My year in theatre

Hello, welcome back! As I said in my last post, this week I am going to be talking about my year in theatre. Okay, you are probably wondering why? Well the year, as well as the decade, is almost over so we have reached a period of reflection, most people at this point would chose to reflect on the decade. I won't because too much has happened for me to fit into even a series of posts.

Last January I decided that instead of writing New Year's resolutions (lets face it, most of us like to write them but hardly any of us actually stick to them)  I was going to set myself 2 manageable challenges, I say "manageable" because the problem with  New Year's resolutions is that we often set goals which are too difficult for us to achieve or we don't factor in the unpredictability of life.

Anyway I came up with the idea of trying to read 100 books in a year because I was brainstorming out loud and someone told me I couldn't read more than 25 (which for some people is a lot but I'm a bookworm so that isn't much). I am not naturally competitive. Stubborn, yes. Competitive? nope, unless you chose to challenge my intellect or my geeky/nerdiness. When this person challenged my inner bookworm, my mind was set, I was absolutely determined to prove them wrong. Slight sidetrack there but trust me, it's relevant.

If you couldn't already tell, my second challenge was to see as many theatre shows as possible in a year. Why? because I was a theatre student and there is a theory that the more shows you see, the more theatrical techniques/ inspiration/ideas you pick up. Also, I have been lucky enough to have collectively seen a lot of shows over the years but I usually only see 2 or 3 shows in a year. I had aspirations to perform on the West End for a lot of years, fate had other plans and I am no longer well or able to perform on a stage so that dream is dead. I have plans to do a post in the future saying  goodbye to 13 years of acting/performing...Wow I am so good at getting sidetracked. I swear I'm going to get into the main part of this post right now. STRONG LANGUAGE ALERT!!!


This year I have been fortunate enough to have seen 18 shows. I think I know what you are thinking, "OMG that's a lot, how could you afford all of those?" First of all, student discount, second of all, amateure productions (in a few cases), third of all, gifts. Some of you may be wondering if I buy/keep theatre programmes, yes and yes, I also keep tickets/ticket confirmations and any show merch/things the actors hand to the audience.

I bet you can't guess what I'm thinking whilst I'm writing this...how the heck am I going to fit 18 shows in a single post? I honestly have no idea so I guess we will find out together.

 Pre- warning, these shows are going to be organised by month not day. Another thing, as usual, I am going to be blunt about my opinions and this time I will also be talking about the theatres themselves as well as the productions. SPOILER ALERT!!! MANY SPOILER ALERTS!!

Let's travel back in time to January of this year (2019), I was able to go up to London to see "The Unreturning" at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Would I recommend this theatre? Sure, if you like to travel around via the underground and don't mind absolutely shit legroom, be my guest. I will say the view was really good but that may be to do with my tickets or the smallness of the theatre itself. I had high hopes for the show as it was being performed by the company, Frantic Assembly, which bases itself around a combination of physical theatre and naturalism. It delivered! It was very moving and made me cry at a few points. In case you were wondering, it is for an adult audience, I think the age recommendation is 12-13 ish but I would say that a person should be at least 14 if not older to see this purely because of some of the triggering subject matter and striking sound/lighting effects.

I was also able to see "Twelfth Night" and "Art" at Chichester Festival Theatre (CFT)  in January. I absolutely love CFT, you will hear a lot more about the theatre itself and behind the scenes when I do my post about acting.

Overall thoughts about the shows: "Twelfth Night" is my favourite Shakespeare play and the performers did it great justice. "Art" was absolutely hilarious, I was crying tears of laughter throughout the show, three acting legends were part of the show, which made me feel a bit starstruck and I felt inspired/stunned by Stephen Tompkinson as he did a 10 minute monologue in character without so much as a stumble. I am going to say that this type of comedy is a really "hit and miss" so whether or not you would find it as funny as I did depends on what type of comedy you like.

Moving on to February. That month I only saw one show,"Leave to remain", it was playing at my all time favourite theatre, the Lyric Hammersmith and was a gay musical. It sucked because of the length and the music itself. Some songs were really good but other songs were just painful to listen to. The story itself was really cute and I was rooting for Obi and Alex to get together and live in fabulous rainbow happiness. It was ruined by unnecessary scenes, a soundtrack on itunes sung by one person who wasn't even in the show and it looked more innocent on the website than it was. Put it this way, don't bring your parents to see this show. I brought my mother to see it and she is seriously liberal (she took me to see Priscilla last year, we like watching LGBTQ+ love stories together and for the past 2 years we have participated in pride parades together) but we both felt awkward watching Alex and Damien snort drugs on stage.

March does indeed come in like a lion. I saw "Noughts and crosses" at the Theatre Royal in Brighton and "The Great Gatsby" at Gatsby's mansion in London. It was the best month for my bookish side to be unleashed. Let's tackle "Noughts and crosses" first. The company did the book great justice and I had the same reactions as when I read the graphic novel and the book. The set was clever and the scenes were brutal to watch, which was a good thing as the story isn't light hearted, the characterisation of Sephy and Callum was perfect and I honestly felt sick watch the hanging scene because it looked so realistic. I think this one is okay for anyone who fits into the YA bracket and older, although it is a quite a triggering show so please bare that in mind.

I honestly can't recommend "The Great Gatsby" enough, I have so much to say about this show that this will end up being a future post. Brief thoughts being, it is still playing, there are still tickets, go and see it!!!

