7thSun: new E.P. 'static. odourless. invisible.'

7thSun: new compilation 'November Echoes'

 

 

Coming soon...

Review: Hedda Gabler, Northern Stage

Audience members are warned about loud gunshots upon entering Northern Stage for the current production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler; they are also warned, by means of an added subtitle, that ‘this is not a love story’.

 

A bare table and chairs sit in front of large, tarnished mirror panels which reflect and distort the action on-stage. Insistent drums, synthesized squeals and discordant piano announce the entrance of the cast, as maids prepare for the arrival of Jørgen Tesman and his recent bride, Hedda Gabler.

Ed Gaughan gives a wonderful performance as Tesman, the shambling, earnest academic who yearns to satisfy his demanding wife but whose mind is focused firmly on Dutch cottage industries. Victoria Elliott is also strong as Hedda, strutting around in a dressing gown as if at a ball, manipulating her companions as a means of escape from the tedium of married life.

Electric drones and red lights signal the start of ‘rage reveries’ in which Hedda vents her frustration at those around her: Donald McBride’s scheming Judge Brack, Rachel Denning’s nervous Thea Elvsted, the oblivious Tesman and his tiresome devotion to his ageing aunts. It is the return of Tesman’s reformed rival Eilert Lövborg (Scott Turnbull) to the town which gives Hedda her chance: in a world where women are refused control, she plots to take charge of Eilert’s destiny. Equating destruction with the beauty she seeks, she perpetuates his undoing and casts his manuscript into the fire.

Unfortunately, the production comes to a disappointing end when Hedda rises from the dead to heckle the rest of the company, tearing off her corset to reveal the slogan ‘Knowledge is power’. The abrupt ending of Ibsen’s play, where Brack, Tesman and Thea are left in total confusion at Hedda’s brutal suicide, is much more subversive: like Iago, she will never speak a word from that time forth. Neither logic nor insanity can explain her actions.

Hedda Gabbler runs until Wednesday 8^th March. Tickets are available here.

Aladdin Tights

My fiancée and I co-wrote this pantomime with Bill Miller for the Players of Sacred Heart (POSH) which is being performed at Sacred Heart Parish Hall from Thursday 26th January – Saturday 28th January 2017.
My fiancée is directing, and I am producing, peforming and providing the music and sound effects.

The kingdom is ruled by Sultan Jeffrey, who is stark raving mad. His sister, the evil sorceress Jaffa, has been banished to Sunderland, but is plotting her revenge.

Meanwhile, Widow Flash is having a tough time running the city laundrette – and her layabout sons aren’t much help. Aladdin dreams of being a famous actor and marrying the Princess Jinja, and Daz wants to be a magician, but his spells always backfire. When Aladdin finds a magic lamp in the Cave of Wonders, he gets the chance to help his family and marry the fair princess, but as always, things aren’t quite that simple…

Tickets are £5 for adults and £3 for children. Ticket price includes a free glass of wine/orange juice or cup of tea. 

Segedunum

Wallsend, Tyneside, marks the end of Hadrian's Wall and was also the location of the Ancient Roman fort Segedunum.

The British Museum exhibition 'Roman Empire: Power and People' is currently open to visitors until Sunday 13th September. Access is included in the admission price of £5.95.

The fort ruins from the viewing tower

Preserved clothing from Roman Egypt

The Segedunum museum

Statue of a woman clutching the bust of her dead husband

Replica of a skull damaged during combat

Photography at the Black Gate and Castle Keep

I recently took some photographs for Old Newcastle at the Black Gate and Castle Keep. Both sites are open to visitors, offering a range of activities for all ages.

View from the top of the Castle Keep 

 The Black Gate, side view

Volunteer dressed as a knight in the Great Hall

Crossbow in the Castle Keep museum

Archery lessons in the Great Hall

The new lift shaft on the side of the Black Gate

Plague Doctor

Photos, April - July 2015

Butterfly World, Stockton-on-Tees

http://www.prestonparkmuseum.co.uk/the-grounds/butterfly-world/

Oval Space, London

http://www.ovalspace.co.uk/

Kirkley Hall and Gardens

http://www.kirkleyhall.co.uk/

http://www.kirkleyhallzoo.co.uk/

Our garden

Hexham Abbey

http://hexham-abbey.org.uk/

The Quayside, Newcastle

Our kitten Timmy, now six months old

2012 in Twelve Photographs

Once upon a time, I started a blog. 

And now and again I remember that I have one. 

2012 has been and gone. 

Here are twelve of my photographs from the past year.

 

The Brecon Beacons, Wales.

Thank you to Jude and Sheryl once again. 

The V and A, London.

One of my favourite museums.

 

Lindisfarne/Holy Island, Northumberland. 

Eskdale, Cumbria.

Scene of Rich and Rachel's wedding. Congratulations, and thanks for a great day!

'Mariner 9' installation by Kelly Richardson.

Inside the reopened Spanish City dome at Whitley Bay.

Autumn.

Benwell, Newcastle. 

Overgrown gravestone, Westgate Road, Newcastle. 

More gravestones. 

 Opolska, Kraków.

 This is the route I walked to the city centre.

 Auschwitz II: Birkenau, Poland. 

Cathedral, Kraków.

Heavy mist seen from Brantwood, home of John Ruskin.

A Clockwork Orange at The People's Theatre

THIS WEEK!

A Clockwork Orange @ The People's Theatre

Showing from Tuesday 17th May to Saturday 21st May 2011 at the People's Theatre, Heaton, Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Tickets are £10.50 (£8.50 concessions).

I am playing Pete the Droog and Big Jew.