The country's pubs and hotel bars shut down last night to stem the spread of Covid-19, leaving 50,000 bar workers out of work and opening the possibility some pubs might never open again.

Health Minister Simon Harris made the announcement just hours after video footage of a large gathering in a Dublin city pub went viral, causing widespread anger that social distancing requests were not being observed.

He said many pubs have found it "simply not possible to comply" with restrictions on numbers in indoor and outdoor gatherings. "The pub is a place of social interaction. We know when people consume alcohol it can remove inhibitions. It's hard to tell people in such an environment to keep their social distance," he said.

He met with the chief medical officer, senior Government officials and the representative bodies of the publicans across the country yesterday.

"In the interests of public health, all pubs and all bars in Ireland will close this evening until March 29.

"This will be kept under review," he said.

Some 7,400 pubs will close.

The closure - ahead of the peak St Patrick's Day trading period - is set to cost the industry at least 100m but could soar further if normal pub and club trade cannot be resumed on March 29.

Restaurants, cafs and fast food outlets will remain open though the situation is being carefully monitored.

Government officials, including public health experts, met with the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI) at an emergency meeting in Dublin.

The public has also been urged not to organise or participate in any parties in private houses or other venues which would put other citizens' health at risk.

Both the LVA and VFI supported the closure decision and urged all their members to comply with the Government's shutdown request. However, hundreds of Irish pubs, cafs and restaurants had already opted to voluntarily shut.

All Temple Bar pubs and clubs in Dublin had indicated at lunchtime yesterday they would close after operators said it was virtually impossible to impose recommended social distancing guidelines.

Among the famous Dublin pubs and clubs to signal closure well before the shutdown announcement were Copper Faced Jacks, Peadar Browns, Ohana, Zozimus, Grogan's Castle, The Camden and The Back Page, The Bernard Shaw and The Black Wolf.

Leo Varadkar - reacting to alarm at so-called student 'virus parties' and scenes of packed Dublin pubs over the weekend - warned the Government would seek special enforcement powers from the Dil and Seanad if required. He warned revellers that irresponsible social behaviour risked spreading the virus and making vulnerable people "very, very sick".

Leading oncologist Professor John Crown had urged for several days that the Government close all bars and clubs.

The Bishop of Limerick, Dr Brendan Leahy, criticised those who insisted on carrying on their social lives as normal last weekend despite the threat. The LVA also hit out at "a small number of pubs flouting the coronavirus guidance - these pubs have been seriously irresponsible and their behaviour is completely and utterly unacceptable".

Irish Independent

Coronavirus Premium

Coronavirus

A video has emerged showing an official HSE "pop-up" coronavirus testing clinic.

Coronavirus

GPs who are expecting an "avalanche" of patients seeking a test for the coronavirus from today have warned that people who are simply seeking "reassurance" will not automatically get one.

Comment

It is official. Covid-19, aka the coronavirus, is alive and spreading on our green isle. It is invisible, contagious and let's be honest, scary.

Coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic has called into question the European Union's ability to lead a co-ordinated response as member states failed to pull together and closed their borders in defiance of Brussels.

Coronavirus Premium

We lingered for a few seconds, staring at each other, then I left. I said I'd see her soon and I loved her.

Coronavirus

Immunology experts have criticised the British government's strategy of allowing large numbers of people to become infected with coronavirus to develop "herd immunity" so that the more vulnerable do not contract the disease.

Coronavirus

An Irish company is preparing to release rapid Covid-19 testing kits, which can provide results in 15 minutes and potentially act as a "clinical weapon" against coronavirus.

Coronavirus

Ryanair expects the majority of its fleet to be grounded within the next seven to 10 days, it warned this morning.

Coronavirus

Pope Francis has urged the faithful to pray for the sick and suffering as the Vatican announced the Holy Week liturgies will be live-streamed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

View post:
Coronavirus in Ireland: 7,400 pubs and bars close in a move that will cost industry 'at least 100m' - Independent.ie

The most famous crossdresser in the history of the world may be a young woman from 15th-century France, a person who arguably has had more words written about her (not to mention paintings, sculptures, and musical compositions) than anyone else.

Yes, we have been fascinated by Joan of Arc for a very good reason: She rose from obscurity to challenge the immense power of secular and religious institutions. She disdained women's clothing and a woman's traditional role while burnishing her image as a courageous and fearless female who refused to take second seat to anyone.

The celebrated Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw was similarly affected and wrote the play Saint Joan, which is now on stage at the Ohio Shakespeare Festival in Akron. And it is a production that is well worth the short jaunt down Route 8.

As you may know, Joan was dubbed the Maid of Orleans and was put on trial by the Brits after her exploits on behalf of the French forces during the Hundred Years' War. When she rejected an offer of clemency in exchange for renouncing her beliefs, she was burned at the stake before her 20th birthday. But as a character says later, "Her heart would not burn, she is alive everywhere." And so she is.

It may not be too glib to observe that, if she were around today, Joan would be diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Like Greta Thunberg, our teenage climate-crisis Cassandra, Joan could not abide deceit and hypocrisy. And she would not be silenced or impeded from her goal.

Moreover, Joan receives specific and detailed direction from voices that she knows for a fact come from God. She has no need for the trappings of the Church and all its rules and rigmarole when she has a hotline to the Man, Himself. When it comes to having the courage of their convictions, Joan and Greta are a matched pair.

Observed from that angle, Saint Joan has a very contemporary vibe. And this lively production under the direction of Nancy Cates avoids most of the chuckholes this material can fall into, while providing a number of impactful and clarifying moments. Plus swordfights!

That said, even in this lightly abridged version, the layering of religious, philosophical and legal palaver can be, at times, a bit much. Shaw was a man who never settled for one word when 20 were possible, and he wields his prolix proclivities with unstinting ardor.

Of course, the chances for pontification are many, since Joan has a wide variety of antagonists. These include Peter Cauchon, the Bishop of Beauvais (a nicely tight-ass Ryan Zarecki who also plays the stud Lord Chamberlain), the Archbishop of Reims (the splendid actor Brian Pedaci who, in this role and as the Executioner, tends to swallow the ends of his sentences), and Dumois, the Bastard (Joe Pine, admirably intense as always).

The imposing Inquisitor is played by Jim Fippin, who executes a nifty acting grand jete from his earlier portrayal of a lickspittle Steward to become the main man controlling Joan's fate. Double-cast as both the Steward's boss Robert de Baudricourt and as the Earl of Warwick, Terry Burgler handles his chores efficiently but with little clear delineation of the two roles. And James Rankin is most affecting in the conflicted role of John de Stogumber, the chaplain who evolves from fierce accuser to broken man after he witnesses Joan's immolation.

The major comedy relief comes in the persona of Charles, the Dauphin, who is given a stellar turn by Geoff Knox. Charlie disclaims any interest in being an adult in the world, asserting that he chooses not to be a father, a son, a military hero or a leader of any kind. He becomes a work-in-progress for Joan, who tries to implant a functional spine into the amoeba-like Dauphin. And it's a treat to watch Knox slither and slide among all the stalwart dudes in his court as he tries to avoid his responsibilities.

Of course, the key part in this play is Joan herself, and Tess Burgler is more than up to the task. Early on, her Joan bubbles with teenage passion as she wheedles her way up the chain of command, perplexing the older males in power with her unabashed optimism and boundless self-confidence.

But Burgler's performance is launched to another level in the second act, when the captured Joan is tried by church officials. Bruised and slumped on a stool, she essays a dicey three-stage transition from wise-cracking defendant to totally melted-down victim and finally to the ennobled character who lives in our dreams. It's a fine, well-crafted piece of acting.

As an atheist, Shaw pokes fun at the church bigwigs and exposes their corrupt nature. But he also gives them credit for sometimes trying to see both sides, even through the cloud of their dogma, as they try to extend to Joan a bit of mercy.

But those efforts end up strapped to a stake set ablaze, along with our protagonist. While we don't see that conflagration, its effects are apparent in the trembling accounts of onlookers who are sure to be haunted by that event for life as the Church itself was for eons, before canonizing Saint Joan 100 years ago this May.

Christine Howey, former stage actor and director, is executive director of Literary Cleveland.

Read more:
Shaw's 'Saint Joan' Comes Alive at the Ohio Shakespeare Festival - Cleveland Scene

Londons blue plaques have been celebrating influential figures since 1866, and fortunately, theyre now more representative than ever.

The publicly nominated scheme, run by English Heritage, has been a little slow to recognise the achievements of women in Londons history only 14 per cent of the 950 existing blue plaques are to women but things arechanging.

This years list includes botanist and leader of the first womens army corps Dame Gwynne Vaughan, British agents during the Second World War, Noor Inayat Khan and Christine Granville, and sculptor Barbara Hepworth. There will also be plaques recognising the The National Union of Womens Suffrage Societies and the Womens Social and Political Union.

To mark the occasion, weve put together a walking tour of the plaques celebrating nine famous women, plotting a route through some of Londons most historic streets.

While there are too many to visit in one day by foot,weve picked a total of nine closely clustered stops, beginning by Hyde Park and ending by the river in Chelsea, forming a nice walk from Holland Park, past Kensington Gardens and down through to Kensington and Chelsea.

Fittingly, it begins with the plaque commemorating mother and daughter Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and eventually concludes with Sylvia Pankhurst by the Thames.

The walk is a total of 9km about five and a half miles and should take around two hours to complete. Take a look at the route on the map below.

The tour begins at the former home of suffragettes the Pankhursts, instrumental figures in campaigning for womens right to vote at the beginning of the 20th century. Their former home 50 Clarendon Road is close to Holland Park underground station, and our starting point.

Thingsmove along Clarendon Road and along Holland Park Avenue towards Notting Hill, before coming to 58 Sheffield Terrace the former home of world-famous crime novelist Agatha Christie, where she wrote her most classic works Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile in the 30s.

Around the corner on 37 Holland Street is the plaque for Radclyffe Hall, the writer who wrote influential lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness. The route then skirts around Kensington Gardens before arriving at the plaque for novelist and playwright Enig Bagnold at 29 Hyde Park Gate.

Then its a case of heading down past South Kensington to Chelsea the longest section of the walk before arriving at the former home of army matron-in-chief Dame Maud McCarthy at 47 Markham Square. Right around the corner at 152 Kings Road is the plaque for Russian ballet dancer Princess Seraphine Astafieva, who lived and taught there for nearly 20 years.

50 Clarendon Road, Notting Hill, London W11 3AD

English Heritage

29 Fitzroy Square, Fitzrovia, London W1T 5LP

English Heritage/Derek Kendall

118 Long Acre, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9PA

English Heritage

58 Doughty Street, Holborn, London WC1N 2LS

English Heritage

3 Chalcot Square, Primrose Hill, London NW1 8YB

English Heritage

6 Carlyle Square, Chelsea, London SW3 6EX

English Heritage/Derek Kendall

1 Avondale Road, Palmers Green, London N13 4DX

English Heritage/Derek Kendall

120 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London SW10 0ES

English Heritage

37 Holland Street, Kensington, London W8 4LX

English Heritage

2 Garbutt Place, Marylebone, London W1U 4DS

English Heritage

10 Curzon Street, Mayfair, London W1J 5HH

English Heritage/Derek Kendall

24 Chester Square, Belgravia, London SW1W 9HS

English Heritage

14 Soho Square, Soho, London W1D 3QG

English Heritage

27 Stockwell Park Road, Stockwell, London SW9 0AP

English Heritage

21 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, London NW3 1NT

16 Langford Place, St John's Wood, London NW8

English Heritage

72A Upper Street, London N1 0NY

English Heritage

1-7 Clarence Terrace, Regent's Park, London NW1 4RD

English Heritage

7 Jews Walk, Sydenham, London SE26 6PJ

English Heritage

58 Sheffield Terrace, Holland Park, London W8 7NA

English Heritage/Derek Kendall

50 Clarendon Road, Notting Hill, London W11 3AD

English Heritage

29 Fitzroy Square, Fitzrovia, London W1T 5LP

English Heritage/Derek Kendall

118 Long Acre, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9PA

English Heritage

58 Doughty Street, Holborn, London WC1N 2LS

English Heritage

3 Chalcot Square, Primrose Hill, London NW1 8YB

English Heritage

6 Carlyle Square, Chelsea, London SW3 6EX

English Heritage/Derek Kendall

1 Avondale Road, Palmers Green, London N13 4DX

English Heritage/Derek Kendall

120 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London SW10 0ES

English Heritage

37 Holland Street, Kensington, London W8 4LX

English Heritage

2 Garbutt Place, Marylebone, London W1U 4DS

English Heritage

10 Curzon Street, Mayfair, London W1J 5HH

English Heritage/Derek Kendall

24 Chester Square, Belgravia, London SW1W 9HS

English Heritage

14 Soho Square, Soho, London W1D 3QG

English Heritage

27 Stockwell Park Road, Stockwell, London SW9 0AP

English Heritage

21 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, London NW3 1NT

16 Langford Place, St John's Wood, London NW8

English Heritage

72A Upper Street, London N1 0NY

English Heritage

1-7 Clarence Terrace, Regent's Park, London NW1 4RD

English Heritage

7 Jews Walk, Sydenham, London SE26 6PJ

English Heritage

58 Sheffield Terrace, Holland Park, London W8 7NA

English Heritage/Derek Kendall

Keep heading down Kings Road before turning onto Carlyle Square, where theres a plaque for actress Dame Sybil Thorndike, for whom Bernard Shaw wrote the part of Saint Joan.

Finally, head up to Donovan Court to see the plaque for crystallographer and DNA pioneer Rosalind Franklin, before heading down Beaufort Street towards the river for the final stop the former home of womens rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst on 120 Cheyne Walk.

See the original post here:
From Pankhurst to Pankhurst: Celebrate famous women from history with the blue plaque walking tour - Evening Standard

By Eleanor Ringel Cater

You could say Gordon Gekko was wrong. Greed isnt just good.

Its hilarious and ultimately quite sobering.

Steve Coogan stars as the aptly-named Sir Richard McReadie (tabloid-dubbed McGreedy), a vain, selfish, manipulative fashion tycoon who made his fortune thanks to questionable wheeling-dealing and sweatshops in Sri Lanka.

A scene from Greed

When we meet him, hes preparing for his 60thbirthday bash an obscenely gaudy Gladiator themed party on Mykonos. Therell be togas, orgies, celebrity look-alikes, even a slightly mangy lion named Clarence.

For entertainment, Elton John, if they can afford him; Tom Jones if not. It must be costing a fortune, notes his tough-minded Irish ma (Shirley Henderson).

It is, he replies. Thats the whole point.

Interspersed among the lavish preparations (whatare they to do about the unsightly Syrian refugees ruining the beach view) is a brief history of the birthday boys rise from privileged twit to obnoxious zillionaire. Through the eyes of his bearded biographer (David Mitchell), a man whod be much more comfortable writing about George Bernard Shaw, we see how McReadie turned failure into triumph as he bullied his way through bankruptcy and bad press to the top of the rag trade.

Yet its not all fun and games.

A Triangle Factory-type fire in Asia will have repercussions down the road. And McReadies personal life is in shambles. His smart, sexy ex-wife (Isla Fisher) seems to have things in hand (her own mega-yacht anchored in Monaco). But their daughter is a bargain-basement Kardashian (oxymoron?) with her own reality show, The Young, the Rich and the Beautiful. Their son is a run-of-the-mill druggie-wastrel who, nonetheless, will have a considerable impact on Daddys big day.

Greed poster

Coogan, with his too-white teeth and too-coifed windblown hair, is marvelous, as is everybody in the eclectic supporting cast. Granted, the movie isnt especially subtle; nor does it try to be. Its more like a romp through the abuses of the rich and infamous, with a whiplash turn-around at the end.

Director Michael Winterbottom long ago established his political bonafides with the superb Welcome to Sarajevo, as well as his sympatico relationship with Coogan in the equally marvelous Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story.

Together, the pair might be a little too goofy, a little too mutually enamored. But as I said, Greed, much as it bounces merrily about, also has bite. And you have to have a certain respect for a film that tries so hard to do the work for you.

Sometimes, obvious and over-the-top is just whats needed.

Greed will open this Friday, March 6 at the Landmarks Midtown Art Cinema.

Read more from the original source:
'Greed' a romp through the abuses of the rich and infamous - SaportaReport

Its not so much thatPretty Woman: The Musicalisnt much good, which it isnt. More to the point is that this West End replica of the recent Broadway musical of the 1990 film feels utterly superfluous: a gloss on a popular romcom that doesnt improve upon or deepen our appreciation of the original in any way. Indeed, at the press preview attended, one could feel the audience all but marking time until the iconic Roy Orbison song of the title gets trotted out in order to bring an expectant crowd to their feet. Nothing else in the preceding two and a half hours comes close to achieving that level of connection.

Thats not to fault a (mostly) game cast who attempt to fulfil their roles within a formulaic piece that might as well have been assembled by the sorts of money-minded apparatchiks held up for scorn within the show itself. Revisiting the eyebrow-raising story of the billionaire Edward and the prostitute, Vivian, whom he hires for a week at the Beverly Wilshire hotel, the director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell struggles to kickstart the material afresh as he managed so well withKinky BootsandLegally Blonde, two other stage musicals that began as films.The book by JF Lawton and Garry Marshall, the second of whom directed the movie (he died in 2016), tries effortfully to flesh out characters who have always been defined by surface appearance and style first, depth of feeling second. Its laughable when one or another of the leads makes mention in passing of Shakespeares sonnets (um, really?) or of George Bernard Shaw, beyond reminding us how much more playfully and well Shaw told a makeover story of his own inPygmalion.(A polo gathering at the top of the second act is this musicals in-your-dreams equivalent to the Ascot sequence in thePygmalion-inspiredMy Fair Lady.)

The Bryan Adams-Jim Vallance score mostly belabours the obvious, announcing again and again a prevailing restlessness to both Edward and Vivian, the first of whom sings a repeated paean to freedom which in context seems to imply the ability to let Vivian run wild with his credit card: so much for her as an enlightened, independent woman for our time. Vivian sings endlessly of wanting something better "I'm not this girl," she lets us know early on which in context results in her emergence as a vapid scrounger. Still, it could have been worse: she might have married Donald Trump.

Danny Mac, a pretty man if ever there was one, sings beautifully as Edward and nails the accent, leaving Aimie Atkinsons charmfree Vivian to take the metallic-sounding high ground favoured by so many musicals these days: one is again reminded of the real joy to be experienced not far away in Sara Bareilles's London stint in her self-composed show Waitress: a star performance possessed of soaring vocals that seem to waft up mysteriously, and beautifully, from the singer rather than being engineered to wow by the busy sound desk. (Rachael Wooding's brassy sidekickis cut from the same cloth as Atkinson, which, to be fair, is all her role requires.) As it happens, the show is pretty well stolen by supporting performer Bob Harms in a vivid range of parts (a cheery hotelier chief among them, pictured above, right), each of which brings a synthetic musical roaring, however briefly, to life. Pretty Woman won't be the last cynical miscalculation to hit the West End, but if it brings Harms to a broader public, well, no harm done there.

Follow this link:
Pretty Woman: The Musical, Piccadilly Theatre review - not so pretty, actually - The Arts Desk

Early in the morning, we tried crossing a near-empty Kochi road, the narrow carriageway divided into two lanes by Metro rail pillars. Following the keep-left culture, like any prudent person, we were eyeing the vehicles speeding from a distance to our right side. At half the lane, from darkness emerged a scooter to our left, wrong side, a bolt from the blue. Taken aback, we narrowly escaped. The scooter, too, stopped. We asked the gentleman why he had resorted to such dangerous methods, avoiding a slightly longer U-turn. His classic reply, These days one shouldnt help anyone; I stopped only for you!

Some time ago, there was a hue and cry after a motorcyclist fell into a pit dug by a government department and got run over by a bus. A discerning walk through any road could identify a number of killer potholes, dangerously uneven surfaces and dilapidated drains and slabs. Who cares!

Bernard Shaw is right, We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.

After a tragedy, the media make a noise but seldom do we follow up or do a stitch in time. The cost of our culpable lethargy is loss of precious human lives, apart from overburdening the fragile healthcare system and the precarious exchequer. In Gods Own Country itself, nearly 4,000 people die and over 50,000 are seriously injured in 40,000 road accidents every year.

The exponential increase in the number of vehicles consequent chaotic driving and parking makes us indifferent to traffic rules. Footpaths are all encroached upon or too filthy to walk. Pedestrians remain the most marginalised and vulnerable, whose very existence is challenged.

A sensible, integrated and time-bound system addressing these issues from the initial conception of the road itself is called for. This would ensure designing of safe roads, timely maintenance, and scientific licensing, regulation and enforcement that is technologically in-built.

We need to think out of the box. The gravity of the problem, involving the lives of tens of thousands of hapless victims and their poor families, warrants empowering the road safety commissioner with executive magisterial powers under provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code for the due fulfilment of the exigencies of road safety. The officials should be made squarely responsible for any lapse in this regard. Based on any complaint and information about any deficiency on any road that has the potential to cause an accident, the commissioner should act emergently directing the custodian of that road, whichever department, to cause the deficiency to be rectified forthwith to avoid danger.

There is no reason the above should not be an effective solution to such a baffling humanitarian problem. Complaints, information and directions could all be communicated electronically and notified on a participatory website that can be accessed by citizens and authorities.

Simple solutions often elude us. Most road accidents are man-made and preventable, if only we take care to tighten enforcement of rules, fill a pothole, put up a board of caution or mirror warning incoming vehicles. All these hardly require huge funds or time for sanction/execution.

(The author is a former IAS officer)

kuruvillaperayil@gmail.com

You have reached your limit for free articles this month.

Register to The Hindu for free and get unlimited access for 30 days.

Find mobile-friendly version of articles from the day's newspaper in one easy-to-read list.

Enjoy reading as many articles as you wish without any limitations.

A select list of articles that match your interests and tastes.

Move smoothly between articles as our pages load instantly.

A one-stop-shop for seeing the latest updates, and managing your preferences.

We brief you on the latest and most important developments, three times a day.

Not convinced? Know why you should pay for news.

*Our Digital Subscription plans do not currently include the e-paper ,crossword, iPhone, iPad mobile applications and print. Our plans enhance your reading experience.

Visit link:
Dance of danger on the roads - The Hindu

New exhibition Among The Trees opens. Things to do

MADE IN ITALY: Cinema Made In Italy, an annual film festival celebrating Italian films, launches today. Highlights include If Only, about three siblings sent to live with their unconventional, broke Italian father, and Stolen Days, about a father and son road trip back to Southern Italy. Cine Lumiere (South Kensington), various prices, book ahead, 4-9 March

AMONG THE TREES: Hayward Gallery's new exhibition, Among The Trees, opens today, celebrating our relationship with trees and forests. The work of over 30 artists is on display, including sculpture, painting, installation, video and photography, dating from the 1960s to the present day. Hayward Gallery (Southbank Centre), 13.50, book ahead, 4 March-17 May

AUBREY BEARDSLEY: Tate Britain dedicates an exhibition to shocking and scandalous Victorian artist Aubrey Beardsley. It's the biggest Beardsley exhibition for over 50 years, with 200 of his risqu works on show, including illustrations for Oscar Wilde's Salom. Tate Britain, 16, book ahead, 4 March-25 May

LANGLANDS & BELL: Artists Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell open new exhibition, Degrees of Truth, looking at how architecture bears witness to the technological, political, economic and cultural relationships and changes of society. Newly-commissioned and borrowed artworks feature, including film, video, digital media, sculpture and installation works. Sir John Soane's Museum, free, just turn up, 4 March-31 May

HAMPSTEAD CEMETERY: As part of a series of International Women's Day walks, Cemetery Club leads a guided walk focusing on the gravestones of Hampstead Cemetery. Hear about actresses, illustrators, ballet dancers and writers buried there, whose stories are often forgotten or overlooked. Hampstead Cemetery, 15, book ahead, 11am-12.30pm

SPECTACULAR ASTROPHYSICS: Though astrophysics may sound rather complicated, everything that happens in the night sky is the result of simple laws coming into play together. So explains Professor of Astrophysics Katharine Blundell OBE in this Gresham College lecture. Museum of London, free, just turn up, 1pm-2pm

MARIE LLOYD: The V&A's lunchtime lecture puts the spotlight on 'Queen of the Halls', Marie Lloyd, on the 150th anniversary of the performer's birth. Alison Young and Christine Padwick from the British Music Hall Society discuss the life and career of the first female celebrity of popular entertainment, who performed for Edward VII, George Bernard Shaw and TS Eliot, among others. V&A Museum (South Kensington), free, just turn up, 1pm-1.45pm

TWILIGHT TOURS: There's a rare chance to visit the Royal Hospital Chelsea by twilight on a guided tour, led by one of the Chelsea Pensioners themselves. Visit the State Apartments and the Chapel, hearing the stories of former residents, and finish up with a drink at the Chelsea Pensioners Club. Royal Hospital Chelsea, 28, book ahead, 6pm/7pm

TRIBUTE INK: Stay late at National Army Museum, which has an evening opening on the theme of tattoos. Find out about the art, history and meaning of body inkings in the Armed Forces. Serving soldiers, Chelsea Pensioners and art historians are among those taking part in talks and panel discussions. National Army Museum (Chelsea), free, book ahead, 6.30pm-9.30pm

OUTER SPACE: NASA scientist and astronaut Kathryn Sullivan was the first American woman to walk in space. Here, she discusses her career, including her experiences of living in space, taking off in a space shuttle, and making repairs to complex scientific instruments. Conway Hall (Holborn), 30-42.50, book ahead, 6.45pm-8pm

MISBEHAVIOUR: Catch a preview screening of new film Misbehaviour, about a team of women who plan to disrupt the 1970 Miss World competition in London. The screening launches British Librarys new Unfinished Business: The Fight for Womens Rights events season, and is followed by Q+A with its director Philippa Lowthorpe and Sally Alexander, who was central to the real-life story the film depicts. Regent Street Cinema, 15, book ahead, 7.30pm-10.30pm

Our idiosyncratic weather forecaster keeps you up to date on London's skies.

