#beeston caste

[alexzalben]

Here's info on STRANGER THINGS: THE FIRST SHADOW, the new stage show set in the world of the series, coming to the West End later this year.

Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach. 

Brought to life by a multi-award-winning creative team, who take theatrical storytelling and stagecraft to a whole new dimension, this gripping new adventure will take you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story – and may hold the key to the end.

Matt and Ross Duffer said: “We are beyond excited about Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Collaborating with the brilliant Stephen Daldry has been nothing short of inspiring, and Kate Trefry has written a play that is at turns surprising, scary, and heartfelt. You will meet endearing new characters, as well as very familiar ones, on a journey into the past that sets the groundwork for the future of Stranger Things. We’re dying to tell you more about the story but won't - it’s more fun to discover it for yourself. Can’t wait to see you nerds in London!”

Sonia Friedman said: “The world and mythology of Stranger Things has enabled a rich and fertile ground for creating an incredible story for the stage. The Duffer Brothers have built a huge global following for good reason, and a world-class creative team has built on their boundless imagination to dream up an unbelievably exciting theatrical event for our audiences. Set within the canon of Stranger Things, this new play opens in London, with the West End hosting the only place in the world to experience this new story – for now. I’m thrilled to reunite with my visionary long-term collaborator Stephen Daldry. Together, with our brilliant Netflix partners, we can’t wait to welcome Stranger Things fans into theatre, and theatregoers into the realm of Stranger Things.”

Greg Lombardo, VP Live Experiences for Netflix said, “Stranger Things has captured the imagination of fans around the world and we are incredibly thrilled to expand this exciting universe with Netflix’s first live stage production. With the creative talents of Matt and Ross Duffer combined with Sonia Friedman and Stephen Daldry, theatregoers will be swept up in a truly epic event worthy of Stranger Things.” 

STRANGER THINGS: THE FIRST SHADOW will be directed by Stephen Daldry with co-director Justin Martin, set design by Miriam Buether, costume design by Brigitte Reiffenstuel, lighting design by Jon Clark, sound design by Paul Arditti, illusions design by Jamie Harrison & Chris Fisher, video design by 59 Productions, movement direction by Coral Messam, wigs, hair and make-up design by Campbell Young Associates, casting by Charlotte Sutton CDG, international casting consultancy by Jim Carnahan, Gary Beestone for Gary Beestone Associates is Technical Director, with further creative team members to be announced.

[cjbolan]

Who should play Mr. Beeston? I’ve shared my casting ideas for some Emily Windsnap characters, but for Mr. Beeston? I don’t know. I’d just want someone with REALLLY wide acting range to play him, because he’s such a complex character. Did I ever mention he’s my 2nd favorite character in the series?

[cornucopiaradio]

Our new #audiodrama #audiofiction crime thriller "The Killer Mine" by Hammond Innes is now on our website & radio station. Join us 100ft underground & try to escape a dangerous flooded mine with us!

http://www.cornucopia-radio.co.uk/killermine

I'd really love to know if you enjoyed listening! So leave me a comment!

The story is about Jim Pryce, a deserter from the British army who finds himself back in England working alongside criminals in an old abandoned tin mine. But they don’t want to mine any of this tin; instead they want to use the mine to illegally important liquor by exploding the main tunnel into the sea and flooding the mine. Jim will have to fight for his life and escape the raging sea and a crazy old man if he’s to make it back to the surface and live another day.

‘The Killer Mine’ is based on the novel of the same name by Hammond Innes. It was originally adapted into an episode of the 1951 CBS OTR radio series ‘Escape!’ (the story from the novel heavily condensed to fit into the 30 minute format). It has been slightly re-written, edited and directed for 2023 by Peter Beeston. It has been remade for this years ‘Sonic Society’ summerstock festival in which modern audio-fiction companies take on the challenge of remaking classic ‘Old Time Radio’ shows.

We have an amazing cast of stella #voiceacting With the voices of: Rhys Jennings as Jim Price Fiona Thraille as Sam Wayne Russell as Davey Andrew Biss as Captain Manack Tim Winters as Old Man Manack And Bjorn Munson as Slim

[amethystwitch]

Day 15. Landscape.

I took these a while ago at Beeston Castle. I quite like it there, lots of nature, an old castle and freaky caves, although the caves have now had bars installed in front of them, to protect the rare bats that are living there. :)

[nitrosplicer]

“In “The Invention of the Neuter,” the French historian Laure Murat situates the emergence of a third sex, understood as androgynous, neither male nor female, in interwar Paris. Murat locates the emergence of a “neuter sex,” the pejorative term for “women of indeterminate sexuality . . . who did not identify with the image of the butch/femme couple.”[6] The language of neutrality, a kind of neither/nor, also appears in Cahun’s written work. In Aveux non avenus (1930), Cahun famously directs the reader, “Shuffle the cards. Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me. If [a neuter gender] existed in our language no one would be able to see my thought’s vacillations. I’d be a worker bee for good.”[7] As Alix Beeston notes in her reading of these lines, Cahun “is for saying and not saying, for masking and unmasking, an infinite equivocation that finds its basis in what she called ‘the void bang down the middle’ of the self.”

Beginning in the 1990s, artists and activists began to seize on such claims, positioning Cahun as an icon of transgender history. Cahun’s rediscovered portraits and biographical personhood appear in these tributes transformed: as a coping mechanism in a world hostile to trans survival, a point of visceral overattachment, a twink crush, a tumbler collaboration—or, more sincerely, as a mirror image of the nonbinary author, uncannily prefiguring 1970s goth/punk grunge. An incongruent, little-noted tradition, this body of life writing, zines, and graphic novels features Cahun as a trans elder and nonbinary ancestor. In the 2009 book Absence Where As (Claude Cahun and the Unopened Book), the poet Nathanaël includes a portrait of Cahun alongside a selfie of the author, as one way to describe a broken lineage: “In her, I resemble myself. Not: I recognize myself. But resemble myself.”[8] In a footnote, Nathanaël notes, “She, when referring to Cahun or to myself, might just as easily be he, splitting (apart) the binary with annulling reversal. For when the two correspond, here, disappear, when their I’s touch, I like to think that one and the same turn into some other, nameless, name. I keep to her for the sake of unconstancy” (Absence, 27). In this book, Nathanaël’s writing works through two languages, English and French, as a way to reconfigure this pronominal inconsistency through the paradoxical qualities of Cahun’s portrait: “It invites and repels. It evokes and crosses out. There is not only encounter, but collapse. There is casting and recasting” (29).”

