Category Archives: Entertainment

Dancing the day away: The Piano Works bottomless brunch

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As you might’ve noticed, here at Frost we have a penchant for prosecco filled bottomless brunches. What could beat it? A bottomless brunch with live music, of course. We headed to Farringdon to give The Piano Works ‘Brunch to the Beat’ a try and, whilst initially nervous as we first entered the lair, we quickly embraced the atmosphere and partied the day away.

At £50 per person, the bottomless brunch includes a two-course meal and two hours (none of that 90 minute malarkey) of unlimited drinks. Choose to wet the whistle with either prosecco, pink Italian sparkling wine, Aperol Spritz, Bloody Mary or mocktails.

You’d be hard pressed to find staff who support your quest for completely embracing the ‘unlimited’ part of the Brunch to the Beat experience too. Each time your glass is edging towards the dangerous ‘half full’ territory (yep, we’re eternal optimists), the suited and booted waiters are at your side, ready to serve and encouraging the party.

Although you can choose to purchase just the drinks at £35 a head, the quality of the food is not to be ignored. The chicken and waffles were the perfect mix of sweet and savoury and the crunchy, smokey batter that encased the chicken was packed with flavour. For dessert, it’s a modest list of options but they’re certainly fan favourites – sorbet, waffles, fruit salad or the pancake stack.

Above all else, it’s imperative we talk atmosphere. This bar is often packed with large groups of hens, stags and party people (which usually guarantees a good time) but the sheer brilliance of the on-stage professionals is something else. Music starts at midday with two piano vocalists, followed by a full band at 1.30pm. Once the band has bowled in, the party intensifies.

Playing only the audience requests with a fantastic jazzy twist to just about everything, the artists become the pied pipers, drawing crowds to the dancefloor with tantalising ease. To top this experience with the metaphorical cherry, it’s a no holds barred kind of affair, with all types of requests welcome. During our experience, we heard Ben E King, Jackson 5, Ellie Goulding and Lewis Capaldi – what more could you want!?

By the end of the session, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll be dancing like you’re 18 again on the dancefloor at 4am. Although, the reality is that it’s 4pm, the harsh light of day awaits outside and the hangover is starting to prepare for its inescapable appearance… we wish you luck.

To make a booking for The Piano Works’ Brunch To The Beat, visit the website.

 

 

Shadowlands Chichester Festival Theatre: review

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Photo-Manuel-Harlan

Revered author of The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S Lewis (Jack) was also a leading Oxford professor. Setting out his stall right at the start of William Nicholson’s award-winning play, from the lecture podium he offers the theory that only through suffering can we comprehend God’s love absolutely.

Sharing a companionable domestic set-up with brother Warnie, where ‘down time’ consists of philosophical enquiry over a pint in the local with other scholars, it is a sedate and gentle existence.

Enter American writer Joy Gresham. Forthright, brash and with a young son in tow, when it becomes apparent that she needs British citizenship in order to remain in England Jack offers her a ‘technical’ registry office marriage. Soon after, Joy is diagnosed with cancer. Only then, fear and shock forcing his emotional intelligence to catch up with his academic prowess, does he realise that he truly loves her. Insisting on a ‘for real’ bedside wedding ceremony, Joy’s terminal diagnosis also reopens the painful wound of losing his mother to cancer as a boy.

Hugh Bonneville and Liz White inhabit the characters with such conviction that I doubt that I was alone in dabbing my eyes. Equally, the humour is delivered with panache and precision timing.

A terrific supporting cast includes Timothy Watson as Professor Riley, Andrew Havill as Warnie and Emilio Doorgasingh as Rev. Harrington. The role of nine-year-old Douglas Gresham is shared between two boys and on press night Eddie Martin acquitted himself with honours.

Peter McKintosh’s set is both beautiful and clever. Facilitating seamlessly fluid scene changes – vignettes of stylish choreography in their own right – glimpses of Narnia are dreamy and wistful.