April was a weird month, not gonna lie. I had been studying the book "the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson for about 6 months ish? maybe longer? and, thanks to a combination of Google and Youtube, discovered that a university group was performing the musical at the Alexandra Theatre in Bognor Regis. Tickets were dirt cheap and I honestly would have paid a lot more. The production was good quality, I still haven't figured out how the transformations worked and the songs were breathtaking. I have one major nitpick: it didn't stick to the book, to the point where it could be seen as a stand alone story. This didn't ruin it for me, I still enjoyed the show however it really didn't help with revision at all. This one is definitely suitable for families with teenagers, it wasn't as scary as the book intended it to be but it still had violence in it and Hyde...I'm not sure how to quite describe him, which is good because his character fit the book perfectly.

This was also the month that I saw "The comedy about a bank robbery", I spoke about it briefly in my last post so I'm not going to say too much more about it. It was freaking hilarious, kinky in places and dark in others. Put it this way, I would recommend it to most ages because I think some of the jokes would go over children's heads however there is no escape from the only dark scene, in which one of the characters gets eaten by a fan whilst in a vent. The special effects are really cool and I really like the story's unexpected twist ending. I enjoyed this show so much that I bought a copy of the script. Yes, I am that person and yes, I am proud of it. #embraceyourinnergeek

Now we reach May, which was another weird month. In case you were wondering, I classify a weird month in terms of theatre as a month in which you see different theatre extremes. In this case, I saw "the odyssey" ,which was the very first show produced by the company "All Greek to me", at Brighton Open Air Theatre (BOAT). This show will forever be special to me as it signifies my independence because it was my first time seeing a show by myself. Despite it being an ameteur dramatics production, it was anything but amateur. It was abridged for obvious reasons but it got the basic storyline pretty accurate, the costumes were simple but effective and I loved how they used a towel/sheet to create the Trojan horse. It was very amusing and it felt really nice to watch matinee whilst eating a picnic lunch. Nothing compares to open air theatre and I plan on seeing more in the new year.

"Dead dog in a suitcase and other love songs" was just...a lot. I saw it at the Lyric Hammersmith, also in May, and it was performed by my all time favourite company, Kneehigh. For those of you who don't know Kneehigh, they are a company which specialises in physical theatre combined with live music. I have to admit, guns on stage make me scared and yet I see a lot of shows with guns in them, I'm not sure why. Either way, my heart was shattered when the dog was shot, I don't care if it's a puppet, if you kill a dog on stage or bring out an already dead dog, expect a lot of tears. The show was the most political show I have ever seen (I really don't like politics in general) but I was able to overlook that because of the breathtaking music and special effects and puppets. The ending is by far the most dramatic and awe inspiring I have ever seen. Six words, enormous skeleton dog, explosion, violin. The show put me on edge and yet I loved it to the point of creating fan art. This is a show that couldn't be more relevant to our current society/politics and is definitely for an older teen/adult audience.

Surprise, surprise, I saw nothing in June.

In July I saw two romantic comedies. The first of these being the midnight showing of "A midsummer night's dream" at The Globe. It was amazing, the cross dressing/pantomime esque style worked really well, the donkey, which Titania falls in love, with wore a pinata with a recorder dangling down made the sex jokes even funnier and the design of the show was by far the most imaginative version I have seen so far (I have seen a midsummer night's dream 3 or 4 times). I would rather stand in the rain for two and a half hours than sit in the sheltered seats. I've only sat in the seats once and I swear never again, the reason being that the actors interact/enter with the standing audience more. Not only that but the standing is what makes the theatre special, you can meet all sorts of people. Whilst waiting in the que for the gates to open, I ended up talking to the woman in front of me, she turned out to be an american university student studying medical science over here in the UK. We ended up entering the theatre together (I know which entrance offers the best standing view) and stood next to each other during the performance, we even ended up geeking out about the show during the interval and hugged each other goodbye when the show was over. That is the kind of experience that you rarely get in the seats. I have to admit, for me that isn't strictly true, I meet a lot of people when I see shows. I must also say that even though I got home at stupid o'clock the next morning, nothing compared to the midnight showing, it was indescribably magical.

On that note, I also got the chance to see "Waitress" at the Adelphi theatre. Any show that offers sweet pies in mini jars as an interval snack during the interval is a winner for me, I ended up devouring an apple pie alongside a girl I met, who travels around a lot because her father is in the army, and talking in German. We shared each others pie, she had a chocolate one and it was divinity, we lost contact after the show (it usually happens so at this point I'm not too bothered by it) which was a real shame but it was still really awesome meeting her. I also happened to meet a girl from Australia and we are still in contact with each other. Moving on to the show itself,  Blake Harrison played the role of Oggie and Ashley Roberts played the role of Dawn, honestly I think it was by far the best casting. They really made the roles come to life. Lucie Jones's voice was beyond amazing and it harmonised perfectly with David Hunter. I think Peter Hannah often gets overlooked because he plays the role of Earl, who is such a dick, but I think that he is an incredible actor because of the fact that he is able to make the audience hate Earl. This production is seriously good for all ages, go and see it, it is really good. Listen to the Broadway cast recording as well!!