[ozkamal]

An infertile nail salon owner decides to confront her husband, the salon's shuttle driver, whom she suspects of sleeping with one of her employees. Written & Directed by Lu Han OFFICIAL SELECTIONS: Palm Springs International Shortfest 2018, USA New Orleans Film Festival 2017, USA Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2018, USA Denver Film Festival 2017, USA LA International Short Film Festival 2017, USA Seattle Asian American Film Festival 2018, USA Irvine International Film Festival 2018, USA RiverRun International Film Festival 2018, USA Independent Film Festival Boston 2018, USA DeadCenter Film Festival 2018, USA HollyShorts Film Festival 2018, USA Asian Film Festival of Dallas 2018, USA San Diego Underground Film Festival 2018, USA Asians on Film Festival 2018, USA Glass City Film Festival 2018, USA SENE Film, Music & Arts Festival April 2018, USA NewFilmmakers Los Angeles 2018, USA Big Shoulders International Film Festival 2018, USA Film Outside the Frame 2017, USA International Changing Perspective Film Festival 2018, Turkey Beeston Film Festival 2018, UK SHORT to the Point 2018, Romania Canada China International Film Festival 2018, Montreal, Canada. Figari Film Fest Official Film Library 2018, Italy Cannes Short Film Corner 2018, France Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival Fall Edition 2017, Hong Kong AWARDS: Best Narrative Short -- TERMINUS Conference + Festival 2018, USA Best Ensemble Cast -- Asians on Film Festival 2018, USA

[artwalktv]

Jonathan, douze ans, cohabite avec sa soeur, sa mère et aussi des hommes. Ils ont tous la même tête et nichent dans les placards, les tiroirs, le poste de télévision… Jonathan, twelve years old, lives with his sister, his mother and also some men. They all have the same face and nest in closets, drawers, TV set… Réalisé par / Directed by Osman Cerfon Diffusion : Festival selections / Présenté dans 141 festivals internationaux dont Locarno 2018 l IndieLisboa | Uppsala Short Film IFF | London Short FF | Torino Short Film Market | PÖFF Black Nights | Vila do Conde | Festival du Film Européen de Lille | Festival International du Court-Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand | Festival International du Film d'Animation d'Annecy | ShortFest - Palm Springs | International Film Festival SXSW - South by Southwest | Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen | ITFS - Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart | Anima | The Brussels International Animation Film Festival | REGARD - Festival International du court-métrage au Saguenay | Animafest Zagreb - World Festival of Animated Film | Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen | Uppsala International Short Film Festival | Anima Mundi - Festival Internacional de Animação do Brasil | Internationaal Kortfilmfestival Leuven Prix / Awards : Anìmator - Międzynarodowy Festiwal Filmów Animowanych - The golden pegasus- Grand Prix, eligibility for the Oscar | Prix Emile Reynaud - Prix Emile Reynaud | Festival Ciné Court Animé - Mention spéciale des lycéens - National competition | Festival del film Locarno - Medien patent verwaltung AG award Feinaki | Beijing Animation Week - Jury's choice award | DC Shorts Film Festival - Jury award - Outstanding animation | Anima - The Brussels International Animation Film Festival - Jury award | Corto Dorico Film Festival - IIK Ancona audience award | Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival - Grand Prix in International animated shorts competition Warsaw Animation Film Festival - Grand Prix - Professional competition NexT International Short and Medium-Lenght Film Festival - Best sound Art Film Fest Košice - Best short in International short films competition Carrefour de l'animation - Best short film Kaboom Animation Festival - KLIKxHAFF Festival - Best short | Festival du Film Court en plein air de Grenoble - Best script | KROK International Animated Film Festival - Best film in Films of 10-50 minutes competition | 3D Wire - Best European short film | SCAD - Savannah Film Festival - Best animation short film | La Guarimba Film Fest - Best animation | Oslo Independent Film Festival - Best animated short film | Champs Elysées Film Festival - Audience award for the Best French independent short film | ITFS - Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart - Special mention in International competition | Anibar Animation Festival - Special mention in International competition | Friss Hús - Budapest International Shortfilm Festival - Special mention - International competition | Festival International de Contis - Special jury mention in European short film competition | NOFF - New Orleans Film Festival - Special jury mention in Animated short films competition | Meknes prix du jury | Zubroffka mention spéciale | Beeston best animation | Epic ACG Fest | ARS INDEPENDENT in Katowice special mention | Contis, prix du jury | Balkanima special mention Produit par Emmanuel-Alain Reynal and Pierre Baussaron - Miyu Production Préachat Canal+ l CNC - Aide avant réalisation l CICLIC - aide à la production l Région Auvergne Rhône-Alpes - aide à la production l Département de la Drôme - aide à la production lValence Romans Agglo l Procirep-Angoa - Aide à la production Casting : Sophie Laine Diodovic Layout - Lucrèce Andreae Décors : Darshan Fernando Animation : Capucine Latrasse Rémi Schaepman Quentin Marcault Valentin Stoll Stagiaires Animation : Nan Huang Mathilde Roy Alexis Godard Elie Martens Ambre Texeira Paul Wasilewski Compositing : Mathieu Brisebras Montage : Albane Du Plessix Catherine Aladenise Montage son : Pierre Sauze Conseiller musical : Adélie Prod - Nathanaël Bergese Studio enregistrement voix : Entreprise Studio mixage son : Miroslav Pillon Laboratoire : Média Solution Assistante de production : Louna Colleuille Musiques : « MONTAGUES AND CAPULETS » Interprété par Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado ℗ 1997 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin Avec l’aimable autorisation d’Universal Music Publishing Film & TV « STABAT MATER DOLOROSA » Interprété Rinaldo Alessandrini Composé par Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Extrait de l’album « Stabat Mater») ℗ 2004 naïve, une division de Believe Avec l’aimable autorisation de Believe

[whileiamdying]

