I'm Blathering Now...

In the lead up to the opening of Don Carlos at the Northcott theatre in Exeter, Tom Burke has been telling reporters of his passion for regional theatre and why he set up his new theatre company Ara, with his friend, director Gadi Roll. When I saw Tom after one of his performances as Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa, I told him that he should think about doing a production at my local theatre, Theatr Clwyd. It was only when speaking with him that I realised just how passionate I was about my little theatre "in the middle of nowhere." (Owen Teale had once remarked how amazing it was to perform Macbeth in the middle of nowhere to a sell-out crowd!) In the last twelve months, I‘ve noticed that my theatre trips to London have decreased, and my trips to Theatr Clwyd have increased. A lot of this has to do with the work of Tamara Harvey and Liam Evans-Ford who have helped to reignite the theatre. They have been instrumental in bringing new theatre experiences to the region with hea

Don Carlos is a bit of a Marmite production. There are those that love it and what Tom Burke is trying to create with his new theatre company, and then there are those who hate it “bombastic and punishingly dull,” The Times. Having heard Tom Burke promise a new way of looking at theatre, to watch something stripped back to the text and not reliant on fancy costume or theatre sets, I was excited to watch Don Carlos. I was especially pleased that the MacDonald translation had been chosen, as I have picked up various versions of Schiller’s work and find the MacDonald translations beautifully written. I was travelling 250 miles to watch this play, so I decided I would watch its progression over the course of a week. (Only three evenings, but that gave me sufficient material to see what worked and what didn’t – not that I’m a professional critic – I’m just a theatre lover.) Don Carlos is originally a five act play by Friedrich Schiller and set in 16 th Century Spain around

I was chatting to someone recently…they thought I read a lot; this amused me as I don’t think I read much more than most people. They also pointed out that once upon a time, if I read a book I thought people would find interesting, I shared it here on my blog and I should consider doing that again. Apparently, it had helped them pick some books that they would never usually consider, and they had really enjoyed them. So that was a nice thing to say...and so here I am with a bit of a book blurb! I’ve been eagerly anticipating the fourth instalment of the Cormoran Strike novels; I wanted to know what happened next in Strike and Robin’s journey. I picked the book up on its day of release and started reading. By day two it was finished and I tweeted I had enjoyed it but thought it a bit long-winded. The reaction was mainly surprise that I’d finished it, rather than the “how dare you say anything against JKR” but I think that was possibly more to do with the fact that most people were