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World Premiere of Edward Bond’s Dea at Sutton Theatres
December 3, 2015 Last updated: February 21, 2016 12:31 am By Neil Cheesman

Edward Bond“To be sane or not to be sane, that is the question. If not, everything that follows.”
Drawing inspiration from Greek mythology and Jacobean tragedies, the new play by Edward Bond pictures vividly the collapse of our society.

Edward Bond is widely regarded as one of the UK’s greatest and most influential playwrights. He is the author of some fifty plays, among them Saved (1965), the production of which was instrumental in the abolition of theatre censorship in the UK.

His other plays include The Pope’s Wedding (Royal Court Theatre, 1962), Early Morning (Royal Court, 1968), Lear (Royal Court, 1971), The Sea (Royal Court, 1973), The Fool (Royal Court, 1975), The Woman (National Theatre, 1978), Restoration (Royal Court, 1981) and The War Plays (RSC at the Barbican Pit, 1985). To this date, his plays have been produced in more than 60 countries. He has formed particular relationships with French theatre (which led to THE PARIS PENTAD) and the Birmingham Theatre Company, Big Brum, for whom he has written ten plays.

Director of Sutton Theatres Beri Juraic says: “Edward was one of the key people who supported us in saving theatres in Sutton and at the end of our first year here, we are very pleased to be presenting the world premiere of his new play. When I first read Dea, I immediately knew it is one of those rare plays which describe our society so vividly. It is that sense of urgency which is the backbone of our artistic programming.”

EDWARD BOND’S DEA
World Premiere
24 May – 11 June 2016
https://suttontheatres.co.uk/

King Lear
23/04/2012 | Filed under: Latest Reviews,Reviews,Reviews,Theatre | Posted by: Ed Frankl

Better than Nothing revive DramSoc’s excellent Wardrobe Theatre adaptation of Shakespeare’s murky tragedy with an impressive production on the altar of St Andrew’s Church in the heart of London. Lear has never held out for easy interpretation, a reflective study of man’s fragility, or perhaps a troubled exploration of the failings of family, or a journey through the terror of losing one’s mind; anyhow, it’s a tough job for students to handle. Even Hamlet, which the company suggest they may put on next year (at Elsinore, no less), is an easy job in comparison.

Original director Edmund Cuthbert joins forces with James Bowsher to stage this production in a busy church on Holborn Road in the middle of the financial district, a stark architectural landmark that straddles the divide between old world and new. The church, with its medieval foundations, is a couple of hundred yards from city skyscrapers, and Sainsbury’s headquarters are just across the road. It works in that Lear is about a changing world, and this nineteenth century-set production certainly has the feeling of a time out of joint. Tash Dummelow, with excellent comic timing, plays the fool as a Chaplin-esque sidekick, dressed in black and white and a bowler hat like a silent movie star, a figment of Lear’s imagination that is a dreamlike as the movies.

Thomas Gilbert reprises his role as Lear, still a bravura performance of a man crying out to keep a grip on his own sanity while the world he knows collapses around him. Gilbert’s power is in his ability to change from a bruising, angered king at the start to become a cowering nervous wreck by the play’s close. Equal too are Miriam Battye, who made for a saddening, contemplative Cordelia, Ben Dallyn, enjoyably rural as the outcast Kent, and Imogen Comrie, Rosie Joly and Joe Newton who all delivered punchy ensemble performances. Oliver Gyani, although speaking with suitable sliminess had a tendency to stumble into pantomime at moments as illegitimate son Edmund, and Harrison Clark, one of the younger members of the cast, although and bounding up and down like his Mowgli character in Jungle as Poor Tom, needed a little more intensity and purpose when he played Edgar.

But even in its grandiose aesthetic surroundings, the production wasn’t necessarily helped by its venue. The Wardrobe might well be impractical, but it delivered a total theatre experience that wasn’t given to me in the relative caverns of St Andrew’s. With a giant hanging statue of Jesus hanging above the stage, I wondered whether the directors sought a Christian interpretation, despite the play having its origins in a veritably pagan world; if so I couldn’t see if it was ironic, or genuine affirmation of the hopelessness of a godless world. Added to that, like As Told By’s Macbeth last term (which King Lear betters), there were times where the space simply absorbed actors’ voices, and you couldn’t hear a darned thing. Only the music, composed by Josephine Stephenson, including wonderfully eerie Latin chants at the beginning of the play, made me appreciate the space for the drama that it promised.

Still, venue aside, this is a terrifically difficult play which was constantly engrossing, calmly directed and as cruelly devastating in its final conclusion as you could hope for.
★★★★★

Tuesday 21st June 2011

APOY 2011 Round 4 Macro in Nature



Macro in Nature

The results are in for the fourth round of APOY. We had some fantastic entries, covering many subjects.

Peter Gilbert, of Devon, wins first place in our Macro in nature round of APOY 2011. Peter will receive Canon's latest DSLR, the 18-million-pixel EOS 600D with an EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens worth a total of £1,218.99. The EOS 600D offers full HD 1080p video recording, up to 3.7fps continuous shooting and a 3in, 1.04-million- dot, vari-angle LCD screen. An ISO range of 100-6400, expandable to 12,800, enables high-quality handheld shooting in low-light conditions without the need for flash. The EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens is compact and lightweight with high corner-to-corner resolution. It has an effective focal length of approximately 96mm (35mm equivalent) and full-time manual focus override. Our second-placed winner is John Webb, of Somerset, who will receive Canon's 12.1-million-pixel IXUS 310 HS in silver, a Canon PIXMA MG6150 Wi-Fi-enabled all-in-one printer and a 20-sheet pack of Canon's A4 PP-201 Photo Paper Plus Glossy II paper worth a total of £507.99. Marek Troszczynski of London finished third in the round and wins Canon's PowerShot SX220 HS in grey, worth £269.


1st Peter Gilbert, Devon 44pts
Canon EOS 40D, 100mm macro, 1/60sec at f/18, ISO 200, ringflash with LED handheld torch for backlighting


The papery husk that surrounded a fruit of the Chinese lantern plant

Judges say: 'Expertly lit and very well exposed, Peter's image impressed the judges with its technical finesse. The husk looks almost 3D and appears to be floating in mid-air. It is a simple idea, but one that works brilliantly.'