Keys; check. Wallet; check. Mobile; check. Checked your privileges? Perhaps you should. FlawBored - a trio comprising Samuel Brewer, Chloe Palmer and Aarian Mehrabani - are going to ask you!
Read More
Compared with French counterparts Voltaire and Comte, Scottish philosophers are perhaps less well known amongst the general public. The protagonists thrown up by the Scottish Enlightenment are, no question; their equal. Enquiry Concerning Hereafter goes some way to redress this. Duane Kelly’s play, directed by Andy Corelli, presents the friendship between David Hume and Adam Smith in their autumn years. They debate, laugh, cajole, challenge and support each other as they stave off the impending tap of Charon’s staff.
Read More
The evidence of testimonial witness is that once there was another point of view; existing beyond the critical angle of mainstream public opinion, and thus cut off. Suppressed…with force if necessary. The trick of time is always to take that which was once thought beyond the pale and veil it with incomprehension that it was ever contentious at all.
After The Act by Ellice Stevens is a piece of verbatim theatre that entwines several stories within its narrative. It begins with a group of lesbian protestors who storm the BBC 6 O’clock news on 23rd May 1988. “We have rather been invaded” utters a seemingly unperturbed Sue Lawley…
Read More
There is a poem which threads through Dance The Colour Blue, refering back to The Odyssey. A plea from Penelope to be heard. Although, thanks to Homer, we can never be sure we are hearing this enigmatic character clearly.
The poem appears here in full. The third stanza is added for completeness. It did not feature in the play.
Penelope
Once on a overcast morning, I asked the messenger Hermes
Is time a dancing boy whose legs move bright with speed?
Tenderly taking my hand, he affirmed my familiar fate
Denizens, five score men, claiming a tenure of nature that’s yours
Me; tears stain my face entering more deeply into my heart
Swiftly days pass, Odysseus, for the dark chases them away
Three years last you laid by my side, must yet I prepare for three more?
Read More
Barfly Don didn’t much care for them…but here were the sounds on the jukebox in Dance The Colour Blue:
Home At Last - Steely Dan
Counting Backwards - Throwing Muses
I Want More - Can
Monkey Gone to Heaven - Pixies
Too Shy - Kajagoogoo
Felt Mountain - Goldfrapp
Reelin’ In The Years - Steely Dan
Dress You Up - Madonna
Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
Tom’s Diner - Suzanne Vega
Lovelight - ABBA
Read More
Looking back on the run of Dance The Colour Blue is like recalling a dream: you’re convinced it happened, you just can’t point to or touch it. What I do know is…the production was smooth…the cast were exquisite…the audiences were appreciative… and the direction was flawless. And even though the world views everyone in its same unwavering regard, there is a change in my perspective as I look round. It was a beautiful production. A professional production. And that is…something.
Read More
Tonight was my first ‘first night’ as a writer sitting in the audience. Usually I’m part of the stage management. That’s the nature of fringe theatre. But as part of a professional production, my role is just ‘the writer’. More time. I’d say ‘more time to relax’ …but that’s stretching it! I needn’t have worried, for in the hands of director Olivia Millar-Ross, and actors Habiba Saleh, Rory Grant, Billy Mack, Dani Heron, Nicola Docherty and Kareem Nasif, the play was always in the safest of hands.
Read More
Today we had the dress rehearsal of Dance The Colour Blue…and…
We’re ready to go!
For the last 3 weeks, director Olivia Millar-Ross has worked with the actors in order to create a world that is caught somewhere in the mid-late 90s. It was a time of optimism: a decrepit government ready for the scrapheap, a century of conflict breathing its last; and new music scenes appropriating the past. I won’t say what happened next in the real world. Best for us to remain with Nicky, Mikey, Liz, Suzy, Pete and Don in The Everlasting Arms…where the music is good, the beer flows, and the banter is better.
Read More
It’s a new experience for me: to occasionally sit at the back of a studio whilst a play develops before your eyes. It’s a privilege too. To be the writer watching the emergence of an interpretation of your work. Director Olivia Millar-Ross is doing a truly superb job of bringing Dance The Colour Blue to life. I’m not exactly sure what I expected but I am learning a lot that will be useful when next I direct a play.