Jonathan, douze ans, cohabite avec sa soeur, sa mère et aussi des hommes. Ils ont tous la même tête et nichent dans les placards, les tiroirs, le poste de télévision… Jonathan, twelve years old, lives with his sister, his mother and also some men. They all have the same face and nest in closets, drawers, TV set… Réalisé par / Directed by Osman Cerfon Diffusion : Festival selections / Présenté dans 141 festivals internationaux dont Locarno 2018 l IndieLisboa | Uppsala Short Film IFF | London Short FF | Torino Short Film Market | PÖFF Black Nights | Vila do Conde | Festival du Film Européen de Lille | Festival International du Court-Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand | Festival International du Film d'Animation d'Annecy | ShortFest - Palm Springs | International Film Festival SXSW - South by Southwest | Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen | ITFS - Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart | Anima | The Brussels International Animation Film Festival | REGARD - Festival International du court-métrage au Saguenay | Animafest Zagreb - World Festival of Animated Film | Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen | Uppsala International Short Film Festival | Anima Mundi - Festival Internacional de Animação do Brasil | Internationaal Kortfilmfestival Leuven Prix / Awards : Anìmator - Międzynarodowy Festiwal Filmów Animowanych - The golden pegasus- Grand Prix, eligibility for the Oscar | Prix Emile Reynaud - Prix Emile Reynaud | Festival Ciné Court Animé - Mention spéciale des lycéens - National competition | Festival del film Locarno - Medien patent verwaltung AG award Feinaki | Beijing Animation Week - Jury's choice award | DC Shorts Film Festival - Jury award - Outstanding animation | Anima - The Brussels International Animation Film Festival - Jury award | Corto Dorico Film Festival - IIK Ancona audience award | Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival - Grand Prix in International animated shorts competition Warsaw Animation Film Festival - Grand Prix - Professional competition NexT International Short and Medium-Lenght Film Festival - Best sound Art Film Fest Košice - Best short in International short films competition Carrefour de l'animation - Best short film Kaboom Animation Festival - KLIKxHAFF Festival - Best short | Festival du Film Court en plein air de Grenoble - Best script | KROK International Animated Film Festival - Best film in Films of 10-50 minutes competition | 3D Wire - Best European short film | SCAD - Savannah Film Festival - Best animation short film | La Guarimba Film Fest - Best animation | Oslo Independent Film Festival - Best animated short film | Champs Elysées Film Festival - Audience award for the Best French independent short film | ITFS - Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart - Special mention in International competition | Anibar Animation Festival - Special mention in International competition | Friss Hús - Budapest International Shortfilm Festival - Special mention - International competition | Festival International de Contis - Special jury mention in European short film competition | NOFF - New Orleans Film Festival - Special jury mention in Animated short films competition | Meknes prix du jury | Zubroffka mention spéciale | Beeston best animation | Epic ACG Fest | ARS INDEPENDENT in Katowice special mention | Contis, prix du jury | Balkanima special mention Produit par Emmanuel-Alain Reynal and Pierre Baussaron - Miyu Production Préachat Canal+ l CNC - Aide avant réalisation l CICLIC - aide à la production l Région Auvergne Rhône-Alpes - aide à la production l Département de la Drôme - aide à la production lValence Romans Agglo l Procirep-Angoa - Aide à la production Casting : Sophie Laine Diodovic Layout - Lucrèce Andreae Décors : Darshan Fernando Animation : Capucine Latrasse Rémi Schaepman Quentin Marcault Valentin Stoll Stagiaires Animation : Nan Huang Mathilde Roy Alexis Godard Elie Martens Ambre Texeira Paul Wasilewski Compositing : Mathieu Brisebras Montage : Albane Du Plessix Catherine Aladenise Montage son : Pierre Sauze Conseiller musical : Adélie Prod - Nathanaël Bergese Studio enregistrement voix : Entreprise Studio mixage son : Miroslav Pillon Laboratoire : Média Solution Assistante de production : Louna Colleuille Musiques : « MONTAGUES AND CAPULETS » Interprété par Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado ℗ 1997 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin Avec l’aimable autorisation d’Universal Music Publishing Film & TV « STABAT MATER DOLOROSA » Interprété Rinaldo Alessandrini Composé par Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Extrait de l’album « Stabat Mater») ℗ 2004 naïve, une division de Believe Avec l’aimable autorisation de Believe

[hotfps]

undefined

Jonathan, douze ans, cohabite avec sa soeur, sa mère et aussi des hommes. Ils ont tous la même tête et nichent dans les placards, les tiroirs, le poste de télévision… Jonathan, twelve years old, lives with his sister, his mother and also some men. They all have the same face and nest in closets, drawers, TV set… Réalisé par / Directed by Osman Cerfon Diffusion : Festival selections / Présenté dans 141 festivals internationaux dont Locarno 2018 l IndieLisboa | Uppsala Short Film IFF | London Short FF | Torino Short Film Market | PÖFF Black Nights | Vila do Conde | Festival du Film Européen de Lille | Festival International du Court-Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand | Festival International du Film d'Animation d'Annecy | ShortFest - Palm Springs | International Film Festival SXSW - South by Southwest | Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen | ITFS - Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart | Anima | The Brussels International Animation Film Festival | REGARD - Festival International du court-métrage au Saguenay | Animafest Zagreb - World Festival of Animated Film | Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen | Uppsala International Short Film Festival | Anima Mundi - Festival Internacional de Animação do Brasil | Internationaal Kortfilmfestival Leuven Prix / Awards : Anìmator - Międzynarodowy Festiwal Filmów Animowanych - The golden pegasus- Grand Prix, eligibility for the Oscar | Prix Emile Reynaud - Prix Emile Reynaud | Festival Ciné Court Animé - Mention spéciale des lycéens - National competition | Festival del film Locarno - Medien patent verwaltung AG award Feinaki | Beijing Animation Week - Jury's choice award | DC Shorts Film Festival - Jury award - Outstanding animation | Anima - The Brussels International Animation Film Festival - Jury award | Corto Dorico Film Festival - IIK Ancona audience award | Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival - Grand Prix in International animated shorts competition Warsaw Animation Film Festival - Grand Prix - Professional competition NexT International Short and Medium-Lenght Film Festival - Best sound Art Film Fest Košice - Best short in International short films competition Carrefour de l'animation - Best short film Kaboom Animation Festival - KLIKxHAFF Festival - Best short | Festival du Film Court en plein air de Grenoble - Best script | KROK International Animated Film Festival - Best film in Films of 10-50 minutes competition | 3D Wire - Best European short film | SCAD - Savannah Film Festival - Best animation short film | La Guarimba Film Fest - Best animation | Oslo Independent Film Festival - Best animated short film | Champs Elysées Film Festival - Audience award for the Best French independent short film | ITFS - Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart - Special mention in International competition | Anibar Animation Festival - Special mention in International competition | Friss Hús - Budapest International Shortfilm Festival - Special mention - International competition | Festival International de Contis - Special jury mention in European short film competition | NOFF - New Orleans Film Festival - Special jury mention in Animated short films competition | Meknes prix du jury | Zubroffka mention spéciale | Beeston best animation | Epic ACG Fest | ARS INDEPENDENT in Katowice special mention | Contis, prix du jury | Balkanima special mention Produit par Emmanuel-Alain Reynal and Pierre Baussaron - Miyu Production Préachat Canal+ l CNC - Aide avant réalisation l CICLIC - aide à la production l Région Auvergne Rhône-Alpes - aide à la production l Département de la Drôme - aide à la production lValence Romans Agglo l Procirep-Angoa - Aide à la production Casting : Sophie Laine Diodovic Layout - Lucrèce Andreae Décors : Darshan Fernando Animation : Capucine Latrasse Rémi Schaepman Quentin Marcault Valentin Stoll Stagiaires Animation : Nan Huang Mathilde Roy Alexis Godard Elie Martens Ambre Texeira Paul Wasilewski Compositing : Mathieu Brisebras Montage : Albane Du Plessix Catherine Aladenise Montage son : Pierre Sauze Conseiller musical : Adélie Prod - Nathanaël Bergese Studio enregistrement voix : Entreprise Studio mixage son : Miroslav Pillon Laboratoire : Média Solution Assistante de production : Louna Colleuille Musiques : « MONTAGUES AND CAPULETS » Interprété par Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado ℗ 1997 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin Avec l’aimable autorisation d’Universal Music Publishing Film & TV « STABAT MATER DOLOROSA » Interprété Rinaldo Alessandrini Composé par Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Extrait de l’album « Stabat Mater») ℗ 2004 naïve, une division de Believe Avec l’aimable autorisation de Believe

