
Metamorphic
"In AD 17, Publius Ovidius Naso, the Roman poet Ovid, died in exile in the Black Sea port of Tomis (now Constanta in Romania.) He had offended the emperor, Augustus, for verses that may have touched on scandals in the imperial court, from which he was dismissed in AD 8. Famously grief-stricken, he burnt his manuscript of what would become one of the world's most celebrated anthologies of verse tales." This quote is from the introduction by the editors Nessa O'Mahony and Paul

Stephen Joseph at Scarborough
Late September in Scarborough I saw my first ever performance "in the round" Alan Ayckbourn's latest play: A Brief History of Women in his own direction in the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Since then I read Mr Whatnot - the original typed out ms, one of his first plays written for the round - a magical surrealistic comedy with a mute piano tuner as its hero. It was first performed in 1963 - experimental and I suppose revolutionary at its time - even today it would be enormously di