Written by J.B. Priestley the production plays at The People Theatre until Saturday November 3rd. Our Theatre reviewer Seamus Doran was there on the opening night. J.B. Priestly was an intellectual with the common touch. He had the ability in his writing generally and most particularly in his plays to take difficult issues and subjects [...]
Separate Tables reviewed by Seamus Doran
Set in fifties out of season Bournemouth the middle aged, fading upper middle class residents are staring into the abyss of their lives and of their social milieu. Youthful dreams of love and social advancement lie stranded on the high shore of faded empire. This is the world of Sir Terence Rattigan, one of England’s [...]
Barney McKenna – Last of The Dubliners
Feature writer Seamus Doran pays his own personal tribute to Barney McKenna The last of the original founder members of The Dubliners has died. I learnt with some sadness that legendary banjo player Barney Mc Kenna died yesterday at the age of 72 at his home in Howth just outside his beloved Dublin. Barney [...]
Charles Dickens
In the year when many appreciators of literary arts celebrate the two hundreth anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens and an ‘In Love with Charles Dickens Week’ on Sky Arts TV, we asked our feature writer Seamus Doran (a solicitor in his own right) to take a look at some of the formidable lawyer [...]
Poetically Speaking
Look up the English dictionary definition of ‘poetry’ and it defines…’Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to,or in lieu of its apparent meaning’. Having been educated in the days when room, spoon and June were rhyming poetry and the first and [...]
People’s Theatre Centenary Season
PAST GLORIES review by Theatre writer Seamus Doran of A Spoonful Of Honey by Tony Gannie /Never Rains But It Pours by Alison Carr An Evening of Contrasts ! A Spoonful of Honey Lillian is in a nursing home.. she has a playwright grandson. He poses a challenge. Give me stories from your life – [...]
Sheila Mackie remembered
Many people around the globe will be saddened by the news that North East artist and illustrator Sheila Mackie has died. Born in Chester-le-Street Sheila was originally art mistress at Consett Grammar School which later became Blackfyne Comprehensive and it was from here that she would abscond to spend months painting the animals at Bertram [...]