Where is My Love? is, curiously, described as a drama/documentary. Possibly to support this approach the actors An-Chen Chiu and Chih-xing Wen are, on some websites, described as playing themselves rather than named characters and the film is shot in the style of shaky camcorder footage to give the impression of authenticity. Mo Ko, a writer, living in Taipei, Taiwan, in the 1990s, is in the closet about his sexuality. When his editor suggests submitting one of his stories to a prestigious writing competition Ko is reluctant to comply as it might reveal his homosexuality. Ko continues to deny his…
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Writers: Lin Cheng-sheng and So-ching Ko Director: Lin Cheng-sheng Murmur of Youth directed by Lin Cheng-sheng, who also writes with So-ching Ko, is being presented as part of the Queer East Festival. This may not be entirely accurate, the film features same-sex scenes but its theme may be more the relationship between two girls from different social classes and the melancholy impact of generational change. The name ‘Mei-li’ means ‘pretty’ and two young strangers form a bond initially because they have the same name but little else in common. Lin Mei-li (Tseng Tsing) comes from a nurturing if chaotic family…
Have you ever wondered what would result from the flirtation between a rabbit and a hedgehog? Think no more. Welcome to Paul Merton and Suki Webster’s Improv Show, live on stage at Brighton Dome. The audience sit rapt as spikes meet fur in a musical showdown to rival, well, er…some others. Being improvised, it’s all the more impressive. The husband-wife duo (Merton and Webster, do keep up) are joined by Alexander Jeremy, famed for Shoot From The Hip, and Mike McShane, improv legend. Supported by musical accompaniment from Comedy Store Players regular, Kirsty Newton, this troupe’s improv credentials pack a…
Writer and Director: Nida Chowdhry Anxious is something of a passion project for Nida Chowdhry. Not only does she write, direct and play three roles she also serves as the costume designer for the film. This last point is significant as the fashionable clothing of the characters and the vibrant background colours are strong ingredients in the telling of the story. Ruby (Nida Chowdhry) is prone to debilitating attacks of anxiety, permanently feeling like she is responding to a fire alarm or struggling to reach a lifebelt. She works in a convenience store managed by her father but does not…
Writer: Robert Jones Director: Charlie McDowell Lovers of Tove Jansson’s novel, The Summer Book, may fear that any attempt to film it will take away the magic. But they have no need to worry with this sensitive adaptation. Charlie McDowell uses a Finnish crew to direct with evident love for both the location and the book’s quietly meditative quality. Robert Jones’s script stays true to the structure and tone of the original, even if he strips out some of the scenes which might have added depth, such as the arrival of a child Sophia’s age which never blossoms into friendship.…
Writer: Aaron Sorkin Director: Bartlett Sher First performed on Broadway in 2018 at the mid-point of the first Trump presidency, the contemporary relevance of Aaron Sorkin’s take on Harper Lee’s classic novel has only grown in subsequent years. However, unlike some books or plays, which need changes to time or setting to show why they are valid in the present day, To Kill a Mockingbird requires no updating. Sorkin and director Bartlett Sher recognise this, and what they deliver is a story set in small town in Alabama in 1934 that has messages that resonate across the world. At the…
Writer: Anton Chekhov Adaptor: Mike Poulton Director: James Brining Faced with the option of updating Chekhov’s classic play and relocating it to a time or place other than Russia in the last 19th century, Mike Poulton has made the conscious decision to leave it exactly where it was in his adaptation, believing that any attempt to modernise Chekhov’s settings to make them relevant is pointless and unwise. However, under James Brining’s direction, the end result is a production that falls somewhere between a traditional retelling and an update for a modern audience that aims to brings present day vanities into…
Writer: Herman Melville, adapted by Mark Leipacher Director: Mark Leipacher Billy Budd, performed by The Faction at Wilton’s Music Hall, feels more like a rehearsal than the staged concert it’s billed as. Mark Leipacher directs his adaptation of Herman Melville’s novella about the ‘handsome sailor,’ Budd, a letterless young man whose innocence and good nature draw everyone to him. He’s as far as you could imagine from being a subversive. But it’s 1797. Britain, at war with revolutionary France, is rocked by two naval mutinies at Nore and Spithead, which raise the spectre of more widespread insurrection. So when one…