Chester Theatre Club: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL.....

 

 

 

12 new Posts, all at once....so here goes with Post Number One....
( AND a Merry Christmas To Anyone Reading This...!)

Last Saturday: Chester Theatre Club's Annual Christmas Bash....
easily best theatre party I've been to....mainly due to brilliant organizers......
tasty nosh from DeliKate ( Handbridge)........hilarious Cabaret from Malcolm, Ray and Anthony
......and games devised by the utterly unstoppable Andy Hutchings...
Hmm: HAVE YOU ever played Hide And Seek ( with 40 other folk) in almost a WHOLE theatre ....including auditorium, Bar, Green Room, Studio......!!
Pictures show ( from top):  "The Squashing Up Together On An Ever-Reducing Square Game", followed by same again (!) ...followed by Andy's version of " Just A Minute" with Laura, Ray, Alison and Jane eagerly participating....
ROLL on next Christmas!   

" Listen To The Daymons....!"

Here's my son G's EP which will be 
officially launched at Telford's Warehouse, Chester, on Friday January 17th.

Great music, written and played by this talented Band.

You can find it on itunes.apple.com and also download it from Amazon.

Here's wishing them lots of success and great gigs for 2014XXXXXX

"Birthdays...( Part 1!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK,  family birthday celebrations.......for me ( who shall be ageless..)  and Holly ( aged 2!)
We like getting together for such events and I appreciate that.

These snaps ( from top) show:

Aged birthday grandmother, squashed by rumbustious but wonderful grand-babes.

Mustachioed elder son,G, sitting beside younger son's grinning wife, K, who is next to G's beaming partner, L.
.
The gorgeous H, just 2!

H's Birthday Party: her oh-so-proud Daddy ( younger son, R) looks on as she receives her Ballerina doll...
.
Cousins A, just 5, and O, nearly 5, looking suitably scary at said party....

AND last but very definitely not least: My sons' lovely ladies, L and K,,,,,,,

"17 Hoole-igans Scoffed In A Ballroom...."

 

 

 

 

 

 

My creative writing class...nicknamed The Hoole-igans ( coz we meet in a place called Hoole)
We're
supposedly called " Write Stuff" ( by W.E.A )....BUT henceforth we're to be known as "The Right -Stuffers" after our Christmas lunch at Upton Golf Club last week.
Here's some of the cast ( from top): Pat, me, Elizabeth.
THEN: Brian and Sue, followed by Judith, Murielle and Pam, then Elizabeth, Neil and Rebecca,
next Michael, Russ and Mike ( sticking together, the Traitors!) and lastly ( BUT certainly not least by a long chalk!!)..Gwen, Carol and Gill....

" Four Baby-Boomers Get Brollied In Coniston...( 4th one did the snapping" )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely weekend with Our Friends From The North.
They've lived on the shores of Coniston for 30 years...and have every intention of enjoying another 30...!

Pictures from top: Frolicking down to the BlueBird Caff.....

view from house ( shows boules court....Hagg Wood and a peep of the lake beyond....)

Zefferelli's cinema in Ambleside ( we went to its sister cinema along the road....F ellini's...to catch the superb " Philomena"....Dame Judi wonderful...and  very fine performance from Steve Coogan...

AND finally visit to Brantwood, home of  John Ruskin. Late afternoon, murky sky tinged with December pinks
AND featuring the loveliest of wallpapers too.......

" Cabaret Noir: A Welcome Come Back..."

Once again, the talented and ebullient Lisa Miller produced/directed another superb evening of Cabaret and Burlesque at Chester Theatre Club.
AND this one even surpassed the first!

Music, Dance, Drama, Burlesque....delighted the buzzing, filled-to-the-rafters audience ...and I bet everyone's watching the theatre website to discover when there's MORE...

SEE: www.chestertheatreclub.co.uk .

Particular mention MUST be made of Tony O'Byrne, longtime Theatre Club actor and member, whose singing.... ( WHY haven't we heard him BEFORE???) and comedy was nothing less than superuberduper...

"Birthdays...Part 2!"

