Thursday 9 January 2025 - The David Hockney Immersive Art Exhibition

Sue treated me to a visit to this exhibition at the Aviva studios in Manchester.

It's a rolling 52 minutes of images that take a personal journey through sixty years of Hockney art.

The 'phone camera couldn't really capture the ambience of the occasion, but here are a few images along the way. 

Hockney has spent much time in Los Angeles, so it was distressing to think about how many of his vibrant scenes would look today in the smouldering cityscape.

Had my seat got a backrest I'd likely have stayed for two full rounds of the 52 minute reel. There were some fascinating images and ideas.

Wythenshawe parkrun number 398, and Hobson's Choice

 

"So you didn't do a parkrun yesterday?" announced Dot when we visited her today.

 

"Yes we did!"

 

"But it's not on the 'blog'...."

 

So here it is, Dot, rather a repetition of what has gone before, but an ongoing record of this parkrun on a day when the rain stopped before we started running, and the young Run Director, pictured above with the blue tabard, successfully got Tris onto the bollard from which instructions and all matters parkrun emanate.

 

344 participants enjoyed the good conditions - they were pleased that it wasn't as hot as last week - and only one ambulance was needed. We hope the runner with chest pains has made a full recovery.

 

Judging by the pictures of 'the usual suspects' below, everyone may have been suffering from chest pains!

 

Note that Owen, above, appears to have sprouted an extra arm and an extra leg! No wonder he looks in even more pain than usual as he sprints down the finishing straight.

 

Full results are here.

 

The previous night, Sue and I enjoyed a rare visit to the theatre to see 'Hobson's Choice. Harold Brighouse's 1916 comedy about a Salford bootmaker and his three daughters has been updated to Ancoats in the 1980s, and an immigrant family from Uganda's activities in the rag trade.

 

We enjoyed it. Glenn Meads' review is here.  

 

The Wipers Times, at Manchester Opera House

Thanks to Jenny for organising this little outing on 2 November.

Ian Hislop and Nick Newman had already made a TV film from the story of how a satirical newspaper was produced by frontline soldiers in the first world war.

This stage version is currently touring the country. Details here.

Here are some extracts from Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

The story is framed by the spectacle of the paper’s editor, Fred Roberts, struggling to find a job in post war Fleet Street. The bulk of the action shows Roberts and his fellow officer Jack Pearson deciding to set up a paper while stationed at Ypres. “A bit like the Daily Mail?” says someone. “I was thinking of something rather more accurate,” replies Roberts. That feels like an anachronistic barb, since the Wipers Times was less concerned with news than with offering a Punch-like mixture of jokes, parodies, poems and cartoons that would capture the rumbling resentment of the common soldier with a cosseted high command and the facile optimism of fireside patriots.

Hislop and Newman give us generous helpings of quotes from the original paper, ram home the point that humour is what separates civilisation from incivility and come up with much intriguing information: it’s astonishing to discover that Michelin really did set out to provide a guide to the battlefields during the war and that Lloyd George claimed that drunkenness posed a bigger threat to the troops than that of Germany or Austria.

The difficulty is striking the right balance between the epic futility of the war and its countervailing humour. Caroline Leslie’s skilfully staged production tends to alternate scenes of military attack with music-hall interludes. The show makes its point about the redemptive power of laughter and the insolent bravery of its journalist heroes.

There is a touch of public-school camaraderie about the relationship between James Dutton’s Roberts and George Kemp’s Pearson that, appropriately, since RC Sherriff contributed to the Wipers Times, put me in mind of Journey’s End. Both actors are very good and there is strong support from Dan Tetsell as the ever-practical sergeant, Sam Ducane as the paper’s main antagonist and Peter Losasso as a hapless private. The show recounts an extraordinary story without escalating into powerful drama but offers a salutary message: that, even in war, blessed are the piss-takers.

There’s another review here.

This was an excellent evening, including a pre theatre meal at Carluccio’s, just a few metres away from my old employer’s offices. I expect I’d know it well if I was still working, but these days trips into Manchester City Centre are few and far between.

A very entertaining production despite the wartime backdrop. Commended.

The Warburton Souling Play

Saturday evening saw Sue and me heading off to the Saracen’s Head at Warburton, on pain of death from JJ if we didn’t attend, as he would be telling our mums, who hadn’t provided a sick note.

It was great fun, if a bit bloodthirsty, and all the fine acting seemed to make the players very thirsty so it’s just as well the sword was blunt.  What’s more, the players and the audience were well armed with instruments that facilitated a sing-song well into the night after their last performance of the short season.

The history of the Souling Play of death and revival is described here, from where there are links to the rest of the website dedicated to this local tradition that may date back to Pagan times.

The song at the end of the Warburton play makes reference to "put your hand in your pocket and pull out your purse", and over the years the purpose may have evolved but the words have remained.  This year the plays raised a substantial sum for Multiple Sclerosis research.  The players are to be congratulated for their efforts.

JJ has been performing in these plays for about 30 years.  His own posting within his JJ’s Stuff blog is here.  The next image is the only one I took of the actual play, but the other four images speak for the jollity of the occasion.

Thanks, JJ, for cajoling us into going along, and for providing some great entertainment.

Hell & High Water – from the Mikron Theatre Company

On Monday evening I had the pleasure of a visit to the Waterside Arts Centre in Sale, where the Mikron Theatre Company, pictured above, performed ‘Hell & High Water’, their accomplished portrayal of the early history of the Bridgewater Canal, which is of course the ‘Waterside’ next to Sale.

Their current tour programme (September and October 2011) is here, and if ‘Beer Street’ is anything like as entertaining as ‘Hell & High Water’, that show is also worth a visit.

Enjoy!