Hello everyone, Amello here! Welcome back to Words of Worlds. This week we will be discussing "Six the musical: tour", which I recently saw at Chichester festival theatre.
So before we jump into the show itself, I have a few confessions to make. I only heard about the show when the performance video of "ex-wives" was posted onto Youtube and after watching the video I decided that I wasn't overly keen on seeing the show because it really didn't look like my kind of thing. Strange, I know considering "Hamilton" but each to their own.
For a long time, I avoided it like the plague but there comes a time in every actor/actress's life (This time being from September to November last year, when I was still acting) when they have to work with people who are obsessed with that 1 musical. The result of this being that I heard so, so, so many reasons why it was worth seeing that I finally caved and decided to put it as number 6 on my list of shows to see in 2020. I was gifted a ticket for Christmas, which I was grateful for because I realised that I could finally determine whether my theatrical instincts were right. Oh they were so very wrong.
*Side note: It was one of the only times I first listened to the soundtrack the night before. I wasn't impressed, more about that later...
Let's discuss the show itself, however before we begin, SPOILER ALERT! BAD LANGUAGE ALERT! SEX REFERENCES ALERT!
The program, who the fuck charges £8 for a program?! Luckily it was actually decent, those of you who have seen "Hamilton" will know that they have a cheap program but you have to pay extra for a book of photos from the show, show photos and some lyrics, as well as fan art, was included in this program so its a really nice keepsake. It also included a history section written by Lucy Worsley, if you study history, you will know that she is a very marmite historian. I am still forming an opinion about her because I love her book "Eliza Rose" but I think her documentary's are overrated.
In case you were wondering, I do study History as well as English.
The staging wasn't that impressive. They literally had access to a hexagon of space and they didn't use all of it, acting 101: fill the space! Before you say "Oi, that's the pop concert aspect!" they are performing in theatres not arenas, they should take full advantage of that space. That being said, the simplicity of the set (they used coloured lights) in contrast to the detail of the costumes really works.
They made up for the lack of stage usage by their impeccable use of audience interaction. I felt like I was actually at a concert, which is what they were going for so well done.
The story-line of the show really worked but didn't at the same time, allow me to explain. It's basically about the 6 wives of Henry music-battling each-other to decide which Queen is the most significant before deciding after they have all sung their songs that the entire idea is stupid, that they can re-write their endings because they have a microphone and that they should be friends instead of enemies. Fair enough, good story-line but it really goes wrong because they don't seem to be able to decide on their target audience. There are aspects of the show that could be considered to be child friendly but overall I think it should have an age restriction of at least 12 upwards simply because of the numerous references to adultery and various deaths. Put it this way, don't include a hanging reference and a threesome reference in a show meant for...who knows.
On to the music...So "Ex-wives" is my least favourite song because I am not what could be described as a pop music girl. Sure, I like some pop songs but it isn't really my main genre. In fact, I don't think I have a music genre, I listen to a bit of everything. Sidetracked, back to the point, it feels a bit un-necessary if we are saying that the audience is 12 up, to state the fact that 5 of them are ex-wives. We already know this. In fact, the fact that all 6 of the Queens sing this song annoys me because Catherine Parr wasn't an ex-wife.
"No way" is an absolute killer song! Catherine of Aragon is a straight-up bad-ass, I love how defiant she is with this song. You can clearly hear how annoyed and confrontational she is. This song is also insanely catchy.
Moving on to the most ironic song of the lot "Don't lose your head". Again a quality song but I have to talk about Boleyn. I find it really annoying how many times she mentions the fact that she lost her head. She literally says it throughout the show, there's got to be more to her than that! The song makes her sound crazy immature and she acts like a child throughout the show. If anyone knows how old she was when she married Henry, please let me know.
Then we come to my favourite song "Heart of stone". Honestly it is so beautiful and when I saw it live I was moved to tears. Listen to it.
"Haus of Holbein" was just weird.