Read More
Today was the first day of rehearsals for Dance The Colour Blue. This is possibly the calmest sentence I’ll write…for it went as well as anyone could’ve hoped for!
Read More
If dramaturgy is a ‘mode of looking’, then Stephen Daldry’s production of JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls invites us to look at the house of the Birling family as a gothic dystopia of privileged victorian living. The house on stilts tilts towards its audience with the threat that it may well fall on them. It is a manifestation of the grotesque - potted with the barnacles of laissez-faire capitalism. That this looms behind a curtain is simultaneously absurd and impressive.
Read More
A few days ago, we held another read-through of Dance The Colour Blue. I’m pleased to report that the new version of the play read well and got positive feedback from the readers. It is always satisfying (as well as something of a relief) to hear the script as you had intended it when written. A couple of edits here and there were required to tighten some dialogue…and that is now done.
Read More
Body shaming is such an ever present feature of modern day society it’s surprising that it retains any remnants of power to surprise yet further…and then you discover, as a man, the extent to which 51% of society are shamed: women.
The Vagina Monologues has been a presence in theatres ever since creator V’s (formerly Eve Ensler) performance off-Broadway in 1996. 27 years later it is still finding new audiences - this one in Dundee - and still has the power to shock.
27 years later it is still finding new audiences - this one in Dundee - and still has the power to shock.
Read More
The rotating stage at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre moves to the slow rhythmic climes of the Deep South. Maggie, played by Ntombizodwa Ndlovu, enters like she owns the place - and for the first half hour, she does. Regaling Brick (Bayo Gbadamosi) with her half-formed thoughts and remnants of gossip. Gossip, it so transpires, with which she has more than a passing relationship. Her partner, Brick, has little room for manoeuvre figuratively or literally (having recently broken his leg) and can do little but to lie around on bed and listen. It is better than risking the alternative
Read More
A new edit of Dance is complete. Which is great! I never take it for granted that there is another edit to be had. I considered the feedback from the last read-through and I think I have made a pretty decent fist of addressing all the points made during that session. I’m pretty pleased with the result. Naturally, I think it is the best edit to date (which is a good sign). I even wrote a document to reflect on the feedback: the points I took on board and the differences they made; and the points I did not take on board, and why not. It will act as a polaroid of my thinking at that time.
A second read-through beckons!
Read More
The script’s perfect! Of course it is. Why would it not be? It’s the best version of it there’s been. Until you reach the Read Through session, that is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful opportunity to have professional actors read your work, bring life and nuance to your words. And that’s when it hits you: the script is not perfect. It’s far from perfect. Pass the binoculars…we’ve some distance yet to go.
Read More
Dance The Colour Blue is a play with a strong female presence. 5 of the 8 characters are female. And of the 4 major characters, 3 are female. So, I am really delighted to announce that Olivia Ross will direct. Olivia is a theatre director and actor. She is currently assistant director of the upcoming post-punk fever dream Sugar Coat which runs 29 March - 22 April at Southwark Playhouse.
Read More
This week we kicked-off on the Creative Scotland project Dance The Colour Blue. A 6 month project between Acting Coach Scotland, me and a host of actors yet to be identified (hopefully alumni too) which will culminate in a performance during the 3rd week of June.
Read More
Time appears sometimes to sit on two different planes, connected orthogonally to one another. On one, it travels so fast so as to seem wired to the energy meter. On the other, sloth-like: easy to forget we were in lockdown at the start of the year.
Every year, I try to make the most of January and February: the sleeper months where the world feels like a town called ‘Sunday’. Prepare then, and you are able to bolt from the hatches in March. By the end of February, I had completed two read-throughs of two new plays. By March, I was once again editing when I decided to do something I had not done before: apply for funding to put on a play.
Read More
More often than not, it happens that I am involved in a project and wonder “how did I end up doing this?"
A couple of years ago between lockdowns, me, Jill Korn and Lorenzo Novani had an idea about developing a filmed theatre event. The idea arose in response to what seemed then a plethora of online theatre events. The ones I saw had suffered due to the medium in which they were presented: online buffering (and any piece which starts with “can you hear me?” loses a lot of the magic of theatre).
Read More