“Beryl Cook, the artist known for her saucy, seaside postcard-style portraits of fat ladies in colourful costumes, died at home in Plymouth yesterday… Her inspiration came from pub life – especially the spit-and-sawdust Dolphin in Plymouth – and cartoons. The comedian Victoria Wood once described her as ‘Rubens with jokes’.”
Author: sbergman
Theatrical Guessing Game
Improvisatory theatre is the hot new thing in London, and critics there don’t seem quite sure what to make of it. “You can see why: impro delivers a smack in the face to much that our culture holds dear… Until impro happens, there’s nothing to say about it. And once it’s happened, it’s sort of unreviewable, because it’s not going to happen like that again.”
How Good Is Ang Lee? How Good Could He Become?
Ang Lee has already established himself as a great filmmaker. But can he take the next step to legendary status? “Lee has been industrious and pleasing in ways that make his work and its coherence seem easy or natural – and there is a risk that we admire the versatility and miss the lack of argument.”
Deconstructing Rock
“Rock is all about daft theatre. It’s not like mainstream pop, which sparkles cheaply and perfectly like a good local panto, or folk and country classics, which summon up the spirit and sadness of dusty novellas. Mainstream rock is something else: a 20th-century twist on Shakespearean madness and excess fed through a Marshall stack.”
Controversy Erupts Over Age Labels For Children’s Lit
“The controversy over plans to put recommended age ranges on the covers of children’s books ignited at the Hay festival yesterday, with authors speaking both for and against proposals due to be implemented by a wide group of children’s publishers later this year.”
Another Bestselling Author Gets Operatic
This weekend, novelist Ian McEwan’s first opera, ‘For You,’ written with the composer Michael Berkeley, is scheduled to premiere in Wales. McEwan was hardly a likely candidate for such a project: he’s not even a big opera fan. “It’s precisely the lack of real interest in what’s said or what happens that’s often the major problem.” Update: The premiere has now been postponed…
Columbus Musicians Propose Non-Binding Mediation
“With the Columbus Symphony Orchestra’s season swan song days away and contentious contract talks far from over, the group’s musicians are asking the board to come back to the table with the slate wiped clean and a non-binding third-party mediator in place.” The CSO board hasn’t flatly rejected the idea, but hasn’t accepted it, either.
Are Academics To Blame For The Fall Of Critics?
The issue of whether time and technology have passed the professional critic by is being heatedly debated across all cultural genres. “The culprit is none other than … cultural studies! By treating literature as an impersonal text from which any manner of political meaning can be wrung, cultural studies professors have robbed criticism of its proper evaluative function — the right to say this is good, this isn’t, and here’s why.”
TIFF Gets $11m From RBC Sponsorship
Royal Bank of Canada will invest at least CAN$11m over the next decade in the Toronto International Film Festival, under the terms of a new agreement that will see RBC touted as TIFF’s “official bank.” “Previously, TIFF announced that it had raised $137-million in its $196-million capital campaign; yesterday, it noted, without comment, that the total raised now is $147-million.”
Broadway Sniping Ramps Up
As the Tony Awards loom, controversy has broken out, with some for-profit producers complaining about the unfairness of having to compete with non-profit shows. (No coincidence that a non-profit production of South Pacific is considered a strong contender for Best Musical.) “Producers have long grumbled that the nonprofits get all sorts of breaks, including lower print-ad rates.”