Saturday, June 21

Tag: David Paul Jones

Lear – Traverse Theatre
Scotland

Lear – Traverse Theatre

Shakespeare’s infamous tragedy is significantly thinned down and reinterpreted into a one hour wordless anti-war allegory by Ramesh Meyyappan, but retains a raw power and delicate beauty and some rather unexpected humour that make it a thoroughly watchable and thought provoking addition to the Lear genre. This Lear has a worldly feel and international backing, a production by Glasgow based Raw Material in association with National Theatre for Scotland and Singapore National Festival of Arts, it looks made to tour extensively. In the hands of writer and performer Meyyappan and acclaimed director Orla O’Loughlin, we see and feel the effects of war on a father returning from the battlefield and his three daughters. The returning king of the household is welcomed with initial relief and ...
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me – Summerhall
Scotland

Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me – Summerhall

Ben Harrison and David Paul Jones were both teenagers in the 1980s. Both felt suffocated by their respective small towns, and both found solace in the music of the time. Harrison tells a selection of stories from his youth, and Jones performs his own interpretations of some of those songs. It’s a nostalgic revisit to a vibrant era that now seems defined by its contrasts. Emery Hunter’s integrated BSL interpretation drew me in right from the start. I am not a BSL user, but to me, her performance felt like poetry. Her flowing movements were beautiful to watch, with a rhythm that synchronised with the others on stage, but delightful in their own right. I hope that I will have more chances to see BSL poetry in future. Jones has taken well-known songs and made them his own, from the t...