 

 

This week, 2nd son, R, had yet another birthday....unfortunately RIGHT on Christmas's doorstep....my fault 30-odd years ago....

" Pomegranates Galore..."

Recently, I was invited to An Iranian Feast....

It was organised by Cheshire Rural Touring Arts , see www.cheshireruraltouringarts.co.uk, who promote Live Theatre, Literature, Music and Dance..in Cheshire's rural venues....such as Village Halls and Institutes...

HOWEVER, THIS FEAST was in a Methodist chapel in the midst of Garden Lane, Chester....affectionately known by Cestrians as " The Garden Quarter"

IT was an evening of traditional Persian food/singing/dancing... a contemporary piece of British theatre..... awash with delicious food ( YES!)......spicy Iranian music.............. and the ensuing drama told a story about Iranians in modern day Tehran.....living their lives in the strangest of times....

See  www.farnhammaltings.com .

"Something For The Weekend??.....as The Hairdresser Said To My Uncle Harry..."

SO MANY films are geared to Baby Boomers....varying in appeal, quite frankly(!)....BUT we had to see this one...." Le Weekend" 

Jim Broadbent, a long time favourite, came up trumps....but then he always does...( DID you see him in  "The Copper's Tale" this week???) and his co-star,  Lindsay Duncan is a treat... 

There were lovely images of Paris plus intimate peeps ( one particularly so!)  into a long time marriage...there was no noticeably strong plot ...but like many short stories, this film glimpsed into a relationship...glimpsing the fact that even long relationships.....ESPECIALLY long ones, you might say..... should move with the times...BOTH their own private times and their own changes...as well as the public times and changes...

Eric And Little Ern: A Very Big Treat!"

WE didn't know WHAT to expect....but our trip to Theatr Clwyd to see Jonty Stephens and Ian Ashpitel as the legendary Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, was, absolutely truly, a superb TREAT.

They starred in " Eric and Little Ern", which opened at the Edinburgh Fringe last August....and has since been a hit at the Vaudeville Theatre, London.

The partnership of Stephens and Ashpitel depicted the original partnership brilliantly....S and A  "got" the ripostes just right.....ALSO the " tenderly" delivered digs  .....the horrendous almost-alive Ernie "wig"......the twitching of the heavy-rimmed spectacles....the juggling of each other's jokes...AND physically, Stephens, really and truly, WAS Eric Morecambe........and Ashpitel WAS stocky, pompous, annoyingly lovable Ern.....

THIS was a great surprise to me, never expecting to love it so much....AS I was back on the old Christmas Day sofa , surrounded by Quality Street wrappers....and little boys in Mothercare pyjamas...and sleepy parents and VERY elderly Aunties Ruby and Florrie....

AND huusband R WAS once again struggling in the kitchen with the remains of the turkey....

" The Sweetest Of Suites...." ( sorry, that IS a bit naff!)

 

 

 

Immediately above, you see Delys Rostron, the popular and inspiring Director of Chester Theatre Club's production of the Neil Simon favourite: " California Suite"

The play, first performed in 1976, is set in Suites at The Beverley Hills Hotel, telling the stories in 4 separate Acts, of 4 separate couples, from NY, Philadelphia, London and Chicago.
And many congratulations to the talented cast who gave their audience a wonderful evening of superb characterisation and classic comedy.

They included: Linda Turner, Ray Bengree, Anthony Wheatcroft ( ultra talented comedian!) Rhiannon White, Veronica Herd, Malcolm Gledhill, Hilary Egan, Crayg Ward, Laura Monkhouse, and Sam Bramhall.

Snaps also show: the post-play party, with Malcolm G holding forth on the sheer pleasure of it all....!

David: A Veritable Richard..."

Recently I saw David Tennant  in the Royal Shakespeare's First Live  Screening to Cinemas of " Richard 2nd."
This was directed by Gregory Doran as part of a new series of History Plays the RSC will be producing.

Tennant, with long straggly hair and flowing white gown, was nothing short of amazing....AND I look forward to so much more, of both RSC Live Screens..... AND of course, the stupendous Tennant...