"Get down" is the song I recommend to every rap music fan and every "Hamilton" fan. Before you say it, I know, I have made so many references to that musical and I shouldn't be comparing them because they are in leagues of their own but I honestly can't think of anything non-lin related to compare it to.
The most uncomfortable song is by far "All you wanna do". I get that she is supposed to be sexy but still "13 going on 30" makes me gag because of how wrong it is in this context. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind listening to this song but sometimes it's a bit like OMG this is just too wrong. I'll give it credit for being historically accurate though. I also need to address the character of Howard. In the show she is an absolute bitch and I really don't like her.
A really controversial song is "I don't need your love". I feel torn listening to it because Parr is so desperately trying to confront Henry whilst also having to say goodbye to her true love. It's so sad that she couldn't be with the person who held her heart. It's even worse that she knows how trapped she is. This song just gives all of the feels.
Back to the original pop music with a bit of a remix "Six". There's not much to say about this one other than it ties up the show really well.
The actresses are phenomenal! Their voices are truly amazing! Props to them for their impeccable acting. Even more props to the fact that it is an all-female cast.
Is this show informative? Heck yes, I never learned about the wives in school so I learned a lot. Is the historically accurate? Yes, I know this because I saw it with someone who knows a fair amount about the wives. Is it worth watching? Yes, despite my many, many complaints, I actually love the show and highly recommend it.
Have you seen Six? Who was your favourite wife? What was your favourite song? What do you think about the staging? How do you feel about the new influx of historical musicals? Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
2020 book challenge: I decided not to continue with The Nerd Daily's challenge because I didn't get on well with the categories. Instead I have decided to try and reach 100 books this year. As of right now, I have read 21 books so I think I might actually reach my goal this year,
Ticket update: I have now acquired tickets to see a show called "Ask me anything"
That's all for now, thank you so much for reading, stay tuned as next week I'll be discussing that "mysterious book phase" that I mentioned numerous times in my last post (otherwise known as my longest book phase)...
Hey everyone! Welcome back to Words of Worlds.
I am posting this simply as an update about new things on my blog and some old things that weren't explained very well.
First of all, I realised recently that after 4 months of posting, I haven't given you a name to get to know me by other than my internet username "Bookish_Hound". You are completely welcome to address me by my internet name, however I feel it's time you got to know my pen name, which is Amello Genin. So feel free to address me by Amello in the comments or just generally. Will I ever reveal my true identity? I'm not 100% sure but it is highly unlikely. You will just have to get to know me solely by my words. Look on the bright side, at least now you have a name to put with those words...
Second of all, if you are interested in me doing full discussions about specific graphic novels feel free to let me know in the comments.
Last but not least, the comments. I am aware that this is difficult to find so I would like to let you know how to leave a comment/comments on this blog.
1. scroll down to the bottom of the post you are reading or any post
2. Click on "No comments"
3. This link will take you here
4. On the comment as part, you can select to be your google name, a name/URL or completely anonymous
5. Enter your comment in the text box
6. Click publish
Finally, some of my posts which centre around writing/books are going to contain "lifestyle blog" type stories in them. That's simply because I have so many stories to tell and my posts which are getting the most reads are the ones which have elements/chunks or are entirely in this style. I do plan on doing only 1 theatre post entirely in this style simply because I am no longer acting anymore and would like to do a tribute to/talk about the 13 years I spent acting.
That's all for the time being, thank you all for taking the time to read/skim my blog! I'll see you in the next post.
Hey there! Welcome back! In my last post, I said that I was going to discuss a mystery topic, well this weeks mystery topic is *insert drum roll...Graphic novels and comics. It's time to unleash the inner geek!
I don't usually do the whole "life blogger" thing but in this case I absolutely must. So let's begin....Shocker, no spoiler alert this week.
Technically I entered the world of the graphic novel before diving into the realm of comics, so I'm going to talk about graphic novels. Comics and my mysterious book phase will be in upcoming posts...
I say "technically" because I am UK based and the stereotypical tradition amongst parents is to get their young girls "comics" (otherwise known as the gender stereotypical girls magazines) and their young boys "actual comics" (otherwise known as hyper masculine comics). If we look at things on this basis then I grew up reading "comics", discovered graphics and then began reading "actual comics". Moving on....
