David Porter » Archive
Compagnie Bam
Hippodrome Circus, Gt Yarmouth Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 11 September 2012 A riot of anarchic, electrifying contemporary circus came to town as part of the Out There Festival. Nowadays performers must be magnificent tumblers and acrobats, and then brilliant comedians, musicians, singers and dancers! Compagnie Bam are five energetic masters of the Chinese pole and teeterboard who began with a warning not to use phones or cameras by smashing some examples up. From then on, surreal was normal, with characters entering as if inmates from an historical asylum. They made every routine look easy, cavorting skilfully through fast-paced madcap lunacy of the inspired kind, interacting comically and absurdly. Three giant planks and two massive mattresses supported Olympic-standard gymnastics. A darker sequence in the middle explored the borders of gender. A crazy drummer … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
Five Finger Exercise
Southwold Summer Theatre Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 10 September 2012 The Southwold season of drama ends with a little gem from the pen of Peter Shaffer, who gave us Equus, Amadeus and Black Comedy. Five finger exercises are piano training techniques in dexterity, strength and coordination. A piano is the background motif as a dysfunctional family face growing up, ghosts from the past and personality struggles. Iain Ridley plays the troubled young man, at university but still bound by home and loyalty ties, on the threshold of real adulthood. Ann Wenn is his mother, calm and proper on the outside, but a turmoil of frustrated emotions inside. Michael Shaw is his self-made father, uncultured and vulgar, yet holding his family with a powerful grip. Holly Jones is the teenage sister, just discovering … Read entire article »
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Conference Season Is Fun-and-Games Politics With Serious Purpose
Autumn party conferences are the only show in town for devotees, managers and media. But do they do any real political good, make any lasting impression? All British political parties, great and small, hold gatherings of their party faithful at some point during the year. Attenders are treated to a succession of debates in conference on substantial issues, the party’s great and good in the flesh, fringe meetings, cabals, sideshows and personalities and opportunists (media and political) working the rooms. It’s a somewhat rarefied atmosphere, cocooned within a ring of high-level security. The rest of the country (starting with locals inconvenienced by security) matter only when they and their opinions are suddenly remembered. Such events allow leaders and would-be leaders to grandstand, network and feel involved. They can make or break … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles at Suite 101
University Challenges of Cash, Costs, Worth and Perceptions
As UK universities start another academic year, the horizon is still smoking from the rows about debt and financing. But those aren’t the only issues. Just ahead of the November 2010 disturbances/demonstrations, Education Editor of The Daily Telegraph, Graeme Paton wrote that the cost of a degree had ‘tripled in 20 years’. That was before the increase to £9000 a year that the demonstrators were protesting about. Paton’s figures were average £6360 a year tuition and accommodation, compared with £1545 in the late 1980s, which was higher than the rise in family incomes over the same period, taking into account parental contributions and grants/loans. The debate centred, and still does, on ‘pricing students out of university education’. Always Complications Figures of potential future graduate debt fluctuated wildly, depending on the side of the ideological … Read entire article »
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‘Good Books Make Bad Movies and Vice Versa’: Discuss
A perennial Media Studies question: do good books make bad films or do bad books make good films? However, perhaps the bigger question is: does it matter? Filmmakers take most material from adaptations, recycling and re-envisioning. They’re rarely bothered about whether it’s a ‘good’ book they’re using, as long as the movie makes money. Books (good and bad) make films (good and bad), that’s the bottom line. Critical and artistic acclaim are bonuses. Tim Robey, Sunday Telegraph’s Film Editor mused (21 Aug 2011) that autumn 2011 would bring a ‘slew of high-profile literary adaptations’ to the screen. Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Help to discuss good/bad books. He said that One Day had enjoyed box office success retelling the big … Read entire article »
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The Happening Was the Progenitor of Performance Art
Installations, Events, Happenings, Environments were favoured by 1950/60s art and drama students: just kids having a laugh, or claim to a serious artform? The term ‘happening’, as in ‘what’s happening, man?’ was a very 1960s one. In fact, it described a particular form of performance theatre arising from and fusing with visual arts. It’s not fully understood in contemporary performance circles, but The Happening was instrumental in paving the way for performance art to be an artform in its own right. It was an ‘event’ or ‘situation’ sometimes billed as ‘art in random places’ (empty shops, old houses, warehouses, streets), with little linear narrative, but reliance on mixed art forms with the audience frequently involved, willingly or not. Scope for improvisation (much as Commedia dell’Arte actors did in the 16th … Read entire article »
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Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling: Where Is the Irish Economy Going?
Little to sing, dance or smile about as world and home-grown economic problems continue to impact Eire, but all is not lost. There’s some optimism around. Harsh economic realities of post-Celtic Tiger years batter Ireland as much as but in different ways from other parts of Europe. The nostalgic, romanticised, When Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1912), is about Irish character surviving tribulation: ‘When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, sure ’tis like a morn in spring/In the lilt of Irish laughter you can hear the angels sing/When Irish hearts are happy all the world seems bright and gay/And When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, sure, they steal your heart away’. The recession/slowdown of 2008-2009 was felt across the land. Finger-pointing and blame for collapse of housing market and banking, overheating, taxes, unemployment, the … Read entire article »
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A Welcome in the Vales: Where Is the Welsh Economy Going?
Whether down in the gloomy depths of valleys or high on the hills of optimism, Wales’ economy is in the spotlight as discussion continues about direction. In the traditional-nostalgic Welsh anthem, We’ll Keep a Welcome, the chorus goes: We’ll keep a welcome in the hillside/We’ll keep a welcome in the Vales/This land you knew will still be singing/When you come home again to Wales’. That’s determination to keep going, look on the bright side and welcome people home. Economic realities don’t live up to folk culture and song, but the fact is, that like much of the rest of Britain, Wales has the necessary resilience, commitment, ideas and drive to regenerate and thrive. Of course, different people hold different views. Professor Dylan Jones-Evans is Director of Enterprise and Innovation at the … Read entire article »
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High Road or Low Road: Where is the Scottish Economy Going?
As a think-tank economist warns Scotland will be ‘third-world’ by 2030, it’s timely to ponder financial assets with independence remaining contentious. As visitors leave Edinburgh after another International Festival, Douglas McWilliams, chief executive of the Centre for Economics and Business Research, said in less than 20 years ‘low living standards and slow economy’ would reduce Scotland to ‘merely a third-world tourist destination’. Scot McWilliams founded the Centre (Cebr) in 1993 to provide independent forecasts and analysis to private, public and third sector organisations. It specialises in ‘making business sense of economic data’ so clients understand their markets. For 2011 they predicted yet another Euro crisis, slower growth, retirement at 75 in Japan and banks lending again. McWilliams’ August 2011 comments arose from data suggesting Scotland ‘lacks entrepreneurship, mis-spends money and suffers … Read entire article »
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Monetising the Web: the New Business Generation’s Holy Grail
Two linked debates about the internet in 2011 are open and equal access, and how to monetise or charge for content successfully without restricting access. September 2011, the UK’s Guardian is offering a one day course in London, Monitising Digital Content, aimed at small and medium businesses, marketeers and organisations. A website is a brand, as they say, ‘a customer service centre, retail outlet and community.’ Many businesses make money online, but maximising it is the magic ingredient of commercial success in this part of the century. The Guardian set out key online revenue streams: advertising, paid-for content and e-commerce. Sessions revolve around those keys: How and why do customers buy? Which revenue stream is right for a given business? How to market successfully from own and others’ content? Affiliate … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles at Suite 101