[angiesmodels]

#AMTIWATCH Way to go Jack Beeston!!! Round of applause for #AMTIer Jack Beeston on his first Feature Film booking!!! #amti #amtitalent #theatricalagency #FeatureFilm #Film #newmedia #booking #proudagent Thank you to Ilona Smyth Smyth Casting! Are your dreams similar to Jack's? You can start off the same way he did: with us! Don't miss our Open Call/Auditions Thursday April 25th at 6 pm. We'll be auditioning models and talent/actors who want to break into the national and international markets! Acting or Modelling! Open to ages 4 to adult. #commercialagency #modellingagent (at Angie's AMTI) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bwm2XguJHTx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=8mlyj84kez88

[cjbolan]

If the filmmakers behind“Lightning Thief”or “Artemis Fowl”adapt “The Tail of Emily Windsnap”...

*WARNING: SPOILERS*

1. Characters will look NOTHING like how they’re described in the book.

2. Terrible CGI. Not because of a low budget, but because they’ll waste the budget on too much stunt casting/product placement/royalties for unoriginal music.

3. Cringey mermaid puns based on pop culture references (unlike the unique mermaid slang in the books)  .

4. Emily’s swim lessons being mandatory (see image below), turning her character-defining choice from the book into a lazy plot contrivance.

5. The kids being aged up to 17 yr olds, in a desperate attempt to bait (pun intended) older viewers, albeit at the risk of losing the kid/tween demographic who made it popular in the first place.

6. The only POCs will be offensive blatant racial stereotypes, and will be either sidekicks or villains. Seriously if you can’t write POC characters right then don’t write them at all (and this ties to my suggestion of Jake being POC-coded, so I fear how they’d portray him)

7. Mr. Beeston will look and act so overtly creepy that his Big Reveal near the end will suprise nobody.

8. Mr. Beeston loses all moral ambiguity. They’ll gloss over his parentage and possibly cut out the start of his redemption arc.

9. The mermen will be all naked (unlike the books) with perfect 6-pack abs for fanservice. Including Mr. Beeston once he transforms. This also means Jake losing his iconic prison uniform.

10. Mary Penelope will be reduced to a dumbass Damsel in Distress, just to make Emily look like the better “stronger” female in comparison (again unlike the books, where each female character is strong in their own way).

11. Mary Penelope will provide the sole fanservice for male viewers--by wearing sexually provocative clothes (high heels, short skirts, etc.) that’s highly impractical and even dangerous for boating. Also likely she’ll have a love scene w/ Jake in a skimpy bikini, even in the freezing open ocean.

12. Mystic Millie will look “ugly” -- a.k.a. not fitting conventional standards of female attractiveness (could mean anything from showing body hair, wearing glasses, being slightly heavier, etc.) -- in order to make audiences take Mary P. more seriously as the female love interest.

13. To appease all the fundamentalist parents complaining about  Mystic Millie’s spiritualism-- her spiritualism will be either written out or written as a complete joke.

14. The mermaids’ playground of sunken wreckage will be a bunch of product placement.

That’s all I got for now, feel free to add further thoughts.

[captainignatiuspigheart]

Last week was very short as I managed to squeeze two days off into it. These have largely been spent outside in my garden office sorting and tidying LEGO. It’s very time consuming and satisfying, but does leave me slightly wondering where the time has gone. With a very warm and sunny Friday and Saturday I moved my watching of Agents of SHIELD outside along with dismantling and washing the LEGO Detective’s Office set. It’s a lovely little thing, but it had become very grubby. I’m now trying to rebuild it with a tray overflowing with parts. Inevitably, it’s becoming a quicker process the more of it I’ve built. Feels kinda exponential, as if by the end it will be assembling itself… Marilyn and I have also finally begun a shared build, the LEGO Brick Bank, which has been languishing on my “to be built” shelf for some years now… It’s pretty ace, and is a fine accompaniment to season two of Elementary.  

A busy day…

Brick Bank ground floor

  In dismantling the Detective’s Office, I re-remembered that I’d built a little half-modular some years ago, but they’ve been joined together for so long I’d somewhat forgotten that it wasn’t part of the set. I snapped a few pics from it before I dismantled it, for posterity, or whatever. The concept was a coffee shop on the ground floor and a bottle shop above. I’d do almost all of it differently now, of course, but I think it did look pretty good. I was very happy to use the Indiana Jones poster tiles to good effect!

On the right is an impostor

Never finished the roof…

Good banister though

Indy!

Booze

Coffee shop action

Alcove!

We’ve started to enjoy strolling around Beeston late at night. I adore the peace and quiet (I’ve been watching bats in our garden!) and I’m in urgent need of more exercise. I’m looking at you, beer… We’ve met up with a couple of our pussy cats pals too, which has been especially lovely. Given the utter clusterfuck of Bojo’s latest update on the UK’s progress with coronavirus, I suspect I’ll be working from home, getting fat, and taking late night walks for some weeks yet.

Hopper’s Beeston

Foxy Loxy

Despite the week’s brevity, I seem to have taken part in two podcast recordings and read some books! Victory all round. 

