BSC Address

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Education is dangerous

I spent the weekend with my friend. When it began to rain heavily, her five year old daughter began to cry. As the rain grew harder, her distress increased. She put her hands over her eyes. She looked terrified.

"She cries when it rains heavily" explained my friend.

"Why?" I asked.

"Two months ago they were taught about Noah and the flood at school. Nothing I say makes any difference - ever since then she cries when it rains heavily".

A little education is a seriously dangerous thing!

posted by Neal Foster @ 9:44 PM   4 comments

Richard Harris

I bumped into the Rachel Fielding last night. We were both at drama school together.

Rachel and her husband Paul Rattigan were cast in HENRY IV with Richard Harris and on the first day of rehearsals Richard was there to welcome everyone into the company.

"Hello, who are you?" he asked as the beautiful Rachel entered.
"I'm Rachel and I'm playing xxxx".
"Welcome to the company" said a beaming Richard.
Then Paul entered. "Welcome and who are you" asks Richard.
"I'm Paul and I'm playing xxxx and I'm married to Rachel".
"Welcome aboard" said Richard, still shaking Paul's hand as he turned to his producer and shouted "Who the fuck hired this guy?"

posted by Neal Foster @ 1:08 PM   0 comments

Monday, July 16, 2007

Regrets

One of my biggest regrets is that I never put money on my prediction in 1993 that Tony Blair should be the Labour leader and with him they would win the next three elections, with the fourth one (the next one!) becoming interesting. This is when John Smith was leader of the party. Can you imagine the odds I would have been given for such an outlandish prediction?!

I can't really complain because I've never put money on anything but looking back, it would have been fun watching New Labour win election after election and saying"I told you so!".

Just for the record, Gordon will win the next election.

I'd put money it!

posted by Neal Foster @ 4:58 PM   2 comments

Friday, July 13, 2007

The Pain and the Itch at The Royal Court

Acclaimed. Hyped. Sold out.

Sadly I can only talk about the pain. I do not know what the rehearsal period involved. I have no idea what the director Dominic Cooke was trying to get out of his actors (a cast that included one of my favourite actors) - but for the first 30 minutes he seemed to be pushing for insincere, glib, wholly unconvincing performances. I cannot report what he achieved after the first half hour because we left. The last resort of the despairing punter.

One performance in particular would be too big for panto - what on earth were they thinking?

Once again I am left feeling I am on a different planet to the majority of the theatrical world.

posted by Neal Foster @ 3:21 PM   1 comments

Sunday, July 01, 2007

PIRATES

I've just seen the new PIRATES movie. What a mess! How can you waste so much money on such convaluted, unengaging, over-produced rubbish. It's strange: if you wait until the end of the credits, there is a final short scene in which you can see the kernal of an engaging story. So why didn't they concentrate on telling one good story that could actually involve you emotionally, instead of relying on mutiple plots, special effects, weak jokes and dodgy accents? Why did they think it necessary to kill-off the simple art of storytelling?

But what do I know? The film took $400 million in the first two days. Which is more than I earn in a year!

We have 0.005% of the their budget to create our production of TREASURE ISLAND. I actually think we have a chance of doing a better job. We shall sea!

posted by Neal Foster @ 8:43 PM   8 comments