Engine Punk

Is it cheating to see an open air theatre company perform in the tent at Sterts ? Not when the rain on the roof falls so hard they have to shout! These hardened open air performers regularly defy the elements but I worry about them hurting themselves when they perform their stunts on a slippery stage. At least we were able to see them in the dry. And stunts there were aplenty in this adaptation of Moliere's play. The costumes were old time but the delivery was contemporary and according to my friends who know about such things the Miracle Theatre's interpretation is unlike any previous versions. That's what Miracle Theatre do - they re-vitalise already popular plays and turn them into something quite extraordinary, ultra-mundane even. I particularly liked Holly Kavanagh's portrayal of Marianne's pathetic attempts at suicide when faced with marriage to Ben Tyson's Tartuffe, who was a very dissolute and slippery character. Ben gave Tartuffe a sort of...

It's not just me that's inspired by my surroundings. Gonamena is the tale of ordinary Cornish farming folk who experience tremendous upheaval when mineral prospectors come to their farm and turn it into a copper Klondyke. During the boomtime it's live hard and play hard but when the copper price crashes not only is there no work but no farm, either for the land has become poisoned. Emigration is the only solution to avoid solution. This could be a mawkish and self-righteous account of environmental disaster and the Cornish diaspora but it's bloody funny and gets its point across without preaching -- although there is a preacher among the central characters. For several weeks throughout June, what are known as the Gonamena guerillas have been targeting local supermarkets and shopping centres to publicise the show at Sterts Open Air Theatre. A gang from our row went to see it because one of our neighbours is in the chorus and I really enjoyed it. For a cast lar...