Dracula the untold story - a review

At the  Mercury Theatre even my Fever-Tree Premium Indian Tonic Water (accompanying my Bombay Sapphire gin) didn't want to be stored in direct sunlight. It was the beginning of things to come... 

Dracula the Untold Story (an Imitating the Dog and Leeds Playhouse co-production), was playing for two days only at our regional theatre. As usual I opted for a matinée performance (not wanting to walk back to my residence in the dark, well  you never know do you). 

The story, well I'll not reveal the plot, but it successfully gives a fresh insight into the Dracula myth. 

Through a clever use of digital technology, cameras, projection, comic strip imagery, a multilingual performance and superb acting, the 'real' story of the 'Prince of Darkness' and his ending splattered blood across ben day dot images and a complicated storyline beginning and ending in 1965, with diversions in and out of time and of London. 

The 'Untold Story' weaves a fable from Bram Stoker through to Maroto's New English Library comic book and strip Dracula, to ITV's The Sweeney, conjuring Parisian silent film and Fascism in a sanguine world of horror on the way. 

Slightly into the second half of this riveting play a loud noise had us all intrigued. At first we (the audience) imagined it to be part of the play. Maybe something to do with the Marylebone Station setting in what could easily have been a modern day Dadaist reference. The play stopped. 

We were requested to leave our seats and step outside in the grey British autumn as per fire drill. After the all clear it was disclosed that preparations for an adjacent flower show had involved smoke. This had tripped the Theatre's fire alarm. It was real and not part of the plot.

Riana Duce as Mina Harker, Matt Prendergast as Multiple Characters and Adela Rajnovic also as Multiple Characters gave a stupendous performance. Made even more stellar by their quick recovery after the false fire alarm could have knocked them off their stride. It didn't. The show did indeed go on to the immense credit of all staff and players at the Mercury Theatre  Colchester.

Magical Manuscripts - Luo Qi (published in China)

The renown, astute and eternally stimulating avant-garde artist Luo Qi (who resides both in China and Portugal) continues to push artistic and textual boundaries in his latest work ‘Medieval Notes’. Having travelled and read widely Luo Qi has been able to push his calligraphic quest beyond the structures and strictures of traditional Chinese and Western calligraphies, into fresh areas of academic and artistic interest.

Having an eclectic, questing, turn of mind Luo Qi has continued to stride forward with his love for literature, poetry, music and visual art. Incidentally, all of which had coalesced in the European Middle Ages. Luo Qi’s latest presentation brings some of these interests together in this modern evocation and remarkable volume ‘Medieval Notes’. This is at once a homage to the past while, simultaneously, being a contemporary and original ‘Lucky Handwritten’ artwork incorporating images created on hemp paper and rice paper with grey and a hemp silk texture (2019). 

Instead of Medieval text, Luo Qi has synthesised asemic writing through the use of Chinese pictograms (FU) and faux (or false) Western script beside illustrated first letters, as was common in Medieval manuscripts. Similar to other asemic writing, the viewer is hoodwinked into believing that the text has meaning outside of itself, whereas it has none. Luo Qi mentions that… “It is just a hypothesis, a mixture of unrelated relationships, and the text does not belong to the story, it belongs to pretend description, or narrative symbol, which is a misreading of the image. This is the idea contained in all my own artistic creation.”

In these ‘Medieval Notes’ there are evocations of venerated illuminated texts such as ‘The Book of Kells’ (an illuminated manuscript Gospel book, in Latin, currently to be found in Dublin’s Trinity College Library), and intimations of China’s 4th century compendium ‘The Guideways through Mountains and Seas’ (also known as Shanhaijing). Both were ‘epics’ in their time and while ‘The Book of Kells’ remains a prime example of a handmade and illustrated volume, China’s ‘Shanhijing' has been illustrated many times over the centuries, by hand and later printed.

Luo Qi’s weaving together of Chinese pictograms and Medieval Western manuscript imagery delivers what could be imagined to be an imaginary scribe’s ‘lost’ masterpiece, (one never actually written) binding East and West together in 90 manuscripts of "Medieval Notes” and referencing medieval cities, buildings, details, fragments and eras including ancient Greece, Rome and leading to the Renaissance (15th and 16th centuries in Europe) whose tales lived on through the  "dark times" of Medieval times (Middle Ages - 5th to the late 15th centuries).

