For its pantomime this year, Watford Palace theatre has gone all glam rock. Fairy Fender (Thomas Fabian Parrish) is a guitar-playing, catsuit-wearing rock-god, who shows us a ‘good time’ by taking us on a time-travelling voyage with stops in 1957 (to buy a new guitar), 1439, 1457 and then into the future as he battles … Continue reading Pantomime – Review of Sleeping Beauty at the Watford Palace Theatre
For my money, the pantomime at the Hackney Empire is the best in London. I’m not alone in that opinion. Ask any regular panto-goer and they will tell you the same. The Hackney Empire panto, written and directed by Susie McKenna since 1998, has ruled the London pantomime scene for almost two decades. While other … Continue reading Pantomime – Review of Dick Whittington at the Hackney Empire
Content warning: This blogpost contains detailed discussions of indecent assaults in cinemas against both women and children across the twentieth century, which some readers may find distressing. A few months ago I blogged about ‘assaults in the cinema’ based on reports in Kinematograph Weekly and local newspaper reports I’d found on the British Newspapers Online … Continue reading Indecent Assaults in the Cinema
I’ve written before about my obsession with the C20th ritual of pouring your tea from the cup into the saucer and drinking from that, and the way that it’s used as a class marker in silent and sound films of the past. Betty acts out her dreams of stardom in Love, Life and Laughter (1923) … Continue reading Betty Balfour and Optimism
It’s a golden rule of panto that nobody can be excluded from its fuzzy embrace. Nobody gets to sit on the outside of the auditorium community looking in. When the clown enjoins everyone to stand up to sing the song sheet at the end of the show, he’s not satisfied to let Uncle Barry stay … Continue reading Pantomime and Brexit
Kitty Mahone There were lots of brilliant films to be seen at the British Silent Film Festival last week of course. But my favourite one was Lil Hawthorne singing Kitty Mahone, filmed on the roof of the London Hippodrome in 1901. Bryony Dixon showed it as part of her ‘ABC in Sound’ presentation … Continue reading Kitty Mahone at the British Silent Film Festival 2019
Here's the text of a talk I gave at the fabulous Bo'ness Hippodrome Silent Film Festival ('Hipfest') which happens every year. It's a great few days of celebrating silent films in Scotland and across the world. Highly recommeded! Here's their website I was asked to select and introduce some clips from films held in the … Continue reading Kitty the Telephone Girl (and other working women in early cinema
