ENJOYING THE PLEASURE

There were no surprises at the BAFTA Awards ceremony (British Acting Film And Theatre Awards) when it came to the accolades for the selected films, their production teams, the actors and the actresses, who all excelled in their roles. I am happy that I saw three of the films that were feted. That is not easy for me, as we do not have a cinema within 120 miles.

There was one surprise, the 2011 award of the Fellowship of the British Acting Theatre And Film Awards Federation. When Christopher Lee took to the stage, my memories of him as a strong erect man were brought up-to-date. Christopher Lee is an elegant elderly gentleman, who is now quite frail. nevertheless, he was able to summon good energy to make a gracious acceptance speech,which had a rallying quality in its delivery. All his stage skills were in evidence; his timing, his use and projection of his voice, and above all, Lee's diction was clear. At the end of his speech, Lee was determined to lift a quite solid masque award. He was not, however, able to carry it off the stage and at the same time, support himself with his walking stick. 

Posthumous awards may bring comfort and be pleasing for close relatives of a departed award winner. It is even better, indeed, it is great to see that a major achievement and appreciation award from ones peers can be given during a person's lifetime, and while that person can enjoy the pleasure of it.

 TICKLED PINK BY THE THEATRE MONKEY


I am tickled pink! A friend has had his first book published.  It’s not a novel, it is a ‘guide’.   My attention was drawn to this delightful phenomenon when I heard a non-sexy BBC radio 4 discussion on ‘You and Yours’ on Friday 27th November, 2009, about London Theatre land, (London U.K that is). It can be picked up again on the BBC ‘Play it Again’ feature, for another five days or so.

I was in my car. Actually, I had just parked and was about to hop out and get into a shop, when I heard two people whinging about poor theatre seat positioning and structural problems with some views,  plus changes to seating arrangements which were unexpected, and so on, when a most useful site to help overcome such difficulties, was mentioned.

www.theatremoneky.com  “Wow!” I know that site, its developer and mainstay. I knew it in its infancy, many years ago, when it was no more than a page of words. The baby has since grown into a great, dynamic well performing international website.


Once home, I emailed my friend.  Mine was one of a clutch of similar emails he had received. Since then, I have purchased two copies of his book, Theatremonkey, by Steve Rich, to gift as presents to people I know, who would be able to get lots of benefit from it. It’s available by mail order at The book Depository (www.bookdepository.com) or Amazon.  If you are in the area, there’s also a theatre shop in Monmouth Street London W1. where the book can be found. I think the name of the shop will be on Steve’s site www.Theatremonkey.com

 HOW DO YOU SPEAK TO ME?

We have  a small intimate theatre with seating for about fifty-five people where the  local amateur dramatic group put on productions.  They  can be really good.  The regional theatre company do a rolling programme around the small communities, of which there are very many, and we get to see their work at this theatre too.

Using mostly, local people,  a  local published  play- write  gave a one act, two-hander play he had lying  in his cupboard, an airing recently.  The in-training,  theatrical director ( a local person), selected his two cast members and in the space of six weeks, the production went live.  The writing was clever, it was humorous, it had pathos, it was not just  about communication, but communicating on multiple levels.

It was a wartime story of a girl in the countryside meeting with an American airman.  Once they have learned to understand one another, they form a relationship, they, never knowing if  either one can ever  fulfil the promise of it.

Both actors worked with their scripts.  Occasionally,  'Ellie' discreetly prompted herself from it.  She had a brogue to hold  in her large role, which was laced occasionally with a little mimicry of American  speech,     I got so frustrated at one stage with 'John' stumbling through his character, though doing it, while holding his American accent, I grant you,  I shut my eyes rather than watch him.  It was then I realised, with a little adaptation, this play could work really well as a radio  play.

The female lead who gave a sparkling and powerful performance, was totally untrained.   Her  acting was so good she carried the performance.  The male  who had received  two years  formal drama training, looked the part and at various moments, demonstrated that he might, with more development, become an interesting actor.


Why would this play need need a bit of tweaking to be heard elsewhere? That's the catch.   The female lead was written in a local dialect and if you did not have any real knowledge of it, the interplay and the repartee would have gone  over your head.  There were people in the audience who were long time residents though not born here,  who did not understand all of it.   There were foreign visitors who, even with a little bit of  English, would have been utterly lost.  This is where another, if unplanned level of communication was important, and that was body language.