#David Hoque

[vickys]

Salma Hoque as Farzina Mohammed in Call The Midwife season 9 episode 3 (2020) dir. David O’Neill

[artistportfoliomagazine]

David Hoque - 10 Art Competition

David Hoque – 10 Art Competition

Artist Portfolio Magazine’s 10 Art Competition

David Hoque – Prince George, VA Instagram

I am an American artist borne in Monterey, California and currently a Magistrate serving the state of Virginia. I am primarily self taught with some formal advanced art training. I have a BS degree from Excelsior College, Albany NY and I specialize in watercolor and colored pencil art pieces. I am a…

[david-cregeen]

At a reception, talk and exhibition for The City Livery Club hosted by the Turkish Ambassador to the United Kingdom, HE Umit Yalcin and Mrs Yalcin at their residence in London where David Cregeen was guest speaker on his sculpture and working from his studio in Side, Southern Turkey. 1) from left to right Alderman Emma Edhem, chairman of the Turkish British Chamber of Commerce, HE The Ambassador, David Cregeen, Mrs Yalcin 2) David Cregeen and the ambassador's PA Pinar Hoque in a reception room of the Residency prior to the opening of the reception. 3) David Cregeen giving his talk on his work as a sculptor and the inspiration provided in working from his studio in Southern Turkey. The Ambassador and his wife are to the right of the photograph. 4) Portrait Head of HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. bronze 1990- the edition of the portrait kindly lent by The Honorable Society of Middle Temple who commissioned the portrait to celebrate the Queen Mother's 90th birthday. Sittings took place at Clarence House. 5) HH Pope John Paul II 2002, bronze, for 'Faces in History'. 6) President Nelson Mandela- bronze 1996- sculpted for 'Faces in History'. 7) 'Goat Woman' bronze-2003- 'Eternal Image: A Journey in Anatolia'. 8) Cornucopia- bronze- 2011- 'Eternal Image: A Journey in Anatolia'. 6) Senior Vice-President of The City Livery Club, HE The Ambassador and David Cregeen https://www.instagram.com/p/CFxa561ltHh/?igshid=2p48lndy7fwf

[sandramadelane]

BODIES

By Vivienne Franzmann

Royal Court

   The new play by the British playwright Vivienne Franzmann explores the issues and ethics surrounding surrogacy and human detachment from the suffering of others. It is the story of a couple that turns to surrogacy. Clem (Justine Mitchell) and John (Jonathan McGuinness) get an egg donor from Russia and use Lakshmi (Salma Hoque) in India as a surrogate to carry out the pregnancy. David (Philip Goldacre), Clem’s father, is against this decision.

The story is ambitious with a promising plot line, addressing big questions in a short period of time. It starts with moving conversations between Clem (Justine Mitchell) and her teen daughter (Hannah Rae). I soon learn that these conversations are imaginary and represent Clem’s unspoken concerns for her unborn child.

The first half of the play is remarkably compelling. Gabriella Slade carefully designs the intimate upstairs space at the Royal Court. In the middle of the stage, she creates a small room with a sliding door that becomes a physical and emotional divider between the acts and the characters.

The second part is where things get complicated plot-wise. The writer tries to address all at once the political, legal, economic and ethical issues that surround gestational surrogacy but fails to show their interconnectedness in a natural way.  All I hear is cluttered information being shouted and vented out to the audience.

As the voices get louder, I wonder if the director's intention is to make me feel uncomfortable and complicit in the questionable moral decisions of the characters. I am particularly unprepared for Lakshmi spitting on the stage, which just doesn’t belong to this story. Not to mention, the left wall of the room is being painted yellow over and over again throughout the performance. As my seat is near this wall, the smell makes me nauseous.  The idea would work if that was intentional, but I doubt it was.

Unfortunately, it is not the text but the superb team of actors that keeps my attention.  Franzmann puts too many contentious ideas in a rather short play and I leave forgetting them altogether.