Now we hit August, when I saw "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!" at CFT. This production was a tenderly brutal watch. My general rule of thumb is to see shows with people wherever possible and to avoid seeing shows with violence in them unless I am with someone. My "friend" backed out 2 days before I was due to see the show so I desperately searched for someone to go with but didn't have any success. I decided to go anyway and it was a 50/50 decision. I met a really friendly girl there who it turned out, was sitting in front of me and we ended up talking before/after the show and during the interval. The show itself was seriously outdated because it was written in 1930's America, which meant that it was really sexist and racist. The blatant sexisim and racisim made me feel really uncomfortable but the songs, stage and dancing was mesmerising. I can't stress enough how good the music was, my favourite song being "Kansas city".  Overall, I think that like with The Great Gatsby and Of Mice And Men, you have to take it with a spoon of salt as well as remember when it was created. Do I like the prejudice? I believe in free love and equality no matter what, so fuck no!! Do I like the musical? I am torn, I love the singing and dancing but the storyline absolutely sucks. I think that this show suitable for adults and teens.

September rolled around and I ended up getting standing tickets to see "As you like it" at The Globe, what can I say other than I love a Shakespearean romantic comedy. It was funny but honestly as much as I thoroughly enjoyed it, it wasn't memorable, which really sucks.

In October I saw "Amélie", I did an entire other post about it so if you are interested in my thoughts, search on my blog for the only post with a French title.

November was by far the best month for shows. I was able to see "The play that goes wrong", that is also a post on this blog under the name "The play that goes right" if you are interested in my thoughts about that production. I was finally able to see "Dear Evan Hansen" at the Noel Coward (I bought pre-release tickets back in February) and it was the third best show of the year (Amélie takes first place and The Green Fairy takes second place). I came out of the theatre with a phenomenal sense of hope and it made me feel like I wasn't alone in the world. Despite the tragic subject matter, it is seriously uplifting and I love the healthy approach it has towards mental health. Honestly it couldn't be more relevant to our society and it is a show that everyone needs to see, it addresses taboo subjects and shatters the barriers we put up. That being said, if you can't see the show, listen to the Broadway cast recording or read the book. Yes, you heard me right, there is a book, go and give it a read (I discovered the show through the book).

Now we have entered the realm of the last show of the year, "The Green Fairy" at The Union Theatre. Sure the theatre was small as heck (there was only 6 rows of seats)  and was attached to a coffee shop in the back of beyond but any coffee shop/theatre which displays rainbow flags is an automatic winner for me. The small space worked surprisingly well because it made the show feel more intimate. The actors were incredible, I am really stunned that the show didn't run for longer than it did considering how amazing it was. I really wish that more people could see it because it is such a diamond of a show! Vocals were beautiful and the storyline was a masterpiece. I really hope that the show comes back and I feel so lucky to have been able to see it. I felt inspired artistically and it gave me the confidence I needed to fix a bad situation. I can't stress enough how much I wish for others to have been able to see it and how much I long for it to return to the stage....

As of December I am not seeing any shows other than what I can find on Youtube (which is a surprising amount). As of the new year, I am seeing Heathers in May but other than that I'm not sure, hopefully I will be able to continue seeing shows.

Did you see any shows in 2019? Which shows would you like to see in the future? Are you planning on seeing any shows next year? Do you like talking to people at the theatre? Please feel free to leave a comment and we can all belt out our favourite songs and look forward to the future of theatre.

That's it for now, thank you so much for reading, if you made it this far congratulations! If you skipped to the end, honestly fair enough. Stay tuned as the next discussion will be about my year in books.

The play that goes right

Hello everyone, welcome back! Today we will be talking about "the play that goes wrong". Not only will I be talking about this play in particular, also the company who created it "mischief theatre".

I was lucky enough to see "the play that goes wrong" at the beginning of last month and way back in June/July I saw "the comedy about a bank robbery tour". They also filmed "Peter Pan goes wrong" for the BBC last year, however I ended up watching the recording on Youtube as it wasn't on Iplayer when I found out about its existence (they took the recording off of Youtube but you can still find clips of the show). "Groan ups" ended its West End run on the 1st of this month, which really sucks, on the positive side they are going to be going on tour next year so keep an eye out. Last but not least, "Magic goes wrong" is now officially playing at the Vaudeville in London.

With all that said, lets actually get into the meat of the discussion....SPOILER ALERT!!!

 "The play that goes wrong" is currently playing at the Duchess theatre, which is the smallest theatre in the West End. Upon hearing this information, I began to doubt the quality of the play as generally unpopular plays and amateur dramatics are held in small theatres. I was wrong. So, so, so wrong! The smaller space made the play more intimate, which worked really well for this production in particular as it enabled the actors to access the audience easier and made it easier to become immersed in the show.

You are probably wondering why the actors needed easy access to the audience or what the play is actually about? Well, the play is about an amateur dramatics society ( The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society) trying to put on a murder mystery play (The murder at Haversham Manor) and everything going completely wrong. The actors needed audience access because they interact with the audience at various points in the play and at the beginning and after the interval, the actors playing the technicians/backstage crew come through the audience searching for the company's missing dog, Winston. For those of you who are worried about getting tickets in the circle, fear not! The actors rush through both the stalls and the circle. The actor playing Trevor, has a technicians box situated on the far right of the circle, which means throughout the show he makes entrances and exits via the circle.

Speaking of Trevor, if you look at his box, you will find Duran Duran posters. This sounds pretty random and to be honest it is. So why have them displayed? Because the technician is obsessed to the point of playing the music accidentally, zoning out to the music whilst the play is on and making innumerable references to Duran Duran.

Trevor and Sandra are really unusual characters simply for the fact that the actors have to play the roles of a technician and an understudy. This also makes them brilliant to watch as it takes talent to play an understudy who is scared of performing (although the longer she is on stage, the more she steals the spotlight) and a technician who is easily distracted yet has a solution for most things.

