustler with Kim the experienced bar girl both surviving on dreams of getting to the USA, “What a waste” girls available for the sexual tourist for only10 cents an hour, the offer of boys, first girl free and himself for extra fee. Chris has arrived with his wife and John goes in search of Kim and meets up with the Engineer “Chris is here”, but John cannot bear to tell Kim the truth after witnessing her continuing devotion and belief he has come for her and for his child. The bar owner arrives and warns them both because of the child on the premises. John goes off to bring Chris but the Engineer does not trust the situation fearing he will excluded and persuades Kim to go to the hotel after finding out the address.  

Thuy reappears as a ghost cursing Kim that she will not fulfill her dream and next there is a return in time to the fall of Saigon with Kim and Chris desperate to get to each other are separated by the compound, just as the German people were by the Berlin Wall, the Syrian and others by the European Wall, and Trump and the Republicans and their proposed wall with Mexico and the last helicopter arrives to take the remaining solders and Vietnamese away communicating the panic and despair of those left behind as those  more recently experienced  in Iraq, in Afghanistan and Libya and no doubt in Syria once the threat to Europe and the USA has been contained.

Kim prepares to go to the hotel, dressing as Chris knew her while singing a reprise of “the Sun and the Moon.” At the hotel she encounters Kim’s wife quickly recognizes who Kim is while Chris makes his way to the bar. Kim is shocked by the news that Chris has married and feels betrayed because of the vows he made and demands that Chris comes and tells her the truth. When Chris returns to the hotel there is another number which again raises the work above others, including the Opera Madam Butterfly, a she tells the reality of young men out of college being sent to war in lands with different cultures for reasons they do not understand.

What is now to happen is inevitable and the couple debate staying in Thailand to ensure the future of Kim and his son, as at first his second wife cannot accept the possibility of returning to the USA with the son. Before the end there is a spectacular reminder of the American Dream with a chorus line of Marilyn Monroe blondes as the dream car, and yes there is now an internet site selling the Cadillacs and the Chevrolets called Dream Cars, comes on the stage which the Engineer humps at one point, and ends with a lit Statue of Liberty young woman emerging from the back seat.

To ensure she keeps the vow to her son she dresses him as an American and kills herself thus ensuring Chris and his wife takes her son but we the audience know this is likely to doom the marriage and create lifelong problems for the child.

At the Cineworld West India Dock there was a brief five-minute interval between the two Acts and then ten before he 25^th anniversary celebration when all the original London cast comes on stage and with the principal singers giving encores with the artists from the present production. It was a memorable and where it was evident the audience had a similar reaction. I have ordered the official video of the evening with copies for family members.

King Lear Royal Shakespeare Productions 1991-2016 the David Troughton connection

On Wednesday evening12th October I saw my third Royal Shakespeare Company production of King Lear, this time in a Relay from Stratford at the Cineworld Bolden. The first occasion was a live performance at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle in 1991 as part of one of several seasons at which they also played at what is now the Northern Stage and before then some productions were at the Newcastle People’s Theatre.  Lear was played by John Wood but of more interest today Ralph Fiennes played Edmund and David Troughton as Kent and Alex Kingston as Cordelia. The play was also part of the 1994 season with Robert Stephens as Lear. Simon Russell Beale played Edgar and Cordelia Abigail McKern, the daughter of Leo, who played with him the last three episodes of Rumpole of the Bailey.

During the years when the RSC visited Newcastle for a long season with a broad mixture of Shakespeare. Old English dramas and comparatively modern plays often performed in a studio theatre environment as a family of four at times we were often in the second tier of the theatre unable to see any close ups of the actors/ No such restraints on Thursday where the cost was only £8.10 saving a similar amount through holding the unlimited card. Thus we were all able to appreciate the impressive performance of Anthony Sher as the King once powerful and strong decides to retire and divide his kingdom between his three daughters with the plan to also divide living with them. But instead of doing this in a straightforward way he attempts to find out who loves him best and this results in two of his daughters faking while the third Cordelia refuses to play and is honest and direct a kind of Jeremy Corbyn comes to mind, and does not get a share and marries the King of France who respects her integrity and does not mind the lack of wealth or power.

The story is complex with the theme that it is unwise to judge on just appearance so I focus on characters. The official Fool is an established form of entertainment although I usually find little humour in such characters except for their play on words and quick sharp barbed wit. In this play there comes a time when the King plays the fool and fool the King in terms of understanding what is happening.