The weather is broken. You've probably noticed. It's been stuck on the same setting for days, a grim cycle of showers, grey skies and chilly winds. I've called a servicing centre in Edgware and they're going to take a look, but they suspect it will need a spare part. Apparently, that hail we got a few days ago has clogged up a filter somewhere, and everything's borked. Bloody typical the warranty only ran out last week.

Mr Attlee can be reached by emailing hello@londonist.com; lord knows why you'd want to.

Our resident tube fancier dishes out daily thoughts on the London Underground.

Time for my never-popular 'name the station from the Google screengrab' game. Which underground station have I got my back towards in the above image? Send answers on Twitter to @HeckTube for your chance to win the foil disk from inside today's bottle of milk (which is slightly torn and sodden but might find service in a child's craft project).

Book ahead for Fourpure Global Gathering Festival on 21 March. Held at Fourpure Brewery in Bermondsey, with kegs donated by various breweries, the event raises money for Global Gathering's work supplying clean drinking water in Malawi. Find out more and sign up.

See the original post here:
Things To Do Today In London: Wednesday 4 March 2020 - Londonist

Ken Ludwig, author of Murder on the Orient Express, gave up the law after the success of Lend Me a Tenor

Murder on the Orient Express: Continues through March 8 at Asolo Repertory Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Most performances are sold out. 941-351-8000; asolorep.org

After the major premieres of his new plays, Ken Ludwig usually doesnt see them again.

With many of his 28 plays frequently produced at professional and community theaters, he would never have time to write if he checked in on new productions even occasionally.

But he came to Sarasota this month to see Asolo Repertory Theatres sold-out production of Murder on the Orient Express, his adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel, because Ive heard so many wonderful things about this theater from lots of different sources, friends who have worked here or seen shows here.

While here, he saw all three Asolo Rep shows now in production, met the cast of Orient Express and its director, Peter Amster, had a lunch with Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards.

Ludwig said hes always delighted to see how people interpret the plays. Love seeing people doing new things with my work.

And he was particularly excited about the Asolo Rep production. Im not just saying this because Im sitting in the theater, but I thought everything about it was wonderful. The set was incredible, the lighting, the direction. Each character was so well defined. I thought it had a terrific thrust to it. The engine got started and didnt let up.

Ludwig, who is best known as the author of the comedies Lend Me a Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo and the musical Crazy for You, was commissioned to write the play by Agatha Christies estate.

His agent was contacted about five years ago by Christies grandson, Matthew Pritchard, who was interested in seeing a new stage adaptation of her work.

They were starting to do some new television projects and OKd a three-movie deal with Kenneth Branagh, and apparently they wanted to do something new on stage, Ludwig said in an interview in the lobby while an audience watched his play inside the theater.

Hes not exactly sure why he was asked perhaps it was the Edgar Award he received from the Mystery Writers of America for his comic mystery The Games Afoot, which Asolo Rep produced in 2013. Maybe that helped them find me.

Ludwig was given a choice of any Christie book and he chose Orient Express because Its a terrific story and it has a great title.

The result was a mystery with the kind of comical touches audiences have come to expect from this lawyer-turned-playwright. It had its world premiere in 2017 at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J.

I tried to very much consciously to tell the story with as much integrity as I could, and I didnt think of it being a comedy at all, but all the characters are basically funny, even in the novel, Ludwig said. Not laugh a minute funny, but when you tell a story about these very eccentric people, put them on the stage and clothe them, humor naturally emerges.

Ludwig isnt sure why more new murder mysteries arent being produced because audiences love them. Ive thought seriously about writing another mystery for the stage and toying around in my notes on a pad. Its one of three or four things Im thinking of turning into a play.

The line between mystery and comedy is a thin one, he said.

Its hard to write a mystery that wouldnt have some laughs in it. Hercule Poirot, for example, is innately a comic character. He preens, he fixes his mustache, he wears a hairnet. Watson is a comic creation who talks about Holmes as this completely eccentric madman, who in a sense is also a comic creation. If you write a really good play about eccentric people youre in a comic world.

Christie wrote stage plays herself, most notably The Mousetrap, which has been running in London since 1952 and is approaching its 70th anniversary.

Ludwig studies the work of great playwrights, including William Shakespeare, George Farquhar, Oliver Goldsmith, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward to figure out why theyre masterpieces. Usually its because the playwright really knew what he or she was doing. They didnt happen to fall into it and happen to write Pygmalion. Shaw understood what made great theater. He was a critic and he worked like a dog at it.

He may not follow all the productions of his plays, but Ludwig is involved up to my eyeballs when a new one is getting ready for production. Im working with the director, the designers, the cast and doing any rewrites.

His most recent play is also his most personal, Dear Jack. Dear Louise, in which two actors tell the story of my parents courtship through letters, because they met through letters and got to know each other before they ever met in person. Its very different from anything Ive written before.

It had its premiere in December at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., where critics and audiences greeted it warmly.

Ludwig was working as a lawyer in Washington when he started writing plays.