Photo-Manuel-Harlan

Nicholson’s play may be nigh on thirty years old but Rachel Kavanaugh’s elegant revival hits home because the universal truth surrounding love and loss does not date: Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

In his exquisite book A Grief Observed C.S Lewis might have been countering Tennyson’s affirmation with a reminder that the poet’s romantic theory still demands a steep price: “The death of a beloved is an amputation.”

A stunning start to the Festival season.

At Chichester Festival Theatre until 25 May.

Tickets: 01243 781312 www.cft.org.uk

SISTER SCRIBES: SUSANNA BAVIN ON BEING READ TO

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When I was a teacher, I made a practice of reading to the children every day, whether it was a complete story or the continuing story of what the children called a “chapter book.” Often there would be time for both on the same day. The children loved being read to. I remember the near-hysteria that was occasioned time and again by John Prater’s Once Upon a Time, as the young audience glimpsed the fairy tale characters strolling one by one onto the pages; and all those favourites that were loved by class after class, such as Gobbolino, the Witch’s Cat, Red Herring and The Kitnapping of Mittens.

Perhaps my favourite memory is of finishing reading Dick King-Smith’s Lady Daisy to a Year 2 class. There was a moment of breathless silence at the sheer perfection of the ending and then the children burst into spontaneous applause. (Those children will be doing their A levels this summer!)

Frankly, I think that being read to is one of life’s joys. I also think that the pleasure of being read to is something we never grow out of. As an adult, I always have two books on the go – the book I am reading and the one I’m listening to. As well as having favourite authors, I also have favourite readers and there have been times when I have chosen a talking book by an author I have never read, simply because I know I will enjoy the reader’s performance. Yes, reading an audiobook is a performance, a proper acting job, and it takes huge and specialist skill.

The narrator is required to tell the story in a way that conveys character and atmosphere, but without their reading being intrusive. The listener should be absorbed by the story itself and, other than enjoying listening to it, shouldn’t be specially aware of the reader’s voice at the time. Gordon Griffin is the master of this. A veteran of more than six hundred audiobooks, he has a companionable and quietly expressive voice that is easy to listen to.

When The Deserter’s Daughter was published in 2017, the audiobook rights were bought by Isis Soundings and, as a keen talking book listener, I was thrilled to think that my book was going to be recorded. I was curious as to which actress would be chosen. Anxious, too. What if they selected a reader whom I wasn’t keen on? In the event, Julia Franklin was invited to do the job – and I couldn’t be happier. She has been up there among my favourite readers for years and I am enormously proud to have her as ‘my’ reader. Her performances are engaging and unforced, with an intuitive sense of character and timing. I don’t know whether authors are supposed to listen to their own talking books, but I loved listening to The Deserter’s Daughter and A Respectable Woman and am delighted that Julia has added an extra dimension to my books.

 

 

Catastrophe Series 4: Interview with Sharon Horgan

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Sharon Horgan, interview, catastrophe, So, Catastrophe is back for a fourth series. When we left, Rob had just had a car accident while over the limit, so there are a few issues to get hold of in the new series, aren’t there?
Yes! We have set ourselves up with a bit of a puzzle to work out. When we started writing it we were like “Oh shit, why did we do that?” Because it was a massive thing to end on, and it exposed them a bit. It was a secret he’d been keeping for an entire series, and we’d just gotten to a point where she’s saying to him “We don’t work on our own – this is it. I don’t really work as a single unit anymore.” So a declaration of being together forever, and then the car crash, and so we were thinking: “We can’t have them break up, because where’s the show? We can’t have him in prison, because that would be ridiculous.” But obviously it had to impact on them. But they have a good relationship, despite all the bickering and fighting, so we just felt like they’d get through it. But it would have to have ramifications for the rest of the series. And Rob is looking for answers, looking to be a better person and fix himself. He’s on a different journey to her. And he’s also in a neck brace!

