Leicester Writes Festival overview. Promo.

Leicester Writes Festival       

June 26th-28th 2015 Leicester Writes: a festival of new writing is the go-to event for new and emerging writers across the East Midlands. A superb line up of authors and experts will take you through all you need to know about becoming a writer and getting published. Whether you're interested in poetry, writing novels or short stories, screen writing or blogging - you'll find a panel of insiders who really know their stuff. Perfect your elevator pitch over a networking lunch. Learn the art of writing and how to keep going until you've made it. Filled with inspiration and advice, Leicester Writes is the first and only festival dedicated to showcasing regional literary talent and helping you fuel your creativity. Tickets from only £35 per day. View the full programme online . Only restricted tickets will be available after 15th June 2015.  Leicester Writes Link.      

There's also a pre-festival event which is free to attend. Full details below:      

 

Where do we go from here? Literature development in Leicestershire. A Mass Conversion about Literary Strategy in Leicester.

Thursday 25^th June 4.30 to 5.30pm.

Room KELTI, Ken Edwards Building, Centre of New Writing, University of Leicester.

In association with the Centre for New Writing Leicester Writes hosts a Pecha Kucha style event to discuss our collaborative ambitions for literary development in Leicestershire. We invite anyone who is engaged with Leicester's writing scene to hold this conversation. What are our ambitions for literary development in Leicester? What have we got? How can we collaborate most effectively? How can we achieve them? Please fill in our simple Survey Monkey questionnaire in advance of the meeting. No need to book for this event. Survey link:

Frances Ruffelle 'Piaf' video.

This fantastic video came through on Facebook today and I wanted to share it with those who read my earlier review. It really sums up the nature of the show at Curve in Leicester and Frances Ruffelle's brilliant performance in Paul Kerryson's wonderful production.

For my original review clickez ici.

Trying out a stand up comedy set

Last Wednesday I took part in a 'Tesco's Got Talent' competition in a semi final at the conference suite at the Leicester City Football ground. I had already won a preliminary round in my current workplace with a stand up routine about butcher's shops and the meat and fish counter at Tesco.

Tesco have very strong guidelines about being rude about customers so the observational comedy I devised and wrote was more about the joke being on me than being about the customers really.

The set comprised of two jokes about butcher's shops ( themes were a cheeky rabbit and an intelligent dog) then I moved into observations about me being able to speak a bit of three languages namely French, German and Chinese. I went on to explain that we have a lot of Chinese customers and that they appreciate my attempts to be polite and I demonstrated that and then went into mock Chinese as I demonstrated verbally what I could do to their sea bass. The joke was on me as, after a lengthy explanation, it turned out they didn't speak Chinese.

Then I told the audience a true story about a strongly accented customer who said that he wanted "To piss" and that my colleague Paul was attempting to show him where the loos were. It turned out he wanted 'two piece' of salmon.

For the final part of my act I told the audience that I do the counters' announcements on the mike at work and that I had a fantasy that the Daleks had opened a branch of Tesco and I wondered what the announcements would be like. I do a good Dalek impersonation and proceeded to do three Dalek calls echoing subjects that normally happen in the supermarket.

I had woken up early (3am) the day I was due to perform and had some funny ideas that I wrote down but later in the day decided it was best to stick with the routine I was familiar with rather than adding new material last minute.

On the evening of the Tesco's Got Talent gig, I followed a young woman (No! not that kind of followed!) who was on first doing a dance routine. I was on second. Another twenty three acts were to follow, mostly singers.

The conference room was very wide and the stage was a temporary, poorly lit affair in the middle of the room by the back wall. I was confident in my material after some rehearsals at home and I found that I had to compete with a lot of chat from the tables whilst I was performing. It wasn't like the theatre or a comedy club where folk go quiet and let you entertain. I didn't let this put me off and used my skills to get the attention from the audience, the most important ones of looking and sounding confident and eyeballing each section of the audience and the judges as I spoke so that they all felt included. I got some laughs (always good for a comedian!) and the material that went down well was the Chinese language section and the Daleks in Tesco material.

