Author Archives: bembodavies

It was an offer not to be refused – “Could I contribute a two-day workshop at the 26th Bagamoyo Festival of Art and Culture ?”  My ticket to Tanzania was booked, I would be in the neighbourhood in about a week’s time … Continue reading →

The proposed gathering, Living on the Edge is not yet a laboratory where experiments vital to human survival are performed; conceivably, it may be an SOS call from those witnessing their communities succumbing to gravity; however, it may merely be a … Continue reading →

Impersonating Theatre  When ‘the inherent rhetoric of youth’ has over-lived its shelf life:  leaning instead on expired naivety and depleted, thread-bare charm;  the ‘installation of self’ can slide into the installation of self-indulgence…  As the perpetrator of at least one … Continue reading →

Bembo’s Collection of Strange and Wonderful Men Some stories don’t have a beginning, middle nor an end; their beginnings lie buried in a mystic past, to be unravelled, at best partially, as detail presents itself.  One is parachuted immediately into … Continue reading →

Forced dancing doesn’t work.  If the music doesn’t get under you, this is obvious. Despite whatever feelings of personal responsiblity for the State of this Evening’s Extravangza, if your digestive tract isn’t willing to boogie, neither are you. The prohibited … Continue reading →

Emerging from the Kunst-in-a-kit It’s been a long while since I’ve personally hid behind anything so predictable as a character, scenario, costume and a minutely chiseled script.  Let’s just say: it was about time… A project had fallen into my … Continue reading →

Saying Yes – an occupational hazard ? Actor training is uncompromising:  be open to your impulses, be open to your fellow player.  Objectives are not to be written in stone; our very existence is fluid. As a way to live, … Continue reading →

“The Grand Opening“/  Post-Pesters I Marijs Boulogne’s latest exploration is equally as in your face as all her work — why hide colossal truths? (See: A Ritual of Rude and Naughty Girls – above, under his writings.) After having taken the audience … Continue reading →

Madelaine plucks a yellow sticky note from off the rim of her computer screen. During one of our irregular Skype sessions, the offered quote is intensely relevant: “Every piece of theatre has to be postulated around a potential miracle.” I … Continue reading →