Yeah, whose idea was that?
[Laughs] I can’t remember. I think it was mine. But these things come out of conversations, and a lot of it comes out of our weird hive-brain. We wanted to have it on for a few episodes, so there is a physical reminder of the bad thing he’d done. But also, you could have some fun with it, and it’s hard to take someone seriously when they’re wearing a contraption like that.

Does it get easier to write, because you know the characters so well now, or is it more difficult, because you’ve got to find new stories, and you’ve got to stay true to their back stories?
It gets more difficult, if I’m honest. You definitely know the characters better, so you’re definitely drawing less on your own life, and more on what has gone before for those characters. There’s more texture there, there’s loads of things that make it feel like they’re fully drawn characters – not just Rob and Sharon but those characters around them. In a lot of ways it’s more satisfying, because you know them so well, and you’ve got all those back stories you’ve drawn and the history of all the characters, but at the same time thinking up new stories, even for the other characters that surround us, like keeping Fran and Chris fresh, and wanting to introduce new characters but knowing they really have to count, they can’t be using up screen time and not justifying it – it was really hard. It was the hardest one yet. And also we’re aware that people really like the show, and it means a lot to us to keep it so that people continue to give a shit about it. We want to talk about stuff that might have an impact, and then we want to make it funny on top of that. It’s a slog.

You said you use less stuff from your own life now, but do you mine the experiences of your friends for material? When someone’s telling a story from their own life, does part of you wonder if you can fit it in?
Yeah. It’s actually more what I observe than people telling me stories. Occasionally, yeah. Everyone’s got their own shit going on, so here and there that happens. And I think people are aware that I do that as well, so if they are going through something, or they’re telling me something that is quite a vibrant story, they’ll assume that I might have a little bit of it on the show.

They’ll see it played out in technicolour in the next series…
Well, they’ll see it playing across my face first, as I’m listening!

Apparently this is the last series. Do you get emotionally involved with the material, and is it quite difficult to say goodbye to the characters at the end of it?
Yeah, it really is and was. And not just Rob and that relationship. We spent the best past of five years sitting in a room together, writing this stuff – forget about the filming aspects. So yes, it’s really hard. It’s hard to say goodbye to all of them. I love Fergal and Chris and Fran and Dave, and that they won’t exist anymore is a bit of a weird thing. But guessthey will exist, because the show’s still there. And I think I’d be sadder, if we did keep going and ran out of ideas for those characters. I’d feel worse seeing them onscreen not being at their tip-top best. But it was emotional filming the last scene, and all of those characters, when they had their last scene, as it was being ticked off I found myself getting a bit maudlin. But at the same time, I don’t think it’s going to hit me until I’m half as year down the road and I suddenly realise there’s a really big thing missing from my life that made me really happy.

So you’ll suddenly be found weeping in the frozen food aisle at Tesco.
I think I’ll be lying down, I’ll collapse between feminine hygiene and dairy.

There’s a tendency for TV shows to either paint life as glorious and sexy and wonderful or hellish and agonising – is Catastrophe self-consciously trying to find the reality?
Yeah. That was a big part of it. I would say one of the very first conversations with Rob was about showing a real marriage. The real truth of a marriage, and how it effects the romance of it, and when kids come along, and when family interferes, and when your own hang-ups and addictions and illnesses intrude –just the shit that everybody has to deal with. It was a big manifesto that we had for the series. Also I think that’s just how we write. I find it harder to write something that is a bit more heightened, that wouldn’t be my natural skill area. Not that I don’t like watching comedy like that, I just find it harder to do.