The actual set itself is incredible, there are too many parts that brake or fall to pieces for me to talk about in this post so I am just going to focus on the main one. For those of you who watched the royal variety performance in 2015, you will know exactly what I'm on about. At the end of the play, the entire set falls to pieces. This a spectacular technical feat as it would have had to be designed in a way which does not crush the actors. The actors also had to anticipate the collapse without showing the audience that they were anticipating it.

For those of you who are interested, you will find a video clip of the royal variety performance below.

Let's talk about all of the actors. I am seriously amazed by how they are able to perform a show like this every night. Sure, keeping a straight face during a comedic scene is a basic actor's skill which is absolutely essential for any actor planning on tackling comedic theatre, however this company takes it to a whole new level. They are able to keep up the energy, keep a straight face, and manage to hide the fact that they are anticipating everything. It is this combination of techniques that shows the true skill of the actors onstage.

Speaking of comedy, keep an eye out for Winston the dog. He never actually appears in adorable dog form during the play, however you will be able to find a portrait of him above the mantelpiece at the beginning of the play, they make a joke about him which had me in hysterics, especially as I am a bit of a history geek. You will also be able to find a portrait of him on a poster inside "the theatre cafe" on St Martin's Lane in London.

Okay so what's my overall verdict? This show is seriously underrated, for those of you who find puns, slapstick and physical comedy hilarious go and see it! I would love to recommend this play to everyone but it is a comedy and everyone has a different sense of humor.

On a different note, you may be wondering what type of audience this is suitable for. There are some small "references" but these are subtle enough to make them family friendly. In "the comedy about a bank robbery" there is an entire scene/section dedicated to humor of this nature, so just be aware of that.

What is your favourite type of comedy? Have you seen any mischief comedy shows? What do you think about the performance style? For those of you who have seen the show, what is your favourite joke? and more importantly, do you think they will ever find Winston? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments and we can all have a laugh!

I would talk about the programme but that's a thing in itself and I am planning on doing a post about my year in theatre, so I will probably end up talking about it then.

That's all for now, thank you so much for reading and stay tuned as soon I'll be having a long discussion about my year in theatre.

Continuing through the blizzard

Hello, welcome back to worlds of words! As I said in my last post, this week I will be discussing the rest of "Let it snow". I had originally planned to do three separate posts however, since finishing the book, I found that my thoughts can be condensed into a single post. With all that said, lets resume our discussion...Once again SPOILER ALERT!!!

I have to admit that at times "A cheertastic christmas miracle" baffled my brain because of what I like to call "the cheerleader debate." I understand that in the American school sports system, cheerleading seems to be somewhat of a big deal, what I don't understand is why? Maybe its because I'm a British reader. For those of you who are based in other countries, where cheerleading also seems to be a major deal, allow me to explain. I am aware that cheerleading happens in the UK but that's the extent of my knowledge. Over here, it's only a big deal if you are directly involved in it, which I am not, and even then most schools/colleges don't have cheerleaders at their tournaments/games. To me cheerleading seems to be a thoroughly American thing surrounded by degrading stereotypes, so forgive me if I don't understand why people (in this case, guys) go nuts over cheerleaders. I am with Tobin on this one "Nothing against cheerleaders, but surely there are better things to sacrifice for."

Tobin says "my mother called home for the sixth time in five hours". There's a fine line between being concerned and being as clingy as a sloth, Tobin's mother is that line. I'm totally chill about being called once or twice (in theory, in reality I hate phone conversations) but five times would really test my patience. The fact that she is calling whilst he is having a movie marathon with friends sucks. I am just relieved that she didn't call throughout the rest of the night. Let's face it, we are all relieved that she didn't call during a date, that would be inexcusable unless it was an absolute emergency.

The romance was cliche, even by John Green's standards. I saw it from the very beginning, which disappointed me majourly. He can do better, I know this because of what I consider to be his greatest book to date "Turtles all the way down." Despite this he was able to redeem himself to a certain extent by making the journey to waffle house thoroughly entertaining. He let himself down again with the characters themselves, he seems to have a fixed idea about what a teenager is and how they act, times have changed. I honestly think that he needs to read more YA books and host more book events to get to grips with teenagers in our society. They aren't as shallow as constantly focusing on hash browns, however they aren't as in touch as to realise what is at stake at every moment in time. They are complex beings with multitudinous personality types and thought processes, as many of those different types needs to be represented in YA books as possible.

When I read about the waffle house and cheerleaders scenario, I immediately thought back to "The Jubilee express" because it sounded familiar. I was absolutely right, there is a reason why all of these stories are contained within a single book. They are all interconnected through both waffle house and starbucks. They all meet each other in "The patron saint of pigs" and the set up is a work of genius.

Unlike the other characters in "The patron saint of pigs." I am not going to challenge anything that Addie did simply because she is human and is relatable, especially when she says " Can't anyone see I'm trying?". If you are interested in more of my thoughts, they are very clearly illustrated through the character of Mayzie (later known as Constance May Billingsley). We all need a Mayzie in our lives to remind us that mistakes are okay and that things can change.

Tinfoil man will forever remain a mystery. When we first meet him in "The Jubilee express" I was incredibly curious, by the end of the book that curiosity was replaced with perplexity. This character comes up in every story so he must have a deeper meaning/significance, I just haven't figured out what it is yet.

I am so beyond happy that Jeb and Addie got back together in the end.

