We crossed the river to Berkeley Castle last night, to watch the Rococo Players perform A Winter’s Tale, an very good they were too. The Great Hall made a wonderfully intimate space for such a performance and brought us up close to big, human emotions.
I found it odd that my daughter could be so engrossed in the Shakespeare, with all it’s difficult language and want not to watch Jeremy Kyle on the same day. The people on Jeremy Kyle were horrible, doing horrible things to each other, but the more I watched the Shakespeare unfold in front of us, in close up almost touching distance, the more I saw similarities between the protagonists in both Shakespeare’s and Kyle’s productions.
Kings and queens have more elegant language and make larger gestures because they can, but the Family feuds and structures on Jeremy Kyle are exactly the same as those found in Shakespeare.
What would Shakespeare be doing if he lived now? He’d be watching Jeremy Kyle every morning, that’s for sure, and probably working in reality TV.
That’s why Shakespeare is still so relevant – The first quarter of an hour is hard, as the ear gets used to the language, but soon we are absorbed by all our petty family stories writ large and repeated generation by generation.
Not been to Berkeley Castle before. It was wonderful in the night, prettily light up with bulbs rather than spotlights. We must go again in the daylight and see what it looks like.
I had a great time last night at Gloucester Royal Hospital. I was asked to help present copies of a poetry anthology to the poets involved, all of whom have been looked after by the education department of the children’s ward.
The children had all been through the ward at some time. Some for broken bones some for more life-threatening reasons. It was a joy to meet them all, as I’d been reading their poems for a while, as I was deciding which ones to read aloud at the event. There were clever poems and sad poems and happy poems and funny poems. Matching up the writers to the poems was interesting and I felt very pleased when assumptions I’d made about the poet and their inspiration was correct.
The book was illustrated by Poppy Roberts, a sprightly young woman who is now doing Fashion at Uni. Her designs will be used as the Hospital Trust Christmas card. Good luck to her. I feel we will hear more from her.
I was really impressed by the poems. It’s good to read poetry now and then and be reminded of what it has to offer both to the writer and the reader. We don’t read poetry fro fun much. maybe it seems to much hard work, but like most things a bit of hard work usually brings its own rewards.
It was a bit of a party and I think everyone had a good time. The Staff are all lovely and obviously very caring and involved in the well-being and continuing education of their charges, who at times must not feel like doing school! Then again, a bit of school might be a welcome relief from the day to day routine of the ward.
Thanks for having me!
And so another great series goes down the pan, fallen prey to the notion that we want more and more gory detail and breath-panting horror.
DS Boyd, the leader of the cold case unit, is border line psychopath himself. I know the saying is that you set a thief to catch a thief, but this is a bit beyond belief. He would have been demoted to parking crimes a long time ago in real life, just for the way he treats his staff, who are ridiculously loyal to him.
Last night, they left the criminals to meet out justice on their behalf. It was a sorry mishmash of a story that relied on unbelievable changes in character from all the team. Tara Fitzgerald, the ice queen pathologist, now turns out to have another life in which she goes to “private clubs” to pick up passing illegal immigrants. Where did that come from? Up until now she’s worked 24 hours a day in the CCU crypt. Who in real life has all the skills to singlehandedly do the autopsies, test everything that is testable, measure up crime scenes and remodel them on the computer, she does her own DNA testing and the units scene of crime work. No one can do that much on an 8 hour shift. besides which she must have the most well funded lab in the country. It is so uneconomical to have all those machines standing by just in case she needs them in the next episode. Lets not mention the acting – she so overdoes the mad scientist bit that it becomes obvious she only got the job because she can act without emotion.
I’m sure that police get involved with their cases, but does every episode have to link the case to a member of the team and put them in peril? It’s such an over worn plot now.
Maybe the real science is now too humdrum. A DNA match is made and an old crime is solved – no hiding place – no drama.
I’m bored of Boyd – I want to give Eve the heave – dispence with Spence and send Grace back to base. I no longer feel I need to watch this one.