Once again Luo Qi has triumphed in his creation. Melding his imagination with the reimagining of antiquarian art and imagery, Luo Qi presents something new out of something old, as if a magician pulling rabbits from a hat. The fecundity of Luo Qi’s imagination apparently knows no bounds as he intrigues and delights us as yet another fully fledged dove takes flight from the same hat which had once hosted white rabbits.

Martin A Bradley, England, 2021

The Blue Lotus magazine issue 51

https://issuu.com/martinabradley/docs/the_blue_lotus_magazine_51

on drinking Bombay Sapphire and Indian Tonic before seeing Antigone.

On drinking Bombay Sapphire, Indian Tonic Water and Antigone at the Mercury Theatre Colchester on a cold, grey, day in October. 

A mythological elephant stood guard between the Theatre and the town on one side, a gappy Roman wall on the other. We were sheltered from the storm, or so we thought. 

Dual storms raged, both on stage (at the Mercury Theatre) and in my heart. The former was part of the tragedy which has been Antigone since Sophocles wrote it in, or about, 442 BC (or BCE if you understand what that is). The Latter was on experiencing the absolute vision who is the amazing actor who played Antigone (none other than poster girl Adeloa Yemitan). It is she who Eros dangled before me to adore, to cherish and ultimately to part from in those seemingly short minutes of the play's performance. 

Antigone is billed as a tragedy, although it has all the ingredients of a family drama. Wicked aunty, rebellious niece who is partnered with wicked aunty's son, her cousin in other words, a devoted sister and dead brother. That is not to mention a family history of patricide, inscest and suicide. 

All this is somewhat hinted at in Merlynn Tong's brilliant adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone. All this drama and singing too. Although, technically, this production isn't a musical, it does have some incredible singing by Antigone's sister (Ismene, played by songstress Francesca Amewudah-Rivers). 

Like the magician his name hints at Mr Tong has woven a fresh narrative from the ancient Greek tragedy and, along with a very strong cast, brilliant direction, an imposing (virtually Art Brut) stage setting, exquisite sound and lighting we the onlookers were stunned in our seats, believing every word and action. 

To top it all, this was live Theatre not, hold on can we go again, television or film. The cast had to memorise all that action and lines. I was agog with the lengthy speeches, the passion and the production. I especially appreciated this as a man who, as a youth, couldn't remember his lines as a court usher in Toad of Toad Hall.

The War of the Worlds at the Mercury Theatre Colchester

The War of the Worlds

The bumf for the 2.30pm performance of ‘The War of the Worlds’, held this afternoon, at the Mercury Theatre Colchester reads….

Inspired by H.G. Wells’ sci-fi novel and Orson Welles’ classic radio play, this legendary science fiction thriller is playfully reimagined for our era of Fake News and ‘alternative facts’.

Originally commissioned by New Diorama Theatre. Co-produced by Brighton Festival and HOME. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

Presented by Rhum and Clay Theatre Company and written with Isley Lynn

A few seconds after the lights went up at the end of the first act, "It wasn't what I expected" said a gentleman two rows back from me in the audience of Colchester Mercury Theatre to his female companion. We had just finished that first mesmerising act of the theatre’s performance of the play ‘'The War of the Worlds'. 

Inwardly I agreed. No it wasn’t what I had expected either. It was so much more.

That's the thing about expectations. We formulate opinions based on scant knowledge and then are surprised when our expectations are not realised. Some people believe that expectations shape and bend our reality. They further believe that expectations can change our lives both emotionally and physically. On the other hand, some experiences turn out to be greater than our expectations, this was one of those. 

The Mercury's performance of this new production far exceeded all my expectations. We, the audience, expected to be entertained, yet we were much more than mere entertained, we were transported into the true magic of theatre, into make-believe where gestures from actors conjure illusions of reality. This afternoon we willingly suspended our disbelief. We handed our collective imagination over to that production team and the ambience they so skillfully created. That performance was not just the HG Wells story of ‘The War of the Worlds’, nor only the Orson Wells (ironically named) Mercury Theatre on the Air 1938 radio drama broadcast (which prompted more lies and fakery about that which was already fiction). The Mercury Theatre performance was so much more. I’ll not go into detail as I‘ve no wish to spoil either the plot or the ending.  

With few props and a limited cast, the audience became enraptured by the tale telling. It was as if we were sitting cross-legged by some glowing campfire, on an autumn night, listening to a shaman weave his (or her) magic. The Mercury Theatre's War of the Worlds was a triumph of engagement, of deft illusion and the sheer power of theatre and its unique brand of multi-layered storytelling. That show ended with a close-to-black silence echoing a silence which had been utilised (to great effect) in the original radio show.

