David Porter » Archive
CMT (Charcot Marie Tooth) Awareness
CMT – (Charcot Marie Tooth disease) is not widely known about. So how is it seen? Sometimes children appear a little clumsy, perhaps not good at sports. Their feet start to look a bit different. Perhaps their ability to handle things deteriorates. Muscles waste and balance becomes unstable. Gradually their toes may curl, arches rise and shoes don’t fit. There may be neuropathic pain. Gradually feet or hands become more clearly deformed. This is Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), a progressive degeneration of the nerves caused by genetic abnormalities. There is no cure at present. It affects 1 in every 2500 people on earth, each one in a different way. It is not life-threatening as such, but it can be life-restricting. Named after the three doctors who diagnosed it first, CMT is now becoming better known. Research into the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Ideas and Thoughts
Blitzed
Blitzed at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 8 August 2015 and The Lowestoft Journal, 14 August 2015 Katie Smith’s writing and directorial debut was brought to life at the Seagull, in an all-age study of life’s choices and what ‘just happens.’ From the drugs and free-love hippie times of the 1960s it moved across selected years to the present. We followed the trials and youthful indiscretions of three friends, the excellent Sharni Macdonald, Abigail Watson and Nina Woodcock to their what-has-life-all-been-about phase. Attention to detail with slides and music snippets enhanced scenes as fashions and attitudes evolved. The immense youthful enthusiasm and talent was infectious as they worked as an ensemble and as individuals in cameos of honesty, anger, humour and regret. Avoiding over-reliance on stereotypes, characters drew the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys at the Theatre Royal, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 9 July 2015 It takes a special show to stand out from the crowd of contemporary musicals about great music and musicians of the 1960s and 70s. Well, multi-award winning Jersey Boys stands out big-time! Blessed with unique harmonies and the unforgettable lead falsetto vocals of Frankie Valli, The Four Seasons were big hit makers, popular both sides of the Atlantic. Their sound was the backdrop to many teenagers’ lives. From the streets of New Jersey these boys rose to the dizzy heights of the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. This opens the can of worms that was their less harmonious offstage and behind the scenes lives; this show has real grit. As often in showbiz, fame comes at high cost … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap at the Marina Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 24 June 2015 and the Lowestoft Journal, 26 June 2015 Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is an institution – over 60 years old and still running in London. The celebratory national tour reached Lowestoft and thrilled another new audience. A play of this vintage ought to creak like a relic, but a good who-dunnit is timeless. Trap a collection of oddball characters in an old country house for days by heavy snow outside. Let actions from the past haunt people with secrets and we have a great mystery. A feeling that nobody can actually be trusted builds to the unexpected final twist. Over the decades the production has periodically been refreshed and this one directed by Ian Watt-Smith makes real to a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
Legally Blonde
Legally Blonde from the Lowestoft Players at the Marina Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 4 June 2015 and Lowestoft Journal, 5 June 2015 Unafraid to embrace risk and challenge, the Lowestoft Players are staging the East Anglian amateur premiere of the bubble gum, high-energy fun musical Legally Blonde. Based on the myth of the dumb, ditzy blonde bombshell unable to cope with legal training at Harvard Law School, this musical love-comedy follows Elle, stunningly portrayed by Polly Woodward, as she learns that the law can help others. She is the outsider who shakes up a stuffy establishment, in love with the creep (Lewis Caplin) and unaware of her true destiny (Tom Guttridge) till the explosion of dancing, singing energy that is the finale. Yes, individual roles impress, but as always with the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
Triad
Triad at Norwich Cathedral, part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival 2015 Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 25 May 2015 The Cathedral’s soaring acoustics provided a perfect setting for Triad to showcase their traditional, compelling, toe-tapping virtuosity in a Celtic music concert that entranced a packed audience. Comprising two Irishmen and one from Brittany, the trio played through a wide range of jigs, slow reels, airs and pipe marches, some very old from Europe’s Celtic regions and others they wrote themselves. Beside trad-dance melodies, there were slip-jigs and songs, a few in Gaelic. Their fingers danced too as their instruments created a harmonious completeness to a beautiful evening as the shadows lengthened inside and out. The sets were interspersed with informative anecdotes and jokes that enhanced the intimate atmosphere. These men, musical maestros … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
Neighbourhood Watch
Neighbourhood Watch at the Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 23 May 2015 Alan Ayckbourn’s 75th play is a gem, which he described as one of his ‘darker pieces’. Apprehension in society is the theme and the Maddermarket team, ably directed by Jude Wyatt, handle escalating madness with consummate skill. It’s understandable that the small community wish to protect their little world from the perceived threats of the common estate a short distance away. But soon, the Neighbourhood Watch has taken on a life of its own with ID cards, razor wire fences and even stocks to punish ‘wrong-doers’. Neighbourhood Watch is classic Ayckbourne. Out of the ordinary comes dark comedy and he spotlights undercurrents of insanity that run under calm surfaces. Zanna Foley-Davies and Ian Shephard play the joyfully bizarre … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
John Lanchester
John Lanchester at The Hostry, Norwich Cathedral part of the Norwich and Norfolk Festival 2015 Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 20 May 2015 I have long admired John Lanchester the novelist. Now, after his money talk, he’s impressed as an explainer of complex financial matters. It was the first in the Norwich Writers Centre festival in a weekend and was in the form of a ‘conversation’ which we are told people prefer these days to a talk. It was chaired by the verbose Jonathan Morley, from WCN. Lanchester gave a reading from his book ‘How to Speak Money’, discussed literature and how the ‘unhelpful term non-fiction is a particularly English language thing’, politics and economics. He wrote the book from a desire to explain financial vocabulary, as most of us have ‘semi-knowledge’ at best; … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing Norwich Playhouse, part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival 15 Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 14 May 2015 Readers of the ground-breaking novel, A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing, telling the journey of an Irish girl from pre-birth to 20, may be surprised to see it’s transposed into a play. But it makes a terrific performance. Eimear McBride’s personal journey is spell-binding theatre by Dublin company, The Corn Exchange and director Annie Ryan. The sole actor, Aoilfe Duffin, brings the foetus, the child, the young woman to life before our eyes in a tour de force that reveals her ‘complex and conflicted character.’ Her inner narrative is played in a stream of different voices and characters. She undergoes sexual awakening, religion and pain through a unique dynamic language … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews