John Shand Posts

August 20, 2014 / Album Reviews - Archive

Haveli (Yum Yum Tree)  What hits you first is the sound quality: play this loud and your neighbours will think a band is rehearsing in your living-room. This enchanting album was recorded in the Piramal Haveli, an exotic (and resonant!) century-old building in remote Bagar, India. There saxophonist Matt Keegan…

August 17, 2014 / Features - Archive

Sandra Bates will step down as Ensemble Theatre’s artistic director at the end of 2015, having clocked up 30 years in the job. Her successor, the current co-artistic director Mark Kilmurry, will be only the third incumbent since Hayes Gordon founded the company 1958. Bates is primarily quitting because she…

August 15, 2014 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Eternity Playhouse, August 12 Improvising musicians do it routinely: take a short motif and investigate all its possible convolutions, like looking at a gemstone from all angles. Playwright Nick Payne applies this device to his dazzling writing of Constellations. The one-act two-hander explores the relationship between Marianne (Emma Palmer) and…