A century ago, Wilfred Owen, one of the greatest of the first World War poets wrote ‘Dulce et Decorum est pro Patria ‘ [It is sweet and right to die for your country] It was a bitter commentary on the savagery of war, written from Wilfred Owen’s personal experience. Move forward to the present day, and Owen Sheers, also a poet, gives a dramatised account of three young men who leave Bristol to fight in Afghanistan. Has much has changed? Absolutely nothing. Because however ‘sophisticated’, however ‘primitive’ the weaponry, now as then, the outcome is the same, the probablity of death or terrible injury. Of the three young soldiers, one is blown up by an IED, another...
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Who hasn’t been entranced by Chagall’s surreal and vividly coloured paintings of lovers surrounded by flowers and clasped in an embrace flying across the sky? And who wouldn’t be captivated by the writer’s Daniel Jamieson’s portrayal of Chagall’s love affair with his first wife. Marc Chagall played by Marc Antolin and Bella Chagall by Audrey Brisson, perfectly capture their childlike delight for each other and their joy for life. It’s a marriage made in theatrical heaven, and brought to Bristol’s Old Vic by Emma Rice, formerly Director of the Kneehigh Company. The production, the story of their life together, veers between fantasy and harsh reality but it is...
Read MoreI wasn’t prepared, I’d read no reviews and I knew nothing about this play other than I’d been told it was about to transfer to the West End and was written by a French Canadian. Relevant? I think not. Five characters; a wife, a husband, two neighbours also a wife and husband, but older and with an adult son with a nervous facial tic. The relationships are bizarre and the characters perform a complex psychological but unlikely dance. Has the writer read Freud or some other analytic writing? Maybe or maybe not, but the actions and dialogue at some level make a kind of crazy sense. We start with the young wife, tortured by her baby’s cries, a...
Read More‘THE LADY IN THE VAN’ Alan Bennett is a national treasure. He’s also a gifted writer, a humorist and a shrewd judge of character. These all come together in his latest film. ’The lady in the van’ is a superb characterisation of an elderly vagabond who randomly parks her van with herself in it, along the streets of Camden in London. One day, the van breaks down and she persuades Alan Bennett who just happened to be passing, to help her push the van to an area which more suits her. But she remains in the area and from that moment on, the two begin a kind of psychological war dance. What’s wonderful about this film is the writer’s honesty because it’s not just...
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Marguerite Valentine is a former child protection specialist now writing psychological thrillers. Her debut novel is 'Between The Shadow And The Soul'.