So you are probably wondering what my overall thoughts are, although you could be wondering any number of things. I thought that this book started strong, became weak in the middle and ended on a high note. At times, this book left me in a blizzard and at other times this book made me feel warm and fuzzy. Would I recommend reading it? It depends on what time of year it is, this is a book which should only be read in winter, reading it in summer would be like watching a christmas film in July. Out of all of the authors, I would be more inclined to read more of Maureen Johnson's works.

What are your thoughts about cheerleaders? Do you think that a teenage stereotype is appearing in YA books? What do you think about Addie? Does the tinfoil man have a deeper meaning? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments, we can all have a starbucks and discuss.

That's all for now, thank you so much for reading and stay tuned as soon I'll be discussing "The play that goes wrong".

A Jubilee in a blizzard

Hello, It’s been a while, welcome back to words of worlds! As promised, this week we will be discussing “Let it snow” by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle.

 You are probably wondering why I picked this specific book. First of all it’s November, it’s practically winter.  Second of all I got this book as a gift two years ago and have never gotten round to reading it and third of all, It happens to be one of two books, out of the 315 I have on my shelves, with “snow” in the title. I also chose this book because John Green wrote one of the stories and I absolutely love his books, especially “Turtles all the way down”. That being said, I am not afraid to voice my opinion about his story, if anything I tend to be more “vocal” about stories I like.

As there are three stories in one, I will talk about one at a time and treat them as separate entities so without further ado, grab a Black Forest hot chocolate and lets begin...SPOILER ALERT!!!

“The Jubilee express” opens with the most cliché line in Christmas story history: “It was the night before Christmas”. When I saw that line, I was worried that this would turn out to be a children’s bed time story, but Maureen Johnson redeemed herself by making her character spend an entire page and a half discussing her name, Jubilee Dougal. When you hear the name Jubilee Dougal, what are the first things that enter your mind? For me it was the Queen’s diamond Jubilee and “the magic roundabout”. As a result of this random thought train, I am very glad that Jubilee took the time to address the issue before telling the reader her story.

The boyfriend she begins (Noah) with is an absolute idiot and needs to learn how to function as a boyfriend. The funny thing about this statement is that it is indirectly what Stuart says to Jubilee from the moment she tells him about Noah.

Noah, you can’t handle having a girlfriend because you don’t have the time for her. You are “a senior, a member of the soccer team and president of the student council” I don’t know anyone who could easily manage that on top of studies and a girlfriend. You should have either dropped soccer to make more time for her or just not have asked her out, her time should not revolve entirely around yours. Noah, Jubilee literally compared you to a politician : “I empathised with people who are married to politicians”.

Unfortunately the whole “politician” thing barely scratches the surface. She needed support and she tried calling you but you put a smorgasbord before her. Are you kidding?! In her situation, most of us would have broken down in despair over the awful situation life put her in and you showed an utter lack of concern. You dismissed her completely and kept finding excuses to leave the conversation, if you wanted to break up with her, you should have. Leading her on was not fair at all. Before you, the reader, say “break ups are difficult and it’s not that straightforward” I must remind you of his reaction when she broke up with him. He didn’t care at all. He literally says that he was expecting it and it is implies he was dodging being straight with her because it was Christmas. That’s not an excuse.

Pretending to be in love with someone isn’t right on any level and it hurts the other person a lot more. It is also incredibly exhausting and the guilt is tremendous. That being said, sometimes we have to learn this lesson the hard way, that’s okay because we learn what to do and a what not to do in the future. I have learned this lesson. I dated a guy, who I had been friends with for two years, for a month. I really struggled to see him as more than a friend and felt nervous about breaking up with him because of his overly-sensitive nature. I kept putting it off until Valentine’s Day. We made plans but when we met up, I gave him my notebook which said everything I wanted to say. Over time we became friends again, but the friendship faded out as our lives went in completely different directions. Moral of the story: a patient, empathetic and sensitive break up can lead to a friendship instead.

A major issue that seriously needs to be addressed is the fact that Jubilee decides to let a guy she had literally just met, take her to his parents house. What the heck happened to stranger danger? What’s worse is that Jubilee even mentions that the recklessness of the situation has crossed her mind, but decides to do it anyway. Put it this way, scary cheerleaders are not an excuse to put your life in the hands of a guy you just met. She should have just stayed in the Waffle House and embraced the situation. I know it works out in the end and the guy ends up being the new love of her life but this is part of the fantasy of fiction, things like this don’t happen in real life! It could have easily gone wrong on so many levels and yet it doesn’t. Is this the message we want to send to YA fiction readers? Do we really want to make it look socially acceptable to let your guard down around complete strangers?

This story isn’t your run of the mill love story. Johnson sets up the plot so that at the beginning the reader knows that the relationship between Jubilee and Noah isn’t great, but we are convinced that it
will get better because of the Christmas Eve smorgasbord date plan. This suddenly falls through and we begin to expect that Jubilee and Noah will find a way to be together. This also doesn’t work out. Then we anticipate that the meet cute between Jubilee and Jeb will result in either a situation where Jubilee cheats on Noah to be with Jeb or Jubilee breaking up with Noah to be with Jeb. We are shocked when this doesn’t happen. When Jubilee meets Stuart, I didn’t think they would end up falling in love with each other, but they did and it turned out to be beautiful!

What I am ultimately trying to say is that this story is gripping because of how misleading it is and it is this quality which makes me want to read more of Johnson’s works.

Do you think this story is cliché? Who did you want Jubilee to end up with? What did you think about Jubilee’s decision to trust a stranger? What springs to mind when you hear Jubilee’s name? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments, we can all curl up under a fluffy blanket and debate.