I read my first comic in year 6. Back then I wasn't really into reading, I also wasn't really into playing outside with other people so I retreated into the library and found myself having to find something to read because the rules of the library stated that you had to be reading or doing homework. I really didn't want to read a "wordy" book and feared I might have to until I stumbled across the graphic novel section, which was only made up of one shelf. I picked up the first book on the shelf, which was called "Bone" and decided to give it a go. I was hooked. Within 6 months I had read the entire shelf, everything from "Twilight" to "Artemis Fowl". My English teachers at the time noticed that I was reading graphics and made numerous attempts to coax me into reading "real books" but I wasn't having any of it. I didn't care that my classmates thought it was too masculine or weird or couldn't understand why I read them, I loved them and that was that.
If you couldn't tell, I ran out of graphics pretty quick. I tried persuading the librarian/the middle school (yes, I was one of the few people in England that went to a middle school from years 6-8) but she said there wasn't enough demand. That really sucked! Naturally, not really willing to read anything else, in year 7 I ventured out onto the playground. The rest of that story is for a future blog post as it allows me to talk about my longest book phase and it really is a long story...
Fast forward to year 9. The "future post phase book type thingy" had gone on a temporary hiatus because my new English teacher wouldn't let me read those books anymore because he claimed they didn't count as "actual books". I was forced to read them in secret. It was around about this time that I grew an interest in graphic novels again, however my high school library had the absolute worst collection I had ever seen, which meant they were out of the picture.
Jump forward again to year 10. This was the year that I found my first graphic novel shop in the back of beyond. I had saved pocket money to invest in some new "nameless books" but I deemed this more important and bought my first ever graphic novel "Bone". Yes, I bought a book I had already read but let me put it this way. Books have immense sentimental value to me, I like having books that I can read over and over! I also like having at least 1 shelf full of books that I haven't read because it means that I always have something to read. Back to what I was saying, not only did I buy "Bone" but I bought books 1-3 because I had only book 1.
I devoured the books so quickly that I found myself doing jobs around the house to earn enough money to invest in more. Not just that but to earn a lift into one of the big towns/cities because I was based in the middle of no-where. My collection grew and grew, a year or 2 later, I was able to pick up some self-published graphics at London and Birmingham comic-cons, which was a truly amazing experience, and I still continue to collect them...
Okay, that's my "life blogging attempt" section over. So now you are probably wondering why I actually like graphic novels? I guess it must be a surprise considering I only talk about what most people call "real books" on this blog. That's fair enough. If it's not a surprise, that's fair enough too. I became really attached to graphics not just because I used to dislike reading (which I now love with all my heart) but because of the characters. If you know where to look, you can find representation. For me, the characters I most connected with were from "Moonstruck", which is both a graphic novel and minor comic collection (they stopped producing comics after the 1st issue in the 2nd quarter) . They are all so unique and flawed and beautiful in their own ways, they make mistakes and act like bitches at times and are utterly relatable.
I really like how graphic novels seemingly have no boundaries and you can let your brain switch off for a bit whilst reading them. Graphic novels heavily inspired numerous creative streaks throughout the years and continue to inspire me today, even though I haven't and probably couldn't make one myself. I am honestly stunned by how talented every artist is and even though I don't like every art style, fully appreciate the work that goes into them both in terms of artwork and story line.
I have to admit, it feels weird revealing myself to be a major geek/nerd, it also feels hella epic! Yes I am a geek! I am proud of it and if you are a geek, you should be too! If you are not a geek, you should embrace that whilst also supporting the geeks around you. Geek or no geek, everything is fine provided that we show each other a little bit of love/ kindness and share friendly laughs.
For those of you who are interested in exploring the wonderful world of the graphic novel and potentially becoming members of the geek club or for those of you who just want some recommendations, let me be your guide...