  

Garum (fish sauce)

It has long been known to Western culinary experts that there are four ‘taste’  senses (sweet, sour, bitter, and salty)  to tantalise the culinary questing palate. However, in 1909, one Dr. Kikunae Ikeda, a Japanese researcher, discovered that there was, irrefutably, a fifth taste our senses can detect. That extra taste was named ‘Umami' (or the essence of deliciousness), which had its base in ‘Glutamate’ (yes as in mono-sodium glutamate, or MSG which is taken from ‘kombu’, or kelp, an edible seaweed). The research, being in Japanese, was marginalised until nearly one hundred years later (2002) when Western researchers began to take notice of the ‘Umami’ finding.  

Now, culinary experts speak freely about umami as if it had always been there, which of course it had, but unnamed. Umami is the central taste of the West’s latest, and simultaneously oldest, fad - fish sauce which, in its simplest form, is fish (such as anchovies) and salt (which extracts the liquid via osmosis), these are layered in wooden barrels to ferment from a couple months up to a few years and slowly pressed, making a salty, fishy liquid which is used as a condiment and/or in cooking, but sparsely because of the strength of its saltiness. 

Fish sauce, specifically the Thai ‘Squid’ brand fish sauce (established in 1944 by Mr. Tien Chan)  has long been my go to condiment. It was not until recently (while I was looking at a sensory display in the Colchester Castle Museum, Colchester), that my curiosity was piqued about that enormously popular Roman condiment also called ‘fish sauce’. Was there a connection, and what happened to its popularity in the West, I idly wondered.

In Colchester Castle, and elsewhere, I was reminded that the invading Romans (43AD) had brought with them all sorts of strange new things into Britain like figs, cherries, plums, damsons, mulberries, dates, olives, turnips, apples, pears, celery, carrots, cucumbers, asparagus, lentils, pine nuts, almonds, walnuts and sesame as well as coriander, dill and fennel,  grapes, wine and the cultivation of oysters (for which Colchester is now renown) and, wait for it, fish sauce. 

When answering that now infamous Monty Python ‘Life of Brian’ sketch question, concerning what the Romans may or may not have done for us a modern day, gourmet, chef might well answer "fish sauce", or as it was known to the Romans - 'Garum'.  That salt and fish based condiment (originally made from the garus fish) was well known in Greek and Roman kitchens.

There is a current theory that even the very popular SouthEast Asian fish sauces, which are found in countries including Cambodia (‘prahok’, or ‘tuk trey’), Thailand (‘nam-pla’) and Vietnam (‘nuoc-mam’) and the ‘umami uzi’ of Japan,  had their origins in a Roman colony in northern Africa (Carthage), that is according to Mago, a Carthaginian agricultural writer who lived in the fifth/sixth century BC., and in Iran there is mehyawah which is the modern equivalent of the ancient Mesopotamian ‘siqqu’, the Greek ‘garos’ and the Roman garum fish sauces.

In that Colchester Castle Museum, upstairs,  under the label of ‘Learning from Objects’ there is a wooden box containing three wooden containers. They are near a sign urging visitors to 'Please Smell'. Beneath the sign a sentence explains 'The Romans liked strong flavours in their food'. Each container therefore holds a sample of Roman life, one is bayleaf, one is Rosemary and the third contains, yes you've guessed it, the aroma of fish sauce.

Jane Shuter (in her book ‘Life in a Roman Town’, 2005, page 29) mentions that “The Romans used this fish sauce the way many people use tomato paste now. They put a spoonful of it in almost anything they were cooking. They also spread it on warm toast as a snack or a starter before a meal.”

Gaius Plinius Secundus, also called Pliny the Elder, a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, as well as a naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, in his ‘The Natural History’ (AD 77), remarks ….

“At the present day, however, the most esteemed kind of garum is that prepared from the scomber, in the fisheries of Carthago Spartaria:it is known as "garum of the allies," and for a couple of congii we have to pay but little less than one thousand sesterces. Indeed, there is no liquid hardly, with the exception of the unguents, that has sold at higher prices of late; so much so, that the nations which produce it have become quite ennobled thereby. There are fisheries, too, of the scomber on the coasts of Mauretania and at Carteia in Bætica, near the Straits which lie at the entrance to the Ocean; this being the only use that is made of the fish. For the production of garum, Clazomenæ is also famed, Pompeii, too, and Leptis; while for their muria, Antipolis, Thurii, and of late, Dalmatia, enjoy a high reputation.”

