Blog

My two favourite radio programmes: Desert Island Discs & Private Passions. Two days ago, I stood entranced in front of the radio listening to Marlon James’ rolling, ironic, bass voice reflecting on his journey towards emancipation and liberation on the personal and writing fronts. Essential listening for anyone struggling with the pressure of rejection, especially […]

This week, two programmes had a powerful impact on me. On Wednesday, BBC Radio Wales’ Eye on Wales put out a searing half-hour documentary on two of the last remaining Jewish women refugees in Wales, now aged 85 and 90, whose lives were saved when their parents put them on trains and into the care […]

On Monday, December 10th, I’m performing in THE RASPUTIN SHOW: an inter-generational cast including veterans of the alternative theatre movement and young performers, playing (at least) a cabaret performer, a posh woman and a government minister. Unfinished Histories present The Rasputin Show  by Michael Almaz: history as farce, fast-moving and topical. A staged reading of […]

Wishful thinking to remember that Tino Orsini played my Italian husband in Genova 1960, set in the shadow of Mussolini’s rantings. In fact, Tino reminds me that he played a hitman in a completely different film: Mercy, where I was not Italian, nor making pasta, not looking ever more demented but merely a determinedly sober-faced […]

A few years ago, I played Amalia, a careworn Italian housewife manically stirring a pasta sauce whilst her husband stripped down to vest and braces to step into a tin bath of hot water after a hard day at the factory. In the background, as the pasta sauce started flying and the husband began peddling […]