Read Nehrain Khalifa's features on current and old
films.
Word Of Mouth Media Productions present
A Midsummer Night's Dream
by William Shakespeare. Directed by
Diana Thomas. Monday 12 to Saturday,
31 July. All performances at 7.30 pm.
No Sunday performance. This is a darker
twist on Shakespeare's tale of young
love and mystical magic. Keeping to the
original language of the text, Word Of Mouth
brings another bold interpretation of
Shakespeare to the South Bank and Bankside
following the huge success of the Bardathon
at The Scoop last summer.
Tickets £10 / £8 Concessions.
www.rosetheatre.org.uk
Why we need another hero
I sat down last week to write a piece entitled Great
British Heroes, then very tellingly abandoned the project. I wracked my
brains and ransacked Google, running the gamut of sport, politics and show business
for a man, just one man fit to grace these pages. But not one stepped forward,
either in reality or in imagination. I did think of Nick Park and his marvellous
Aardman animations, but we had dealt with him several times before.
Desperate, I was about to pen a piece on Paul the octopus
(not a bad idea, actually) when my eye happened on Henry. No, not he of the
six wives but Henry the vacuum cleaner. Everyone knows what Henry looks like; a
black bowler hat sitting firmly upon his red, smiling face, his nose morphing
beautifully into the nozzle for the dust hose. He is compact enough for home
cleaning as well as office, and runs along elegantly on sturdy castors.
Numatic, the factory that makes Henry in Chard,
Somerset, turns out 4500 units a day, and 40% of them are exported. Egad!
If Henry isn’t proof that Britain has what it takes to be a world player when is
comes to design and manufacturing, and that men can come in useful sometimes,
then I’ll eat my hat – although Henry does have a female counterpart, Henrietta.
This is the time of year when a goodly number of graduates escape their
institutions after years in training. With all that blistering talent up for grabs,
Britain could be a powerhouse, a beacon to the world. With proper investment,
we could be showing the rest of the world how to do it.
The magic word here is ‘investment’, of course. In these straitened
times, this won’t be forthcoming either quickly or easily. Our next hero(ine)
won’t ideally be a sports’ star or television personality but someone that can
put Britain at the forefront of design-led manufacturing. It could make us
great once more. Really, it could.
Mary Phelan
mary@artyfacts.info