Having divided his Kingdom between two of his daughters Lear finds that they refuse him bringing 100 men with him, then 50 and then 25 and he becomes effectively homeless and during a great storm with repeated shafts of lightning encounters Edgar the son of Gloucester playing a lunatic fool Tom O bedlam played convincingly by Oliver Johnston and he leads the King to temporary safety in a hovel. Edgar has been forced to go into hiding, disinherited by his father through the treachery of his illegitimate half-brother Edmund. Because Gloucester (played by David Troughton closing the circle with the 1991 production) helps the king he is blinded by the two sisters in an effective gruesome on stage event and he seeks to ends his life, especially when encountering the King and realising the state he is in. He is saved in every sense when Edgar finds him and stops playing the mad man.

It is during the second act that the world of the two sisters falls part because of competition for the love and attention of Edmund and all seems to promise a good story ending when Cordelia and her husband arrive at Dover to reclaim her role rightful role and Edgar goes to meet them to advise of what is happening. A battle takes place shown in the production as a back projection in silhouette and unfortunately Cordelia and the King lose and are taken prisoners but the two are reconciled and look positively about being together in prison. However, Edgar appreciates the likely treachery as the two sisters fall out and plan revenge on Cordelia and too late she dies, hung and cannot be revived by her distraught father.

By this time Edgar has fought a dual with Edmund and dispatched him. One of the sisters has poisoned the other and commits suicide thus the King is left childless although back in charge of his country, his friend Gloucester blind and Gloucester’s son and the Fool his trusted allies. The Dukes of Cornwall and Albany also vying for power through their marriages to the Kings daughters are out in the cold once more. There is a large cast for this production of some thirty doubled with the creative team. The musicians and those involved in the Live relay.

During the interval we are given insight into the wardrobe department, the design of the costumes and the beautiful and fragile lace upon lace dress worn by Cordelia in which she is not allowed to sit and which requires the utmost care. We learn that the robes are heated to remove accumulating odour and we learn that the RSC is to use Avatars and motion capture for its forthcoming production of the Tempest.  The Tempest will be shown live in cinemas on January 11^th 2017

The Musical Sunny Afternoon

On Thursday evening October 6^th 2016 I went to the Empire Theatre Sunderland to see the musical on the life of the Kinks, Sunny Afternoon, and which proved to be an unexpected experience in two ways. First the maximum amps were turned up for short spells, fortunately only twice, reminding the U2 Tribute band concert at the Customs House a few years back and here I met the band in a van lost on the hill where I live overlooking the mouth of the River Tyne, in search of their B and B. I went down and purchased a ticket just before the concert. It was so loud that some of the audience including younger members left at the interval. The only other memorable instance of intolerable loudness was an Elkie Brooks concert also some years back. Sunny Afternoon was both great as a musical and also provided important insights into the lives of rock musicians and the interactions between band members and their other relationships.

I set off to arrive when I anticipated the theatre would open, parking at the Bridge Shopping Centre Car Park just before 6.15 and where the cost for the evening was only £1 because of the Thursday night late opening session. I had brought the novel The Season Ticket but left it in the car and decided not to not to bother to go back once going out of the shopping Centre towards the theatre having buttoned the coat on a chilly evening. I was early for 7.30 show start as I wanted to get a ticket for the Tommy Steel playing of Glenn miller in the show already seen at the Theatre Royal.  I also had a glass of wine with the ticket and a large glass with a third filled plus a small carton of Pringles original crisps for £2. I took a bar stool seat at a window in the circle bar keeping my coat on as it was evident the heating had only recently been switched on in this area although the main auditorium was fine.

On arrival there was just me entering and half a dozen staff selling programmes and checking tickets at the two entrance and there was a choice of seating in the circle bar so I wondered about the audience response on this first night. By the time of curtain up the stalls were full and look back up so appeared the upper tiers. My aisle seat was closer to the stage as anticipated as there was an extension into the auditorium enabling singers and dancers to perform with the first rows having to look across sideways and the main set a full stage rectangular room filled on three sides with attractively autumn warm coloured loudspeakers which I assume represented the Konk recording studios and which covered over, I thought rather drab, for what became the ill-fated USA tour.

