Pete Hartley: sometime dramaturg, perennial scribbler
I grew up next door to James Bond. This is true. His parents had one of the best fish and chip shops in Preston. Bond’s Chip Shop on St Gregory Road in Deepdale, barely two goal-kicks from the Preston North End football stadium, would boast queues doubling round the shop space and spilling outside onto … Continue reading You only Bond thrice
Mr Dionysus always danced out of doors. That was his natural environment. I smiled as I recalled the parties he had thrown. Wild did not come into it. They were out of doors and out of control.
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.
It’s hate Jim, but not as we know it. Some of the vitriol expressed on the morning after the recent UK General Election was a tad gut-wrenching. Social media contributors whose votes had not had the desired effect told their ‘friends’ in no uncertain terms where they should go, what they should do and which … Continue reading Brexit stage right
The most popular uneasywords of 2019 Another year of blogging done. Here, in reverse order, are the most popular uneasywords posts of 2019: At number 9 is a post from November 2018 explaining how the paintings of Jack Vettriano inspired a musical theatre show: Swinging with the Singing Butler. Number 8 is also … Continue reading Nine from ‘Nineteen
A ghost story for Christmas The bike growled as if in warning as he released his grip on the throttle. He braked gently expecting ice on the high moorland road. Freezing fog that night, the weatherman had said, and fog there was, and Mike was too wise to doubt the other part of the prophesy. … Continue reading Pillion
Gypsy at the Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester, December 2019. The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester is a theatrical womb that can always be trusted to serve up high-quality festivities, and this Yuletide’s production of Gypsy with its cornucopia of song, gags, costumes, amusing knick-knacks and family rows suits the season of enforced conviviality very well. … Continue reading Keeping Mum
An appreciation of The Wichita Lineman and of Dylan Jones' book about it Anyone who has ever had creative work rejected should take great encouragement from a song that most industry ‘experts’ would have instantly thrown aside. It has just sixteen lines, two verses, no proper chorus, and by the songwriter’s own admission was rushed … Continue reading A lineman for all seasons
When my wife had a significant birthday several years ago, my gift to her was a DNA test. I’m an incorrigible romantic. Seriously, it was what she most wanted. Almost a decade later, she returned the favour and bought me one. It turns out we are related. We’ve got the same mother.
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