In time I will be posting my own film and theatre reviews. For now I'd like to share some early memories and why films mean so much to me. The earliest memory of watching a film at the cinema, was when Mum and Dad took me and my siblings at the time to a double matinee presentation of Disney's The Jungle Book and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The experience overall was magical, however two child phobias were at play. The first, the dark, never use to like the dark it played too much with my imagination which would the entice nightmares to surface. The second, witches, didn't like witches or any manifestation of bad and evil. Often had nightmares throughout my early childhood that included witches; but its funny this also links in with my earliest memory of the theatre.
The Polka Theatre in South West London, was the destination for a school summer trip where we'd make our own shadow puppets during a drama workshop, followed by a production of Hansel and Gretel in the afternoon. I still can envision a witch flying on a broomstick above the stage, hiding away I didn't want to watch anymore, but was coaxed out again by a lovely grown-up who I suppose would today be considered a teaching assistant. Still at primary school, our school's feast day was marked by a dramatic dramatization of 'Sleeping Beauty'. A wobble board and strobe lighting provided the effects of lightening and thunder every time the evil one appeared. Fast forward a couple of years and my time as a St John Ambulance cadet would provide the occasional public duty at a west end production. This ignited my love for the theatre and not necessarily musical theatre.
At Secondary school covering Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, allowed a visit to Hammersmith in West London for a production of one of the greatest love stories. Now, I didn't always understand the use of language or what Shakespeare was trying to communicate, but I was still able to pick out and put together a plot to know what was going on. I returned to education and read Macbeth, thankfully by this point I was reasonably well read and it turns out my English had improved since 1994, so much so that I achieved a B grade.