The Musical provides the opportunity to go through the Kinks song book and there is now the statutory ten-minute demand for the audience to stand join in sing and dance as a finale but this is a rare event a musical which also tell the raw and frank truth of the band together with the impact of the fame and fortune but also of every member, their separate lives as well as interactions. Some of the aspects are applicable to most bands of young men, the temptation to party to success with teenage girls, drink and drugs, and to rebel at the nature of the industry with managers and agents taking their percentage although nothing compared to palms to be crossed when performing in the USA. The story, the lyrics were created by the principal singer song writer Ray Davies but he repeatedly makes the point of the collective nature of their success, consistent with the socialism upon which his life is based. What is contentious is the claim that the band should be viewed alongside the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in terms of their artistic and playing abilities. What is clear is that Ray Davies attempted throughout to create music with lyrics which reflected his changing experiences of the changing society around him.

The band was originally created by the youngest brother Dave who became ranked as one of the top 100 guitarists of all time, was a sometime lead vocalist and lyricist lyrics with six older sisters and older brother Ray. The family who lived in Muswell Hill North London were music in the music all tradition was an active part of all their childhoods. A three bedroom two storey terraced House with a large 100-yard garden is selling for £1.35 million the cheapest from one online estate agent rising to £3m with the average property over £2m.  Dave became a larger than life character on and off the stage, expelled from school because of a relationship with an underage girl who became pregnant a where separated by the two families he did not meet with their child until three decades later. He had been twice married and had other relationship, cross dressing at times and bisexual and altogether eight children.  He had stroke in 2004 but continues to make news.

Dave originally formed the band with Peter Quaife who visited the family home and was at school with Ray and remained a key member for the for six years and in the Musical the reason given for his departure was a combination of wanting to lead a more stable life and because of relationship problems between the drummer Mick Avory and Dave, although in fact Peter went on to lead his own band the Mapleoak with two Canadians and members and playing for a time in Denmark. His involvement with the band and the music industry was short lived and spent nearly two decades in Canada and then back in Denmark. Peter suffered renal problems and was dependent on dialysis for ten years dying in 2010. He remained a loyal supporter of the Kinks the appearance if the band at Glastonbury was dedicated to him

The outstanding drummer Mick Avory remained with the band for two decades, a record second only to Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, mentioned because in fact it is said that back in in 1962 Mick rehearsed at a pub in London with musicians who formed the original Rolling Stones. It is said he played with the Stones at their first gig at the Marquee, a venue where I attended its opening when the John Dankworth band and singers performed. When his playing career with the band ended Mick commenced to manage the Konk recording studios founded by the Davies brothers and which they still use to this day with the recordings of the 29 Musical show numbers created on disc. The feuding between him and Dave was legendry but long since resolved.

Ray Davies is the first to acknowledge the debt he has to his younger brother, Peter and Mick and also their first two managers but his work as a songwriter justifiably led to his induction in the USA Hall of Fame and to C.B.E here in the UK. Like his brother, at times he has had a dramatic personal life married three times and with other significant relationships including with Chrissy Hinds. In the musical he makes reference that his first wife was a school girl of (Lithuanian?) Catholic family background and the political background of her parents was an issue when in the United States as well as his commitment to socialism. The pregnancy of his wife coincided with the USA tour so she was unable to accompany and where she was a backing singer at times with brother Dave and also could play the guitar. It is not clear when Ray was first diagnosed as bipolar but would have been a factor in his admitted suicide attempt following the breakup of his first marriage with whom he has two daughters, another with Chrissy Hinds with a fourth daughter from his marriage to an Irish Ballet dancer.  When in the USA in 2004 he was shot in the leg while chasing thieves who had stolen the bag of his companion in the French Quarter of New Orleans and in 2011 he spent six months recovering from blood clots on the lungs.

He and the band are justifiably famed for a long series of records which achieved  success in the, UK, the USA and worldwide and which are familiar those of my and subsequent generations and to  a new generation who attend  performances of the musical although the majority those in stalls at Sunderland appeared to be aged between 40 and 80:  You Really Got Me, Sunny Afternoon, Lola, All Day and All of the Night, Waterloo Sunset and two of my  favourites Follower of Fashion and Where have all the good times Gone. It is noteworthy that it was Dave, dissatisfied with the sound of the opening chords of You Really Got me who worked out the idea of creating the raw sound by cutting into the amplifier and increasing the volume to the maximum amps. I share those who argue that it is this aspect of the recording together with blues background which catapulted the band from obscurity into transatlantic attention and success and which also had great influence on rock, heavy metal and punk.