I have known many a potential geek apprentice bite off more than they can chew so I recommend easing your way into it. Begin by choosing a genre that you like in regular book form i.e. if you enjoy horror books then try a horror graphic novel. If you don't like what you initially choose, that's okay, keep experimenting and trying new genres until you find one you like.
At the end of the day, if you can't find a genre you like that's okay and if you decide that graphics aren't your cup of tea, fair enough. Don't force yourself to like something you don't like.
My graphic recommendations for new readers are: Bone (action, adventure, comedy, fantasy), The secret loves of geeks/geek girls (2 separate books, love, LGBTQ+, mix of comics and fully written short stories, especially recommended for people who enjoy graphics and regular books as well as people who don't want to go full graphic on their first read), Persepolis (religion, politics), Heroes (superhuman/superhero esque) This One Summer (slice of life) and Monstress (sci-fi, steampunk, gore). These recommendations are basically 1 book from each popular genre, there are a lot more genres out there and I can only recommend what I have actually read.
Reach out to people who are in the same boat as you, whether that be through genre or experience. Don't be afraid to talk to graphic novel shop owners, they love to geek out, recommend graphics and know an insane amount about the different fandoms (especially the ones they are members of). If you can't find anyone to geek out with, geek out with yourself.
Who cares if you like *insert genre graphics, you like them and you should embrace that side of yourself. I highly advise writing about your fandoms through fan fiction or just through writing in whatever form. If you want to have a go at creating a graphic for yourself, go for it! Don't feel under pressure to share anything! Don't feel under pressure to do anything you don't want to do. The geek world is what you make of it, its up for interpretation and new ideas and uniqueness and mainstreamness.
Take your time, enjoy experimenting/ figuring out who you are and where you fit into the fandom. Even if you think you don't fit in, you do. I guarantee it! There's always a space for a new comer.
Girls/women don't be intimidated by this seemingly male dominated world. There's so much room for you and so many people who are willing to let you in. Don't be ashamed to read "stereo-typically masculine graphics". Don't be ashamed to call yourself a femme geek, wear that badge with pride.
Same goes for boys/men. Also boys/men please don't feel embarrassed for reading "stereo-typically feminine graphics". Don't be ashamed to talk to femme geeks.
Those of you who identify as somewhere else on the gender spectrum, you are all equally welcome, you shouldn't feel ashamed by what you read and who you talk to, you also need to wear the geek badge with pride.
For the love of heck both mens, femmes and everything in-between, don't judge what people read! Don't judge based on experience or lake thereof, we were all newbies once!!!
Whatever you do, have fun and enjoy yourself. The geekdom is there for self expression and enjoyment above all else. Be kind to yourself and your fellow geeks/non-geeks (I know I have said this before but kindness is crazy important). It's okay to disagree, it's okay to debate, it's not okay to hurt someone, end of story. It's okay to be part of multiple geekdoms!!!
With all that said, what type of geek am I? Honestly, I'm a mix. I thoroughly enjoy fantasy (even though I'm not really into fantasy books), romance and slice of life/dramas. That being said, I will read pretty much any graphic providing it isn't horror or thriller.
I consider myself to be a solo-geek simply because I initiated myself into the fandom and found my way without any guidance. I also am not a big fan of reading graphics alongside other people and much prefer geeking out about them after I have read them. All of that aside, I will happily geek out anytime and don't mind listening to members of other realms of the geekdom geek out about their favourite genres.
I also consider myself to be a 1 graphic wonder geek because I don't really read graphics in a series. I thoroughly enjoy stand alones (both graphics and regular books) however I really enjoy reading book 1's as well. If I get seriously into a book 1, I am not opposed to reading the rest of the series.
Do I consider myself established as a geek? Absolutely yes. Do I see myself ever leaving the fandom? Heck no! I am a proud geek for life.
That's all for now, thank you so much for reading. Stay tuned for an announcement, which is also being posted tonight, and a new blog post next week, where I'll be discussing "Six the musical"...
