TOP 100 BOOK SITES
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| Bright Star: 'A tale of the past that chimes with the present' | Reel review Jane Campion's sensual and satisfying portrayal of the romance between John Keats and Fanny Brawne has Xan Brooks waxing poeticXan BrooksHenry Barnes feeds.guardian.co.uk |
Haleh Esfandiari: Prisoner of Tehran A love of Iran underlies a scholar’s memoir of surreal interrogation and solitary confinement in Tehran. feeds.nytimes.com |
Treasure Island / A Christmas Carol | Theatre review Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough, and on tourGripping as a pirate's hook and timber-shiveringly scary, Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 tale of black hearts and buried gold is not for the lily-livered. Originally written as a serial for a children's magazine, it ships all the classic cargo of a buccaneering adventure – hidden treasure, a map, a desert island, a castaway. So far, so all-round family fun. However, the author of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ballasts this swashbuckling high-sea romp with a weight of wickedness that makes it – to anyone wishing to stay faithful to the original – a less than obvious choice for a festive Christmas show.Andrew Pollard's adaptation, though, turns out to be a stormer. Six performers, a four-poster bed and a dead man's chest create the inn, the ship, the island and all the characters of the story with a dark intensity that would be too frightening to bear if it were not so declaredly theatrical – the utterly terrifying blind Pew is assembled in full view of the audience from a knotted rope, a rake, a saw, hat and coat; Jenni Molloy simultaneously plays on-stage roles and double-bass jazz accompaniment. This is a barnacle-blisteringly good production.Chris Monks's decision to make Scrooge a Yorkshireman for his otherwise back-to-the-story adaptation of A Christmas Carol was a cracker. It gave Kraig Thormber, as the "Bah, humbug!" Christmas-hater, a new starting point for the character. The result is a very human Scrooge: credibly cold and crabby at the beginning, reborn into unsentimental sentiment at the end.And so it is with all the characters in this deceptively simple seeming production: they are distinct, well formed and unhistrionic. The half dozen adult professional actors are joined, on alternate nights, by one of two teams of eight local schoolchildren; all are stunningly costumed in 1880s style, dance period dances, sing period carols. They charmingly evoke Dickens's time past and restate his message to time present: the gold standard is no measure of human happiness.TheatreCharles DickensClare Brennanguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |
Small Publisher Finds Its Mission in Translation Open Letter Books is a small, year-old press affiliated with the University of Rochester that publishes nothing but literature in translation. feeds.nytimes.com |
The 2010 winter books calendar Get cozy with these reads. What books do you plan on reading this winter? Share your suggestions below. rssfeeds.usatoday.com |