What struck me most during the Musical is the contrast between the deafening sound of hard rock and the tender and profound insights of the ballads. Despite a huge list of books to read and review I will add Ray’s biography to the purchase of the CD. A special mention for the cast of this touring production and while that of Ray was impressive I am singling out the young man who played Dave who given my close up position seat I have never before seen someone put so much into an acting and sing role, but every one contributed to giving the audience a great time. The contrast between their energy and commitment the age and evident infirmity of their audience is the best way to end given that I count eight other members of the audience with walking sticks.

I made the mistake of purchasing the ticket online where the premium is unusually high in contrast to going to the Box Office. I do not begrudge paying £46 though.

                                       

A performance of the Sleeping Beauty by the Australian Ballet

The first week of October is proving exceptional in terms of the diversity of cultural experience with this evening a visit to the Sunderland Empire for the musical Sunny Afternoon. On Saturday evening there is nearly a five-hour performance with intervals of Tristan and Isolde relayed from the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. Yesterday I saw a film likely to feature in the awards season because of its contemporary subject content although set at the time of the Civil War in North America, the Free State of Jones, while on Monday I enjoyed the diversity implications of Mrs Pergrines Home for Peculiar Children. On television the experience range has been from Savile and National Treasure, the powerfully insightful Simon Reeve in Ireland to the concluding episodes in the important Drama Series Our Girl and DCI Banks, to the seriously and witty Cold Feet, the disappointing lack an edge as yet Westworld with to come to tonight the second episode of The Fall, a new Beck on Saturday together with a speed viewing of the X Factor live and a Strictly Come Dancing. The less said about the Ryder Cup the better and the announcement that Durham Cricket Club has been fined points banned from holding Test matches and demoted to the second division of the championship as the price of a bail out loan merits a separate writing.

And it is with the dance and the ballet and relayed film of a live performance of the Sleeping Beauty that I commence my first response. Of all cultural experiences the ‘traditional’ ballet has influenced and affected me least with film embedded from childhood followed by television, since it’s a black and while set home made by a first cousin in time for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. I cannot remember now when I was first taken to live theatre which included Opera performances by the Doyle Carte Opera Company or where they took place, and it was only after leaving school at 16 years that I commenced to visiting the local repertory theatre in Croydon on a regular basis and then shows in London and after that around the UK.  As a school child an uncle took me to a music hall in Croydon, I have a vague memory of a pantomime at Christmas and a seaside show or two on holiday. In my first year of work in central London I purchase a half season Promenade for the concerts and went every night standing mainly in front of the tired stalls and sometimes in the Gods and this was the same year that a friend at work took me for my first pints before weekend nights at Cy Laurie, Humphs and the Ken Collyer traditional jazz clubs in and close to Soho.

When I say classical dance I mean music and technically structured dance using the Fairy story as the basis with the three most commonly performed works Swan Lake, the Nutcracker and Swan Lake. In 1956 I purchased a long play record with suits of music from Swan Lake and the Sleeping Beauty performed by the Rome Opera Orchestra conducted by Walter Goehr. I also have a version of Swan Lake on another LP played by the Odessa Philharmonic and for me it is the music of Tchaikovsky which captured my interest than attempting to learn the art of the classical dance and  whereas the second of week of reporting this year  I went on October 4^th to a filmed live performance of the Sleeping Beauty in a new production by the Australian  Ballet company and where the Bolden Cineworld did not provide the usual programme of synopsis, cast and interval arrangements.

The reason for this is that at the start of the prologue and each of the subsequent three Acts there was a brief multilingual story synopsis with that in English at the top. The cast and other information was flashed by at the end making it impossible to read anything let alone find out something about the couple who I assumed where guest principal dancers from another company who performed at the ball to mark the marriage of the Sleeping Beauty and her prince. Through Wikipedia I obtained information of interest about the Australian Ballet which has its roots in a company founded in 1940 and the company only became national in 1962 but is said to have gained a worldwide standing and reputation.

I must declare a lack of knowledge about judging the technical measured and controlled movements of feet, legs and arms involved but the skill displayed was impressive although it had little emotional impact.

