Author Archives: Margaret Graham

Into The Woods at The Cockpit Theatre, Marylebone, London – review by Paul Vates

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“a bold and adventurous take on a Sondheim beauty”

 

 

 

 

There are seventeen in the cast, five in the band. The stage is in the round. The wood is actually made of wood. The music and lyrics are classic Sondheim… Ambitious to tackle such a large production – and director Tim McArthur just keeps this show under control.

 

Into The Woods ensemble Photography David Ovenden

 

The story does have a modern twist. The mixing of all the well-known fairy tale characters is brilliant anyway, but this production has influences of the UK today. Jack and his mother are superb characters straight from an episode of Jeremy Kyle. In fact, the part of Jack’s mother can be immensely forgettable – but not Madeleine MacMahon’s interpretation. Jack himself, played by Jamie O’Donnell is innocent, dumb and lovable in equal quantities.

 

Jack’s Mother condescending her son, Jack photography David Ovenden

 

The leading triumvirate that drive the plot along are The Witch (played at the start as a bag-lady by Michele Moran) and the two Bakers: Tim McArthur and Jo Wickham.

 

The Witch has words with The Baker, as his Wife looks on Photography David Ovenden

 

In these demanding roles, Jo Wickham shone as the Baker’s Wife. She wants a child and her journey is a tough one – full of ups and downs (literally, when you include the ladders!) and is thrilling to watch. Abigail Carter-Simpson’s Cinderella is, likewise, a key character in the story and she also excels in the role.

 

Cinderella Photography David Ovenden

 

Coming from a household very much in The Only Way Is Essex genre, she meets the Prince and discovers his world is Made In Chelsea. She approves of neither.

 

Overall, I think the best element of the show is the setting itself  – the clash not just of fairy tales but of class and accents. The set (all wood, of course) is a rambling forest of ladders and pallets and boxes designed by Joana Dias.

 

The bag lady Witch shows her true colours Photography David Ovenden

 

This rambling, annoyingly, comes across in the whole feel of the show. There are some stunning solo performances but the whole is a little blurred. The witch isn’t scary enough, the jokes aren’t funny enough, the loss isn’t painful enough. Needing a little more focus and smoother group choreography, this intriguing interpretation of Into The Woods doesn’t quite hit the mark. It is still a bold and adventurous take on a Sondheim beauty.

 

 

 

Photography:     David Ovenden

 

Venue:               Cockpit Theatre, Gateforth Street, London NW8 8EH

Running:            Until Saturday 24th June 2018 at 7.30pm (no Monday performances)

Sunday Matinees at 3.30pm

Running Time:   2hr40m (with an interval)

Tickets:              £15 – £26

www.thecockpit.org.uk – 020 7258 2925

 

Twitter:               @allstarpro, @TheWoods2018, #Woods2018

 

Producers:         All Star Productions and Trilby Productions

Director:             Tim McArthur

Musical Director: Aaron Clingham

Music & Lyrics:  Stephen Sondheim

Book:                 James Lapine

Set Design:        Joana Dias

5 years old and 50 publications! by Maya Pieris

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No, not an annoyingly clever 5 year old but an amazingly vibrant young publishing house called The Emma Press and named after Emma Wright, who started the venture along with Rachel Piercey, my featured poet and Newdigate prize winner in 2008. And in the 5 years of its existence they have supported over 400 new writers and some of them like me with a “6” in front of their decade.

Their mission which they have accepted with great energy, professionalism, commitment and kindness, has been to seek out poets and prose writers and encourage them through their “calls for submissions”. This has allowed an amazing array of talent to see the light of day. These “calls for submissions” are on their website and open to all, topics ranging from the traditional love theme to aunts and beyond! They want to encourage literature that is welcoming and accessible. And, importantly, they are concerned to foster writing for children. They are also committed to having a live persona and can be found at their local well known national bookshop in Birmingham and at book events at venues up and down the country.

But their greatest virtue, in my opinion, is the blending of an intellectual rigour with a sense of fun to deliver the writer’s words. I attended the London launch in January of their Anthology of Love held in a café serving fab cakes iced with our words – a convivial and enlightening experience.

