Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
Bestival
The Time for Tease tent mixes the quaint delights of traditional English afternoon tea with some burlesque. Lovely. The Cabaret Tent provides comedy acts, quizzes, and theatrical entertainment, although possibly not any big names.
Download
Download has an intriguingly-named immersive theatre experience: Madame Pain’s Boudoir Circus. From its description on the website, it sounds like a cross between a Dickensian porno, a quaint little village circus and Alice Cooper. It invites you to enjoy ‘this true S&M experience conceived by Madame Pain’. Interested? …Are you? Well, I’m staying out of it. Bonne chance.
Latitude
Latitude’s tagline is ‘It’s more than just a music festival’, and never has a truer word been spoken. It is the perfect festival for the arts, providing a huge range across several different areas. In the Poetry Arena it will play host to English Touring Theatre, an excellent theatre company that has built up its credentials over the last few years doing classic texts: Chekhov, Shakespeare, and Ibsen. This year’s Latitude sees a departure from that as the company take on a newly-written spoken word production.
Waterfront Stage has the cast of the highly-acclaimed Fela! (which played at the National Theatre in London this past season) returning to show highlights from the show. If you missed it at the National or in the NT Live screenings, now’s your chance. Also appearing on this stage is the Olivier-award-winning Rambert Dance Company, who are truly spectacular live.
Headliners in the Comedy Tent are big names such as Alan Carr, Omid Djalili, and the crew from Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
The Theatre Arena has appearances from major theatres such as Gate Theatre, the Lyric Hammersmith and the National Theatre of Scotland. Certain companies can be recognized from their tours up and down the country and particularly their Edinburgh runs each year: Tim Crouch (an excellent practitioner), Ella Hickson’s Hot Mess and the company nabokov. A good range of theatre is on offer, although Latitude seems to steer more towards immersive/technical effects/all-guns-blazing type of theatre. 1927 Theatre Company look particularly exciting and previous shows of theirs have sold out in seconds so if you’re heading to Latitude, be sure to pre-book certain productions that catch your eye.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Although this isn’t a festival in the same sense that the others are – camping, wearing flower chains and wellies, and subsisting entirely on Tuborg – it would be foolish to miss it out of this list. The city of Edinburgh becomes home for one glorious month to hundreds and hundreds of theatre companies, comedy acts, cabarets, dance companies, musicals, and street artists. You name it, Edinburgh probably has it. A perfect getaway for a week or so as you blitz your way round the free fringe acts. Make sure to book in advance for big touring companies or comedy acts, particularly at places like the Traverse or Pleasance. Take a stroll up the Royal Mile in the middle of the day to get hounded by eccentrically-dressed thespians all trying to catch your attention and hand you flyers – you’ll probably see a York company amongst them!
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