Watching: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 3

Fuck me, I love this show more and more. We’re finally getting into the stuff I remember a little better. It’s getting so hard to summarise… I guess this season is properly focused on the fallout of the Inhuman explosion and on the truly epic and dark history of Hydra! First we have to recover Agent Simmons from the creepy monolith that whisked her away from Fitz’s arms at the end of season two. Turns out its part of an ancient Hydra tradition, who’ve been feeding the terrifying alien entity within on fresh young Hydra enthusiasts for centuries. Their ultimate aim is to unleash the monster on the world! The team do manage to rescue Simmons, but doing so reveals to Hydra that the doorway can indeed be bridged. There are some pretty tense moments, and Daisy/Skye gets to assemble her own team of Secret Warriors, comprised of some of the Inhumans now emerging. The first half of the season focuses on Hydra getting into the alien planet, with former agent Ward becoming the host of the Inhuman ancestor. That’s bad news for everyone… and gives us the second half, in which Ward sets about subsuming other Inhumans and advancing a plan to dominate the whole world. Bad guys with big plans! Mostly though, my heart continues to beat for FitzSimmons, and for Coulson and Agent Mae. Honestly, it’s hard to make any sense of this season if you haven’t seen the previous two, but if you have it really is a gift: long form deepening of relationships, expanding on the major MCU story threads from Civil War, and getting into the backstory of Hydra to a massive extent.

  Doing: The Improv Boost “Happiness” podcast

All round lovely fella, David Escobedo, one of our It’s A Trap: The Improvised Star Wars Show cast members, and rabid user of social media for promoting improv in all its forms, invited me to join him and a few friends for a very short podcast talking about things we feel passionate about. The challenge was to narrow it down to a specific thing to expostulate on for eight minutes. LEGO would be too broad, as would Star Wars, so it sent me down a little rabbit hole of figuring out what I do especially enjoy, rather than the general everything of science fiction and stuff. One of my gateways into SF, or at least one that has cast a lengthy shadow, is the work of the great John Wyndham. Picking The Day of the Triffids was an easy next step. That’s why I read both the abridged US edition then the UK/Penguin edition in a week. The latter is about 10% longer, and just has a little more depth. It’s startlingly apt for our current situation, and I’d recommend it for anyone who finds reassurance in someone else’s words managing to neatly sum up existential and ethical crises. Also, triffids are ace, and plainly the ancestor of all zombie fiction. 

Alas, whatever software David was using to stream Zoom into Facebook fucked us over and we lost the last five minutes. Which means you get all of Jac’s enthusing about calculus (whatever the hell that is… :-} ) but lose Vanessa’s final thoughts on our topics which neatly wedded our themes together. Essentially (I think) we’re both talking about aspects of community and how people deal with the situations they find themselves in. Enjoy!



Reading: The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

Having cheerfully chugged down a double dose of The Day of the Triffids I moved straight on to what’s generally regarded as his “best” novel. It’s not my most favourite, but it’s quite a read. Far future post-apocalypse, humanity is struggling to rebuild itself after what appears to be nuclear catastrophe with radioactive fallout causing widespread genetic mutation. As a result, a renewed fervour for purity and the importance of the human (and all other creatures and crops) matching the design laid down by God / government. The consequences of deviation from the norm are severe: death, destruction, banishment to the badlands. None of it’s very appealing.

Our viewpoint is David, a perfectly normal boy: somewhat lazy, chafing a little under the religious intensity of his father and the demands of being in a small farming community in the newly reclaimed lands of Labrador. Only… he’s telepathic, and that makes him a very serious deviation indeed. In the novel we find a lot more of the social awareness and interest in community and individualism that Wyndham show’s in all of his work, and it’s very thought-provoking while being beguiling easy reading. It’s quite a neat trick to cover abominations and socially-mandated murder with such a breezy and familiar writing style. Ultimately, of course, David and his friends have to go on the run from their peers and family. When his younger sister, Petra, who turns out to be an incredibly powerful telepath makes contact with someone in “Zealand”, the whole of David’s world (and ours, since he’s our only view of it) is turned upside down. Moments of bleakness and fear fight with equally delightful epiphanies and hope for true acceptance. It’s great! Read it! 

Doing: We Are What We Overcome podcast Special Episode #3 Self Care

Our fortnightly Facebook Live podcast recordings continue to catch me unawares! Mondays are not a good evening for me to have my brain in gear, but I’m trying. Last week we talked about self-care some more. It’s really important to look after yourself at the moment. Divorced of much meaningful in-person human contact, I think we’re all fraying away at the edges. We talked about some of the things that frustrate the act of self-care, and some of the tools we use to keep ourselves as sorted as we can be.

Doing: MissImp’s Virtual Improv Drop-In: Duncan Carty – Artist’s Eye for the Improv Guy

This week we got a really special and different take on improvisation and creativity from our Duncan Carty, combining artistic expression, y’know, like drawing, with how we take inspiration for our scenes and performances. It’s a very good workshop, and I implore you to get out your crayons and walls and go at it. Phew, that’s the eighth improv workshop Emily has wrangled onto our website, and it looks we’re gonna be providing them for the foreseeable future. Enjoy!  

Last Week: Sunday 10 May 2020: lots more LEGO, John Wyndham, two podcasts and general bumbling around… podcast fun with We Are What We Overcome and @improvboost talking about Day of the Triffids! #tv #podcast #improv #books https://wp.me/pbprdx-8Ed Last week was very short as I managed to squeeze two days off into it. These have largely been spent outside in my garden office sorting and tidying LEGO.

[cornucopiaradio]

A pigeon race, as every fancier knows, begins with a basket. But with a hundred different finish lines, each one a backyard loft, when does a pigeon race end?

In 1913, Charlie Hudson entered one of his pigeons in a race from Rome to England. On the day of the big race a storm blew in and a thousand birds were swept away and never seen again. Apart from one…

http://www.cornucopia-radio.co.uk/the-king-of-rome

Based on a true story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Rome

CAST: Wayne Russell as Charlie Stephanie Lee as Elizabeth Katie Richmond-Ward as Elsie Dylan Carratt as Stanley Chris Bellamy as Ted Ian Carter as Mr Fanshaw

Also featuring the voices of: Justin Scott, Mal Carratt, Sharon Brogden, Graham Marshall, Sinead Rankin, Tim Rutherford, Rex Davies, Zaff Malik, Michelle Michaels, Duncan Miller, Francesco Bonalume, Alex Davies and James Cottle.