The production is both lavish and at times stunning and as the Ballet Producer revealed in a filmed interview the outfits alone cost two million Australian dollars, and where in height, depth and width, the work was performed on the biggest stage I have witnessed other than a performance of the Opera Aida at Earls Court and more on that another day. David McAllister’s (born 1963 the year I commenced to train as a qualified child care officer) production revealed that dancing is something he wanted to do as a child. His interest was reinforced after being taken to see Nureyev and Fontaine, he became a graduate of the company in 1983, a senior artist in 1986 and principal artist in 1989, a position held until 2001 with before that impressing the Russians leading to appearing with the Bolshoi, the Kirov and Georgian state companies. The present work is his creation in every sense including the provision of some of the choreography.

Having long since overcome my negative reaction to thirty to forty year old opera singers attempting to act as 15 year olds I thought Lana Jones in her early thirties  carried off the role of a sixteen year old princess well and the sharp features of her face echoed those of Fontaine whereas the bulk of the trunk her Prince Charming was distracting although I liked what he had to say  about his function in support of the  ballerina and that for any couple of principal dancers there has to be a genuine emotional  connection and intensity which in the close up  was evident to see. I thought the performance of the wicked Fairy, Caraboose, was totally convincing performed by Lynette Wills and was the only other dancer mentioned in the online cast list together with the good Lilac Fairy of Amber Scott The 65-member Orchestra Victoria sounded good with its woman conductor Nicolette Fraillon whose conducting mannerism merit attention as she urges the musicians to close follow her bidding.

The story of the opera is simple with the King and Queen holding an event to mark the Christening of their daughter and the Master of Ceremonies failing to invite the wicked Fairy Caraboose who makes a curse that although the Princess will grow up beautiful and a lovely person, the child will prick her finger on a spindle at 16 and die.  The good fairy intervenes but this only to commute the sentence to 100 years of sleep to be woken by the kiss of a Prince. In the first Act that follows the parents and courtiers show amazing negligence in allowing the wicked fairy to carry out the curse and the Princess is allowed to sleep peacefully in an impressive and attractive locked capsule with a large key.

In Act Two the Prince is out hunting when the good fairy arrives and provides him with a vision of the Princess and how she can be restored to life. As he makes his way the evil fairy does her best to stop him, fails and the Princess comes back to life. The final Act centres on the Marriage of the future Queen and consort and the celebrations that follow with I presume the symbolic ghost in human form of her parents in attendance and in the final scene the miscellany of characters coming together in a scene which appears to be set in the Court of the Louis XIV

There was a fair audience smaller than for Opera and plays and included a mother with two daughters both of primary school age whose excitement was evident to the rest of us and I speculated if the cycle of being inspired and devoting a life to the pursuit of excellence in a highly demanding physical activity was about to be followed. The cost was a modest additional £5.40 to the monthly subscription of £17.40, making a total expenditure of £22.80 for the month so far.

The National Theatre Production of the Three Penny Opera

The Threepenny Opera which I saw in a cinema relay from the National Theatre at Bolden Cineworld on 22^nd September 2016 is a musical and visual presentation of a socialist view of the world of capitalist exploitation of and within the underclass of society, brought up to date and performed just before the Labour and Conservative Party annual conferences. It is important to say at the outset that the work is as opposed to the top down state bureaucratic direction of the economy of Communism or the tolerance and acceptance of the basic capitalist premise of the twentieth century by the Blair and Brown Administrations, following those of Thatcher and Major and furthered with enthusiasm by the Lib Dems under Cameron and George Osborm

The work was created by Bertolt Brecht/ Kurt Weil and performed in Berlin in 1928 as Germany wrestled with having lost the first World War and the collapsing capitalism as vehicle for his wife Lotte Lenya and significantly not performed in the UK until 1956 when it was condemned with the same kind of skilled abuse recently applied to the rise of Jeremy Corbyn. The work is based on the earlier Beggars Opera by John Gay where I am convinced I have seen a Royal Shakespeare production but a search of my programmes as so far failed to confirm. I did experience the Rise and Fall of the House of Mahogany by Brecht and Weill performed at the Royal Opera House in 2015

Although created for a German audience the play is set in London and the National Theatre warns that the work is full of filthy language and immoral behaviour but I found the comical approach dampening the impact rather providing a biting edge of the kind found in the production pf the Season Ticket at Newcastle Stage or the emotional engagement of Norma. I was amused but overall disappointed and just in case my reaction was contrary to the professional critic I have looked at what the Telegraph and the Guardian have had to say and there is agreement that by today’s theatrical, film and TV norm there is a lack of anger. My concern, in addition to the lack of engagement with the characters, the absence of any attack on the basics of internal corporate capitalism.  