 

Anthology of Love

Their Anthology of Love contains 50-plus new poems from a variety of pens, some more tried and tested than others. Edited by Emma and Rachel it is has black and white illustrations by Emma and is wrapped up in a vibrant, colourful cover which will not be missed! Rachel has one poem included, titled Symbiosis, a witty and tender poem, in sonnet form, about love between two unlikely participants, an Egyptian plover and a Nile crocodile. Despite their obvious differences they “share four-chambered hearts which beat in time”. In the fourteen lines she creates the intimate world of two intimates allowing us glimpses of the tenderness of this “unlikely pairing”.

Rachel Aunts Launch

In addition to her writing Rachel also runs workshops in schools and at festivals and I shall be welcoming her to Dorset in June, Saturday 16th, when she will be running a poetry writing workshop at Littlebredy Walled Garden, Dorchester, Dorset, a real haven of peace, entitled “I hear it in the deep heart’s core”. Information is available at www.littlebredy.com.

 

But now they’re in process of editing the next anthology and selecting their next series of individual pamphlets. Not surprising, then, that they won the Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlet Publishers in 2016. They deserve it and more.

Poetry Writing Workshop at Littlebredy: www.littlebredy.com

www.theemmapress.com

 

A Day in The Life of Sandy Hogarth

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Sandy Hogarth is the acclaimed Indie author of The Glass Girl which Frost will be reviewing shortly. 

 

Breakfast and a beautiful day. Perfect for the Nidderdale Show – an arch temptress. I have a lot to do today. The Glass Girl must go off tonight. I will feel a little lost when Ruth, my protagonist, goes. She has a troubled life but she’s tough.

 

‘Say thank you to your sister for me were his words. So Ruth fled, first to Australia, then to the outback.

 

Sisters. I am fascinated by families; by their honesty, their brutality, their love. And fascinated also by only-ones, so I have made Ruth’s lover an only-one: gorgeous Daniel. Everything she is not.

 

Music and voices from the loudspeaker drift up the hill, scrambled. Enticing

I give in, cease checking my MS and hurry down the hill with Ruth still in my head. And her sister Alexis.

 

Cars are queuing. I Pay my £10 and walk through the ancient turnstile.

In the first judging arena I come to is a magnificent bull with curls behind his horns. I wonder if it will win.

 

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I remind myself that I must not stay long.

I pass a pig that is bored or asleep. They say pigs are the most intelligent of animals.

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My head is still with Ruth.  I especially loved writing the early part: Ruth’s time in the Australian desert.  I love the deserts there with their dunes of red dirt scattered with spinifex, and occasional wild camels.

I try not to laugh out loud when I see a cow receiving a final back-combing to the last 8 or 9 inches of its tail.

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Some of the sheep waiting in pens are shivering. It’s a hot day so it must be fear.

One puts up its head to me to have her curls admired.

Sandy 4

In the next tent, I find the winner of my ‘best hairdo competition’.

Sandy 5

Odd, this fixation on hairdos. From one who often forgets to brush her own.

I’m hungry so I get fish and chips from a van. We are almost as far from the sea as it is possible to be but they taste great.

 

The sisters take over my head again. And the glass girl. An old man in the desert gives it to Ruth.

 

“an exquisite glass girl, a dancer, with straight back and proud posture. Her body is draped in a mid-calf-length pink dress, the folds caress her long legs and her feet are encased in delicate oyster pink ballet shoes, the ribbons winding round her slender ankles. Her dark hair is shoulder length, her face tranquil and her hazel eyes as fathomless as the ocean. A brittle beauty. He says that it carries the desert within itself.’

6.Sandy

The Glass Girl calls. I walk/run back up the hill.

 

The Glass Girl is available here.

 

 

 

Michael Rowan welcomes the return of an Icon

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In 1840 James Pimm, a successful entrepreneur, established himself as ‘the Oyster Man’ within the Square Mile, where he served oysters together with his famous Pimm’s No 6.

Pimm’s No 6 disappeared in the early 1900s but has been brought back in 2018 thanks to an imaginative partnership between Seafood Merchants, the Wright Brothers and Pimms, to once again offer the classic pairing of Oysters and Pimm’s No 6.

