Conrad Nelson on Othello
January 27, 2009
“I think Othello will probably be a favourite by the time I’ve finished,” Conrad Nelson predicts. “You get more satisfaction from any play when you perform it, but obviously Shakespeare in particular because the language is so rich. But with every play that you read, you discover things once you get into performances, and it’s a constant joy.”
Sheena Wrigley on First Floor
January 27, 2009
“I think that a lot of theatres have a real desire to find a way to connect what they do – their craft bases – to young people in their cities,” says Sheena Wrigley. “It strikes me that this is particularly original because it’s a dedicated space – it’s specifically designed for young people and with a very informal approach to being there to support them and give them somewhere to go, but also to work together on creative projects. I’m not aware of anything exactly like this in other cities. It enhances what we do, because we work with young people quite a lot, but we haven’t had anywhere that’s so influenced in its conception and design by the young people who are going to use it before.”
Dawn Walton on The Hounding of David Oluwale
January 27, 2009
“The way that I always describe it is as the ambitions of a young man versus the ambitions of a city. What happened, for me, is that the ambitions of the city overcame David’s, and indeed created an environment in which his demise - his slippery slope - became unstoppable,” says Dawn Walton. “There were several moments in David’s life when he could have been helped out, but he wasn’t helped, and that’s the point. Cities and countries make huge decisions that affect the way that people live, and David’s story is a good example of how communities can change in ways that destroy individuals. If we take things like Care in the Community, which was introduced by Enoch Powell - that’s how David ended up outside Menston Asylum. People who had had years and years of quite violent medical treatment - ECT etc - that had an effect on their behaviour afterwards were thrown out onto the streets helpless and unsupported. David was one of them.”
Review: Company Along the Mile
January 27, 2009
Date reviewed: 23 January 2009
Venue: West Yorkshire Playhouse
Tom Bidwell doesn’t lack ambition. For his first full-length play, he has written a piece that effectively consists of two extended scenes inhabited by three characters without an interval. Not only this, but he cited Harold Pinter, Joe Orton and Tennessee Williams as the writers from whom he took inspiration. However, it’s fair to say that Company Along the Mile is in little danger of approaching the sort of hubris that might lead some of the country’s less restrained student theatre companies to ask for its hand in marriage. It is, after all, a personable comedy set in a Blackpool hotel room.
Opening doors at The Howard
January 26, 2009
Ron Simpson on the Howard Assembly Room’s opening programme
At just after 5.30 on Saturday evening, January 24, the staircase from the dress circle at Leeds Grand was crowded with people as Opera North juggled four finishing or upcoming events. A performance of Skin Deep was scheduled for 7.15, with its accompanying pre-opera talk, but the real cause of the crush was the coincidence of a late-running afternoon presentation on cosmetic surgery and society, the subject of the new operetta, and a 5.45 Twilight Event, both in the Howard Assembly Room.