Slava's Snowshow

Royal Festival Hall

18 December

You could say that this

is yellow clown and green,

snowfall and bubble,

broom and wink and fish,

but that would hardly capture

all the blue and gold,

the shock of water

and of whirling snow,

and at the heart of it

the one old clown, paw-eyed

and shuffling, conjuring up

the stuff of strangest dream.

 

Slava's Snowshow runs at the Royal Festival Hall until 7 January 2013

http://www.slavasnowshow.co.uk/

Father Christmas

Lyric

15 December

On Christmas Eve the sky is cold

and full of whirling snow,

but in the house it’s cosy

and the kitchen all aglow;

and Father Christmas makes it clear

he doesn’t want to go,

but still he packs his sandwiches

and takes the radio;

and out across the world he flies

reindeer and sleigh,

from London houses to igloos

and pyramids along the way,

and leaves a present everywhere

that children play,

and flies back home in time
to go to bed on Christmas day.

Father Christmas runs until 5 January at the Lyric
http://www.lyric.co.uk/whats-on/production/father-christmas/

Midnight's Pumpkin

Battersea Arts Centre

18 December

The magic is in simple things transformed:

the garden shed press-ganged into a coach,

the bathrobe-bedecked mice prancing ahead.

The story fairly drips with blood

and bawdy pantomime, as roaring stepmother

takes on the household; oh but we adored

the ginger cat scooting on wheels,

and the flying toes and tears as the sisters

fought to fit their feet into that tiny shoe...

Midnight's Pumpkin runs until 13 January 2013 at the BAC
http://www.bac.org.uk/whats-on/midnights-pumpkin/

The Architects

Shunt at the Biscuit Factory

4 December

There is no ship! they cry,

as though they have deceived us.

But we knew that. We are

in a biscuit factory in Bermondsey.

We chose a ship of dreams,

a bubble where deceit and innocence,

knowledge and architecture,

rule the roost. What we did not know

was what lurked inside the bull.

Or the chaos of darkness.

The Architects by Shunt
runs at The Biscuit Factory
until 2 February 2013
http://www.shunt.co.uk/thearchitects.html

A Christmas Carol

A year ago I wrote this response to 'A Christmas Carol' - directed by Tim Carroll and performed by Dominic Gerrard. I loved it, and I'm delighted that this production has now returned for a full run at the Waterloo East Theatre, opening tonight!


You were a stranger to me

in your sober coat and high, starched collar.

Scrooge too, scowling and slow, lifting his head

and taking his first breaths

was not the wooden puppet that I knew

but animate: a bitter, sneering man

I would not like to meet.

That little room of yours became a treasure box

of small surprises – music and laughter,

turkey and crackers. I saw the snow

and heard the soft, sweet music

of the violin, conjuring time and place,

the clanking of chains

and murmuring of ghosts.

You conjured up a distant evening,

snowfall on a quiet road,

and then (your favourite, I know)

a moonlit flight over a silver sea.

You carried fear and hope, frost-bitten fingers

and a crackling fireside

till we arrived, inexorably,  at Christmas.

Dickens loved a feast, and you bowed out

with bowls of steaming punch

and plum pudding, music and laughter,

dancing and holly.

You left us warm with hope and charity,

blazing coals and candlelight,

redemption and revelry.

 

'A Christmas Carol' runs at the Waterloo East Theatre from 3 - 15 December

http://www.waterlooeast.co.uk/achristmascarol%20.html