performingartsincornwall

May-We-Go-Round  The Hiccup Project   Barbican Theatre November 28th 2016 I first saw this show as a short showcase at the NRTF conference in Falmouth in July.  At that event it had an anarchic appeal which, despite being foreshortened, whetted my appetite In Plymouth at the Barbican Theatre, a centre in the South West of innovative dance programming and exploratory work I saw the show in its entirety.  And wow what a laugh and a helter skelter ride. May-We-Go-Round  This show is unconventional, sassy, full of humour, and alternative.   It navigates well the fine line between artfulness and chaotic slap stick mucking about.     Two dancers Christina Mackerron and Chess Dillon-Reams give a very dynamic physical workout and an amusing script deconstructing the various unsatisfactory relationships two twenty- somethings have  The pair “play” with the audience - pushing at the conventions. ...

For this in the round show we arrive at the Hall and are invited to join the Bride or Groom's side - we are guests at the wedding.  In this show all those nail biting social dilemmas of meeting the in-laws for the first time, deplorable behaviour by the teenagers, the drunken best man and the adults are racheted up with the traditional tropes of Aesop's tale  "the Town and the Country Mouse" and just to add to the pot this is a cross cultural wedding - Asian sophistication meets down to earth farming life 21st century style.   Wolverhampton born Arjen and his newly wed wife Claire from deepest Herefordshire are setting out on their journey with the first dance.    The upstairs Gallery at the Poly is laid out for a village hall wedding breakfast......bunting, wedding cake, and a cheery upbeat disco soundtrack lay the foundation for an evening of a light hearted humour at the expense of our prejudices and insecurities. Lampooning the ways of urban sophisticate...

"Kevos" is the Cornish word for "contemporary" and is the names chosed for a new  Cornish  band formed in 2015 by conductor Patrick Bailey.  This last Saturday  5th November 2016 were making musical fireworks at the Poly, in Falmouth with live performances of new contemporary music  film scores composed for classic movies   by rising Cornish composer Ben Comeau and the more established Ed Hughes, who is Professor of Composition at Sussex University. This is the second outing (I have attended)  of the band Kevos which includes  Philip Montgomery Smith (violin), David White (clarinet); Will Sleath (flute); James Robinson percussion, Danielle Jones Cello and Stella Pendrous piano.  Their first at the Burrel Theatre in Truro back in April  presented two settings of  music to a 1929 film by Dutchman Joris Ivens of "Regen"  meaning "Rain" first score written by Hans Eisler    "Fourteen Ways of Describing Rain"  a new...

Pendant ma première visite au Festival d'animation d'Annecy 2016, j'ai voulu apprendre un maximum de mes collègues présents au Festival et en rencontrer le plus grand nombre possible ainsi que glaner des idées pour programmer les animations de Carn to Cove ( www.carntocove.co.uk )   avec des films populaires. C'est-à-dire choisis de manière aléatoire par ceux qui faisaient la file avec moi  ou qui étaient assis à mes côtés devant un écran.   Je leur ai posé deux questions: 1)     quel est votre film d’animation préferé de tous les temps? 2)     quel est votre court-metrage préféré de tous les temps? Une fois avoir surmonté le choc du à la façon inattendue dont un parfait inconnu s’est adressé à eux, les personnes ont réfléchi longuement sur ce sujet, et voici les résultats :

English version of Annecy Animation Festival 2016 For my first visit to Annecy Animation Festival 2016  I wanted to learn as much from my fellow Festival goers and meet as many of them as  possible as well as gathering ideas for programming animation on Carn to Cove ( www.carntocove.co.uk ) film of popular titles.  So randomly determined by whom I met in the queue or sat down next to at a screening.  I asked them two questions: 1) What is your favourite Animation Feature of all time? 2)  What is your favourite Animation Short of all time? Overcoming their shock at being addressed out of the blue by a complete stranger, everyone thought hard about this topic and here are the results : Version en francais:  Pendant ma première visite au Festival d'animation d'Annecy 2016, j'ai voulu apprendre un maximum de mes collègues présents au Festival et en rencontrer le plus grand nombre possible ainsi que glaner des idées pour p...

English Channel If there is one show in the Festival that each village hall in Cornwall would probably embrace its this iconoclastic dance and burlesque show.  But would we dare ?  For adults over 16 (the audience I saw it with had belly laughing 20s, 30s)  and everything on the upper side of 60 cheered her to the rooftops.  Partly relief from trepidation about what she will do next! There is elegy...we have a rendition of Dido's lament....there is farce....great footage of Florence Foster Jenkins in full  "con belto" rendition of The Queen of the Night aria  ...there is head banging rock rage.....there is tribute to the early lady swimmers and glorious archive film of the great Edwardian yachts most of all there is the demonic headless-chicken shaped anarchic dancer Liz Aggiss. This piece is dangerous.  If you are easily shocked don't book it.   Be warned, there are some glorious F words (unapologetic) but nuanced and a dance with what look...

Tap Dancing Mermaid Having seen an enjoyed Tessa Bide's two hander Arnold's Big Adventure at 2015 NRTF conference but struggled to think how we might present her interactive tent show perhaps better designed for festival context on Carn to Cove, I went to see this morning her one woman children's  show at Summerhall on the Edinburgh Fringe "The Tap Dancing Mermaid" Tessa is an appealing young performer focusing on new work for children- bright and refreshing  this show is a delight for parents and children.  We enter the world of Marina Skippett who has a passion for tap dancing and the show is told narrated by old father Moon.  The set is colourful and full of things that kept the attention of babies and a host of adoring 5 ear old Mermaid fans following the action, which includes tap dancing, clever puppetry, loads of sploshing sound effects,   singing a song together,  blowing on conch shells and (this recruiting Edinburgh's conch shell to show us ho...

An unusual programme devoted to the chamber works of Robert Schumann provided the occasion of a return to the hallowed temple that is the Wigmore Hall, the soul of the concert-giving community in London. Here back in the eighties I took a  part in  the rise of the early music movement when I began  as cup bearer and subsequent  inheritor to  Jennifer Eastwood promoting  the London series of the Early Music Network and Centre Festival at the hall for several years.  And last evening it was more like a homecoming to see that doyen of the baroque revival, harpsichordist and musical dynamo Trevor Pinnock in the  audience - so I knew we were on to an evening of keyboard wizardry.  With me I had a group of young chamber music and Wigmore Hall novices 15-25 whose somewhat grungy and alternative hair styles and fashion sense provided a welcome colour note  and alternative hyperbolic critical response to the sedate, educated and intensely polit...