Credits: Written by Anthony Atkin and Allison Glossop | Production Assistant: Alex Davies | Edited & Produced by Peter Beeston & Lianne Bacon. Music: ‘White in the Moon’ by Geert Veneklaas | ‘Jarná Polka’ and ‘Bayrische Polka’ by Brighouse & Rastrick Band | ‘The King of Rome’ by Doug Eunson & Sarah Matthews

This work is released under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

[londontheatre]

Lazarus Theatre’s Edward II

Edward II is a wonderful example of the exquisite sixteenth-century theatre craft of its writer, Christopher Marlowe. It explores, in depth, power, kingship, class, lineage and, yes, the close, divisive relationship of Edward and his lover Piers Gaveston. To describe it, as the press release does, as “the first gay play” is historically inaccurate (if it means the first play to deal with love between two people of the same sex) and, I believe, entirely misses the point by putting a twenty-first century construct on a masterpiece written during the reign of Elizabeth I: it’s a bit like saying the horse was the original driverless vehicle.

That is a shame because here we have an explosive and riveting production, directed by Ricky Dukes, that does full justice to the poetry and power of Marlowe’s original – despite some quirky aspects to Dukes’s adaptation. It gets going with a mesmeric opening salvo by Bradley Frith as Gaveston, which not only sets the scene for us but establishes the tone of the production and puts down markers for the mayhem that is to come. Frith is brilliant throughout, tough but flippant and dismissive of the barons whilst appropriately fawning with the king, his pliant and doting meal-ticket, whilst maintaining an underlying sense that this whole escapade is just one long opportunistic blag (yeah, that’s a 21st century construct – I learn fast). Frith returns at the denouement as Lightborn and has the transfixing gaze of a cobra as he goes about his deadly business.

Counterpoint to Frith’s strong and unsettling performance comes from Luke Ward-Wilkinson as Edward. Lurching from frail and fidgety to feisty and frighteningly unhinged, Ward-Wilkinson perfectly portrays how feeble Edward is and how unsuited to the office of a king. Besotted, consumed by lust and gooey-eyed love-angst, living off the adoration of shallow, make-weight acolytes, frankly he’s a bit of a nut-job and Ward-Wilkinson gives us the full gamut of child-like tantrum and unconfined self-interest until, coffined in the dungeon-sewer of his castle prison, he is pushed over the edge into full madness. Ward-Wilkinson’s eyes flare wide, his arms flail uncontrollably and his whole body becomes a repository for self-inflicted grief and despair. A consummate performance by Ward-Wilkinson that keeps us on the edge of our seats. As with Frith, these guys get Marlowe’s language to a T, revel in the poetry and play out the undercurrents with knowing glances and subtly expressive gestures.

Strong, stentorian, scheming Mortimer is played with exponential relish by Jamie O’Neil. He’s not very nice: the archetypal playground bully who gets everyone on his side, by fair means or foul, so as to persecute the flimsy Edward and make him suffer. It’s more than just a power-grab with Mortimer: there’s a real distaste for lifestyle and values and O’Neil brings this off with powerful and disturbing accuracy. With an eye for the main chance he teams up with Edward’s spurned queen, Isabella, played with muscular intensity by Lakesha Cammock, who reveals an iron fist inside the lady’s frills. Cammock flutters her eyelids or puts the boot in hard as occasion demands and adds in some unexpected humour keeping the audience engaged and gripped throughout her authoritative performance.

Lazarus Theatre’s Edward II

Alex Zur as Edward’s brother, Andrew Gallo as Mortimer Senior, John Slade as Warrick, Stephen Emery as Lancaster and David Clayton as Canterbury all play their part in a strident ensemble that creates an atmosphere of intimidating ferocity, never more so than in the final dramatic execution of the beleaguered Edward. Though here I do take issue with the adaptation.

The play is re-imagined in a quasily-vague twentieth century England. No problem with that – Marlowe – and Shakespeare – lend themselves well to “modern dress” scenarios. The show’s featured prop is a sixties-style red BT telephone use at the beginning to reveal the death of Edward I and at the end for the future Edward III to castigate Mortimer. Here we get into “how technology would have altered history/literature territory”. If they had ’phones then Gaveston’s banishment would have been less drastic – they would have been on the ’phone to each other every day. It makes the first stage direction – enter Gaveston reading a letter – completely redundant. (A similar problem occurred in a recent modern-dress production of Richard II).

Christiano Casimiro’s costume design is excellent: grey shirts, formal grey trousers, some ties for the assembled barons, a gold suit for Edward with an assortment of catch-me cloaks: but I spent much of the play wondering why no-one wore shoes or socks with these smart clothes. The answer came at the death scene where everyone had to strip to their underpants. So – ease of undressing seemed to be the answer: rather a case of the tail wagging the dog, I feel.

But it’s the death scene itself where I really part company with Duke’s “re-imagining”. Spectacularly gory and extremely effectively done, it once again misses the point and veers violently away from Marlowe’s original. Lightborn, the murderer, is a wonderful Marlow creation. Almost a bit-part player – we don’t see him until the end – he is the original hit-man. Master of his craft, he revels in the pain of others and the ability to get the job done in the most effective and imaginative way possible. In the original, Lightborn tells his accomplices to prepare a hot-spit and have a table and a feather-down mattress available. The table is to be placed on the victims chest with the mattress between table and skin so no bruising occurs and one of the accomplices stands on the chest to expel the air and hold the victim’s legs.

Edward thus lies on his back – not on his front as here. Lightborn then applies the red hot spit. The whole point of this is so that Edward, the king, can be despatched without visible wounds – which are inside him – and without anyone knowing how he died. “Was it not bravely done?” asks Lightborn afterwards. Here with copious torrents of blood gushing down from the ceiling, plastic sheeting employed by the murderers in their underpants and Edward left in a blood-stained heap on the table after a bulkily decorative candlestick is used, there’s no doubt how he died.

Also eschewed is Mortimer’s connivingly cynical despatch-letter – unpunctuated so that it can be read two ways. All this, I believe diminishes the power of Marlowe’s play the full title of which is The troublesome raigne and lamentable death of ���Edward the second, king of England: with the tragicall fall of proud Mortimer‘.

Yes, Edward II is a tragedy: and it’s as much the tragedy of Mortimer as it is of Edward. Here, the final scene where Mortimer is sent to his death by the new young king Edward (over the ’phone), everyone is still standing around in their kecks: that’s not tragic – that’s just bizarre.

Despite these reservations this is a superlative show, powerfully performed by all. Marlowe, like Shakespeare, is obviously ripe for “re-imagining” (Samuel Beckett, for example, isn’t, and won’t ever be allowed to be). But for me, changing the text so that it fits into a twenty-first century idealogical construct is going a little bit too far: let the play speak for itself.

Review by Peter Yates

The King is dead. His son, Edward II, is crowned King. His first act: to call home from banishment his lover, Gaveston.

