LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT at the THEATRE ROYAL GLASGOW

So raw and intense was the feeling , Eugene O'Neill stipulated it should not go on stage until 25 years after his death.

Sometimes an Artist gives everything and a little bit more into a work , making all other efforts pale into insignificance.This play is Eugene O'Neils statement and ultimate testimony he wants to leave Humanity.

On watching the mesmerising gripping intensity of it being performed on stage you can see why he was keen not to be around when the audience finally saw the story of his , and his ages , Family tensions.

The play stars David Suchet , aka Poirot , the annoying geeky prudish Belgian detective.A character so limited one could be forgiven for thinking David does not have the real talent of a Master which he clearly is as proven by his portrayal of this challenging , yet highly rewarding , role.

The play also stars Laurie Metcalf , also made famous in the TV role of Roseanne Barrs sister.This interview from The Telegraph gives details of the role she plays with startling effect.

You can also see some of the views of the present cast in the video below:



All in all this is a fantastic production of one of the great plays of the Century.

STAND UP FOR PALESTINE at the KINGS THEATRE GLASGOW

For the second year running Frankie Boyle organised a fundraiser for the Palestine Legal Fund during the the Glasgow Comedy Festival.

The star of the show was the brilliant Gary The Tank Commander who quite rightly got the well deserved headliner spot.

The early estimates are the event raised over £15,000 pounds , the figure is expected to rise as the contributions are still being counted.

It is very difficult to explain to someone who has not seem the live show just how hilariously funny Gary The Tank Commander is on stage.

The video below gives an indication but it does have that you-had-to-be-there-feel about it , therefore only capturing the uproarious vibe of the performance.

STING at the ARMADILLO GLASGOW

You could be forgiven for thinking Sting is a prat , i did.

The reason for this , in my case at any rate is got to be do with Bono , he can make even his illustrious band-members in U2 seem to be prats.Bono is famous for hugging Putin, having chuckles with Berlusconi and being the biggest slanderer of John Lennon when he addressed Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as the Lennon and McCartney of Politics in a speech at a Labour Party Conference when the diabolical Iraq war was in chaotic meltdown.Lennon put his livelihood on the line to stop wars , Blair put his on the line to start an endless one.

The reason i was attracted to the concert is the US leg of this "Back to Bass" tour was a critical smash hit , with classic Police songs stripped down to there bones , hence giving them more meaning and depth.

Even though i purchased tickets within half an hour of them going on sale i got the very last 2 in Row Z.

Im glad i went as Sting is a very talented individual and very under-appreciated songwriter.

Here is my favourite song from the concert:

PAUL PRESTON - THE SPANISH HOLOCAUST at AYEWRITE

Franco killed more People proportionate to the population within national borders than did Hitler within Germany.Quite rightly Hitler is regarded as evil whilst there are many persons and institutions which are willing to give Franco credit , stick up for him in debates ,real and historical, and defend the years he was in power.

Part of the reason for this is that not only citizens were killed and oppressed by Franco and his supporters within and without Spain , but also the witnessing and historical record.Records documenting the crimes ( and unjustifiable crimes they have to seen to be) of the Republican side have been preserved , there are many monuments to the fallen on Francos side.But the crimes of the Franco side have literally been wiped from the face of the land and history , as well as the psyche through outright destruction of documents and , worse still , the shame attached to the degrading sub-human treatment of the victims which mean even their Families cannot recount what happened without humiliation and dishonour and abject shame being added to the deaths and desecration of their forebears.

It is no surprise that it is a non-Spaniard who can give the dignity back to the victims and their Families and Communities by recording the crimes of the past.For a Spaniard to take up this painful and deeply harrowing task would be seen as partisanship and factionalism as we have found with the galling case of Judge Garzon.An Academic would fare even worse.But Paul Preston can bring to bear the appropriate scholarly bearing of witness as he is seen as having no axe to grind one way or another.