Both Catastrophe and Motherland show that being a parent isn’t all baking cakes and tucking in sleeping children. Do you think it’s important that people understand it’s okay to be frazzled by it all, and not love every moment?
Oh completely. If I get stopped, or if someone wants to say they like the show, that’s a huge big part of it. People say “That show came into my life when this particular thing had happened” or “I’d just had my second baby, and I wasn’t coping.” Stuff like that. I think when people see that kind of thing onscreen they feel less isolated, and less like they’re a shitty parent. That’s a big part of it for me. When we’re writing it, it’s something that we have in our mind a lot, both for Catastrophe and Motherland. I love showing Julia or Sharon at their wits’ end, not being able to cope, but I also like showing them coming out the other side, getting through it. I think that’s also important – people watching need to see that. It can’t be nihilistic. I don’t want people to dread watching it, I want them to feel that everything will be okay.

However bad things get, Rob and Sharon have the capacity to make each other laugh. Do you think that’s one of the keys to navigating life’s more problematic moments?
Yeah, oh my God, completely. So many terrible moments and awful arguments or real tragic events are cut through with two people just laughing together. I think it’s everything.

Ultimately, do you think that Rob and Sharon are happy?
Yeah, I do. I think they’re different characters than they were at the start. They’ve both been boxed about by life a bit, and there’s less idealism there from Rob, and more resignation from Sharon. And certainly over the course of this series, shit does happen to them. But I really hope that by the time people get to episode six – which is one of the worst ones in terms of what we do to them – I really hope that when we see them at the end, that’s the big take away – that they love each other, that they came through it all and still love each other

 

Excellent interview with the amazing Sharon Horgan thanks to Channel 4. Pictures courtesy of Channel 4.

The Life of Riley

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Frost loves a pantomime (oh yes we do!) and so does Riley Clark, who returns to Bognor Regis this Christmas to slap his thigh in Cinderella as Dandini. We nipped off to the seaside for a cuppa and a chat with him.

Credit:youreventphotography.uk

Q: Cinderella is widely regarded as the best-loved panto of all time. Why do you think this is?
A: Because it is such a classic. It is funny and emotional, with a couple of nasty bits thrown in by those ugly sisters, and of course it is magical.

Q: What makes The Alexandra Theatre in Bognor Regis such a great venue for Panto?
A: It is big enough that you experience lots of audience participation and atmosphere, but small enough to still feel intimate. It is shaped perfectly that you will never miss a gag. But I think my favourite part about working there has to the staff. Everyone who works there is so friendly and helpful that you are sure to have a good experience from the moment you walk through the doors.

Q: As well as several other pantomimes over the years, you starred as the baddie in Beauty and the Beast in Bognor two years ago. We’re guessing that you love panto?
A: I love doing Panto because it’s the one time of year where both actors and audience can come together and be silly while telling a great story and feeling all Christmassy at the same time.

Q: How did you get into acting?
A: After seeing a panto at the age of 8 (I was in my first show aged 9!). I was in awe of the actors onstage, and how they got to tell a story and bring laughter and joy to all of these families – everyone had a couple of hours of pure enjoyment. I decided a couple of years later that I wanted to pursue acting as a career and here I am today. I also perform my own Swing and Rat Pack act.

What is your Christmas wish?
A: that everyone comes to see the show! I know for a fact it’s going to be a great one, and if you’re lucky you may get to see the mice do a little song as well! I wish all Frost readers a very Merry Christmas.

Q: When is it on and how can we book tickets?
A: Cinderella runs from 12 December 2018 – 2 January 2019. Box office on 01243 861010; www.regiscentre.co.uk

FASCINATING PANTO PEARLS

• The word pantomime comes from the Greek words ‘pan’ meaning all, and ‘mimos’ meaning imitator.

• Travelling entertainment in Italy and France, the traditions of the Italian Commedia dell’ Arte were also influences on modern panto, as were British Music Hall and of course traditional fairy stories.

• Cinderella, originally written by Charles Perrault in 1697, was based on a folk story. The slipper was probably made of squirrel fur, but the change to glass came about as a result of a translation mix up: the French word for glass is ‘verre’ and white squirrel fur is ‘vair’. But it was a change for the better. Cinders wearing footwear fashioned from a dead rodent isn’t really in keeping with the romance of the story!