Hi, welcome back to Words of worlds! Today we'll be discussing "Noises off", which recently finished it's run at the Garrick Theatre in London. I was lucky enough to see this show on the 3rd, the day before it closed, because I was given theatre vouchers for Christmas.
So how did I find out about the show? I heard about it's existence way back in 2018 when Rebecca Parham,aka. Let me explain studios, released a video on Youtube talking about a crazy theatre teacher she had. The video is linked below. Let me explain studios video
During a trip to London around September time, I passed the theatre and saw it advertised. After further research into the synopsis, I knew I had to see it. Not just as an ex-actress, theatre geek but as a comedy fan.
Now let's get talking about the day, the theatre itself and the play. As usual SPOILER ALERT!!! also STRONG LANGUAGE ALERT! For clarification the director and actors/actresses mentioned are all characters in the play. The actual actors/actresses and company behind the play will not be mentioned.
I know that life-blogging isn't what I usually do but on this occasion I absolutely must. I got a single ticket to see the evening performance of the show so I had an entire day to kill. Luckily my girlfriend was free so we spent the day together. We came across what looked to be a duck-goose hybrid, saw a street performer do insane tricks with a hoop, found Hello Kitty bubble tea, geeked out at forbidden planet and helped a man out with his drunk colleague. It was both really random but honestly sometimes the random things turn out to be the best things!
The best part of the day was when we reached the theatre. Theatre 101: Always turn up to collect tickets half an hour to an hour before the show. If you already have your tickets to hand, show up half an hour early to ensure you don't miss the show and to collect theatre merch. We arrived 45 mins before the show was due to start. Although she wasn't seeing the show with me, my girlfriend went through security with me and waited with me until the doors to the show opened. Best time ever! We stood around chatting and when the doors opened, with tears in our eyes we said our goodbyes and hugged each other. I was about to head to the circle doors when she turned to me and made the first move, we kissed each other for the first time. It was truly the greatest and afterwards, I entered the theatre giddy. For the first time, my excitement wasn't due to waiting for the show to start but due to the electricity that sparked between me and my girlfriend...
Whilst sitting in my seat (B8), I began chatting with the people around me and that made me feel even more amazing because it was my first time seeing a show in London by myself. I would very much like to say thank you to those people who made the effort to talk to me before the show and during the interval.
Plain and simple, the beginning of the show sucks! Simply because it takes a while to make sense of what's going on and the comedic moments don't really kick in until halfway through the first act.
For those of you who haven't seen the show or know absolutely nothing about it, allow me to give you some info. It's a 2 act play that centres around a theatre company full of actors/actresses who don't get along, trying to put on a play called "Nothing's on" and failing. This may sound farmilliar to those of you who have heard of or have seen "The play that goes wrong". You may be wondering why the two sound so similar? That's because "Noises off" was the inspiration behind "The play that foes wrong."
Going back to the first act, it is necessary because it introduces us to the characters and shows us the rehearsal process but I really think there needs to be more comedic elements to it. Put it this way, if I am contemplating walking out of the theatre or thinking that it sucks before halfway through the first act, it needs work. That being said, it got better and eventually turned out to be even funnier than "The comedy about a bank robbery" and "the play that goes wrong" combined.
The comedic style itself is classic. I have never seen so many sardines in all my life and I have never heard anyone shout "SARDINES, SARDINES, SARDINES, SARDINES, SARDINES!!" before. I thoroughly enjoyed the sarcastic director, who literally takes a break from the other show he is working on (King Lear) to come backstage during their first performance and shout "What the fuck is going on?" 10/10 director of the year. It gets more interesting as it turns out that the director (Lloyd) has not slept with 1 but 2 of the actresses and has amazingly managed to keep the fact that he has slept with both of them a secret. Sure, this is such a horrible and immoral thing to do, but we have to keep in mind that this is a comedic play, therefore this is incredibly funny and it is socially acceptable to laugh at it.
Oh and it gets so much funnier by throwing booze, bad acting, an axe and a cactus into the mix. I wonder what made the director think that combining this group of actors was a good idea. They clearly don't get along! At the same time I am glad the director cast these actresses/actors simply because it is this very combination of opposing fatal flaws within the cast that makes the play go so wrong, therefore making it so hilarious.
