Friday, June 20

Tag: Paris Fitzpatrick

Quadrophenia – Festival Theatre
Scotland

Quadrophenia – Festival Theatre

Translating a rock opera to the stage might seem like a logical sequitur, until one remembers that in this case it is translating an album – in which the storytelling is done almost entirely through lyrics (and may still not be the clearest then) – into an entirely non-verbal medium – a ballet. But this was the task of Quadrophenia: A Mod Ballet, taking The Who's (well... really Pete Townshend's) second/third rock opera (depending on whether we count A Quick One While He's Away) 1973's Quadrophenia, stripping out its lyrics and replacing guitars, synths and Moonish drumming for an orchestral version of the album by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. While waiting outside, another audience member asked me how many people I thought were there for the music. Having seen at least one The Who...
The Midnight Bell – Sheffield Lyceum
Yorkshire & Humber

The Midnight Bell – Sheffield Lyceum

It has been said that no other English author has written so accurately about sexual infatuation, embarrassment and self-illusion as Patrick Hamilton, a riveting dissector of English life up to and including the War. Hamilton’s novels are the perfect stimulus for master storyteller Matthew Bourne’s new work ‘The Midnight Bell’, which explores the transfixing tales of Soho’s bleak, darker side. A nocturnal event that follows the story of the frequenters of the 1930’s public house in Fitzroyd Square. The characters are taken from Hamilton’s various literary works including 20,000 Streets Under the Sky; Hangover Street and the works Gas Light and Rope; which were successfully made into film. The characters are thrown together in one time and place with a few added new ‘Hamiltonian’ feeling...