ROMEO OG JULIE: A PUPPET SHOW

ROMEO OG JULIE: A PUPPET SHOW

at the British Library

01.06.16


One of the quirkier events accompanying the BL's Blockbuster Shakespeare in Ten Acts exhibition, this one-man show – aimed at youngsters, who were in the minority when I saw its first performance – finds a botanist monk [Olaf Hojgaard] in his potting shed, using cleverly adapted gardening implements to tell the Romeo and Juliet story.
In truth, the concept was more entertaining than the show, but it happily sustained our interest for forty minutes. Presented by Danish company HamletScenen, it has no words, but a music track with a few nods to Prokofiev.
The staging is ingenious – the two households are brooms and shovels – there's bawdiness and a bal masqué, a balcony scene – though the lovers don't meet till more than halfway through – and some really moving moments: the last glance back to the Montague toolshed, Tybalt's death, Capel's monument and the six crosses and one rose plucked from the herb garden.

“Oh, mickle is the powerful grace that lies

In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities.”

IDA BARR'S GREAT WAR MUSIC HALL

IDA BARR'S GREAT WAR MUSIC HALL

at the British Library

30.09.2014

Not the most atmospheric venue for this unique look at the First World War and its "silly, patriotic Music Halls"; a sparse crowd too – Ida blamed battle fatigue, and certainly war-themed entertainments are hard to avoid just now; this was my second this week.

But those who stayed home missed a real treat. Poppies in vases where the footlights would be, and a bill that included, besides the legendary Miss Barr, Jessica Walker as Vesta Tilley ["Britain's Best Recruiting Sargeant"], Paddy Glinn singing some stirring ballads, and respected expert on all things Music Hall Michael Kilgarrif, setting everything in context, and digressing deliciously at the drop of a hat. All to complement the BL's exhibition Enduring War: Grief, Grit and Humour.

Jessica Walker

The real-life Ida Barr was a music hall artiste whose long career covered the Great War and beyond. She died in 1967, the very year that Christopher Green was born. His act, enormously popular on the fringe, takes the name, some of the jokes, and recreates an elderly London luv whose retirement is enlivened by mashing up Music Hall memories with Rihanna and Busta Rhymes. Impossible to convey in print how well this works, but it is a total delight, from the wrinkled lisle to the Pearly Queen frock which references Lidl and the mobility scooter on which she sometimes makes an entrance. The patter, the songs, the singalong – culminating in a strangely moving Jerusalem.

The House is crammed: tier beyond tier they grin

And cackle at the Show, while prancing ranks

Of harlots shrill the chorus, drunk with din;

‘We’re sure the Kaiser loves our dear old Tanks!’

I’d like to see a Tank come down the stalls,

Lurching to rag-time tunes, or ‘Home, sweet Home’,

And there’d be no more jokes in Music-halls

To mock the riddled corpses round Bapaume. Siegfried Sassoon