David Tennant reading sonnet 18

Belated Burns

Oh sweet Robert Burns, with ribald poetry and moving poetry and heartfelt poetry. For nature, for love, for nation, for lust.

*sigh*

And I can't help but enjoy a particular reader... (try the general 'Readers' page if that doesn't work)

In Praise of Ian McMillan on Desert Island Discs

A perfect mix of down-to-earth anecdotage and educated cultural awareness, poet Ian McMillan may be accused of being a professional Northerner, but he is a delight.

McMillan's Desert Island Discs today (Sunday 7 November 2010) was a real pleasure.

Most brilliantly, he chose Cage's 4' 33'' as his selected disc from the eight: because it would always sound different (which is true).

UK listeners can probably catch either the iPlayer broadcast, the Friday morning repeat on R4 OR download the podcast version (which limits the music but does have his great stories).

In particular I was very enamored of McMillan's mother who sounds wonderful: she was jailed during the war for going AWOL in order to marry her penpal sweetheart. Awesome and romantic.

The Habit of Art - NT touring: Tuesday 2 November 2010 Nottingham Theatre Royal

Sell-out performances meant that I missed seeing The Habit of Art when it was at the National Theatre in London; however, judicious booking of plays at Nottingham's Theatre Royal means such potentially missed opportunities are not entirely lost.

The touring version of The Habit of Art arrived in Nottingham last night and runs till Saturday and I would certainly urge people to attend, either here or at one of the following venues (it continues to Leeds, Newcastle and Glasgow).

I never used to like Alan Bennett: I think that earlier in my life I found his work too domestic (the monologues never really connected with me). Looking back, I probably just missed the biting edge that his work - with hindsight - I now he has always had. But I do believe that his later career has brought that viciousness to the fore --- and in a good way.

The first piece I truly fell in love with was A Question of Attribution, which I still vividly recall watching on TV. It was about art - though not really of course - which was why I loved it. From that point I felt I was beginning to 'get' Bennett's wicked humour, his misanthropy, and of course the swearing and attitude to sex.

The Habit of Art is a real tour de force: enormously clever in its staging (wonderfully transferred from the capacious National to the more intimate confines of Nottingham's Theatre Royal), it is a truly 'meta' play --- with actors playing actors working through a rehearsal of playing their roles. There's also an especially satisfying and entertaining link to "the production of Uncle Vanya next door". With an engaged audience as well, there's even opportunity for breaking the fourth wall - particularly well exploited by Malcolm Sinclair, whose arch Henry made some beautifully timed glances out to the enraptured attendees.

The play, which dramatises a fictional encounter between the poet Auden and composer Britten, is more than just funny though. It is also incredibly moving and rather profound about a number of issues --- art (in all its forms), relationships (friendly and taboo), and the stages of life (from innocent 'childhood' to old age).

It is a wonderful cast (they were also remarkably charming afterwards as well as I was lucky enough to attend a 'meet the cast' event afterwards) and testament to the talent that the National can draw upon for its touring productions. Desmond Barrit, Selina Cadell and Sinclair head the cast in the three key roles, but EVERYONE plays a great part in the overall tone of the production of this great play. I hope they enjoy the rest of their time in Nottingham and for the remainder of the tour.

If you can, go see this if you haven't been lucky enough already..

Robert Burns - readings worth listening to

Oh sweet weekend, thank you for bringing me readings of Robert Burns writings.

And look who is on the list of lovely readers: lovely Dougie Henshall reading Burns.

Swoon.

Thanks as ever to the Douglas Henshall fan website for passing on the tip.

Newstead Abbey in the sunshine

Mad, bad and dangerous to know --- but inexplicably Newstead Abbey, former home of the local bad boy of Romantic Poetry, Lord Byron, does not actually sell t-shirts with this famous description of the man himself.

It was nice to finally go around the remains of the abbey and the later Byron family house as a grown-up: I'd been to the gardens as a kid but not in the house itself. It's actually a rather good visit with some interesting displays and there was certainly more to see than I imagined!

Anyway, we had a lovely day in the sunshine, watching waders and enjoying the gardens. Photos below...

Cloud outside the grand entrance to Newstead Abbey.

Gardens of Newstead Abbey

Rullsenberg standing in the sun at Newstead Abbey

Wader at Newstead Abbey garden lily pond

Memorial to Boatswain, Byron's dog

A shady area at Newstead Abbey gardens

Dougie Henshall on Robert Burns

If you heard a squeal, it was me, responding to the delectable sight and sound of Dougie Henshall talking about and reading Robert Burns. (Full list of celebrity selections here)



* thud *

Thanks to the BBC for the Poetry season and also to Dianne for the link.

UPDATE: apologies for (a) the rather rubbish cutting off that the BBC embedding does to this video [you can tell it isn't showing the full screen by the bottom right corner] and (b) for the lack of access to this clip outside the UK. Seriously BBC, is it THAT crucial to restrict these items? I kinda get restricting trailers for shows you will sell abroad/broadcast elsewhere later, but this is accompanying material at best... *sigh* and it is SOOOO good...

Neil's Memorial to a Good Man

Burns was read well by Neil.

Auden

I have a long lasting love for Auden, whose centenary falls this week. It pre-dates Four Weddings and a Funeral by more than a decade (a film I only saw on TV just a few years ago, long after the chick flick enthusiasm it spurred had passed). Instead it began at school when Auden was one of eight 19th and 20th century poets I studied for O level English Literature. It had little to do with Night Mail either, since it was elegaic for a past I scarcely knew, even though I loved steam trains and '30s history.

No, for me it was works such as Epitaph on a Tyrant, September 1, 1939, and To the Unknown Citizen which first caught my imagination and to which I keep returning (e.g. here and here). I love the variety of his poetic forms, and the diversity of his subjects (albeit that my favourites are ambivalently political).

So unsurprisingly I have enjoyed listening to today's Poetry, Please which includes a suitable range of Auden's works (it will be available to listen again if you get in quick). Shame that, even though McGough notes the end of The Unknown Citizen's subtitle - "This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State", he misses mentioning the first part of the subtitle - "To JS/07 M 378"; a pity since it highlights Auden's caustic wit for rhymes...