Life is about the choices we make, the friends we stand by and the moments where we courageously follow our hearts and take a leap of faith. Which is, I should say, a long way round to saying I decided to go to the cinema and not the gym tonight. Let me answer your first […]
***Contains spoilers*** Batman Vs Superman reminds me of going clubbing around 2004. I was living in York, a single man exploring the world within half an hours walking distance of my house and I was giddy with the excitement of life’s seemingly endless possibilities. Or at least I assume I was. I must have been […]
Dear Fifa 16, This is really hard to write down, to put down in words, to articulate, but, I think I may have reached the end. We’ve reached a dark, dark place and, well, I’m not sure there’s any return. That’s not to say there haven’t been good times. I’ve had a long relationship with […]
There are three types of people who will read this. The first are friends, colleagues and acquaintances who’ll see it on my twitter (@mrfreeman1984) or facebook page and will be bored, or need something to take their minds off life, something mind numbing and tedious, maybe with poor grammar, spelling and linguisterics* to read – who’ll stumble through […]
Everyone has one, a present DVD they’ve been given, Christmas or perhaps a birthday, accompanied by the words “I saw this and I think you’ll love it”. You’ll look at it and think, “maybe, at some point”, when the diary is clear, when Netflix has been completed, when I’ve reached my goals, I’m somewhere and someone […]
Jean Claude Van Damme doesn’t feature in Birdman, but after watching this superb piece of contemporary film making I found myself pondering the old karate veteran. My knowledge of Van Damme’s films was, I’ll admit, limited. There was Last Action Hero, TimeCop and, the most influential film for me (thanks mostly to Kylie’s appearance) as a pubescent boy […]
My sister bought me tickets to see DV8 at the Playhouse as a thank you present. I have to confess I’m not usually a fan of physical theatre, but they’ve an international reputation for creating amazing work so I pushed my prejudices aside and sat in the stalls for 75 minutes of, well, I didn’t […]
Life’s a pitch for a good manager, in the testosterone filled world of football, there is the hard work but also the banter, the great times of winning a trophy or two, of the desperate times in which a club can come so close to extinction that it threatens a whole community, it can destabilise […]
Football; international bajillion-dollar industry to be sure, but one not exactly known for its tolerance of diversity (insert undergraduate thesis here). This is explored in the touching drama Gaffer, which runs all this week at the Unity Theatre. Produced by the Unity with Lives Of Others Theatre in association with Homotopia and Everton in the […]
The beautiful game, it seems, has an ugly side – and not just one that leaves teeth marks. Writer Chris Chibnall, the former Formby schoolboy behind everything from Broadchurch to Born and Bred, penned his bitter-sweet footballing drama Gaffer more than a decade ago. And yet, dispiritingly, little appears to have changed, when it comes […]
Gaffer is an impressive act of performance with all twenty parts being played by just one actor. He carries a play that recreates the triumphs and disasters of life on the pitch and a narrative that moves the central character from early middle age back to being 15 years old. The weight of all of these […]
Sam Freeman is an extremely polished act. He read from a book while deconstructing and commentating on the fact he was reading from a book. It was an effective device that gave him the flexibility to banter with the audience and engage in audience interaction. He also added elements of paedo and incest material to […]
In my life I have given probably close to twenty people severe food poisoning. I have to confess I am a terrible cook. It’s embarrassing in so many ways – I feel ashamed every time I look in the fridge at ingredients – it should be simple to turn what’s in there into a tasty […]
Credit must also go to the strong line-up of support acts, particularly Sam Freeman whose bizarre observations, inspired by the venue’s haphazard lighting, were hilarious. His rants about how sex education classes did not prepare him for the world of dating also raised plenty of smiles.
I always find it very interesting in how artists, be them comedians, playwrights, actors or musicians progress over time. I think about the changes that maturity brings – Ben Folds moved from aggressive geek piano rock to a mature writer of occasionally sentimental ballads, while the Red Hot Chili Peppers went from cock rock funk […]
A quick note about some of the shows I’ve seen this festival with a short review – please do not regard these as definitive, every show is worth seeing and this is almost entirely subjective.
This week has been pretty good so far. I say pretty good, I mean on the one hand I’ve enjoyed it, I’ve had some great experiences and seen some great work, but at the same time and perhaps paradoxically as a direct result of those very same great experiences I have felt an overwhelming sense […]
Sometimes films inspire you, compel you to write about them. You exit the cinema, heart filled with joy, soul crying out for fulfillment and you know, you know from the deepest darkest place inside you, that you must tell as many people as possible about what you have just seen. Run to the top of […]