1. Shopping with Shakespeare
2. Audio albums on Bandcamp
3. Dear Bob - letters from home
4. Mademoiselle Hélène
2. Audio albums on Bandcamp
3. Dear Bob - letters from home
4. Mademoiselle Hélène
1. Shopping with Shakespeare
'Shopping with Shakespeare' began in 2005 when I lived in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and found it frustrating that there were few venues where we could perform and those that were available charged impossible rates so I sought out alternative, cheaper venues like museums, libraries, tourist offices, hospitals, galleries, hospitals, castles, stately homes, prisons and of course shops and instead of taxing audiences with entire plays, used brief but famous updated scenes, blending them with the ordinary people who were using the venues for the purposes for which they were designed, de-mystifying Shakespeare and winning new audiences. Since then I've managed to film 10 more, most in France and in French, some with audiences, some without. In France I managed to expand the concept because although Shakespeare wrote scenes which happen in France in some of his plays, it's widely presumed he never visited them in person. With SWS 5 for example and SWS8 I was able to reproduce in reality what Shakespeare had only imagined.
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2. Audio albums on Bandcamp
Anglo-French Urban & Ambient 1
Bandcamp £3 Space Jockey - Live in London 2004
Bandcamp £5 Live poetry and music album 2022.
Bandcamp £3. |
Anglo-French Urban & Ambient 2
Bandcamp £3 Destination Sarajevo - Audio 2004
Bandcamp £3.50 Lyrics on tracks 1, 2 and 4 Bandcamp £3
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Anglo-French Urban & Ambient 3
Bandcamp £3 London Cousins - Audio Album 2019
Bandcamp £6 Two days in London - 2004
Tony Stowers and Mick Gough in drunken conversation in London 2004 Bandcamp £7 |
3. Dear Bob - Letters from Home 1930-31
'Dear Bob – Letters from home 1930-1931' by May Gill was originally a slim volume of fictional letters written in the 1930’s by May Gill of Middlesbrough to her son Bob serving in the Royal Navy overseas. May Gill was in fact the pseudonym of George Herbert 'Bert' Ward 1921-2016, a retired economics teacher and long-term resident of Middlesbrough in North East England. Bert created his stories at a creative writing course held by local writer Andy Croft. I stumbled on the volume, published by Mudfog Press, in the late 1990’s and immediately realised its potential with its detail of everyday working class life, humour and compassion. Prior to that I had adapted it into a stage play which when shown to Bert he systematically 'dismantled' by removing all my additonal notes and ideas and so I adapted it to a radio play - which he also systematically dismantled - but not to be put off and firmly believing in the value of the work, I eventually teamed up with Newcastle filmmaker Jacqui Scollen. It was about then I think that I realised it was not my work or additions to his work to enhance it for each of those mediums he disliked - it was me he disliked, which was a hard realisation to deal with as my intentions to bring it to a wider audience had always been sincere! Jacqui was the key to the door.
So we auditioned Middlesbrough actress Helen Speed in the speaking role of May Gill and recorded a cyclical, seasonal selection of the stories at Studio 64 in Middlesbrough along with the film in 2005. It played to about 10,000 people over six weeks at a tiny 1930’s replica cinema in the town's Dorman Museum. When the film was uploaded to Youtube about 15 years ago the maximum upload time for a film then was ten minutes so it was necessary to break the 27 minute film down into three uploads, which made viewing it in its entirety problematic. At long last here it is in all it's singular glory.
So we auditioned Middlesbrough actress Helen Speed in the speaking role of May Gill and recorded a cyclical, seasonal selection of the stories at Studio 64 in Middlesbrough along with the film in 2005. It played to about 10,000 people over six weeks at a tiny 1930’s replica cinema in the town's Dorman Museum. When the film was uploaded to Youtube about 15 years ago the maximum upload time for a film then was ten minutes so it was necessary to break the 27 minute film down into three uploads, which made viewing it in its entirety problematic. At long last here it is in all it's singular glory.
4. Mam'selle Hélène
The Linylralirec Association presents the opening credits and the first scene (on the left below) of the 30-minute film entitled 'Mademoiselle Hélène', a tribute to Claude Chabrol's classic 1970 film 'Le Boucher' in French with English subtitles. The full version of the film - below right - is currently only available for private screenings or film festivals and only viewable by those with a Youtube account. The long version of the film is made up of 6/7 key scenes linked by explanatory texts. It was relocated from its original location in Trémolat in Department 24 (shot in the autumn of 1969) to St Herblain in Department 44 in France in the summer of 2022 where it was filmed in and around the CSC Grand B Arts Centre in St Herblain and a private apartment in Nantes. The actors are Sébastien Aufray, Claire Williamson and Valérie Robic. The cameraman is Daniel Bouchereau Golias and the original music is by Samir Aouad. It contains clips from the original film woven together with updated scenes. Despite its serious and adult themes, the original film remains a cult classic to this day due to its power of suggestion, its simplicity, the music, the setting, the ambiguous relationship between the two main characters and the charming rural backdrop. Chabrol's concept reflected the social politics of his time by using real people and real places like those in Trémolat and mixing in established film actor 'names'. Everyone who contributed to the realization of our tribute did so for free. It's a non-profit film.
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