Intrigued, a friend and I headed for Kingsley Road, a busy thoroughfare in the heart of London’s Soho to see for ourselves if history was worth repeating.

The Wright Brother’s Seafood Restaurant, one of three restaurants (the other two are at Spitalfields and Battersea) are serving their Oysters together with Pimm’s No 6 for the summer.

The white tiled restaurant with its antiqued mirrors has a suitably relaxed and friendly vibe where the friendly staff are so passionate about the food it would be impossible not be swept up in their enthusiasm.

The Pimm’s No 6 is delicious and refreshing, Pimm’s Vodka Cup with Botanical Tonic water poured over ice and completed with a twist of orange peel to release its citrus oil and a sprig of lavender to add a welcome dash of colour.

To be honest I could drink Pimm’s No 6 on its own but with the most delicious oysters our taste buds were transported to another level and the face of my companion said it all. If Pimms No 6 tastes of summer then the Oysters most definitely taste of the sea.

Oysters from Morecombe, Lindisfarne and Waterford Bay, Ireland, nestled on a bed of crushed ice and tasted as fresh as the sea where the only accompaniment required was a wedge of lemon, and a salad onion Vinaigrette and of course a glass of Pimm’s No 6

Pimm’s No 6 is exclusive to Wright Brothers Restaurant’s and will be served at various iconic events in London including the Wimbledon Championship.

At school I was taught that history repeats itself and in the case of Oysters and Pimm’s No 6, I for one am very glad that it does.

To purchase Pimm’s No 6: www.harveynichols.com/brand/pimm-s/328701-number-6-vodka-cup/p2596460/

 

http://thewrightbrothers.co.uk/

 

 

 

 

A Day in the life of Adam Burgan, Arts & Entertainment Manager at The Octagon Theatre

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Adam Burgan, Arts & Entertainment Manager at The Octagon Theatre in Yeovil.

One of the joys of managing a busy regional theatre is that there is no such thing as a ‘normal day’. While some tasks and duties remain the same you never really know what opportunities, challenges and, at times, rather surreal moments will come your way. At the moment we are in ‘pantoland’ with a spectacular pantomime production of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. The show runs for 49 performances (our biggest ever run) with two performances a day so the theatre is a hive of activity with large school groups in the day and then family audiences in the evening.

A Day in the life of Adam Burgan, Arts & Entertainment Manager at The Octagon Theatre

Over the next few weeks over 25,000 people will ‘climb the beanstalk’ with Jack on a magical adventure and my job is focussed on ensuring that everyone has a happy time at the theatre and to lead and support my team in delivering their roles effectively in order to achieve this. Theatre is a ‘leisure choice’ and though I would consider it essential to living a happy and fulfilled life it is important to recognise the various barriers that people feel may be in their way. It is our job to try and make patrons entire experience of visiting the theatre the best it can be, from the moment they pick-up a brochure, to booking a ticket, making their way to the theatre to the time they step through the door and until they leave. I feel that a large part of my day is spent speaking to staff and trying to ‘keep the team happy’ something that isn’t always possible but we know the key to success is communication and trying to keep the team focussed and working together to achieve a common goal – making our customers happy. Using the word customer I also mean the artists who perform at our theatre – it is important for us to ensure they are happy and have everything they need to give the best possible performance.

jackandthebeanstalk

Much of my day will be spent speaking to agents and producers and local companies looking to bring their performances to the theatre. Programming is one of my favourite parts of my job and the most satisfying. Booking in an artist I know will prove popular (especially if I’ve been trying to book them for a while) is very rewarding. A number of meetings normally looking at future events and projects will always be on the agenda and one of the things we have grown very successful at is building partnerships with organisations we have a shared agenda with and who can help us to achieve our goals.

