Poetry review – TRACKS IN SNOW: Charles Rammelkamp sees past the superficial assessment that Thaddeus Rutkowski’s poems are light and understated
Dido and Aeneas. Review by Barbara Lewis. Singer and director Marcio da Silva opens his version of Purcell’s only fully sung opera with a request that the audience vote on who takes the role of Dido. It felt at first like a gimmick, at odds with high tragedy, and yet it takes on a serious purpose: we, like the gods, or the fates, or Purcell’s witches, are the arbitrary deciders of one human’s destiny.
The Mahabharata. Review by Alan Price. The Mahabharata is one of the longest poems known. It’s about 1.8 million words in total. So any adaptation into a play or film will be lengthy. From the Jean Claude Carriere and Peter Brook stage play version of The Mahabharata (running time nine hours) there emerged a three hour feature film and now a five and a half version that’s been lovingly restored by Simon Brook.
DIABOLICALLY GOOD: Charles Rammelkamp enjoys Drew Pisarra’s imaginative exploration of the movie career and afterlife of horror icon Vincent Price
Poetry review – RUST CANYON: Alex Josephy considers Lauren Mason’s highly effective eco-poetry which uses a particular story to alert readers to the wider dangers facing our planet
Poetry review – THE KAMA SUTRA FOR SENIOR CITIZENS: Peter Daniels admires a collection by Zak Rogow which brings wit and generosity to matters which, sooner or later, will be of concern to us all
WIVES AND WOMEN: Dale Scherfling reflects on Ernest Hemingway’s life through the women who helped shape it — seeing them not as supporting characters, but as individuals
Poetry review – VOX WAH WAH: Mat Riches enjoys browsing this short, guitar-themed collection by Hilary Menos
Poetry review – 55 DEVOTIONALS (AGAINST ERASURE): Peter Daniels considers Andrew McDonnell’s poems about loss and its inevitability
Poetry review – NEW AND SELECTED POEMS: Ian Pople considers a new selection of poems by Henri Coulette (1927-1988)
Poetry review – TABLE, WINDOW: Mat Riches finds much to admire in this chapbook by Simon Richey
Rose of Nevada. Review by Alan Price. A young two-man crew, with an elderly sea dog of a captain, take to sea on a fishing trip in the economically poorer present. They achieve a good catch but on return are time-slipped back to their Cornish village as it existed thirty years previous, when the community was financially prosperous.
By Alan Price • added recently on London Grip, film • Tags: Alan Price, film