Went to see the Christmas Lights Switch On in Middlesbrough Town centre after work. There was a great atmosphere.
TFM Radio was on hand to host the festivities. A bunch of families were out as well as groups of teenagers. There were sing-a-longs to popular songs and performers from the Middlesbrough Theatre Panto Jack and the Beanstalk revving up the crowd.
Many people were wondering who the light switcher on would be. It was a young boy named Ethan whose dad is serving in Afghanistan and won’t be home for Christmas. It was quite sweet.
Wayne from TFM radio explained that he could get the excitable crowd to do whatever he wants – jump up and down, pick their noses so little Ethan asked them to jump up and down.
Wayne then told him he could ask them to pretend to be his favourite animal – what’s your favourite animal?
“A Chicken!!!!”
It was brilliant.
The weather wasn’t brilliant but the atmosphere was. Nice antithesis to celebrity culture, struck just the right note.
Went to Jamal’s for dinner on Corportation Road with Lizzie and then went to see Iron, the first production by Company TSU – a new theatre group in Middlesbrough.
The official description:
“Unsettling in its opinion and unflinching in its language IRON is inspired by Nigel Williams’ play ‘Class Enemy’, re-imagined and brought to life by Company TSU.
A group of pupils rail against their lives. Angry and disillusioned they wait for a teacher, some answers, some direction but mostly they just wait for the bell to go.”
The play was performed in the round and the performances were excellent. There were video bits integrated into the play that worked well and added to the performance. (Minor quibble is one of these pieces set to the Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen, felt long in terms of the length of the play.)
Lizzie was distracted by some of the language in the play, (a fairly constant patter of among other words the “c” word). I don’t know if I am desensitized as a native NYer – I find it easy to filter.
Would love to see these performers again as they gain experience – they did a great job and there was some great potential on offer.
It needs to be said, Venue 2 at Middlesbrough College is another awesome space to watch theatre (in addition to the larger Hazel Pearson Theatre at the College, where we went to see an excellent production of The Laramie Project.)
Iron was performed in the round and it made you want to see more theatre groups creating productions for this amazing space.
Mayor Ray Mallon attended the performance too and reviewed it here.
Started the morning annoyed with the BBC Breakfast show’s discussion of video games. They asked for people’s thoughts on video games asking do they have no impact or do they have a negative impact on children.
There was no option for positive impact on motor skills, hand-eye coordination, literacy and I seem to recall a study of multi-player online games leading to transferable skills for management in the workplace. Yet all video games were being tarred by the same brush.
It seems what they’re really concerned about is clueless parenting. Consenting, responsible adults should not be penalized and required to consume strictly content sanitized for children’s protection. Not everyone draws the line in the same place, so there needs to be room for a multiplicity of community standards…none of this was discussed.
In better television news, I am thoroughly excited for the new series of Misfits to be starting.
After a bizarre day at work, went to the MFC shop to purchase a Boro Brick in honour of my friends coming to visit from Chicago. I’m taking them to a match and now we will have a permanent souvenir of the occasion. : )
Stopped off at the new Caffe Nero in Middlesbrough before heading to the train.
Getting home tonight was misery. Took my usual 5.32 train only to hear an announcement saying we would have to get off one stop later at Thornaby to transfer to a bus which was of course not waiting for us. A very cold over an hour later we finally got on a bus. We stood at the side of the road waiting as empty buses drove past mocking our misery. Finally made it home a little over 2 hours after I started. Good mass transit is really the thing I miss most about NY.
The sad part was my plans for the evening were back in Middlesbrough again!
All’s well that ends well. We missed the first few opening acts but caught a really good mellow set by Billy the Kid and then new band The Vaccines at the Westgarth Social Club in Middlesbrough. The Vaccines reminded me of James crossed with a bit of the Ramones and a random folk singer. Julie thought they sounded a bit like the Editors.
A nice way to end the day. Here’s a vid of them playing Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra) on Jools Holland last week.