It is at this point in time that I have realised that this post is going to be incredibly long if I review all three stories in one post, therefore I am going to do three separate posts. Next I will talk about “A cheertastic Christmas miracle” by John Green and after that I will discuss the final story in the book, “The patron saint of pigs” by Lauren Myracle.

That’s all for tonight, thank you for reading and stay tuned for my discussion about “A Cheertastic Christmas myracle” by John Green.

Announcement!

Hello everyone! Welcome back to words of worlds!
Unfortunately there won't be a main blog update this week. The reason for this is that I'm going on a hiatus from now until the 22nd of November. 

You might be asking "Why are you going on a hiatus?" Allow me to cut to the chase. I need to take time out to get my life back on track. My mental health has gone significantly downhill, as a result I've struggled to look after myself. I have a lot of college work to try and keep up with. I am also incredibly sleep deprived. I think that sometimes people need to be reminded that health is just as important as studies/work and that sometimes you need to put your health first. Here's a reminder from me to you, please look after yourself! We all struggle sometimes, there is absolutely no shame in admitting when things are too much and needing to take a break. There is also no shame in asking for help or for the occasional deadline extension.

In the meantime, if you are interested in reading any of my other writing, you can find it using the following link https://www.wattpad.com/user/bookish_hound .

So what happens in the future? This blog will be updated every Friday, starting Friday the 22nd of November. As it's coming up to winter/Christmas, I won't be discussing "the price guide to the occult" until either Friday the 13th of December or January . Instead I will be discussing "Let it snow" by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. On the 29th the subject will be "the play that goes wrong".

If anything changes, i.e. length of hiatus, I will make a post about it. 

That's all for the time being, thank you all so much for taking the time to read/skim my blog!! Remember to take care of yourself and I'll see you back here on the 22nd of November. 

*update: blog posts will be uploaded randomly due to general life stuff 

Readers and Thespians alike

For those of you who have been following my blog, welcome back! For newcomers, welcome to Words Of Worlds! In my last post I said that this week's topic was going to be a surprise, so without further ado the surprise topic is...Reading and Performing.

I know what you are probably thinking, “wait a minute, that’s more than one topic.” I know. I originally planned to do something entirely different, however these topics have been playing on my mind a lot recently so have I decided to address them both in one post. Let’s begin by discussing Reading first. Before we begin... NO SPOILER ALERT THIS WEEK! But DEEP CONVERSATION ALERT! 

I recently had the opportunity to go to a university open day and whilst I was there, I had the chance to listen to a talk about English literature with creative writing. The professor asked the very same question that I was asked over summer, “Why do you/we read?”. To some people there may be a very straight forward answer but I have to be honest. To me it isn’t black and white, it’s incredibly grey. I have so many answers to this question.

My initial response was “I don’t know although I should, why have I been asked such a complex question?”. If you couldn’t already tell, I couldn’t use this to answer a homework question. I had to explore it more, so I decided to let the question sit in my mind for a couple of days. It was during those days that I read more books than I had during most of the summer holidays, which inspired me to come up with my second response: to kill time.

At this point in the holidays, I was staying with relatives who live on a 50 acre estate. This means two things. 1. You can’t walk into town and 2. The WiFi is extremely temperamental. Sure, you could argue that I could be spending my time in the woods or gardening in the walled garden (I’m aware of how pompous it sounds). I am nowhere near as outdoorsy or adventurous as I used to be. My idea of bliss is sitting with a dog, reading a book, which is exactly what I did. I spent hours sitting in the conservatory, reading with my relative’s Doberman, Hugo. I managed to get through a total of 6 books: “Toffee” by Sarah Crossan (one of my favourite authors), “The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, “Alexander Hamilton Revolutionary” by  Martha Brockenbrough, “Letters to the lost” by Brigid Kemmerer, “The miseducation of Cameron Post” by Emily M. Davenforth and “Birthday” by Meredith Russo. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed myself immensely, but it was a mistake to read so many books in such a short space of time. My brain turned to metaphorical mush because it couldn’t process such a plethora of books in an instant. As a result, I had to take a break from reading. 

It was at this point that I fell down the rabbit hole by asking myself why I read the books I did. The practical answer is that I can’t borrow books from the library because I always end up with a lot of expensive library fines. Subsequently I had to scour my 3 bookcases and select the only books on the shelves that I hadn’t already read. The meaningful answer is that I read what I felt like, which drew me to my third response to the initial question: I read to feel different. 

This conclusion still wasn’t the right one for me as I knew that it didn’t apply to every situation. After spending some more time thinking, I was able to write my final answer to the homework and respond to the professor: “I read to escape”. 

Now we have reached the point where we can transition from talking about reading to discussing performing. You could ask me “why do you perform?”. I would give you the same response: “I perform to escape”. By changing the verb in the question, we have changed the meaning entirely and (in theory) your reaction. When “reading” was the subject, I had to thoroughly explore the question because the answer wasn’t straightforward, However, to you it may have looked very straightforward. Now that “performing” is the subject, to me the answer is very straightforward, but to you it may be very complex. 

A new question arises, “How do you escape when you are in front of an audience?”. My answer to this is by escaping into your character. The way I see it, if you come onstage as yourself, you aren’t acting. This is why it’s essential for an actor/actress to lose their inhibitions. 