I had this day job and I was writing in the morning from 4-8 and then Id put on my suit and go to work at the law firm.

His first plays were done in church basements and tiny off-off-Broadway type places, he said. Then came his farce Lend Me a Tenor, his fourth or fifth play, which opened in 1986 in London and three years later on Broadway, leading to countless productions around the country.

It took off and I was able to leave the law, he said. I was not an instant success. I paid my dues in the sense that I worked really hard to become a playwright over a 4-5 year period.

More:
Lawyer-turned-playwright finds a home in the theater - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

By James A. Haught

This is the third segment of a series on renowned skeptics throughout history. These profiles are drawn from 2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People With the Courage to Doubt, Prometheus Books, 1996.

Of course, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a Christian. It was a crime to be otherwise, in a time when church attendance was enforced by law. But whether he believed the supernatural dogmas remains a topic of debate.

Although there are few records of his life, Shakespeare undoubtedly received Anglican indoctrination as a schoolboy at Stratford, eighty miles northwest of London. All pupils were required to memorize and recite long segments of scripture.

Shakespeare married, but evidently left his wife and children behind in Stratford when he went to London in the 1590s. He began writing poetry, and became involved in theater, both as actor and playwright.

His plays contain references to God, as well as to ghosts, fairies and witches. What he personally believed seems impossible to learn. Obviously, Shakespeare did not share the beliefs of Englands Puritans, who sought everywhere to stamp out play-acting and theater-going as wicked. For a time, he lived in the bawdy Bankside district of London, hotbed of prostitution and carousal; yet some researchers say Shakespeare lived more sedately than Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and other theater colleagues.

Near his death, after Shakespeare had grown wealthy and returned to his family in Stratford, he wrote a traditional Christian testimonial into his last will. Authorities disagree over whether it was sincere, or a formality. A half-century after his death, an Oxford chaplain wrote that Shakespeare died a papist but most scholars doubt this assertion. Perhaps, like many people, the bard wavered in matters of religion. A definite answer seems unknowable.

In Shakespeares plays, believers tend to see evidence of faith, and skeptics signs of doubt. At the height of the Enlightenment, freethinker Joseph Ritson wrote that Shakespeare was free from the reigning superstition of his time and subscribed to no temporary religion, neither Papish or Protestant, Paganism or Christianity.

Atheistic philosopher George Santayana wrote an essay titled Absence of Religion in Shakespeare, commenting on the bards strange insensibility to religion. Santayana said it is remarkable that we should have to search through all the works of Shakespeare to find half a dozen passages that have so much as a religious sound, and that even these passages, upon examination, should prove not to be the expression of any deep religious conception. At another time, Santayana remarked: For Shakespeare, in the matter of religion, the choice lay between Christianity and nothing. He chose nothing.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw observed: Shakespeare had no conscious religion.

As for the meaning of life, in all his profound passages, Shakespeare never says that the purpose of human existence is to be saved by the mystical Jesus and go to heaven. Instead, in Macbeths great lament (Act 5, Scene 5), he bitterly contends that each life proceeds to oblivion without ultimate meaning. The soliloquy is a classic of existentialism:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more; it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing.

Shakespeares comments on religion:

In religion, what damned error but some sober brow will bless it, and approve it with a text, hiding the grossness with fair ornament? The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 2

Thrust your head into the public street, to gaze on Christian fools with varnishd faces. ibid, Act 2, Scene 5

Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian. . . . Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 3

It is an heretic that makes the fire, not she which burns in it. The Winters Tale, Act 2, Scene 3

Thou villain, thou art full of piety. Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4, Scene 2

His worst fault is, hes given to prayer; he is something peevish that way. The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 1, Scene 4

Scurvy jack-dog priest! By gar, me vill cut his ears. ibid, Act 2, Scene 3

I always thought it was both impious and unnatural that such immanity and bloody strife should reign among professors of one faith. Henry VI, Act 5, Scene 1

Modest doubt is calld the beacon of the wise. Troilus and Cressida, Act 2, Scene 2

Thou art a proud traitor, priest gleaning all of the lands wealth into one, into your own hands, cardinal, by extortion.Ill startle you worse than the sacring bell, when the brown wench lay kissing in your arms, lord cardinal. Henry VIII, Act 3, Scene 2

We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1

I tell thee, churlish priest, a ministering angel shall my sister be, when thou liest howling. Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 1

(Haught is editor emeritus of West Virginias largest newspaper, The Charleston Gazette-Mail, and a weekly contributor to Daylight Atheism.)

Read the original post:
2000 Years of Disbelief: William Shakespeare | James Haught - Patheos

Lot 43, Wharton Esherick (American, 1887-1970) The Important "Thunder Table" for Hedgerow Theatre, Paoli, Pennsylvania, 1929. Oak, Carved signature, date and inscription: "WE+HEDGEROW MCMXXIX" Freeman's

Notable works from the historic Hedgerow Theatre by renowned American artist and woodworker Wharton Esherick will come to auction for the first time on March 31 in Philadelphia. Representing decades of creative exchange between the master woodworker and the Theatre, this significant collection leads Freemans forthcoming Design auction. The collectionwhich includes eight of Eshericks earliest Hammer-Handle chairs and the important Thunder Table from 1929celebrates Eshericks lengthy and seminal relationship with the Theatre and demonstrates its considerable influence on his evolution as an artist and craftsman.