The scene is set. and I agree it came across as makeshift without adding to the acting or basic work content, just before coronation day when in the best tradition of Fagan, the gang is prepared for a great day of pick pocketing and the whores to loveless sexuality.  There is a good swipe at the top establishment and the recent rewarding of Cameron’s capitalist chums with complicity state honours as the murdering woman brutalising, and sexually exploiting Macheath (Mac the Knife) not only escapes the gallows but is promised a knighthood and an annual pension of £50000 a year.  There is also reference to the grooming, the seduction of young women   who are viewed as pleasure objects but also to contemporary educational enlightenment and fighting fire with fire as Polly an accountant gains access to the books and joins forces with his other female victims.

I could not help feeling that the inclusion of cross dressing gender bending and someone in a wheelchair with speech disability was more to have contemporary appeal than to enhance the work. It was a good enjoyable evening but not a memorable one. There was a large enthusiastic cast for which the national is famed with Rory Kinnaer as Macheath. Rosalie Craig as Polly and Haydn Gwynne as her jealous mother having also been one of those having sexual intercourse with psychopath. I paid £8.10 for the ticket and enjoyed a 40 pence bar of plain chocolate. Back to the Conservative  Party conference to see how they next exploit  the abysmal failure of the parliamentary Labour Party.

The Season Ticket Northern Stage

On Friday 23rd and 30^th of September 2016 I experienced performances of the Season Ticket performed by Pilot at Northern stage 23^rd to 8^th October followed by York Theatre Royal 12^th to 15^th, Winchester Theatre Royal 20^th 22^nd and Dundee Rep 25^th Oct-27. Despite the dialect difficulties with those unfamiliar with Geordie it is a great pity that the many more theatre goers will not experience this brilliantly scripted very   funny dose of kitchen sink realism on the impact of international corporate capitalism on children and teenagers, who are part of poor families in what I call the economic underclass

I do not use underclass in a pejorative way but to cover those living in or separately from their families who lack the means to provide more than the basics of food and shelter. The irony of the impact of professional football is the stars of premier league earn more in a week than many of the families do in half a decade such has become the level in economic injustice and inequality in the 5^th richest economy in the world. I write this as the first indication of Tory Party Panic to the rise of Jeremy Corbyn and Socialism in the 21^st century as Damien Green announces that the Party is to abandon its attack on the long term sick and disabled abolishing annual reassessments designed to reduce public expenditure supporting some of the neediest while protecting international capitalists from paying their taxes and allowing internal and national crime organisations to flourish.

The play is based on the book of the same title by Johnathan Tulloch which I have now purchased together with a DVD of the film version Purely Belter certificate 15 and copies of his other books, The Lottery where I have experienced a production of the play at the Customs House Theatre in South Shields, Give us this Day and the Bonny Lad. I will view and read and report if my assessment from the theatrical experiences reflects the written word and where later this month the national centre of the written word is to be opened in South Shields.

The family in the play continue to be terrorised by the male coward of a father who has raped the twin school teenage sister of the main character, a truant, foul mouthed and a thief and beats up his wife and son periodically, sometimes drunk, sending both to hospital and defying a court restraining order. What the central character, Gerry, brilliantly played by Niek Vesteeg, survives through his going is his friendship with Sewell played by Will Graham another young actor with a great future although the friendship leads both in trouble and into acts of betrayal to keep the Friendships together. Victoria Elliot as the mother, Lala Zaidi who plays an older sister and also girl friend of Sewell together with Joe Caffrey and Ken Wathen who between them play father, step father, headmaster, school social worker and store security contribute with powerful, sometimes very funny, sometimes biting humour credible performances.

