#kirsty's wearing that dress from the comics

[giulliadella]

I knew I shouldn't have watched the remake. Now I made this and I have to live with the fact that I made this.

[pinuphead]

I know I talk a lot abt how the hellraiser comics aren’t that good and how the Hellraiser movies uhhh have some moments that are bad, but here’s some Hellraiser writing decisions that I genuinely think are superb: 

-Kirsty having a dad that’s a really nice sweet kind caring guy. It just feels right. That scene where he sits on the phone with her downstairs in his dressing gown because she called him after having a nightmare? Father of all time. Rip Kirsty’s dad forever in my heart. 

-Casting Doug Bradley as Pinhead was perfect, but having him keep his sticky out round ears for each movie was like... perfect casting choice. Yes, this is the Hellpriest... with his adorable round ears. It’s especially cute when Elliott wears his army cap and his ears are just poking out endearingly. It’s just very sweet to me and adds a nice humanising quality to the character. 

-Establishing that when Pinhead loses the human part of himself he becomes just absolutely fucking silly was genius. Pinhead was having the time of his life in Hellraiser 3 being silly as shit with no critical thought because his self control and inhibitions come from his human part. Pinhead has exactly one brain cell and it belongs to Elliott Spencer, and it’s the only thing stopping him from kicking church doors down to blow raspberries at the priests. 

-Elliott being really sweet and nice with Joey and then incredibly sarcastic and sardonic in the comics when he gets turned into a human is a great idea. Like first off Elliott being a sarcastic prick just feels natural and right and I love it, but him canonically being very very sweet to people he genuinely likes is just aw.

 He’s just like: fuck everyone I hate everyone here you’re all stupid. Not you though Joey you’ve never done anything wrong in your life ily #bestfriends. 

-Also just Joey as a protagonist. Yeah... love her. Hellraiser 3 being a meetcute romcom between two girls and the scene where Joey’s new hip girlfriend Terri fucks up her kitchen trying to make breakfast is perfect. 

-Pinhead having a pet fucked up hell hound dog in the 4th movie. Giving Pinhead a pet dog is one of the best decisions in the franchise. Few things top this. 

-Angelique. French mean girl demon who tells Pinhead he looks ugly as shit within 5 minutes of meeting him is one of the best characters in the entire franchise. I love their bickering. They spend most of their scenes together in the 4th movie arguing and it’s honestly just perfect. Cenobite workplace drama. Angelique if ur reading this ily. 

-comics mostly suck ass I do not recommend them at all they’re not worth it for the few scraps of good content they do have, but the scraps are there. I really like this panel from one of the older comics where Pinhead just has a catch up chat with a newly turned Cenobite. I just like seeing the cenobites casually hanging out together. 

image description:two comic panels drawn in watercolour. The first is a close up on Pinhead’s face as he sayd “very nice. you’ve adapted well, leviathan is pleased. The second panel shows Pinhead with his hands behind his back walking next to another cenobite that wears a long black coat. They are walking down sloping stairs in hell, and the other cenobite is saying “I’ve been using staples to fasten them on but I’ve grown rather inured to the pain, I’ve started thinking about screws-”. there is a text box in the bottom right that says the end. end description. 

- also the comics about the cenobites saving kids from shitty family situations are poggers. 

That’s all I can think of for now but I might make another post with more stuff I think of. 

[demi-shoggoth]

COVID-19 Reading Log, pt. 15

This batch is mostly comfort reads for me; monster manuals and books I’ve read before. Unfortunately, one in particular was decidedly uncomfortable.

76. The League of Regrettable Superheroes by Jon Morris. This book is a survey of weird superheroes, mostly from the Golden Age. The book is full color, with a short article explaining/cracking jokes about the hero on one facing page, while the other facing page is a comic page or cover. The book lumps everything from 1970 on as “the Modern Age”, but I get that splitting that up gets into both fragmentary returns (there are only two or three 90s heroes, for example). Also covered are some intentional joke character—Squirrel Girl, for example. There are some characters in here I genuinely want to read the comics of, like Mother Hubbard, who’s a rhyming, potion brewing witch who fights fairy tale gnomes and giants.

