Pete Hartley: sometime dramaturg, perennial scribbler
Private investigations and public humiliation It felt bizarre to be sponsored by a firm of private detectives. Somehow it also seemed apt that a performance that peered into the private lives of three of the most publicly known ancient figures, Octavius Caesar, Mark Antony and Queen Cleopatra, should be partly funded by hireable spies. … Continue reading Mea Culpa Cleopatra
Making a crisis out of a drama On 16th January 1997 a free newspaper bearing the front-page headline BLASPHEMY! plopped through every letter box in the municipality of Preston in Lancashire, England, and in many of its surrounding districts. It caused a local media storm, made headlines in national newspapers and sent ripples right around the world. This is an account of how the furore was created, contested and concluded.
The word 'academic' is the bane of creative subject teachers' lives, yet it is an unjustified means of establishing a hierarchy of learning. It is usually defined by the proportion of cerebral to practical activity. Subjects with a high practical content are deemed less worthy. That is lazy thinking. The academic is ultimately worthless without practical application.
Dashing through the show; in a three-horse open sleigh. From a Soviet soundtrack to a festive farce.
"When fantasy becomes reality, reality becomes fantastic."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s notorious attempt to kill off Sherlock Holmes was an infamous failure when an outraged public following demanded his resurrection and the author reluctantly obliged. Likewise, all attempts to bury the detective have proved impossible. His popularity is currently high. It was also buoyant in the mid-1980s due to the superb rendition … Continue reading Spare Parts from Sherlock
Staging Equus in Edinburgh We hear so much these days about poor mental health and how there appears to be a plague of it presenting with epidemic proportions, especially among the young. There have always been dramas that focused on psychology and the sometimes horrendous consequences of mental malfunctioning. Of all the modern texts that … Continue reading Horseplay on Princes Street
A review of the touring production of Beautiful – The Carole King Musical With the passing of the analogue age it is unlikely that songs will ever dominate the combined consciousness as numerously as they did in the latter part of the twentieth century. Although audiences are much larger now, they not as universally imposed … Continue reading A few cross-stitches short of a tapestry
Researching, rehearsing and staging the reconstructing of an icon of evil The most unsettling moment was when Andrew stopped the car. We asked why he had done so. He said it was the place. Which place? The one where Myra Hindley had stopped her car and picked up the first victim of the infamous moors … Continue reading Making Making Myra
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