“Why would you love him who the world hates so? Because he loves me more than all the world.”

Marlowe’s homoerotic epic comes to the stage in this all-new, all-male ensemble production. Marking 50 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, this production investigates, celebrates and explores identity and sexuality.

Edward II sees our return to The Tristan Bates Theatre and The Camden Fringe after our smash hit productions of ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Coriolanus and Tamburlaine.

CAST Edward II Luke Ward-Wilkinson Queen Isabella Lakesha Cammock Gaveston Bradley Frith Kent Alex Zur Mortimer Jamie O’Neill Mortimer Senior Andrew Gallo Warwick John Slade Lancaster Stephen Emery Pembroke David Clayton

All other roles played by the company

CREATIVE TEAM Writer Christopher Marlowe Director Ricky Dukes Designer Sorcha Corcoran Costume Designer Cristiano Casimiro Lighting Designer Ben Jacobs Sound Designer Jack Barton Dramaturge Sara Reimers Stage Manager Charlotte R L Cooper Assistant Director Dinos Psychogios Company Photographer Adam Trigg Production Graphic Designer Will Beeston Associate Producer Gavin Harrington-Odedra

EDWARD II Lazarus Theatre presents Christopher Marlowe’s classic. Adapted & Directed by Ricky Dukes Tue 22 August – Sat 9 September

Tristan Bates Theatre 1A Tower St, Covent Garden WC2H 9NP http://ift.tt/23UW86S

http://ift.tt/2wY3cFo LondonTheatre1.com

[ozkamal]

Jonathan, douze ans, cohabite avec sa soeur, sa mère et aussi des hommes. Ils ont tous la même tête et nichent dans les placards, les tiroirs, le poste de télévision… Jonathan, twelve years old, lives with his sister, his mother and also some men. They all have the same face and nest in closets, drawers, TV set… Réalisé par / Directed by Osman Cerfon Diffusion : Festival selections / Présenté dans 141 festivals internationaux dont Locarno 2018 l IndieLisboa | Uppsala Short Film IFF | London Short FF | Torino Short Film Market | PÖFF Black Nights | Vila do Conde | Festival du Film Européen de Lille | Festival International du Court-Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand | Festival International du Film d'Animation d'Annecy | ShortFest - Palm Springs | International Film Festival SXSW - South by Southwest | Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen | ITFS - Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart | Anima | The Brussels International Animation Film Festival | REGARD - Festival International du court-métrage au Saguenay | Animafest Zagreb - World Festival of Animated Film | Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen | Uppsala International Short Film Festival | Anima Mundi - Festival Internacional de Animação do Brasil | Internationaal Kortfilmfestival Leuven Prix / Awards : Anìmator - Międzynarodowy Festiwal Filmów Animowanych - The golden pegasus- Grand Prix, eligibility for the Oscar | Prix Emile Reynaud - Prix Emile Reynaud | Festival Ciné Court Animé - Mention spéciale des lycéens - National competition | Festival del film Locarno - Medien patent verwaltung AG award Feinaki | Beijing Animation Week - Jury's choice award | DC Shorts Film Festival - Jury award - Outstanding animation | Anima - The Brussels International Animation Film Festival - Jury award | Corto Dorico Film Festival - IIK Ancona audience award | Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival - Grand Prix in International animated shorts competition Warsaw Animation Film Festival - Grand Prix - Professional competition NexT International Short and Medium-Lenght Film Festival - Best sound Art Film Fest Košice - Best short in International short films competition Carrefour de l'animation - Best short film Kaboom Animation Festival - KLIKxHAFF Festival - Best short | Festival du Film Court en plein air de Grenoble - Best script | KROK International Animated Film Festival - Best film in Films of 10-50 minutes competition | 3D Wire - Best European short film | SCAD - Savannah Film Festival - Best animation short film | La Guarimba Film Fest - Best animation | Oslo Independent Film Festival - Best animated short film | Champs Elysées Film Festival - Audience award for the Best French independent short film | ITFS - Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart - Special mention in International competition | Anibar Animation Festival - Special mention in International competition | Friss Hús - Budapest International Shortfilm Festival - Special mention - International competition | Festival International de Contis - Special jury mention in European short film competition | NOFF - New Orleans Film Festival - Special jury mention in Animated short films competition | Meknes prix du jury | Zubroffka mention spéciale | Beeston best animation | Epic ACG Fest | ARS INDEPENDENT in Katowice special mention | Contis, prix du jury | Balkanima special mention Produit par Emmanuel-Alain Reynal and Pierre Baussaron - Miyu Production Préachat Canal+ l CNC - Aide avant réalisation l CICLIC - aide à la production l Région Auvergne Rhône-Alpes - aide à la production l Département de la Drôme - aide à la production lValence Romans Agglo l Procirep-Angoa - Aide à la production Casting : Sophie Laine Diodovic Layout - Lucrèce Andreae Décors : Darshan Fernando Animation : Capucine Latrasse Rémi Schaepman Quentin Marcault Valentin Stoll Stagiaires Animation : Nan Huang Mathilde Roy Alexis Godard Elie Martens Ambre Texeira Paul Wasilewski Compositing : Mathieu Brisebras Montage : Albane Du Plessix Catherine Aladenise Montage son : Pierre Sauze Conseiller musical : Adélie Prod - Nathanaël Bergese Studio enregistrement voix : Entreprise Studio mixage son : Miroslav Pillon Laboratoire : Média Solution Assistante de production : Louna Colleuille Musiques : « MONTAGUES AND CAPULETS » Interprété par Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado ℗ 1997 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin Avec l’aimable autorisation d’Universal Music Publishing Film & TV « STABAT MATER DOLOROSA » Interprété Rinaldo Alessandrini Composé par Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Extrait de l’album « Stabat Mater») ℗ 2004 naïve, une division de Believe Avec l’aimable autorisation de Believe

[viralhottopics]

Traditional retail markets and the battle to stay afloat – BBC News

Media captionBBC News visits Kirkgate Market in Leeds

British markets are seen as a microcosm of the city or town in which they are based, encapsulating the diversity of communities and skills a place has to offer.

But with some being sold off due to their prime locations and others fighting for their existence due to the rise of discount supermarkets and online retailers, will generations to come be able to enjoy them?

BBC News has been to Kirkgate Market in Leeds, winner of “Britain’s Favourite Market” for the second year in a row, to find out how it is adapting to changing trends.

Among the 170 stall-holders, optimism for the future is mixed with serious concern about dropping footfall and the rising costs of renting floor space.