77. Lusus Naturae by Rafael Chandler. The book is written for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, a game with all the tastelessness of FATAL but a higher art budget. It’s supposedly a monster manual for horror-inflected games, but the tone varies wildly from over the top gore to robots to standard post D&D fantasy to a genuine comic book supervillain. The gore is really truly over-the-top; the first monster is kind and pleasant, except when it liquefies human children to mix with resin and sculpt into plinths. This kind of crude shock value is nearly omnipresent in the book, as well as a ton of forced impregnation, sex-obsession and general toxic misogyny. A lot of the monsters don’t seem fun even in a horror context—they rely on damned if you do, damned if you don’t gotchas, where killing them only makes things worse. In addition to the deeply unpleasant material, the mechanics also show huge gaps between concept and execution. For example, the ideologue is a monster said to be an entire pocket universe, and it attacks by destroying whole solar systems within itself. It has 5 HD and that attack deals 1d12 damage. The worst book I’ve actually finished for this project. I feel like downloading it has put me on some sort of watch list.

78. The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains by Jon Morris.  Supervillains are more my speed than superheroes, anyway. This book is very much of a piece with its predecessor. Some characters in this book are villains that battle heroes from the other one. For example, 711 is a superhero whose alter ego is locked in prison, so he sneaks out to fight crime; his enemy Brickbat (he dresses like a bat and throws bricks at people, of course) appears in this one. There are several fairly prominent Marvel characters who show up in this book—Stilt-Man, MODOK and Batroc the Leaper all make appearances. Again, because I like supervillains, I feel like there’s a few strong candidates who got left out of this one. No Armless Tiger Man? No mention of the Outsider that fought Silver Age Batman? (The Outsider, btw, was a silver-skinned monster who could communicate telepathically and control objects from miles away. Also, he was undead Alfred the butler. Too bad Michael Caine never got to play him).

79. Endless Realms Creature Compendium, project lead Kirsty Garbe. Read in an attempt to wash the foul taste of Lusus Naturae out of my mouth, this book mostly succeeded. Endless Realms is a RPG that falls into the category of “fantasy heartbreaker”; it clearly wants to be the next D&D, plus more. The “more” in this case is more mechanics like Fire Emblem and more furry player races. Lots of elemental rock-paper-scissors mechanics, and these mechanics provide the fuel for many of the monsters. There’s elementals for each element, corrupt spirits for each element, and dragons that represent both pure elements and mixes thereof. The book wears its influences on its sleeve—it pinches myconids from D&D, boggards from Pathfinder, and some of its gem dragons have the personalities of their respective Steven Universe characters. The book’s creativity is strongest in the creatures of the Dream realm, many of which are truly weird and alien. All of the art is done by the same artist, Jennifer Elliott, which lends a unified vision to the project. Plus, she’s put all of her art online for free if you want to check it out. That’s how I heard of this book in the first place.

80. Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. This book, about the relationships between fungi and other life, has been getting a lot of press lately. The book is mostly themed on the topic of symbiosis, of which fungi are well attuned, through sub-topics such as lichens, mycorrhizal associations with roots and human uses of fungi. The author has a sense of awe and wonder about biology, which I appreciate. There are both color plates and black and white illustrations (drawn with ink-cap mushroom ink!), all of which are lovely. My one complaint with the book is the absolute gung-ho nature of the author about hallucinogenic mushrooms and consciousness expansion—the potential hazardous effects of LSD and psilocybin aren’t even mentioned once, and even ergotism is basically glossed over.

[toyahinterviews]

TOYAH ON MEMORY LANE 80's WITH HAYLEY PALMER 25.7.2020

HAYLEY: Hello and welcome to the Memory Lane 80’s show on Spotlight TV. I'm Hayley Palmer. Really good to have you here with me today. Great news! We have got more 80's pop royalty with us today. Oh yes! It’s Toyah Willcox and here is what happened when I caught up with her. Toyah! It’s fantastic to have you on the show! TOYAH: Hello, Hayley is so lovely to see you! HAYLEY: Aww, you too! You look lovely and bright and colourful today TOYAH: Well, I found it really important during lockdown and even in semi out of lockdown to dress up. HAYLEY: Yes, you're right. Absolutely. TOYAH: I don't think I've even had one pyjama day. Just literally I am going to get up and I'm going to wear my favourite clothes and I'm going to act as if the world is as normal

HAYLEY: Oh, I love this! You'll be so ashamed to me. I've had a couple of pyjama days ... eating Doritos. Don't judge me (they both laugh) But anyway, I know you been really busy in lockdown, haven't you?   TOYAH: This is a very weird and I hope not a distasteful thing to say, but lockdown has being really OK for me and my husband. We’re  both writers, so I've done about five children's books, which have just kind of silly nonsense, rhymes, things which I've illustrated. I'm doing a solo album and I get about 50 requests a day from people who just need geeing up and I have no problem with geeing people up. I really love doing it, so it's been very busy and it's helped me realise that I'm not ready to go back to gigs where I have to share the dressing room with my band. There's no toilet backstage and the stage is sticky with beer. I've realised no! I'm going to go back into art centres and theatres and festivals! It's really helped me sort myself out.

