W.B Yeats and Artists in Bedford Park, London W4.
Summary:
Nick Hennegan talks to Irish Poet Cahal Dallat on Literary London on Resonance 104.4fm and BohemianBritain.com about a new, interactive trail following the life and works of London Irish Poet WB Yeats around his boyhood home in Bedford Park, Chiswick, London. They also chat about inspiration and other famous Irish and London artists.
For details of the project, see www.wbyeatsbedfordpark.com — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bohemianbritain/message
Watch the live video below.
Exterminate the double-booking..!
I’ve been double-booked for #press nights tonight. So I shunned the Red Lion #islington in favour of the @riversidestudioslondon who were first with an invitation. Not sure I made the right decision though, looking at this critic!
Bohemian Review of 2022!
A gentle look back of some of the Bohemian highlights of 2022 with Nick Hennegan on Resonance 104.4fm’s ‘Literary London’ It includes an interview with Andy Slaughter, M.P. for Hammersmith in London, on the occasion of a new artwork celebrating WB Yeats; music from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Prejudice And Pride and Winston and David…. news of Jim Cartwright’s TWO, and how you can put it on at your local bar, pub or community centre... and will Nick return to acting for the first time in 30 years?
www.BohemianBritain.com — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bohemianbritain/message
Pretty Literary Pub of the Day for (Shakespeare) Writers!
The Dirty Duck is a great pub in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warks. It’s also a pub with TWO names. It used to be run by the formidable Pam… but for the last 20-odd years, Sam has been in charge. When my play, Henry V – Lion of England was in Stratford in the late 1990’s we had our launch party here and the RSC still use the place regularly today. To find our more see this little video I made a while ago…
Theatre Review – A Christmas Carol.
Well… this is nice…
THEATRE REVIEW: A CHRISTMAS CAROL – WATERSIDE ARTS, SALE
December 2, 2022 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mesmerising in his delivery, Guy Masterson’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL is one of the best theatre adaptations to grace the stage.
In 1843 there was a novella published. That novella was A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens and would go on to be one of the most consistently read works on the planet. It has never been out of print, it has been translated into every language and countless film and theatre productions have portrayed the tale of Scrooge, his fear, his hope and his redemption with varying success.
The performance starts with the audience being taken back in time by a brief but very effective audio montage; we are no longer in 2022, we are in London on a cold and bleak Christmas Eve. It is cold, it is foggy, Scrooge is a miser resenting more than one coal on a fire for his clerk, Bob Cracchit and with his own ideas on how to “decrease the surplus population” of waifs and strays. The scene is set for us to fly with Scrooge on his journey, a tale we all know but with this telling as fresh as the day it was published.
Our sole guide is Guy Masterson who is mesmerising in his delivery, there is not one utterance that goes unheard, not one action that is missed where the audience are not enthralled under a spell of pure joy. Captivated by a story heard so many times a pin dropping would have been loud enough to have been the clanking of the chains surrounding Marley. A solo performance is hard, it is hard on the actor to hit the right note with the audience, to build the suspense and to convey the atmosphere and nuances of each character but in this performance that is exactly what happens; it is simply a tour de force of storytelling. Characters are conveyed with not only voice changes but also in mannerisms, descriptions are lucious and vivid and the attention to the text is detailed.
Writer and director Nick Hennegan has worked from an early script by Dickens himself for his reading tours for this live performance and it shows. More than anything it feels not like an adaptation, not a glossy rewrite but unmistakably Dickensian, the words are not merely written and spoken, they are painted on a page and recounted with passion.
This performance has been met with critical acclaim and rightly so. It is simply the best theatre adaptation I have witnessed; whether that is because of the sheer power of the delivery by Guy Masterson, the “stripped back” nature of the staging or merely the fact that a work first given to the work nearly 200 years ago is as relevant today as ever I don’t know. What I do know is that it is not so much a performance as an experience. In the theatre you could feel the audience living every word and perhaps that is the measure of the work and the performance that touches all. After watching this powerful adaptation you may just, in the words of Scrooge himself, “honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year”.
Writers’ Pub of the Day.
Pretty Literary #Pub of the Day for #writers! The Raven, Hammersmith W6. #LondonLiteraryPubCrawl
Almost Perfect Five Children… and It!
🍷🍷🍷🍷 🍷 🎄(5 glasses out of 5, PLUS a Xmas tree!)
Christmas is sometimes the ONLY time people go to the theatre and it’s usually for a pantomime. (Oh yes it is!) Obviously we’re blessed in London, the theatrical capital of the world – sorry New York and Paris – with some of the very best theatre. But Christmas shows and pantomimes are a bit thin on the ground in the centre of London. But generally BECAUSE the theatrical bar is so high it’s such a pleasure to come across a show – a Christmas Family show – as all-round near perfect as “Five Children and It” at the Tabard Studio Theatre.
It’s not completely perfect, but the occasional chaotic rough-edge is what makes it the completely perfect Family Show! The actors are all perfectly cast and talented both physically and emotionally and the set, although not Big Panto Glamorous, is completely functional and adds to the charm of the whole show. There’s something for everyone here. Completely!
The charming story is adapted from the book written by E. Nesbit. She also wrote The Railway Children in 1906. Here, the kids discover a thousand year old wish-granting sand-fairy and learn big lessons about life, aspiration and being kind to each other. It could have been a cutesy, moral tale of upper-class kids having a jolly smashing, ripping time, but Louise Haddington’s adaptation and Simon Reilly’s direction transcends the Edwardian sensibilities and gives these last century kids a very contemporary and relevant presence for today with plenty of slap-stick, comedy and even Christmas Carols. How are the cast even old enough to be on stage? Well, of course, that’s because they are very talented actors playing their young parts perfectly.
Even the It, IS. There really is nothing to dislike here. Take the WHOLE family. Like all the best Christmas shows, there’s something for everyone. Just go. Your whole family holiday season will be improved! Completely!
Christmas Requests!
Summary:
Nick Hennegan presents your Holiday Season requests with Cerys Matthews and Dylan Thomas, a history of Christmas… and gives you a few bad Christmas Cracker jokes! — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bohemianbritain/message