Near an entrance to the 1904 hall, with its glass roof and cast-iron balcony, sits North African and Middle Eastern food vendor Cafe Moor.

Owner Kada Bendaha set up his stand after a life-changing breakfast in the bustle of London’s Borough Market and its speciality food stands.

“The beauty of a market is you have that one-to-one contact, you build that relationship with your fishmonger or butcher,” he said.

“If you go to the fish section, there’s a gentleman there who has been there for 38 years, you go and ask him about a particular fish, he knows the business inside out.

“Go to a supermarket and you will have a student who is just working part time there, it’s not the same.”

Dating back to 1857, Kirkgate has became one of the largest indoor markets in Europe, selling fish, meat, fruit and vegetables, clothes, jewellery, haberdashery, flowers and hardware.

The booming voice of a butcher offering the day’s best prices still echoes down its walkways, although e-cigarette stands and racks of iPhone covers tick off some modern requirements.

It has been a turbulent time for the Leeds City Council-run market over the past couple of years, with temporary walls and scaffolding becoming a familiar sight during a 13.7m renovation.

Despite the council reducing rents during this period, stall-holders have complained of regulars becoming put off and heading elsewhere.

Yearly footfall at Kirkgate dropped significantly from 718,000 in 2014 to 628,000 in 2015, but the number rose again to 699,000 in 2016.

Leslie Burwell, of Whitaker’s Farmhouse Eggs, has worked in the market for 25 years in total.

She said: “It used to be heaving, you couldn’t move for people down the aisles, there was an atmosphere with people shouting.

“They’ve taken all of the shops out of one section and made a big wide open space – they have spent millions of pounds and have nothing to show for it.”

Kashif Ali Raja, who recently took over Spice Corner, said he was positive despite widespread change.

He said: “When you start a business, you have to work really hard. There’s early mornings, working late.

“We sell seeds, fresh vegetables, things which are very difficult to find in Leeds, this is the only place you can get it.

“I don’t think recent changes have made any difference, because the regular customers are the same, they will always come.”

The outdoor section of Kirkgate, with its fruit stalls, luggage-sellers and flea market, is where Michael Marks opened his Penny Bazaar, leading to the founding of Marks & Spencer in 1890.

The patch now sits a stone’s throw away from the newly-opened 42,000 sq m Victoria Gate complex, a 165m retail development featuring a flagship John Lewis store.

Leeds City Council wants the market to be able to take advantage of the expected increase in shoppers in the area, but not everyone feels it will make a difference.

Julie Carr has worked in the outdoor section for 35 years and now sells second-hand toys and collectables at her stall.

She said: “The new John Lewis has made no difference to us, I don’t think their customers and ours are connected at all.

“My theory is in 20 years there will be no shops, no markets, everything will be online and people will say ‘I remember when we used to go to the market’ – and they’ve gone.”

The market’s 1976 Hall has seen the most significant change, with the space transformed into a brightly-coloured communal seating area, where established “street food” traders have decided to set up permanently.

A rotating schedule of craft fairs, live music and kids’ entertainment is used to draw people in, with long tables encouraging those new to the market to get chatting to those who have been regulars for decades.

One of the new food traders is the Yorkshire Wrap Company, selling hot meals wrapped up in a Yorkshire pudding.

Michael Pratt, who runs the stall, said: “First impressions are good, word of mouth seems to be getting out about the new food hall area.

“It’s bringing a lot of different faces into the market, people who maybe wouldn’t have usually come here.”

He added: “Markets give a sense of community and the ability to get everything under one roof, great produce for great prices. I think they’re going from strength to strength.”

Down in the basement of the top end of the market, Brian Bettison has been providing haircuts since 1982. He said rents for stalls had gone “up and up and up”.

He said: “They’ve had numerous different ways of doing it through the years, it was measured on square footage, it was zoned into the most desirable areas.

“Everyone now has different agreements with the markets, nobody will let you know, they will keep it to themselves.”

What do the shoppers think?

Anna Woollett, 30, from Meanwood in Leeds: “I buy all of my fruit and vegetables from here, because I like to buy food fresh and it’s far better quality than in supermarkets and lower prices. It’s a really big part of my life. If I had to move to another city, one of the first things I would check out is if there’s a decent market.”

Maurice Collinson, 81, from Beeston, Leeds: “I’d like to see more stalls come in but they can’t afford them as the prices are going up all the time. I’ve been coming here all of my life and it’s a beautiful building, the top half is really what it used to be, it’s really good.”

Paul Eccles, 50, from York, said: “The international food here is fantastic, stuff from north Africa, Asia, it’s great. I’m from Blackburn originally and the market has shut down and it has killed the town centre, it’s important they invest in them.”

Close to where the indoor market meets the outdoor section, Cheryl Murtheh has been selling cosmetics for 16 years.

She said: “They’re giving cheaper rent to newcomers coming in, but they should lower the rents of people who have been here a long time.

“What happens to the people who have been keeping you going for years, shouldn’t they be entitled to something as well?”

According to the National Association of British Market Authorities, from 2009 to 2016 the number of market traders in the UK dropped from approximately 55,000 to 32,000.

The recession has been highlighted as a key reason for this, although there is some evidence the sector as a whole has started to turn a corner.

The National Market Traders Federation (NMTF) said traditional retail markets currently have a collective annual turnover of 2.7bn, with the figure increasing by 200m year on year since 2013.

Like Kirkgate, several markets across the UK are adapting to modern trends to cater for younger shoppers.

Many have introduced hot food areas, improved their branding, have extended opening hours and provided free wi-fi.

Joe Harrison, chief executive of the MNTF, said: “It’s easy to follow trends, but five years down the line you may realise you’ve got nothing.

“They need to make sure careful steps are taken to keep them popular with the next generation, but it needs to have that social value, dealing with every demographic rather than focusing on one specific thing as it’s currently the most economically viable.”

Leeds City Council said visitor numbers were now “on the up” since the refurbishment, with the number of vacant units “also reduced significantly”.

A spokeswoman said: “We recognise that there is still some way to go but we are very optimistic that more and more visitors will continue to discover the traditional charm combined with the new modern areas that Kirkgate has to offer.”

Clearly the market has reached a key moment in its history, with bold decisions about the site’s future use being made.

While serving up mint teas and chicken shawarmas to lunchtime customers at his food stand, Mr Bendaha said: “This is not just a full-time job, it’s a lifestyle and it’s a big part of the city.

“Hopefully it will never die.”

Related Topics

Leeds

Read more: http://bbc.in/2lae39f

from Traditional retail markets and the battle to stay afloat – BBC News