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Throw in some budget monitoring, a walk around the building to check on our maintenance, checking figures for last night’s show and a look ahead at sales figures for the shows on sale and a trawl through the endless amount of emails and phone calls and the day quickly fills up. ‘Theatreland’ certainly isn’t a ‘9-5’ job and nor should it be. Evenings are often filled with the choir I teach at the theatre on a Monday night, popping in to see some of the performance (even if I can’t stay for the whole show) or supporting local events – I judged ‘Strictly Come Langport’ last weekend! There is never a dull day at the theatre and though it is long hours, and as with every job, there are ‘ups and downs’ I still consider myself very lucky to work in a place that brings joy and happiness to thousands of people every week. I have the pleasure of working with a very talented and dedicated team of people who share my passion for theatre and I try to remind myself that there really are dream jobs and I am one of the lucky ones who found mine.

 

 

A Day In The Life of Shelagh Mazey

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For years I’ve been a frustrated story-teller, never having the time or peace to be able to concentrate and hurtling through life from one crisis to another, but now every day is like a blank page, here in my thatched cottage in Somerset.

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I met Margaret Graham years ago, at a writing circle in Yeovil. We have been friends ever since and good grief, the adventures we’ve had, as awe snatched moments from the home-front. I remember with fondness a trip across Ireland on a coach, enlivened by two America Baptist Ministers. We’ve seldom laughed so much, alongside absorbing the history of the place for a book Margaret was writing. It was here I kissed the Blarney stone. Perhaps that’s where the story telling began.

shelaghkissinghebarneystone

As time went on the sleepless nights with newborns; the back-breaking, lifting and chasing of toddlers; the homework of school years; the endless chauffeuring of teenagers, and the frantic the frantic worry of them prematurely experiencing the joys and heartache of the opposite sex, drunkenness, drugs and all-night raves became a memory.

No more renovating the derelict cottage sold long ago. No more rising at 6:30am to rush off to work as a practice secretary. At last my ship, with its rather bedraggled rigging, has sailed into a harbour of refuge. I am retired. Whoopee!

Now I listen as my husband leaves for work and lie in bed for a few more minutes, where in a state of alpha I’m able to dream. Then I soak in the bath, empty my mind and plan the trials and tribulations, love stories, intrigues, and let’s not forget the murders and rapes of my 19th century stories.

After breakfast I type out my bath-time plots. I usually write or research on-line, with a short lunch-break, until about 3.30pm and then I need to take a breather. I might do some gardening; mow the lawn, weeding or dead-heading just to breathe some fresh air.

Shelaghgarden

Yes, my life has indeed reached peaceful harbour; my daughter-in-law takes the ironing each week and I take the grandchildren. I’m lucky, they’re lovely.

Shelaghwithgrands

Of course, aside from the writing, I do have to participate in marketing the books and I’ve made many friends, particularly on Portland, through this. Every now and then I take a friend with me and drive down to the coast to deliver to my outlets there. We usually enjoy lunch at the Lobster Pot on Portland Bill.

Shelaghportland

The tales my father told, as a born and bred Portlander have inspired my writing, and my first two books are based around that area. Somehow it makes me feel closer to my parents.

Shelaghdadandbridgetonportland

I’ve now published two books with Matador. The first is Brandy Row (A love triangle and family saga set on Portland, involving smuggling and the preventive service).

10Shelagh

The sequel is Dawn to Deadly Nightshade (continuing with the family, but adding witchcraft in Somerset to the mix).

Shelaghmazey
My third novel is located partly in Dorset, Somerset, Tasmania and Australia. It tells the tale of the ex convicts who were transported to the antipodes and involves the excitement of the Victorian goldfields. I’ve finished the first draft and I’m busy doing the revisions. I hope to bring out Legacy of Van Diemen’s Land next spring.

I totally love my life now. I am a writer. It is my dream come true.

A Day in the Life of Sharon Bennett

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I have always enjoyed making things; getting messy and creating atmosphere, whether with paint, fabrics, light or furniture. I am inspired by beautiful countryside, buildings, colour, water and places that I love!

A Day in the Life - Sharon Bennett

As a child I continuously annoyed my younger sisters by trying to capture them on paper with my pencils. After that I mostly drew and painted flowers in watercolour. More recently I joined an Art Group where I eventually developed a style of painting with which I am very happy.  Also I have a great love of photography, my recent works merge photos with collage, acrylic pallet, watercolour and pen work.