Some time, over the centuries, fish sauce had declined in popularity in the West.  Some say that it was because of taxes the Romans imposed, the frequent assailing of fishing ports by various marauders, making the production of fish sauce increasingly difficult and, not to mention, the general decline of the Roman Empire. 

However, one small town in Italy (the fishing village of Cetara, Campania) has clung on to that particular gastronomic item from the once glorious Roman past. Its version of fish sauce had been recreated by the Cistercian Monks of Amalfi and is called  'Colatura di alici' (Anchovy Drippings), while  a recently recreated Spanish fish sauce (2017)  ‘Flor de Garum’ (Flower of Garum)  is made from an ancient 3rd century A.D.  recipe recreated from findings at Pompeii after it was entombed by the Vesuvius eruption in 79 A.D. At present the Italian and Spanish fish sauces are not commonly available in Britain, but there are many brands from South East Asia which can be found in specialist shops, such as those in London’s Chinatown and at least two of Colchester’s ‘Asian’ stores.

American Vietnamese writer Viet Thanh Nguyen (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) has this to say about his favourite condiment in his 2016, Grove Press, novel “The Sympathizer”... 

“Oh, fish sauce! How we missed it, dear Aunt, how nothing tasted right without it, how we longed for the grand cru of Phu Quoc Island and its vats brimming with the finest vintage of pressed anchovies! This pungent liquid condiment of the darkest sepia hue was much denigrated by foreigners for its supposedly horrendous reek, lending new meaning to the phrase “there’s something fishy around here,” for we were the fishy ones. We used fish sauce the way Transylvanian villagers wore cloves of garlic to ward off vampires, in our case to establish a perimeter with those Westerners who could never understand that what was truly fishy was the nauseating stench of cheese. What was fermented fish compared to curdled milk?”.

Gourmands and gourmet chefs around the world are eagerly  promoting the umami taste and, in particular, the salty, sharp fish sauce taste. As well as the aforementioned brands for fish sauce, there is one fish sauce which seems to appeal to gourmet needs for a clear, tasty and somewhat elite condiment, and that is Red Boat 40° N Fish Sauce. That sauce is advertised as being “Made from black anchovies caught off the crystal clear waters of Vietnam’s Phu Quoc archipelago”  it is a ‘single-press’ and  ‘barrel-aged’ condiment using “a centuries-old fermentation tradition”. In fact this sauce has all the mystery and romance of the East you might need of a sauce made from the fermentation of fish into liquid. 

Colchester Cultural Strategy: Evening with Hanif Kureishi

On a cool evening in Colchester, Essex, England, goatee bearded Steve Mannix (Executive Director of the Mercury Theater), joined the internationally acclaimed author/playwright Hanif Kureishi for a ‘Colchester Cultural Strategy: Evening’ at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester.

For some rapturous minutes we (the audience) were treated to a reading by Britain’s former writer enfant terrible Kureishi, from his seminal and somewhat autobiographical work ‘The Buddha of Suburbia’. The author’s descriptions brought my 1960s/70s past right back to me with all the images of my black crushed velvet, black patent leather, brightly coloured kaftans, chunky beads, tiny bells and the curious scents of patchouli and hashish. Had the reading extended for a mere few minutes I might have expected someone to pass around a joint. It didn’t and they didn’t, though it was an opportunity missed.

I had gone to the Mercury Theatre, I must confess, to see and listen to Hanif Kureishi and not necessarily to become involved in the ensuing discussion about Colchester’s cultural future, inclusive or not. What emerged was a lively debate about the future of culture in Colchester and its surrounds and, as interesting as it was, I would have preferred more from that Pakistani Bromley boy (and intriguing cultural personage) sitting on stage.

Having only momentarily arrived back from the Far East, and the lack of cultural support for most events and affairs of the arts by various governmental bodies found there, I found that Colchester, and Britain, to be well blessed by governmental (local and central) support. The Colchester Cultural Strategy discussion, to me, sounded like a constant and never-ending moan about a lack which can never end. Britain looks to ‘officials’, to ‘government’ to fulfil their cultural needs, in places like Cambodia and Malaysia people, though wishing for governmental support, understand that the only way cultural events and happenings take place, is by people getting off their arses and doing something for themselves. And I was sorely tempted to say just that, last evening, so it was a good job that the microphone never reached me.