The concession stand sells delicious ice cream from Jersey – we had chocolate and a toffee caramel flavour. I need to find out the brand it was - delicious (even better than the ice cream at the Sage). I definitely want to return, which is good since some people from work want to go see Alfie. It’s a reasonably priced night out.
I realised on the way over that it was actually my first time visiting a small regional theatre.
Now for the play. Lotty’s War is by By Giuliano Crispini. Directed by Iain Davie. Set design by David Crisp. Costume Design by Susannah Tidy. Produced by Giddy Ox. Katie Howell as Lotty, not sure the names of the actors who played General-Major Rolf Bernburg and Ben.
Lotty is 17 at the start of the play, we meet her and her best friend and romantic interest Ben as carefree and playful youths. Her mother and sister leave to England before the occupation and when Guernsey is attacked and her father is killed, she is left alone in her house which is taken over by Nazi General-Major Rolf Bernburg. While other people are referenced by the characters these are the only people in the play. All the action takes place in Lotty’s kitchen.
My companions were amazed by three actors being able to hold their attention for that long and tell a complicated story. There are loads of positive reviews kicking about, calling this a brave play at a time when Britain is occupying two countries and also commending it for exploring a little-known part of history…I wanted it to be better.
This review pretty much sums it up for me though I would blame the writer and the director more than the actors who do what they can with what they’re given.
The first half feels long. At the end of the play it made me question whether, in a meta way, they were trying to give me a little taste of the long years of occupation. There are some interesting ideas in the play about the psychological toll of long term occupation, the ability to identify or understand or love one’s captor, the requirements placed by one’s people or country, and just rewards in the face of survival.
Time going by is marked by the radio news. Unfortunately there are no visuals to back up the sense of time passing so the transformations in the characters can sometimes seem abrupt.
I was concerned that this would be another warm fuzzy Nazi story. While I don’t require that stories about WWII should resemble old school Westerns with a villain in a Black hat and a hero in a White ten gallon hat, and I accept that many Nazis were people in difficult situations, who compartmentalised their lives, I don’t want to ever forget their victims or turn them into bigger victims by the stories that get told.
I also felt that the power difference between a 17 year old girl and a Nazi general in his 40s/50s or so was not written sharply enough. He is civilised and they are portrayed as near equals with equivalent power. (Though in a discussion with a friend he pointed out that in those years that may have been a more reasonable age gap between men and women.)
Overall, I felt there were some interesting ideas and in Neil McEwan’s words in his review they “failed to match ambition to delivery.” I was left wanting a strong editor / director to shape it.
On an amusing note, the Nazi and I, as foreigners shared something in common in the middle of the play. Neither one of us had seen a panto.
There is an exhibition of neat car-related / Top Gear related art on through Sunday the 29th. mima is open late on Thursday evening until 8. I recommend going to see it if you are in the area.
There are neat photos – old and new, sculptures made out of car parts and paintings made using remote control cars. There are design drawings for cars up as well as some actual cars in the gallery including an F1 car covered in UV Paint to illustrate the air flow on race cars and loads more items.
Some of the items mock high concept “Modern Art” or the presenters or the show. It is a good mix of items and a fun way to spend an hour. It’s a shame there isn’t a program for this exhibition : )
If you do go be aware that mima has a ground floor gallery, go up two flights for another gallery and then up one more flight for a peak into the mind of the Stig.
Rating:
Missing that last 1/2 a star because of the noise accompanying what’s in the mind of the Stig.
mima is the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art , Middlesbrough is where I work – it is in the north east of England in Tees Valley. It is a half hour from Durham-Tees Valley airport, two hours by train from Newcastle. It is also about to be the latest home of a Big Wheel in centre square, if you go to mima you can go see it being constructed.
Went to see Lotty’s War at Middlesbrough Theatre, on Friday, a play on the theme of the German occupation of Guernsey. I recently read 
The first half feels long. At the end of the play it made me question whether, in a meta way, they were trying to give me a little taste of the long years of occupation. There are some interesting ideas in the play about the psychological toll of long term occupation, the ability to identify or understand or love one’s captor, the requirements placed by one’s people or country, and just rewards in the face of survival.