It's such a same to have to wave goodbye to this show once again (it was first performed in the 1980's) because it deserved a longer run. That being said, "City of Angels" is due to perform at the Garrick this year, which looks amazing.
Have you seen "Noises off"? Do you think of it as a classic comedy? Would you have liked to have seen it? Do you think it needed a longer run? Do you talk to people you meet at the theatre? Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below and we can all have a bit of a laugh together.
Ticket update: In my last post I said that this year I was only going to see Heather's. As a result of Christmas, I am now going to be seeing "Six" the musical, "Everybody's talking about Jaime", "And Juliet" and "Come from away".
2020 Book challenge update: I have read "George" by Alex Gino and "101 pieces of me" by Veronica Bennett. I am currently reading book 3 in The Nerd Daily's challenge: purchased on holidays. For me that is "Rookie on love" by various authors, which I bought at "Shakespeare and company" bookshop in Paris.
That's all for now, thank you so much for reading. Stay tuned as next week I'll be discussing a mystery topic...
Hello everyone, Happy New Year! Welcome back to Words Of Worlds, as I said in my last post, this time I will be discussing my year in books. So what do I mean by that? 2019 was the first year I kept track of all of the books that I read, not only that but the first year I set myself a reading challenge. For the benefit of those who haven’t read “my year in theatre” post, I’ll summarise the challenge. Basically I set myself the goal of reading 100 books in a year because someone told me that they thought I couldn’t read more than 25.Although I didn’t reach 100 I managed to reach 60, which I still think is pretty impressive.
You are probably wondering what counts towards the challenge? Any book, play-script (prime example being Shakespeare, even though I didn't read/re-read any of his plays this year) and graphic novel. Re-reads/ multiple reads of books also count.
So here comes the difficult part, how do I cram 60 books into a single post? With difficulty. I could try but let's face it, we would be here for hours. What is my solution to this problem? To do what many bloggers have done before me: list all of the books I have read, however I will be commenting on some of the books. Let me be perfectly blunt, I will only be commenting on books that were especially good or especially terrible. Pre-warning, I will be giving honest opinions. WARNING SPOILER ALERT! BAD LANGUAGE ALERT!! Side note: you can find my reviews of some of the following books on Goodreads, look out for Bookish Hound Another side note: Goodreads will tell you that I've only read 57 books. This isn't the case, I chose to remove 2 of the books from the list on the website (one of which I read twice) because of life stuff. If you are curious which books they were, compare the below list to the one on Goodreads, there will be 2 in the list below which aren't in the list on Goodreads.
1. A Berlin Love Song by Sarah Matthias. What an awful way to start a year, this book was truly a waste of time. Don't get me wrong, the initial chapters are okay but I expected more. I kept going with it in the hopes that it would get better, it got so much worse! I really wouldn't recommend it. Put it this way, it was so bad I refused to write a review and just decided to leave it 2 stars. To be perfectly honest, 2 stars was pushing it. All of that being said, I sincerely hope that Sarah reflects upon this book, grows as a writer and writes something so much better because I have faith that she could write a truly captivating and masterful story.
2. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
3. Floored by Sarah Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson and Eleanor Wood
4. If I was your girl by Meredith Russo
5. 36 Questions that changed my mind about you by Vicki Grant. A seriously underrated book, it tells the story of volunteers, Hildy and Paul, in a love based science experiment. Not only does this book ask it's characters questions but it asks the reader questions, causing them to think about what their own answers to the questions would be. Sure the book can be very predictable at times, but the idea is seriously original. In fact I enjoyed the book because it was so predictable, sometimes it's really nice to curl up with a book that doesn't make you feel as if you are stuck in the Matrix. It didn't quite tug on my heartstrings though, so I can only give it 4 stars.