I first experienced true escapism onstage when I played “Cousin Curdle” in a local production of “The Addams Family Musical”. The company and I had been rehearsing for a month but the majority of us still felt self conscious and weird. I think you would too, if you and a group of mostly strangers were trying to portray dead ancestors. Our director had to keep reminding us to relax. I came to realise that relaxing wasn’t the only thing required, we had to stop being afraid of looking stupid and commit to our characters. Our director had only given us character names and had decided to let us create our characters. It took about three months of meticulous work but I was eventually able to turn "Cousin Curdle" into a mad scientist, with a hunchback and a raspy voice. Opening night eventually arrived and I was a nervous wreck before I stepped into costume. Once I looked like my character and completed vocal and physical warm ups, I was lost in her. For 4 hours a day, for 4 days straight, I was able to escape from everything that wasn't related to the show. It was the best feeling. 

You are probably wondering "Why do you want to escape?", either that or you're thinking about social media or food. The short answer is life is complicated and confusing so it's a good way of coping with it. The long answer is in itself, complicated and confusing so I'm going to give you a general answer and leave you to fill in the blanks.

I don't watch the news because it's mostly really negative and in the UK, incredibly heated. This means I currently live in a bubble because I only know about what people tell me, even then people don't talk about politics with me because I find it too confusing. Another reason why I refuse to talk politics is that the conversation always becomes incredibly heated. My refusal to watch the news and discuss politics is a form of escapism because I don't want to hear the negative side of current affairs. I understand that bad, immoral and scary things happen in the world, but forgive me if I don't want to be confronted by it. I am happy in my bubble.

That being said, I am a bit of a hypocrite as I absolutely love history and will happily have historical debates with people. For those of you who can't see the link between history and the news, they both involve moral debates and politics.

Surely I can't be the only one who prefers to talk to people through a screen sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I do thoroughly enjoy talking to people in the real world but there are times where it's incredibly draining. The idea of having to socialise at a party is absolutely terrifying, hence why I avoid them as much as possible. Yes, I am that really awkward stereotype of the introvert at the party who stands in a corner and waits for the party to be over. I need to be able to escape to the internet and PC gaming occasionally,  in order to spend time with people without the pressure of having to talk to them face to face. Not to mention that I come from somewhere remote, so in order to interact with most people, I need access to games, wifi and phone signal.

There is a major catch to relying on the internet. Namely, I found myself becoming a slave to technology. "Just take a break from technology" I hear you say. In theory it's really easy, in reality it's incredibly difficult because it isolates me. Coming off the internet means that I can't talk to anyone besides my parents and I have to be honest, they aren't conversationalists at all. It also means that I can't keep up with homework because apparently in our day and age, everything has to be online! I think that sometimes we have to accept things as they are and then find ways to cheat the system. For me, I used rehearsals and book clubs as excuses to escape technology. More recently, I retreat into writing, music, books and volunteering. I do acting as part of college but I have stopped going to auditions.

My final reason for wanting to escape is the world, it's overly-complex, it's rules are unclear and as great as it is, it's really stressful. I always find myself playing catch up because everything seems to be moving faster than I am. There have been a lot of changes in my life in such a short space of time, I'm still processing them all and trying to adjust. Things are currently constantly changing, I just want them to stop for a moment so I can get into a routine. I'm fully aware that I'm asking a lot, so I'm doing my best to smile, make jokes and stay positive. I think that sometimes, that's all we can do, even if it forces us to lie to ourselves.

So what am I trying to get at? Every reader and thespian has a reason for reading/performing. Our reasons are specific to us and they can be incredibly simple or complex. There isn't a right or wrong answer to any of these questions that have been mentioned. Life is complicated, stressful and confusing, that's completely okay. It wouldn't be interesting if it wasn't and we wouldn't be able to learn, grow and change if it made complete sense. It's human nature to want what we don't have. Positivity can be incredibly difficult, so I think that sometimes we have to be completely blunt with ourselves. I think that being blunt and admitting that things are difficult and admitting that we need a hug or a helping hand, is as challenging as trying to reach Mars. That's also completely okay. There isn't a rush. These things take time. These things aren't straightforward, so even taking 1 step is a significant achievement.

Writing this post took a while. Although It forced me to confront a small portion of my bottled thoughts, I'm glad I have written it and have decided to post it. Maybe it will be helpful or inspire you, maybe it won't. Maybe it will be really successful or maybe it will become the strange post that gets ignored. Maybe I will look back on this and feel proud or maybe I will ask myself why I have written this. Honestly, nobody knows and that's alright...

That's all for this week, thank you for reading and stay tuned as next week I'll be discussing "The price guide to the occult" by Leslye Walton

Bonjour, discutons "Amelie the musical"

Bonjour nous saluons le retour! I recently had the surprise opportunity to see the "Amelie the musical" uk tour in Southampton so this week we will be discussing "Amelie".

I have multiple confessions to make about this show, the first of these is that I didn't know much about what it was about before I saw it. I tried googling but the synopsis was either too vague or too confusing. At this point you are probably wondering why I was gifted tickets  to see it if I hardly knew anything about the show itself. I looked at the cast list and I was sold! Last year I saw Audrey Brisson play Bella Chagall in Kneehigh's "The flying lovers of Vitebsk" (which is a story in itself), I also saw her play Jiminy Cricket in “Pinocchio” at the National theatre. I was in awe, she inspired me to keep acting when I was going through a bit of a rough patch.

The second is that I didn't know that it had been on broadway last year, I went on itunes after the show to see if there was a cast recording and that's the point when I discovered that, much to my disappointment, there is only a broadway cast recording.