HAYLEY: Brilliant! I've also been watching your YouTube channel as well. It's "Toyah At Home", isn't it? TOYAH: Yes. "Toyah At Home" every Saturday, which brings my music to the fans and then on Sunday what I started as a thing to keep my husband Robert Fripp - oh got my glasses on! I’m going take them off ... HAYLEY: No, I like it. I like it! TOYAH: Do you like it, shall I keep them on? HAYLEY: Yeah! TOYAH: This is a first! ... To keep my husband, Robert Fripp, who's a world acclaimed guitarist, King Crimson, played with Bowie on “Heroes” and “Scary Monsters” ... to keep him engaged with the outside world. We've been doing quite ridiculous dance videos which he enjoyed. HAYLEY: They’re not ridiculous, they’re brilliant! I've seen them TOYAH: Good good. So that's all on Toyah official Facebook (NB She means Youtube) and it's been very, very rewarding for all of us.

HAYLEY: Just fabulous. We're going play out your first song “I Want To Be Free”. Talk us through the lyrics. Is it right that you actually started writing this when you were 14 at school? TOYAH: Yes, I'm severely dyslexic. You don't get over dyslexia, but what dyslexics are utterly brilliant at doing is bluffing their way I think to the top jobs in the world. Trump is probably dyslexic. He's definitely dyspraxic. So you've got wonderful artists ... I think Gary Numan could possibly be dyslexic. We find a way of acting normal within the world.     So at the age of 14, I realised I should not be at school because the three R's were never going to work. I should have been at drama school or a music school, so in a maths lesson I was just writing down these words “I don't want to go to school, don't wanna be nobody's fool. I wanna be me, I wanna be free” and that's the birth of that song.

HAYLEY: Wow, I love that! I think I was the same in math as well. My parents always wanted me to get a C and I always got a D so it's not good,Toyah. We're going to play “I Want To Be Free”. Top Ten in 1981. Here we go. (Video plays) I want to talk about how it all started for you because I just look at you and I just think, wow, you're just born to be on stage - but it hasn't always been that way, has it? TOYAH: Not really. I was born in Birmingham, my family never believed I could be in show business. I'm ridiculously small. And when I was young, I had a very pronounced limp because I had one leg longer than the other, which is now being corrected. It was corrected when I was 51 and I'm now 62. HAYLEY: Wow, you look amazing by the way! I want to know your secret!

TOYAH: I've been through quite a lot, so movement and music as two related things mean a to me thus  I was born to be on stage. I was born to be a performer. I was very lucky that the head of Pebble Mill, which was where BBC was based during the Birmingham period, up from about the 1950’s into the 70’s. The head of that building said to my parents “your daughter is dyslexic. She is a star in the making. Get her out of normal school and put her in drama school” and he got me into a Birmingham drama school.  

And I never looked back and within a year I was the youngest member of the National Theatre in London. I starring in a play with Warren Clarke, Kate Nelligan and then I went on to work with Derek Jarman. I made a movie with Katharine Hepburn, directed by George Cukor, who directed “Star Is Born” with Judy Garland. And then I ended up at these really high end art places - ICA, the Royal Court Theatre.

I had a fabulous beginning in acting, but all along I was developing my music because I realised that if I was going to become a singing superstar, I had to do it young. I couldn't leave it on the back burner as a hobby. I had to go for it hell for leather.

HAYLEY: Yeah, because your voice is just incredible, it's almost operatic, isn't it?

TOYAH: I studied opera. Even though I don't think I fitted into my school, they taught ballet which is why I went there to help me with my disability, to give me balance and strength. It also taught music, which is the only O level I got. And it taught me opera. So my first singing lessons which I had - two weeks with German and Italian opera. HAYLEY: God! Toyah, you'd be so ashamed with me - I can't sing a note. Honestly, I've tried on this programme before. TOYAH: Really? HAYLEY: Yeah, maybe you could give me some lessons, Toyah! (laughs) TOYAH: I don't believe people can't sing because people can express so you may say you can't sing, but there is a form of music out there that you would fit. HAYLEY: Wow! I would take that! We’re going to go into your next song. “Thunder InThe Mountains” I really feel like this is when you are bringing in the punk energy here, don’t you, Toyah?