6. Geekerella by Ashley Poston
7. All about Mia by Lisa Williamson
8. Dork Diaries #1 by Rachel Renee Russell
9. Are we all lemmings and snowflakes? by Holly Bourne
10. I was here by Gayle Forman
11. The unpredictability of being human by Linni Ingemundsen
12 and 13. I am Juden: undercover in the SS by Stephen Uzzell (I read this book twice)
14. Spinning by Tillie Walden
15. Princess Princess ever after by Katie O'Neill
16. On the come up by Angie Thomas
17. What if it's us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
18. Severed heads, broken hearts by Robyn Schneider
19. Moonstruck #2: Some enchanted evening by Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle and Kat Fajardo
20. Dracula by Bram Stoker
21. A darker shade of magic by V.E Schwab
22. Mary's monster by Lita Judge
23 and 24. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott. Fitzgerald (read twice)
25. Beautiful broken things by Sarah Barnard
26. Call me by your name by Andre Aicman. Brief review: for once the film was better than the book
27. A girl in winter by Philip Larkin
28. The comedy about a bank robbery by Henry Lewis
29. The handmaid's tale by Margret Atwood
30. The Ballad of Liberty Siegler by Stephen Uzzell
31. Toffee by Sarah Crossan
32. The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society by Mary Ann Shaffer
33, Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary by Martha Brockenbrough
34. Letters to the lost by Brigid Kemmerer. Truly beautiful and moving. Go and read it!!!
35. This one summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. For those of you who don't like manga, fear not, this is an American graphic novel.
36. The miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily C. Davenforth. Film did the book justice!!
37. Birthday by Meredith Russo
38. Clean by Juno Dawson. Seriously captivating but brutal book. Love the way that generally taboo subjects are brought into the light, enjoyed exploring a new subject matter/genre and would happily re-read this book any day!
39. Be more chill by Ned Vizzini
40. The night circus by Erin Morgenstern. Did an entire blog post about this book under the title of "Magic at midnight" so go and read that if you are interested in my opinion.
41. The poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
42. Meat Market by Juno Dawson. Saw a book talk about this story at Waterstones and was lucky enough to meet Juno as well as have 2 of my books signed by her. Really liked how down to earth she was. Juno if you are reading this, thank you!
43. DNA by Dennis Kelley
44. Faceless by Alyssa B.Sheinmel
45. People, places and things by Duncan Macmillan
46. Call it what you want by Brigid Kemmerer
47. All the things we never said by Yasmin Rahman
48. The places I've cried in public by Holly Bourne
49. Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu
50. Let it snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. Did 2 blog posts about this book under the titles of "A Jubilee in a blizzard" and "Continuing through the blizzard", so go and read those if you are interested in my opinion.
51. The weight of a thousand feathers by Brian Conaghan
52. Lies we tell ourselves by Robin Talley
53. Words in deep blue by Cath Crowley. Is littered with eye-catching quotes and will absolutely make you cry. I can't express how magnificent this book is so you will need to read it to find out for yourself.
54. I hate fairyland #2 fluff my life by Skottie Young
55. If on a winter's night a traveller by Italo Calvino
56. I have lost my way by Gayle Forman
57. The tea dragon festival by Katie O'Neill
58. How hard can love be by Holly Bourne
59. Dog poems by lots of people
60. Skylarks by Karen Gregory
Have I set a new challenge? Of course, I will be taking part in The Nerd Daily's 2020 reading challenge. As part of the challenge I will have to read 52 books, each from a different category, afterwards I plan to keep reading with a goal of reaching 70 or more books by the end of the year. If you would like to participate in The Nerd Daily's challenge, click on the link below. https://www.thenerddaily.com/2020-reading-challenge/
How many books did you read in 2019? Which books would you recommend? Which books didn't you like? What's your 2020 reading goal? Are you participating in any challenges this year? Please feel free to leave a comment below, we can have fun geeking out about books and look forward to a new year of authors and books.
That's it for now, I feel incredibly lucky that I have enough readership to be able to continue this blog into 2020, the glorious new decade, so thank you all so much for reading or skimming! Stay tuned as our next discussion will be about "Noises off"...
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.
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.