• Fairy Dust was a hurried addition to the original story of Peter Pan. Originally Peter and the Lost Boys could fly independently, but after reports of children injuring themselves as they tried to fly from their beds JM Barrie added Fairy Dust as a requirement for taking flight.

Review: Gary Wilmot’s sweet success in Bognor Regis

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Sweet Lorraine, The Alexandra Theatre, Bognor

New writing is the lifeblood of theatre, so for a small seaside venue like the Regis Centre to be exploring new work is exciting in itself. To beef that up by kicking off with a play by one of the nation’s most popular performers is quite some coup; even if it is difficult reconcile cheeky chappie Gary Wilmot with such a dark and tense piece. But all credit to Wilmot, who is also at the directorial helm. Sweet Lorraine is a triumph. Furthermore, it deserves a wider audience.

A compelling tale of a talented young musician with a secret, the writing is elegant, authentic and intelligent. The plot, part thriller and part grim cautionary tale, is rooted in an astute study of human nature and poses a disturbing question: just how far would you go to wright a terrible wrong that had been done to someone you love and whose life had been subsequently blighted?

Beautifully paced, the story plays out to a shocking conclusion. Gripping the attention, never for a moment allowing it to wander, evocative music and Iain Jordan’s moody lighting are key components in creating atmospheric edge-of-the-seat unease.

Aided by excellent performances from Harry Burton as Harry Burns and Martha Dancy as the eponymous Lorraine, great support is provided by Ben Fox as Phil and Katy Osborne as Emma.

Gary Wilmot has been hiding his scripting light under the proverbial bushel for too long. Here’s hoping that he continues to write and that Sweet Lorraine will play on elsewhere.

As for the Regis Centre and its Alexandra Theatre, may this gem of a seaside venue continue to champion new work.

Pizzagirl Releases New Single ‘Body Part’

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pizzamumPhoto credit: PizzaMum.

Pizzagirl – ‘body part’

Following latest singles highschool and gymnasium, Pizzagirl remains within the blurry borders of his misremembered 80s, filmic universe for the spacious body part.

Perhaps the clearest embodiment of his vision, and the space he’s occupying between 80s teen-film nostalgia, 90s dial-up internet culture and the modern meme age, the tracks owes as much to Phil Collins and Janet Jackson as it does to fellow purveyors of wide-eyed bedroom-pop, Clairo, Boy Pablo, Gus Dapperton.

The experience, as Pizzagirl, AKA Liam Brown, puts it, is as follows:

“You’re scrolling on the World Wide Web and you reach mypizzagirl.com, but you click the wrong link and you’re virtually sucked into a dark, smoky, glitchy chatroom, where a badly rendered waitress serves you a beat pie by mistake, now your new CGI ears have accidentally downloaded my freshest tune, BODY PART!”

From the confines of his bedroom studio (AKA The Beatzzeria) in Liverpool, Pizzagirl’s musical mind wanders through the decades and over the Atlantic. Capturing the wistful, romantic nostalgia and coming-of-age sentiment in classic Brat Pack era film it’s as though Pizzagirl has planted himself as a character in a John Hughes screenplay. And body part is the latest set-piece scene, a darker, sadder element to his sound, a plot twist before a triumphant return.

Sophomore EP season 2 is the follow up to acclaimed debut EP An Extended Play, released at the top of the year. This earned Pizzagirl numerous not-so-secret admirers. Champions came in the form of Huw Stephens, Annie Mac, Lauren Laverne and more across the airwaves, as well as Noisey, DIY, Highsnobiety, Wonderland plus dozens of others in the blogosphere. With a tour supporting Her’s up and down the land to boot, there are multiple levels to the ever-growing platform from which Pizzagirl can now dive further into the cosmos.