TOYAH: Yes! Totally bringing in the punk energy. I had started my career in 1976, the end of - into 77’, so I was very much a punk rocker right through to 1980 and the majority of my audience was serious punk rockers. So I felt I needed to bring that energy with me into the new wave into the New Romantic because my first international hit was 1981, so that's a long career before you have commercial success. So “Thunder In The Mountains” (sings the song)  I mean, it's all about pogoing. It's all about rebellion, so it's very much bringing punk into the 1980’s.

HAYLEY: Well, we love it. Is bringing back a lot of happy memories, I know, for our viewers. Here is “Thunder In The Mountains”. Number 4 in 1981 (Video plays) We've got a question from one of our viewers, Simon. He wants to know what's your favourite TV show that you've worked on because he's just been watching you on “Invasion Planet Earth” and said he really enjoyed that. He said it was very well made. TOYAH: Oh, that's so lovely. That was a crowdfunded movie and it was made for £60 000 and it just looks so good and I loved doing it. I did it as a favour to the director, Simon Cox, and I sang the outro song as well, which is excellent song. So what’s my favourite TV programme I've ever worked on? This is such a difficult question to answer because everything I do I tend to love with a passion.  

Doing “French and Saunders” at the end of the 80’s singing “Because The Night” with them on a huge wooden wheel in the background distracting me was a joy, but I would say they are slightly pipped to the post when I did Kenny Everett (below)

HAYLEY: Oh wow! Totally brilliant! TOYAH: He was just a master and you might be realising by now if you've watched my my clips on Sunday is that I love comedy. I don't think I'm a stand-up comedian but I think or like to think that I do have slightly good comic timing. So to be on Kenny Everett and to watch a master. Wow! It was fabulous!

HAYLEY: Fabulous! I want to know have you ever recovered from your challenge on “I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here” because I was watching it last night and I was like my goodness you are brave!

TOYAH: Thank you! It was a pretty mean thing to do because they put me in a cesspit, but what they also did is they used a chemical that stayed on my skin for five days and that chemical smelt of sewerage so they then put me back in the camp where no one would come near me. 

What I experienced doing “Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here” was that all the beautiful women and there were many - you had Daniella Westbrook, you had Catalina ... there was quite a few others, but they were all beautiful. They all got helped when they needed the gunge washed off them. With me ... I walked into the camp and everyone parted like that – like the great waves. It was like “we're not coming anywhere near you, you smell!”

HAYLEY: But you got five stars, didn’t you? TOYAH: Yeah, I did really well. HAYLEY: Yeah you did! Well, we loved it. TOYAH: Another thing - I went into the jungle weighing about 7 stone 10 pounds and I came out weighing seven stone. HAYLEY: Aww yeah, I don't know how you do it.   TOYAH: Well, it was a fabulous diet! HAYLEY: Straight to the Versace hotel afterwards though. That’s the reward! TOYAH: Yes! HAYLEY: Next song, “Brave New World” is just brilliant. Talk us through the memories for this.

TOYAH: This is produced by Steve Lillywhite, who was married to Kirsty MacColl and Steve Lillywhite then went on to produce U2. I'm very very proud of this song and it's off an album called The Changeling from 1982, which is about to be re-released at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. It's a very mature album for me, and this single is a very mature single and the video has won awards around the world. It was a ground breaking video. It was one of the most expensive videos to be made at the time with £32,000.         But to put that into perspective, I think three years later  Michael Jackson made “Captain EO” for the Epcot Centre for $10 million, so that shows the journey of video. This was the beginning of video, the beginning of MTV. MTV had only been launched in August of 81’, so it was ascending, but I'm really, really proud of this. HAYLEY: Yeah, I love the video to this one. From 1982 here is “Brave New World” (Video plays) Now we have got a quick fire 80’s quiz for you

TOYAH: Oh good! HAYLEY:  She's ready to go! So - favourite TV show from the 80’s? TOYAH: "Young Ones"! HAYLEY:  Ah! Good Choice! A thing you wish you could bring back from the 80’s? TOYAH: There’s 2 things. JR of “Dallas” or the rah rah skirt. HAYLEY: Oh yes! I like that! Best outfit from the 80’s? That's going to be hard for you because I'm pretty sure you've got an amazing wardrobe! TOYAH: Yes, my designer - she was called Melissa Caplan. She made everything by hand, but she made me a dress that was actually a Japanese Samurai outfit, so it was a Samurai armour, but made in cotton, which she painted. It was utterly beautiful. I still have it and I still love wearing it. 

