Before the shit hit the fan and we were all confined to barracks, I attended a really inspiring and heart-warming event at the Museum of London. It was hosted by Film London and was rather gnomically called ‘Future-proofing Our Collections: Unleashing the Power of Archive Film’. Perhaps its purpose was better encapsulated by the suggested … Continue reading Silent Bystanders in the Archive – Hounslow
Next week I am honoured to be presenting a talk on Dawn (Herbert Wilcox, 1928) at the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival in Bo'ness. You can book for the talk here, or you can skip straight to the good stuff and book for the film itself here! Two versions of the film survive, one in London … Continue reading Nurse Edith Cavell and Fireplaces
I’ve written before about the way in which pantomime is used in cinema, not as material for adaptation, but to evoke a specific mood or set of meanings. The Two Columbines is a good example of this. It was made by Harold Shaw for the London Film Co. in 1914. Shaw was an American film-maker … Continue reading Pantomime and Cinema: The Two Columbines (Harold Shaw, 1914)
I’m not going to lie to you. I didn’t have great expectations for this pantomime. I mean, where is Grays anyway? A mate on social media cruelly suggested that it only exists so that people from Gravesend can feel superior to somewhere. Turns out its part of Thurrock, which is a key marginal in … Continue reading Pantomime Review: ‘Dick Whittington’ at the Thameside Theatre, Grays
Children are integral to pantomimes of course - not just as their primary target audience but also in many ways as their star attraction...
Glasgow is a city of pantomimes. Just in this one place you can see not one but two big shows from chain behemoth Qdos (Jack and the Beanstalk at the King’s Theatre and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at the gargantuan auditorium at the SECC) as well as two independent professional productions (Pinocchio at … Continue reading A Glasgow Pantomime: Sleeping Beauty at the Britannia Panopticon
Men should be afraid. Men in the stalls should be very afraid. Bald men in the stalls near an aisle should be Very Afraid Indeed. Most of the time, men (unlike women) have nothing to fear from the theatre. But not at pantomime time. For at any moment in the pantomime, somebody onstage can peer … Continue reading On Being Pulled Up Onto the Stage in the Pantomime