The judges said that I had done very well with writing my own material, the timing of the humour and the originality of my act. I wasn't the outright winner but I got a trophy for my efforts, a fun night and a few beers and some food. The experience has made me think about doing an open mike slot at a proper comedy club sometime where people actually go to see and listen to the comedians rather than chit chat about their social lives during a set.

Frances Ruffelle as Piaf. a review.

“Mesmerising, I never wanted the music to stop.” Phil Lowe

The first time I saw Pam Gems play 'Piaf' was at the Derby Playhouse in 1982. The original play had opened in February 1978, at the RSC's  Other Place in Stratford on Avon, transferred to the Donmar Warehouse; and from there to the Aldwych, Wyndam's and the Piccadilly theatre in the West End and Jane Lapotaire had won the Tony award for her performance of Piaf on Broadway.

In the Derby Playhouse production, a young, relatively unknown actress called Caroline Quentin played Edith Piaf and was stunningly good. Further in her career Quentin went on to be part of the ensemble and played a prostitute in the original production of the musical Les Misérables. Based on those theatrical memories and that of seeing FrancesRuffelle as Eponine way back then, I went to Leicester's Curvetheatre to see Frances Ruffelle as Edith Gassion (Piaf).

This gripping and entertaining drama is performed at the studio space with an ensemble cast playing many and various roles of characters that came and went into Piaf's dramatic, difficult and often lonely life. Piaf couldn't bear to be alone especially after her concerts when she said that: 'The audience is so warm down there in that black hole. It's as though all those people are taking you in their arms, opening their hearts to you and taking you in. You overflow with their love, and they overflow with love for you. They want you to give yourself to them, you sing, you shout, you scream your pleasure, you're beside yourself with happiness.'

The world outside the stage door, for her, was often filled with exploitation and abuse from men. Yet through this life drama she had a great spirit, a naughty sense of fun and a voice full of raw emotion and power. She touched the hearts of millions and when she died from liver cancer in 1963 over one hundred thousand Parisians followed her coffin to its final resting place.

Frances Ruffelle as Edith Piaf

Frances Ruffelle brilliantly charged her theatrical portrayal of Edith Piaf with energy, fun, grittiness, pathetic vulnerability coupled with a determined stubborn toughness as the character struggled to carry on and on during the crazy circus of her short life. Ruffelle's singing was brilliantly done, nine songs in well articulated French, gesturing as Piaf but giving the part something extra special – creating a real live gutsy raw character you really cared about despite her massive mood swings and drug abuse. She was especially magnificent during her scenes of terrible despair, caught in a circle of cold harsh light scrabbling on her knees at the street cobbles racked with desperate sadness and the final scenes with Theo, her last, calm and caring lover were very moving. She is on stage for the entire play and runs the gamut of emotions throughout through her acting and songs.

Including Frances Ruffelle there were nine actors in this company and all were terrific morphing into one character after another on some extraordinarily quick scene changes. I particularly liked Laura Pitt-Pulford as Toine as she portrayed Edith's prostitute friend through various stages of her life – you sensed the ageing and growing bitterness and sadness of the character. Tiffany Graves as Marlene and the two nurses was wonderfully different in each role and Oliver Boot was perfectly cast as the tender boxer Marcel. This was ensemble acting at it's best as each character portrayed by the other male actors was clearly defined and regardless of the longevity of the role on stage each was totally believable.

The set design of a brick railway arch, framed within a frame and a sweeping black curtain created the tawdry atmosphere for the many scene changes as the audience flickered back and forth through  the late Pam Gem's play of Piaf's life. All was angular and smoky, terrific lighting and sound and with three live musicians, pianist, accordionist and drummer the stage was set for a wonderful time at the theatre. Paul Kerryson's direction was exemplary.

This was the first production I have seen at the Curve and I will certainly be going back again. The production runs until March 16^th.