HAYLEY: Ah, we love that! Favourite hairdo from the 80’s? Again (Toyah is furiously poining at her hair) I mean how can we decide this? TOYAH: You've just seen it – “Brave New World”. The pink and orange hair, standing up. For me … I nailed that one!

HAYLEY: You did! I just haven't got the confidence with my hair. I wish I did because it makes you  feel so different, doesn't it, when you dye your hair TOYAH: You look beautiful, you don't need to dye anything! HAYLEY: OK. And best thing a fan sent you from the 80’s? TOYAH: I've got it here. This (a ring) arrived in a book from a palace in Saudi Arabia. It  was a princess. She was a huge Toyah fan and obviously summered in the UK in London, the way the Saudi royals do for six months and she sent me a book and I opened the book and it was hollowed out and in it was a necklace and this ring and she said “I'm not allowed follow music but I absolutely love you” and that was about 1984. HAYLEY: God, it’s just beautiful! Oh how lovely! TOYAH: So I treasure that HAYLEY: Yes, I bet you do. Well, your next song “It’s A Mystery”. Yes! My favourite. This is your first appearance on Top Of The Pops. That was an instant hit, wasn't it?

TOYAH: And you know, it was hit because of a very lucky mistake. Melissa wasn't ready. Melissa Caplan, my costume designer, wasn't ready with the outfit I was going to wear and if that outfit was ready I'd have been leaping around the stage the way I normally do. So I wore instead a beautiful dress (above) by a designer, male designer called Brown, I can't remember his first name now, but he did all of Bowie's clothes for the “Heroes” album. And I just looked demure and beautiful, and there I was terrified on the set of Top Of The Pops, singing “It’s A Mystery” and just keeping still because I was in a dress and didn't know how to wear that dress as I never wore dresses. That I think was the winning factor that for the first and only time in my life I was really feminine because of that dress and it gave me a hit HAYLEY:  Well, it did give you a huge hit!  Here it is from 1981 “It’s A Mystery” (Video plays) Oh, Toyah! I could talk to you all day! It’s gone really quickly!

TOYAH: It does go really quickly, doesn't it, Hayley, when you're having fun! HAYLEY: Yeah! Let’s talk about the new projects because I know you've got a little bit of inside information for us, haven’t you? TOYAH: Yes, we're doing a Rewind tour and it's going to be a drive-in tour. So I can tell you the dates (reads the dates) Now, if those go well, we're going to carry on through September. That’s drive-in and they've managed to organise it that people can get out their cars and dance, which is quite a new concept because previously you had stay in cars, which is very unappealing. So that's Rewind. HAYLEY: This is such exciting news. I'm delighted because obviously everyone has had things cancelled, but it does look like things are coming back and things are being rescheduled.

TOYAH: Excuse the pun, but it's a brave new world and there's a lot of us out there who are just willing to perform. And also, I've got a movie coming out. “To Be Someone” which is nothing to do with “Quadrophenia”, but it does star myself, Leslie Ash, Mark Wingate, Gary Shail, who happened to have been in “Quadrophenia.” And it's a gangster comedy, so that's due out as well. Another another movie called “Give Them Wings” - which hopefully will make it out into the big world this year. At the moment it's at the Venice Film Festival. HAYLEY: Great stuff and we will definitely keep our eyes open for that. We’re going to leave you  with “Sensational” of course, because Toyah has been sensational on today's show. Toyah Willcox, thank you so much for your time and your energy. You’re an inspiration to us all! TOYAH: Yay! It’s a pleasure!

[dstrachan]

'MADE IN DAGENHAM' – BERWICK OPERATIC SOCIETY - 25th April 2018 (running until 28th April)

20th September in 2010, Bexleyheath, just south of the River Thames from Dagenham and I was one of two males in the audience for the opening night of the movie 'Made In Dagenham'.  It was a rather special atmoshpere in the auditorium as I sensed that many of the audience had close ties with the story being depicted, possibly some of them had known workers involved back in 1968.  I found the movie incredibly moving and to this day always remember the closing credits every time I hear Desmond Dekker sing 'You Can Get It If You Really Want'.  