He maintains his flair for channelling through his music and visuals the extroversion of 80s electronica, late 90s internet culture and US East Coast sad-indie introversion, calling to mind the likes of Porches, Frankie Cosmos both in esoteric sound and DIY work ethic.

Overall it’s a small operation. With the help of a thrown together flatpack mini studio, Pizzagirlwrites, records and produces all of his music and visuals from the comfort of his home. His best mate shoots his videos and his mum takes his press shots.

Through December Pizzagirl will be taking his show on the road with a series of UK tour dates, standing solo on stage, accompanied only by his trusty laptop, guitar and sequencer, displaying the lonesome idiosyncrasies of an introvert married with the larger than life extroverted nature implied by his eccentric, zany and often pensive pop tunes.

body part is being released by Heist or Hit on October 23rd, and is taken from Pizzagirl’s season 2 EP, out November 30th.

 

Live Dates
1st Dec – Sound Basement, Liverpool
3rd Dec – The Louisiana, Bristol
4th Dec – The Chameleon Arts Café, Nottingham
5th Dec – The Hope and Ruin, Brighton

 

 

Review: The Midnight Gang, Chichester Festival Theatre

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The Midnight Gang, Chichester Festival Theatre
Until 3 November. Box Office: 01243 781312 www.cft.org.uk

Never knowingly understated, David Walliams took his seat to loud applause from the audience on press night. By the curtain call, when he praised the cast and creative team behind the adaptation of his book, the cheers practically took the roof off. Quite right too. His story didn’t just jump from page to stage, it took flight – literally.

Set in Lord Funt Hospital, Matron rules the children’s ward with a rod of iron. A rod of iron dipped in cement and covered in titanium. Looking like Doris Day but without a glimmer of sunshine in her soul, her young patients know the risk they are running in escaping her clutches to indulge in secret midnight antics.

Aided and abetted by the hospital’s porter, superbly played by Dickon Gough (was it just my imagination or were there shades of Walliams in there?), the poorly children live out their wildest fantasies, reminding us that when something we yearn for is out of reach, dreams can be the next best thing.

The children are fabulous. We saw Cody Molko as Tom, Jasmine Sakyiama as Amber, Rafi Essex as George, Felix Warren as Robin and Cerys Hill as Sally, but I gather that their opposite numbers (Tumo Reetsang, Albi Stisted, Cooper Snow, Fibian McKenzie and Anjali Shah) are every bit as talented.

Jenny Dale is a glorious gorgon as Matron. With the bedside manner of Nurse Ratched, her swooning over Tom’s headmaster (Tim Mahendran) during The Punishment Will be Severe is one of many highlights.

With lovely performances also from Lucy Vandi, Matthew Cavendish and Marilyn Cutts, lots of doubling up means that the cast appears bigger than the reality. Collectively they manage quick changes – of costume and character – with impressive and seamless speed.

Simon Higlet’s ingenious set is a joy, full of surprises and magical elements. Music by Joe Stilgoe provides agreeable accompaniment, but it is words rather than music that are his greater accomplishment. Astute, witty and dexterous, notably in So Many Questions which sees a beleaguered doctor trying to fill out an admission form, his sparkling lyrics are marvellous.

Tender, funny and thrilling, Bryony Lavery’s adaptation retains all the heart and humour of Williams’ book and sprinkles precisely the right amount of theatrical magic into the story.

Director Dale Rooks is to be congratulated. A stunning show for all the family, The Midnight Gang is an absolute tonic. I urge you to get dosed up.

From a child’s perspective – Lily B (14) says:

The Midnight Gang is an action-packed story with memorable characters. Comedic, cheering and cleverly staged, especially with the flight of a naked grandma, Matron was my favourite. Child-hating, chocolate loving and power crazed, she was the perfect love-to-hate character. A great show for children and their families, I especially liked the messages to let your imagination run free and to be kind to each other. Definitely five stars!