{"id":389,"date":"2016-01-06T13:48:05","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T13:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.staffs.ac.uk\/ecw\/?p=389"},"modified":"2016-02-01T19:55:36","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T19:55:36","slug":"lost-and-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.staffs.ac.uk\/ecw\/2016\/01\/06\/lost-and-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost and Found (II) – Arthur Berry"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday 16th<\/sup> December, Ray Johnson led a cast of actors at the Stoke Film\u00a0Theatre\u00a0in a reading of a previously unpublished play by Arthur Berry \u201cWhatever Happened to\u00a0Phoebe Salt\u201d. This drama, edited by Deborah McAndrew for the occasion, concerns the trials and tribulations of a local working-class girl who yearns for something beyond the confines of her class and sex. Discontent has prompted Phoebe to take employment as a showman\u2019s assistant and to string along two lovers (the dull but faithful childhood sweetheart and a more exciting married man \u2013 the local butcher). Incorporated in this sometimes farcical tragi-comedy is a tale of incest worthy of the ancient Greeks (Berry typically winks towards the classical while taking his own demotic road). In the end Phoebe\u2019s attempts to traduce her fate are apparently in vain as she suffers the consequence of playing the field and gets up the spout. Though not all the actors quite mastered the Potteries accent \u2013 a difficult one \u2013 they overcame\u00a0the issue of staging (or lack of it). A row of seated speakers in mufti is not promising; in fact full advantage was taken of the limited movement the arrangement allowed to realise a dynamic comic performance made easier, no doubt, by Berry\u2019s earthy lyricism.<\/p>\n

\"Stoke<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cStoke Moon\u201d (1994) by Arthur Berry<\/p>\n

The next evening \u201cJazz, Beer and Oatcakes\u201d was on at the Potteries Museum in Hanley. This was again led by Ray Johnson and inspired by another \u2018lost\u2019 recording of Arthur Berry by Arthur Wood: \u201cObsessed by Oatcakes\u201d (Radio Stoke, 1978). Oatcakes were indeed consumed, though the inevitable salad garnish was not, I would venture, quite in the spirit of a man so enamoured of stodge. Clips of Berry\u2019s peerless voice were interspersed with film clips, readings and songs from jazz ensemble Fine and Dandy. A certain amount of audience participation was the order of the day and the pre-Christmas crowd quite willingly raised voices and glasses to the not-too-difficult refrain \u201cOatcakes! Oatcakes!\u201d It was a jolly evening, another event to accompany the successful exhibition: \u201cLowry and Berry: Observers of Modern Life\u201d – now extended until January 17th!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday 16th December, Ray Johnson led a cast of actors at the Stoke Film\u00a0Theatre\u00a0in a reading of a previously unpublished play by Arthur Berry \u201cWhatever Happened to\u00a0Phoebe Salt\u201d. This drama, edited by Deborah McAndrew for the occasion, concerns the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":741,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.staffs.ac.uk\/ecw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.staffs.ac.uk\/ecw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.staffs.ac.uk\/ecw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.staffs.ac.uk\/ecw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/741"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.staffs.ac.uk\/ecw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.staffs.ac.uk\/ecw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.staffs.ac.uk\/ecw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.staffs.ac.uk\/ecw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.staffs.ac.uk\/ecw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.staffs.ac.uk\/ecw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}