This does not mean Preston is not partisan himself , he abides by a Historian version of the Hippocratic Oath which bounds the person to be Honest to his Sources;To do thorough deep research but on no accounts to be "balanced"in the discredited BBC sense of the concept.If Historians , and Journalists, according to Preston were to be balance in such a way then they would have to treat the torturer the same as the tortured;the murderer with the murdered;the rapist with the raped and in the case of Spain the colonialist with the colonised.Preston is very much on the side of the victims of Franco , though still regarded as impartial and Honest chronicler of the Spanish experience.

So mentally exhausting has been the harrowing brief of the Book Preston has just published that it took him 12 years to complete , he had to take many necessary hiatus to give himself the will to plough through one horrifying account after another.



The Book contains the word Holocaust to describe what happened under Franco , to some this may seem to strong a description but Preston easily justifies it when he tells the well thought out;systematic ; on-going plan of extermination of a enemy regarded as sub-Human which was the Franco policy.Out of some 600 reviews in Spain to the Books publishing in that country only about 20 have been hostile.Others have been appreciative that Preston has documented the final resting places of unknown victims , giving their Families much longed for closure.For many Families names of their loved ones appearing in Prestons Book is the only Gravestone they will have , for that reason alone , this Book is a vital contribution especially in a time when Francos make-over descendants have just taken over control in the recent Spanish Elections.

This excellent review by the Guardians Giles Tremlett gives a well rounded review of the Book.


Though in Spanish , the interview in the video below gives a good introduction to the Book and the context with which it should be taken from the Author himself

ZYGMUNT BAUMAN at AYEWRITE

Being 86 give you the right to cancel , folks still appreciate his work and will forgive him and wish a speedy recovery.

Below is a captivating video of his crystal clear;precise;concise talking-in-conclusions style that many an academic would do well to adopt.

Its only 29 minutes and well worth watching ,very interesting analysis , including his take on Freud Malcontents of civilisation and the facebook fad.

Entrevista exclusiva: Zygmunt Bauman from cpfl cultura on Vimeo.

CARANCHO at the GFT

On average about 22 People a day die in traffic accidents in Argentina , alas the theme of car crashes permeates all aspects of this , at times decent film.The relationship between the main protagonists is a car crash , the pacing of the film and the points it tries to make are car crashes and the needless , even pointless sex scenes are a car crash laced with a few train wrecks thrown in.You get the impression the sex scenes are put in as if the producers were on commission.

This makes for a sad spectacle on what should be a precise and harrowing portrayal of the abject conditions of the Argentinian Public Health System , a mixture of the worst private commercial orientated practices of the US , along with the nightmarish under-investment which i rather doubt you would find in the most dinghy private old-Peoples homes in the UK.

What could have been a shattering and profound comment on the neglect of the common man in Argentina is turned into a 4th rate version of the film crash.Which is a shame because Argentinian Film today could be at the forefront of great, entertaining , socially aware cinema which the Spanish speaking cinema is badly in need of as the first generation of film-makers who did not live through the times of dictatorship make cinema which can set the agenda to where the Spanish speaking World wants and needs to go in a format which is trusted and can speak far more freely than any Politician can.

BETRAYAL by Harold Pinter at the CITIZENS THEATRE

This review of this wonderfully subtle at first , yet intensely profound as you ponder for a long time afterwards , crisply gathers the effect and themes of this critique of values our generation are only beginning to struggle with as we approach that age when the choice between Family and career and vice versa have run their course and we examine if one made the right decision , and more importantly , got the balance right.

The characters in this play have the singular quality of being deeply unhappy.By yielding to their base appetites over conscience they give away well-being in the soul for a ethereal temporal trifling price for a short-lived ultimately vain hollow superficial mirage of pseudo-happiness encouraged by the conceited values of the age.



The real betrayal in the play is societys social pressuring the characters to conform to a "progress" that goes counter to a harmonious development both within and without.