The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - Playing in the Abbey Theatre Dubli

This classic commentary on Victorian manners is given an excellent and surprising make over in this Connal Morrison adaptation of Wilde's most successful play.



The lead roles of Oscar Wilde and Lady Bracknall are played by the always brilliant Alan Stanford. His on stage transformation from Wilde to Lady Bracknall is hilarious (I especially loved Lady Bracknall's fabulous peacock hat!). The costumes are sumptious and it has to be said that the all male cast do them justice! The female characters of Gwendoline and Cecilly stole the show in my opinion. They were played with fabulous flippery and really brought the house down.



The Art Nouveau setting of the play is pretty and and engaging and is also deserving of a mention!

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory

This was my hangover film of choice this weekend as I didn't think I'd be able to handle anything very involved and I really love the original Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory not to mention all of Roald Dahl's books, so I mean how could it not be fun?

I did laugh a lot during the film which is a positive. Johnny Depp scared me as Wonka which is a negative. The Charlie kid was better than the original in terms of cuteness which is a positive. There was no Slugworth and moral lesson which was a negative. The Oompa Loompa was funny - positive. The songs were only ok. I just don't know if I liked the damn film or not?!

I think on the face of it and if I hadn't seen the original version a million times I would have liked it better, but that doesn't mean its a bad film. It's enjoyable and fun and silly and weird and its enjoyable. I just don't know if I liked it!

We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families

This book by Philip Gorevitch seeks to examine the truth behind the genocide which took place in Rwanda in the early to mid nineties. Most people are now aware that the truth is that there was a genocide taking place in this small African state right under the noses of the rest of the world and no- one lifted a finger to intervene or aid those who were being targeted on ethnic grounds. Like most people at the time my knowledge of the events in Rwanda was limited to Hutus good Tutsis bad. This it turns out was due to the misinformation and lies which were propogated by both the Hutu "government" and also by the French government. It was this intervention on the side of the Hutu killers by the French and the setting up of the so called Turquoise zone in which many of the remaining Tutsis who were surviving in that area were rounded up by the French in order to "protect" them only to find on their return that the people they were supposed to protect had been murdered by wandering Hutu Interhamwe.

This book gripped and shocked me in a profound way. It does not dwell in a lewd or grisly way on the facts of the genocide but at the same time it leaves you with a very clear image of what happened during 1994 in Rwanda.

For anyone who is interested in learning about the truth behind one of the most notorious and unreported series of mass killings to happen in recent times them I recommend this even handed and well written not to mention exhaustively researched book very highly.