The Guardian
A Man for All Seasons review – creaky but moving portrait of quiet heroism 23 janvier 2025 à 00:30

A Man for All Seasons review – creaky but moving portrait of quiet heroism

Par : Arifa Akbar

23 janvier 2025 à 00:30

Theatre Royal Bath
While this 1960 play has been overtaken by faster-moving tales of Tudor chicanery, Martin Shaw is compelling as Thomas More

Among the abounding villains and backstabbers of the Tudor age stands Thomas More, a good man who dared to take a silent stand against King Henry VIII. But Robert Bolt’s play shows that being good could be just as dangerous for one’s head.

This 1960 drama, which takes us through More’s last years, was immensely successful in its time, transferring to Broadway and adapted for film with Paul Scofield. Jonathan Church’s new touring production is smart and handsome but feels like an old-fashioned history play, creaky in parts though still an ultimately moving portrait of quiet heroism.

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The Guardian
‘I’ve finally realised I like John Shuttleworth!’ Graham Fellows on 40 years with his organ-plonking alter ego 22 janvier 2025 à 16:31

‘I’ve finally realised I like John Shuttleworth!’ Graham Fellows on 40 years with his organ-plonking alter ego

The Guardian

Par : Brian Logan

22 janvier 2025 à 16:31

He has notched up tours, albums, books and a sitcom. Why is he tortured by feelings of under-achievement? As Fellows hits the road, he pops an aniseed ball and discusses his new song – about an audience member falling off a cliff

When Graham Fellows first performed in character as amateur singer-songwriter John Shuttleworth, Margaret Thatcher was PM and A-ha were storming the charts. Fellows was 25; his beige vocalist and organist alter ego was in his late 40s. “I started doing it when I was very young,” recalls Fellows, not a little wistfully, when we meet at his agent’s office in London. “And I had to put makeup on: crow’s feet, white stuff in my hair.”

He goes on: “I remember doing a Lily Savage special in Blackpool for TV. And in the dressing room I was sat next to the lead singer of Showaddywaddy.” It never takes long for a Fellows/Shuttleworth anecdote to tend towards bathos. “He looked at me a bit askance and said, ‘This is odd. You’re there being made to look older, and I’m here being made to look younger.’” But the years roll around, and on the eve of his 40th anniversary tour as Shuttleworth, Fellows says: “I might have to start doing that now too.”

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The Guardian
‘I’m doing something with my misery’: a Parkland parent takes his grief to the stage 21 janvier 2025 à 10:13

‘I’m doing something with my misery’: a Parkland parent takes his grief to the stage

The Guardian

Par : David Smith in Washington

21 janvier 2025 à 10:13

Manuel Oliver’s son was murdered at school in 2018 and he’s been telling his devastating story at theatres across the US

Night after night, in a darkened room full of strangers, Manuel Oliver revisits the death of his teenage son.

Joaquin “Guac” Oliver and 16 others were murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February 2018. Manuel Oliver turned this unfathomable loss into art, including a one-man show entitled Guac that honours his child and addresses the scourge of gun violence in America.

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The Guardian
Send us your questions for Pamela Anderson 18 janvier 2025 à 15:00

Send us your questions for Pamela Anderson

The Guardian

Par : Guardian Staff

18 janvier 2025 à 15:00

Got something you’d love to ask the former Baywatch star about her life and new career directions? Now’s your chance

Director Gia Coppola had only one actor in mind to star in The Last Showgirl: Pamela Anderson. Having watched Ryan White’s Netflix documentary Pamela, A Love Story, Coppola knew she would be perfect as Shelly Gardner, an ageing Las Vegas dancer facing the closure of Le Razzle Dazzle, the classic revue she has starred in for three decades. The problem was, Anderson’s (now former) agent threw the script in the bin. Coppola did not take no for an answer. She got in touch with Anderson’s son Brandon Thomas Lee, who made sure the pitch reached his mum. Now trailing accolades, award nominations and an Oscar buzz, the film is bringing the 57-year-old icon something she struggled to find earlier in her career: respect.

Having risen to fame as a Playboy Playmate, Anderson became an international superstar in the 1990s in Baywatch, which cemented the sex-symbol image she struggled for years to shake off. Recently, however, her public persona has morphed into something much more multilayered, thanks not only to the Netflix doc but also to her thoughtful 2023 memoir Love, Pamela and her well-received Broadway debut the previous year as Roxie Hart in Chicago. As she said in a recent magazine interview: “The stars have aligned.”

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