At the core of the play is the importance of football in the life of many cities, towns and surrounding communities and which I have been part of since being taken as a child at Christmas and Easter to Croydon’s Football club Crystal Palace following them as a teenager with less than 500 supporters in the old former third division south, a few games at Oxford City when at Ruskin, got once to Anfield when in Cheshire and  experienced  being stoned after a  game at Everton, running for life at Spurs, leaving early from the Arsenal because of police  crowd demonstration that went wrong,  staff  stolen at Man City, on Tube trains wrecked after matches  between Sunderland and Sunderland,  by West Ham crews rioting against police stopping  a  Chelsea crew getting on to the same station.

As a teenager at Palace we avoided the match with Millwall because their crew came into in the ground for fight as did thugs at Chelsea in and out of the ground where the Right Wing extremists canvassed from stalls before games started.

When I arrived in the North East in 1974 I knew when a goal was scored at Roker Park working in the back garden so I went and was quickly hooked.  The Toon army shouted louder when they came with a significant section of racists although racism and tribalism and religious division, homophobia have been endemic in the north east among the working and middle class along with tolerance of swearing, physical violence and drunkenness with drug addiction and its funding more recent addition from the late 1960’s along with organised crime.

My first visit to the Arsenal was to see Stanley Mathew playing for Blackpool although I only saw on half of the field of play afraid to be handed over the standing crowd of over 50000 crowd to the front. I gave up on Sunderland when they went into third and looked for a time going to the fourth, and then thrilled by Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle who nearly did a Leicester, and now after a decade of continuing failure and Sky I pick and mix what I see and when.

But I understand the match day experience of meeting up with friends for a meal and drink before or after and sometimes bot, hoping but never expecting a win, miraculous play and an exciting moment or two. The reality of Tyne and Wearside with 100000 attending the two clubs on a consistent basis is that locally born heroes have become memories as have sides unless they are pushing for promotion as Newcastle are once again or successfully fighting relegation which Sunderland are struggling to do. The problem has been club ownerships and buying the wrong players for the task to hand and I apply this to political leaderships and politicians all too frequently imported from outside the region and with no understanding the history of how the local community has worked.

There is also a problem that International football has become corrupt and an ally of unscrupulous international capitalism and the national game has been infected as recent development reveal although the failure appears centred on the English Premiership . The abject failure of the English National Team is unacceptable.  It is time for football lovers to reject and rebel in a nonviolent, democratic and constructive way against clubs which betray and persistently fail for decades although the continuing appeal to lads like Gerry will remain. Interestingly the family get their revenge as the play ends.

Cymbeline Royal Shakespeare Company Cinema Relay

On Wednesday 28^th September 2016 I attended a relay at the Bolden Cineworld of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s latest production of Cymbeline. One of only two plays by Shakespeare about ancient Britain, the other King Lear is also part of the present Stratford season and will be broadcast internationally through Cinema relay on October 12. I have previously experienced two RSC productions of King Lear in Newcastle in 1991 and 1994 both at the theatre Royal but not Cymbeline and where I cannot remember having read the play although I did once attempt to read through all the works assigned to Shakespeare. 

Checking my records, I have so found that I watched forty productions of the RSC which cover a wide range of authors other than Shakespeare and twenty-seven of his plays, some twice, a handful at Stratford (Julius Caesar, Merchant of Venice, Midsummer Night’s Dream) come to mind and in Newcastle the famed seasons where plays were performed at the People’s theatre at the former Newcastle University Theatre, now Northern stage and the Theatre Royal.

The relay of Cymbeline featured important explanations of why the play may have come to be written and how the present production was designed to provide clarity on a complex tale and where, as I was reminded, it is essential to allow the ear to tune into the language of the day to fully appreciate and understand the wonder of the works. The production was created on an open stage with the audience on three sides and a back screen plus some back side constructions essential to aspects of story. This was a production which kept the audience focussed on the actors rather than technical wizardry although there was on central stage device which centre on a tree.

The story is divided between geopolitics, family tragedy and young love. Underpinning all these three aspects is the human tendency to distort and manufacture truth, spread lies and deception to further and protect self-interest, to gain revenge coupled with the tendency of the young and the vulnerable to be tricked, seduced, groomed by those will evil intent.  There is an excellent digital programme available on the RSC Internet site which includes cast, interviews, films and photos. Those without the time to re or read the play Wikipedia provides a sound summary.

Cost was an addition £7.20 on top of Monthly subscription of £16.90 with adults paying £18.20 at box office and senior like me with subscription paying £14.20 on line.