Let me be quite clear, I am not a regular attender of theatre productions, far less musical theatre, so I do not pretend to be an aficianado.  It's not that I don't respect and appreciate the talents and skills of the performers, it's more that I rarely feel moved to experience the story-lines.  Stage productions that I have attended are limited, 'Trainspotting', 'Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster', and a Coldstream Pantomime being the few that I can recall – oh and 'Hair' in Glasgow many years ago, round about the same time as the real-life events portrayed in 'Made In Dagenham'!  I do, however, feel that this stage production by Berwick Operatic Society truly deserves a mention.  As with the movie, I went along on the opening night, in The Maltings in Berwick upon Tweed.

Right from the start my expectations were raised when I saw the programme with it's cover presented in the style of the familiar Haynes car workshop manuals; and then I noted that the music was by David Arnold.  On taking my seat I was treated to a preview of the stage set as the curtains were open.  This revealed a dimly lit sparsely dressed set with some dexion shelving, a couple of sewing machines and a table.  Some boiler suit clad figures could be seen at the left side of the stage as if on a smoke/tea break whilst the small band were tuning up on the right.

The programme informed that this musical adaptation of the story had failed to capture the attention of the West End when it opened, but claimed that the story about communities, families and solidarity really does belong in the realm of community productions such as the Berwick group.

Rather appropriately, the opening evening performance was sponsored by a local garage; not a Ford dealership but Tweedmouth Service Station's Mitsubishi one.  Given the portrayal of the Ford management in the show I imagine there might have been certain obstacles to any formal Ford sponsorship.  I would, however, like to think that the portrayal of Ford management was very much from an historic perspective and they operate in a much fairer way now.

The situation on stage began to come come to life as the production got under way introducing us to the principle character Rita O'Grady and her family as they woke up one morning.  With some lighting changes and moving of props the scene changed to take us to the River Plant shop floor, firstly introducing the female machinists and then the male workers.  Old habits die hard, and I couldn't help but notice that whilst most of the boiler suited men were wearing industrial boots, two of them were clearly not adequately protected by steel toe caps – oh I can be so picky!

Beryl was a particular stand out with her earthy humour and outspoken performance.  Gradually other key characters began to be developed – Connie Riley, Monty and Eddie O'Grady.  Am I showing my age when I suggest that Harold Wilson reminded me of Harry Worth's comic antics? The story progressed rapidly, morphing through twelve varied scenes to span humour, poignancy and inspiration.  The marvelous ensemble cast shone in so many different ways and sadly Act 1 was over far too soon; the 75 minutes had simply flashed by.

There was so much to take in on the stage that I would really love to be able to find the time to return for a second viewing to see what I may have missed.  Towards the end of act one, during a musical number, I was drawn to a rather bizarre sidepiece as a new character appeared in front of me and started to cut and snort some lines of something!  He seemed rather out of place and shortly before the end of the act was revealed as the American boss.

Act 2 started with a completely different mood, 'This Is America' was delightfully over the top with its American bombast, cheerleaders, sportsmen and high energy.

The blend of speech and musical numbers was enthralling, and the range of characters was wonderful.  Lynn Ireland's performance as Rita was phenomenal and it was truly a joy to have been so close to the stage to really appreciate her range of expressions when not speaking or singing.  Another marvelous scene played out at the side during a musical number was the extremely moving exchange beteween Nicola Salonsky as Connie Riley and Iain Lowson's Monty as he comforted her in her wheelchair.

Euan Duthie as the American boss, Mr. Tooley, was an excellent 'pantomime villain', Bill Shardlow as Harold Wilson delighted the audience with his comic depiction of the Prime Minister; Kim Schmid as Lisa Hopkins and Kirsty Jamieson's portrayal of Barbara Castle MP were yet more stand out performances.  Slink Jadranko was great as Rita's husband Eddie.  And did I mention Dylis Guthrie's Beryl – absolute gem of a performance!    I have to admit that I kept comparing the cast in front of me to their movie equivalents, and was not in the slightest disappointed.  Clearly the movie depiction is completely different in style to the musical theatre version and in their own way, each is outstanding.  Whilst I have elected to highlight certain performances, I feel quite guilty not have gone on, the others all shone in their different roles, including one very impressive display the splits at the end of one number by one of the younger cast!

As with the first act, Act 2 was over all too quickly, finishing with Rita's inspiring and emotional speech followed by the equally inspirational and uplifting 'Stand Up'.

I cannot recommend this production highly enough and would definitely encourage you to seek out tickets before it ends its run.  Then again I'm sure other local groups around the country may well be considering putting on their own productions so keep on the lookout!

WELL DONE TO ALL CAST AND SUPPORTING TEAM AT BERWICK OPERATIC SOCIETY!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6h97e8f8TU&feature=youtu.be