Skip to main content

"When we Ran" performed by Patch of Blue at Edinburgh Fringe Pleasance

9th August 2017

A seven hander  with a sort of Ancient Greek style drama - a  chorus,  three musicians but the whole cast alsosing well in harmony.  This from the copany Patch of Blue who previously performed "By the Sea" and  a successful show Back to Blackbrick about dementia


We are in a hermetic commune located  where all the young people are children of Elah.  Modelled on some of the sect like,
The modern world is "Out" and the young people we encounter are happy in their diurnal regimen .  Like "The Beach" it is illness which the Elders try to conceal  which forces a braver young woman to look for assistance in the outland any maybe to find her mother who departed many years before.
The creepiness and the oppressiveness of "The Elders" who are never seen but who oversee the monotony of daily labour and curfew are well caught and the damaged horizons of the young now emerging into adulthood brought up to fear the outside.  Their encounter with the Outland turns out ot be benign (one wonders how true this might be in Trump's America)   The code required for hospital treatment is conveniently provided by a rapacious/generous ferryman (another echo of Greek tragedy)



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Cornwall Cello Voices

Friday 7th February 2020 Truro Catholic Church Cello Voices. Liz Brazier - widely regarded as the mother of cellists  in Cornwall  as Barbara Degener, the ensemble leader , called her at the close of this concert, has for some years run a cello weekend in the new year where cellists of all ages and abilities meet to work  and play together.   (she is actually the mother of Ben Hoagley one of the other performers - and celebrated a significant birthday today) Cornwall Cello Voices is a group of  eight of the rather more accomplished performers who have given concerts at the end of the weekend.   The sound of 8 cellos playing together in harmony is thrilling as recordings by the cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic in the 90s attest.  And this concert was certainly extremely well delivered with ensemble and balance between a frequent myriad of parts well judged. The cello's sonorous register makes it a favourite with many but the compar...

Jennet Campbell MBE

On Friday we celebrated the life of Jennet Campbell in Gerrans Church with a tribute led by Emma Campbell her daughter, and readings by daughter Sally and friends.  Local poet and county councillor Bert Biscoe gave the eulogy. Jennet Campbell was a critical influence on the development of many musicians in Cornwall, either directly or indirectly - through her own teaching or through the work of the  Radford Trust and the instrument provision scheme they have provided for many children coming to music for the first time. She received and MBE and was created a bard in the Kernow Gorsedd for her contribution to music in Cornwall.  She was the niece of musicians Maisie and Evelyn Radford, the two sisters who had settled St Anthony in Roseland and founded Falmouth Opera Group in the 1930s.  She inherited their studio and Coastguards in the village and it was from this Cornish centre of operations that her remarkable contribution to music at parish level (formation of ...

Kevos, a new contemporary music band lights up classic 1930s film show at the Poly

"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...