Even more than an outpouring of passionate pacifism, Benjamin Britten’s Owen Wingrave is a universal exploration of the heroic strength of character required to reject decades of blind allegiance to an unholy cause.
performance
Before lockdown, Bewley’s Café Theatre in the bustling heart of Dublin was the place to grab a short lunch-time play, a bowl of soup – and maybe even chat up a stranger. For now, those days are gone, but Bewley’s has joined forces with online events company The Lock Inn to open the tiny venue to a potentially limitless audience.
By Barbara Lewis • performance, plays, theatre, year 2020 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, performance, plays, theatre
The Dirty 30 II: Electric pay-per-view. Review by Barbara Lewis. Instead of loud applause and cheers, “you were spectacularly fabulous,” pops up on the side of the screen from an online viewer, as the imaginary curtain goes down on the Degenerate Fox theatre’s online adaptation to the times we’re in.
By Barbara Lewis • performance, plays, theatre, year 2020 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, performance, plays, theatre
A Feast in The Time of Plague, Grange Park Opera online. Review by Barbara Lewis.
By Barbara Lewis • music, opera, performance, theatre, year 2020 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, music, opera, performance, theatre
Ghost Light, National Theatre of Scotland film. A theatre never goes completely dark, even in lockdown: a single light bulb, known as a ghost light, carries on glowing like a sanctuary lamp.
By Barbara Lewis • film, performance, plays, theatre, year 2020 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, film, performance, plays, theatre
An unexpected joy of lockdown is seeing world-class performers in their natural habitats. Habitat is the apposite word for Simon Keenlyside, who read zoology at Cambridge before focusing on his operatic career and who describes a love of nature as “the marrow” of his existence. He looks to music for its validation.
By Barbara Lewis • music, opera, performance, year 2020 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, music, opera, performance
For Wasfi Kani, the unstoppable founder of Grange Park Opera, even a pandemic is only a temporary setback. As soon as she had accepted this summer’s country house opera season at The Theatre in the Woods was lost, she set about mobilising the “pandemicists” and amassing funding for a Found season.
By Barbara Lewis • music, opera, performance, year 2020 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, music, opera, performance
U.S. folk musician Jay Ungar composed his Ashokan Farewell in 1982 shortly after violin and dance camps he had been running in Ashokan, New York state, ended for the season.
By Barbara Lewis • music, opera, performance, year 2020 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, music, opera, performance
For those suffering withdrawal symptoms, Stay at Home with Crazy Coqs is providing a thrice-weekly fix on YouTube as some of its regular artists post recordings from their homes or reissue previous Crazy Coqs performances.
By Barbara Lewis • comedy, music, performance, year 2020 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, comedy, music, performance
Brontë’s angry classic, which has for decades fired up rebellious, ambitious girls and women, has found new resonance in our self-isolating times as the National Theatre at Home allows another frustrated generation to ponder its lot.
By Barbara Lewis • authors, books, literature, performance, plays, theatre, year 2020 • Tags: authors, Barbara Lewis, books, literature, performance, plays, theatre
While we are forced to spend almost all our time indoors in order to help us stay safe and healthy, many people are using the time to learn new skills. Now the trailblazing Oak Circus Centre along with internationally renowned Lost in Translation Circus are offering interactive online courses in circus skills that anyone can join in with.
By Stephen McGrath • performance, year 2020 • Tags: performance
Every Christmas, London’s Old Vic delivers a production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. This year is no exception – except that it comes to us via Zoom.
By Barbara Lewis • books, performance, theatre, year 2021 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, books, performance, theatre