 

For texture in my work I often use different types of paper, including tissue, corrugated and foil.  One of my artworks ‘The East London Skyline’ was created during the 2012 Olympics. I incorporated cuttings about the Olympics from London newspapers into the painting itself. In my Venice paintings I have used handmade Venetian paper, tickets from train and boat trips! The painting then becomes alive and personal!

A painting will begin by the taking of an inspiring photograph. While out walking, holidaying or just shopping, beautiful buildings, waterways, boats, countryside, simply demand to be photographed! I take many – thank heavens for digital photography.

 

The next job is to search through the photos to see which will work well with my style of pallet knife painting and collage. The selected photographs are then enlarged, pixilated and often form a part of my paintings and become merged with collage, mixed media and acrylic pallet knife painting. I also usually include newspaper cuttings, tickets, wood, paper, anything which makes the picture more personal and unique! The result of these combinations create some powerful pieces of work. By using collage and many different textures it helps me to capture the vibrancy and atmosphere of the scene. I always like to work from my own photographs although I have created a couple of commission pieces.

 

 

I photographed St Paul’s from the Tate Modern on one of those perfect winter days. My daughter had bought me ‘high tea at the Tate’ as a birthday present last year. The weather was a perfectly crisp and sunny February day! A very rare treat in the middle of an awfully wet winter. I took the photograph from the restaurant on the top floor of the Tate. The resulting photograph was stunning and I hope you like the painting that emerged too! Margaret Graham did, and bought it when Easterleigh Hall was published. This is what she does – buys paintings to celebrate.

 

Six nights booked in Venice. We hoped for lovely weather as we were going in February! The first three days we had non-stop rain!  This did not stop me taking tons of photos and the results were stunning. The rain just seemed to enhance the colours of the beautiful Italian buildings and made the water a very deep green.

 

I was very pleased with the resulting painting, which also incorporated collage of matchsticks, our ticket from Venice to Verona and pieces of handmade Venetian paper.

I have lots of gorgeous atmospheric photographs to work with. A very familiar sight of a gondola full of Japanese tourists. The buildings over this canal are such a beautiful colour and I have tried to, and hopefully have, captured that! This is one of my most recent paintings.

 

I have some work going into a new pop up shop in Maidenhead called Craft Coop, located in Nicholsons Centre,  in an ex jewellery shop, across from Icelands, from 22nd Nov till the 4th January 2015.

 

For a further look at my work:

 

Website: www.mashup-designs.co.uk……..then…….Sharon’s Art.

 

 

My contact email is shazben58@gmail.com

 

 

A Day In The Life of Author Frances Colville

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I’ve always been an organised sort of person; writing lists, making plans and generally achieving whatever I set out to achieve. Then I took early retirement and expected to devote hours to writing. But… But… There are, suddenly, all kinds of people making demands on your time. And there are so many things of interest calling to you.

All of this means I no longer have a typical day. But there are some typical elements.
I always make time to read. Have you ever worked out how very few books you can actually get through in a lifetime? A scary thought when there is so much wonderful stuff on my list and in my teetering pile. Then, if it is at all possible, I make time to walk down to the sea.

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It takes me twelve minutes to reach my local beach of Seatown. I like it best when it is wild and stormy, when the waves crash in along the shore line and the cormorants have to battle to stay airborne. But whatever the weather, there is inevitably something different to see, something to provide writing inspiration.

And that is the other constant. I try each day to make time for whatever writing project is uppermost in my life This year there have been several main threads. I’ve organised a Story Slam in my local town of Bridport,

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I’ve taken part in various performances and competitions, and I’ve been working on my Sixty List ( a project to do sixty new things in my sixtieth year and to write about them). But the biggest project and for me, the most satisfying, has been working on a local First World War story. I’ve researched it thoroughly, curated two exhibitions, talked about it on radio and TV, written about it for magazines and papers.

It’s the intriguing story of a young woman who contributed fresh eggs to the National Egg Collection for wounded soldiers and who decorated those eggs with paintings, poems and her name and address. In return she received thank-you letters from many soldiers. Now, as well as dealing with the factual aspects of the story, I’m trying to develop it as fiction.
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So far, a couple of short stories have been successful and I’m working on a novel. But there’s a long way to go yet. And never enough hours in the day!

© Frances Colville