Freemans is honored to present these exemplary pieces of Pennsylvanias cultural history at auction. Proceeds from the sale will benefit future preservation of Hedgerow Theatre and will assist them in fulfilling their mission as a professional theatre ensemble and theatre school as well as a cultural center. It will enable them to continue their steadfast commitment to progress, education, and artistic excellence that has impacted countless cultural institutions and artists nationwide for nearly a century. (View this 1948 State Department Documentary Film about Hedgerow Theatre.)

ESHERICK & HEDGEROW

Wharton Esherick (1887-1970), heralded as the Dean of American Craftsmen and among the vanguard of the Studio Furniture Movement, began working in wood at the close of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Although embracing the ideology that valued the hand-made over the industrially produced, he broke with the movements more traditional aesthetic, creating sculptural and cutting-edge forms. Esherick was introduced to the Hedgerow Theatre in nearby Rose Valley, Pennsylvania and to its founding Artistic Director Jasper Deeter (1893-1972) in 1923.

Esherick began designing pieces for the Hedgerow Theatre in exchange for his daughters acting lessons. Initially involved in set, costume and lighting design, Esherick went on to create woodblock posters for various productions and furniture for both the Theatre and nearby Hedgerow House, which served as the home to Theatre company members. Over the years, the Theatres Green Room housed many temporary and permanent works by Esherick, operating as an unofficial gallery and exhibition space for the artist.

Freeman's

COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

Leading the auction is the iconic Thunder Table, carved by Esherick in 1929 in celebration of the success of the Theatres production of Thunder on the Left in which his daughter Mary appeared. The table stands on two splayed and hinged legs; its top is composed of two long, found wooden boards, each with a perceptibly warped end. Having spent much of his time on the Theatres balcony sketching the various dancers and actors on stage, Esherick carved a minimalist curvilinear drawing of the plays leading actors into one of the tables ends. The Thunder Table has been on display in the Theatres Green Room for many years before which it had been in use by decades of actors and visitors.

Also on offer is the set of stairs Esherick built in the Theatres former lobby in the mid-1930s to create more room for the box office. As a replacement for the old set of Arts & Crafts stairs, he designed and built one of his signature idiosyncratic staircases, with gently curving steps fanning out from a two-foot central column. Because of their nontraditional design, Eshericks stairs failed to pass fire-code inspection and were deemed unusable for ushering theatergoers from the lobby to the balcony. Other examples of Eshericks staircases are presently in the collections of the Wolfsonian-FIU in Miami Beach, Florida; the Modernism Museum in Mount Dora, Florida; and the Wharton Esherick Museum in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Additional works on offer include a Sawbuck Table used at Hedgerow House; a Trestle Table that purportedly came from Eshericks own collection; and eight Hammer-Handle chairs. The chairs, assembled in part from found axe and hammer handles by Esherick, are among the most iconic and significant of his creations; examples are presently in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Wharton Esherick Museum in Chester County, Pennsylvania; The Museum of Art & Design in New York, New York; and the Longhouse Reserve in Long Island, New York, among others.

VIEWING & EXHIBITIONS

The Thunder Table is presently on view in Freemans new flagship gallery at 2400 Market Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Additional highlights from the Hedgerow Theatre Collection will be on view in Freemans Main Line Gallery in Wayne, Pennsylvania beginning February 10. The full exhibition for the March 31 Design Auction will be open to the public March 27-30 at 2400 Market Street. The staircase will remain at Hedgerow Theatre prior to the auction; please contact Freemans to schedule an appointment for viewing.

ABOUT HEDGEROW THEATRE

Established in 1923 in the Rose Valley Arts and Crafts Community, Hedgerow Theatre is Americas longest serving Ensemble Repertory Theatre. Founded by visionary actor/director Jasper Deeter as a haven for cutting-edge artists of the early 20th century, the theatre quickly gained a national and international reputation, attracting era-defining artists such as Eugene ONeill, Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, Theodore Dreiser, Bertolt Brecht, and Wharton Esherick. Hedgerow has and continues to serve as a place where artists can both live and work, ensuring that active artists remain central to the community originally conceived as a creative utopia. Today, Hedgerows resident ensemble of artists, unique in America, present professional productions from across the range of theatre, classic to contemporary. Hedgerow's Theatre School, formally established in 1935, is a robust year-round theatre education program that serves youth and adults, with a special focus on creativity and critical thinking. Hedgerow is known for its pioneering role in the establishment of the not-for-profit theatre movement in America. Serving as a pillar for the arts community for 97 years, it now stands as a preeminent creative landmark in the greater Philadelphia area.

ABOUT FREEMANS

Freemans has been a part of the fabric of Philadelphia since 1805, helping generations of clients in the buying and selling of fine and decorative arts, jewelry & modern design. Today, they are an international auction house with a year-round sale season and a team of specialists committed to personalized service. Freemans provides solutions for the changing dynamics of a family or businessvaluing a single item, an entire estate, personal property, or a corporate collection. With both appraisal and auction services, Freemans is dedicated to providing the best experience for our clients.

INQUIRIES

Madeline Hill, mhill@freemansauction.com

View original post here:
FREEMAN'S TO SELL NOTABLE WORKS BY WHARTON ESHERICK FROM HISTORIC HEDGEROW THEATRE COLLECTION - ArtfixDaily