The third is that I discovered that it was originally a film during the interval of the show, I was waiting in line for ice cream and ended up talking to a fan (again) who kept comparing the show to the film. Generally when it comes to theatre that has previously been a film or TV show, I treat the two as separate entities and therefore don't compare them, books are the exception to this rule. I chose not to point this out, which turned out alright in the end as the fan went on to tell me about how much they were enjoying the show and I absolutely agreed.

Basically, this discussion will very much be from the point of view of a new-comer, so let's begin...SPOILER ALERT!!! Also Adult content!!

I love the plot line. It flows like a river with an occasional waterfall, a thing of beauty. From the first song plays, we are drawn into Amelie's world. Paris. Distant parents. A lie. The supposed heart defect that her parents diagnosed her with, broke my heart. From the very outset, I felt that something was wrong with that diagnosis and to my surprise, I was right. It was love. Moving deeper into the play, I thought the idea that her purpose in life is to make others happy was sweet but I couldn't help but worry that she, herself would never be happy. Oh how surprised I was when she discovered Nino. I knew from the point when her heart went crazy, that they had to be together. I didn't care about the other characters as much, they were made for eachother and that was that. From beginning to end, I was captivated and by the end I had tears in my eyes, I was moved. If that doesn't show you the true power of this musical, I don't know what will.

What set this musical apart from others as a romance, was the slow ignition of love. Most productions I have seen, have passionate and incredibly heated romances. Most productions rush into it too soon and focus on the effect of the love itself and the aftermath. "Amelie" doesn't. It showed us that love can be a difficult thing to define and explain. It showed us that love can be slow burning and that it's okay to question it. More importantly, it showed us that we don't always have to aspire to be in love. Amelie had no intention of falling for Nino, yet it happened. She took her time to debate it, she left him a trail to find her and it took them the majority of the second half to get together. In fact they don't actually become a couple until the last song at the very end of the play and even then they say that they don't know what will happen next or how long it will last for. They show us that it's okay not to know.

The puppets. I was blown away. The American cast uses a child actress to play the role of younger Amelie whereas the UK cast uses a puppet, a bold choice but one that works significantly better. This production doesn't need a child actress, it needs puppeteers and an actress with a strong voice, which is exactly what I was given when I saw it. I have to be honest, the puppet is quite creepy and I would be petrified by it if I came across it in the dark, but it really works. It helps the magic of the show come alive. What happened to Fluffy the goldfish was a Shakespearean tragedy, told perfectly through the use of a puppet. I will never be able to unsee the fig puppets. They were both beyond weird and sent shivers down my spine. Despite this, they were used effectively in the surrealist dream sequence. So all in all, the figs were used in the right places but they were really disturbing. When the garden gnome full of ashes came to life, I was so confused. I had a serious WTF moment. I didn't know wether to laugh or shrug my shoulders in confusion, so I ended up doing both. Although, it was another quality use of surrealism.

One thing I can't help but mention is the pianos. Whoever thought of hiding set pieces inside pianos and using them as set pieces is an absolute genius. The piano's were able to be played by the cast (who all played an instrument or sang, a beautiful feat of musicianship) on top of this. I was/am beyond impressed.

The producers of this play made a bold move, even bolder than "Priscilla queen of the desert" and "Magic Mike" put together. It made the audience blush with embarrassment or laugh in awkwardness or just feel shocked. Enough dancing around what it was, let's be blunt. In the scene where Amelie disguises herself as a nun in order to return Nino's book, there is a piano which opens to reveal "adult toys", as Nino and his sister work in an "adult toy" shop. Whilst watching the show, this scene threw me completely. I really wasn't expecting it. Not only had I never seen such a gutsy move being made on stage, but I had never felt so awkward. It was a trifecta of awkwardness: 1. Amelie and Nino being really awkward and shy around each other, 2. Amelie being disguised as a nun and 3. that sort of shop. In case you are curious about my reaction, I burst out awkwardly laughing whilst blushing and kept muttering under my breath "What the hell?". Funnily enough, the play had an age restriction and I didn't understand why until this moment.

There is only one thing that seriously lets this production down. The broadway cast recording, it  annoys me to no end. The production is entirely set in paris, why do the actors on the cast recording not have french accents? The UK cast spends the entire performance sounding authentically French, not only does it sound beautiful but it helps transport the audience into Amelie's world. After doing some digging, I discovered that Americans generally prefer listening to cast recordings which sound American. As a result broadway cast recordings are more likely to sound American despite the setting as it sells more. This is outrageous! I understand that the people on the cast recordings have voices like sirens and I understand that productions need money in order to survive, however money should not come above everything. Musical theatre is the sweetest dream there is, it's a true experience.

When money comes first in a production it ruins almost everything, in this case it ruined my experience as a fan of the show. I can't stand listening to the American cast recording, if I wanted something which felt American, I would watch "Hamilton" or "Oklahoma". I want a true french experience, therefore I will have to wait until they make a UK cast recording (I really hope they do). It's such a shame as I really love the actual songs themselves.

My advice to musical theatre companies who are considering prioritizing money over everything else: Don't. Just don't. If you really need the money, create more merchandise, don't mess with the soundtrack. To mess with a soundtrack is to kill a theatre legacy.

That being said, here's the full broadway cast recording so you can form your own opinion of it.

What do you think about "Amelie"? Have you seen the musical or the film or both? Do you think Amelie and Nino make a cute couple? What do you think about the broadway cast recording? Do you prefer the use of a child actor or a puppet? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments, we can eat croissants and discuss what happens "when the booth goes bright".

That's all for this week, thank you for reading and stay tuned, next week's topic is going to be a surprise!