Dr Serena Trowbridge

Category: Theatre

  • The Red Shoes

    The Red Shoes

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    Serena Trowbridge
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    The 1948 Powell and Pressburger film The Red Shoes is one of my favourites: it’s about obsession with art, particularly ballet, and has amazing dancing, sets and dramatic scenes which are unforgettable. It gave me nightmares when I first saw it as a teenager but I have watched it many times since. I’ve even painted old…

  • Romeo + Juliet

    Romeo + Juliet

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    Serena Trowbridge
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    Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures always provide an unexpected spin on a familiar story, and are always exciting. This is true of Romeo + Juliet (the plus sign in the title recalling Baz Lurhmann’s 1996 film, which I loved), where ‘Fair Verona’ becomes the ‘Verona Institute’, a secure place for young people with mental health problems – and…

  • Hobson’s Choice with Birmingham Royal Ballet

    Hobson’s Choice with Birmingham Royal Ballet

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    Serena Trowbridge
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    This week has seen the end of David Bintley’s time as director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, marked by a short run of one of his most popular works, Hobson’s Choice. I spent some of the evening reflecting on what ever made him choose this down-to-earth, comedic story of drunkenness, class anxiety and romance for a ballet…

  • Birmingham Royal Ballet: Unleashed

    Birmingham Royal Ballet: Unleashed

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    Serena Trowbridge
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    This week it was a pleasure to experience the work of three contemporary female choreographers with Birmingham Royal Ballet’s triple bill of ‘Lyric Pieces’, ‘Sense of Time’ and ‘Peter and the Wolf’. These were three very different works which represent some of the wonderful choreography by women today. The first, ‘Lyric Pieces’, with music by…

  • The Royal Ballet’s Don Quixote

    The Royal Ballet’s Don Quixote

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    Serena Trowbridge
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    It’s shocking that I’ve never read the novel, though I was always familiar with the story, but that didn’t matter for the Royal Ballet’s performance of Don Quixote. I saw it via the live screening (I love these – I can rarely make it to London for a performance) with my adult ballet class, and the…

  • Book Review: The Arts Dividend

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    Serena Trowbridge
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    I think a lot about the value of the arts. I’m interested in most art forms, from literature (well, obviously; I’m a lecturer in Eng Lit) to ballet, music to theatre. I’m aware, then, of the benefits of cultural life: of the pleasure it gives me to go to an exhibition, say, or to learn…

  • An Evening with M R James

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    Serena Trowbridge
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    I do like M. R. James’s stories. They are terrifying, though often perpetually obscure, and delight in the macabre and the terrifying. James (1862-1936) was an academic, a medievalist and bibliophile who spent much of his life at Cambridge, and most of that in libraries. There is an aura of the obscure, arcane dustiness around…

  • Othello – RSC Live Broadcast

    Othello – RSC Live Broadcast

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    Serena Trowbridge
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    Last night I went to the cinema to watch the live broadcast of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Othello. I think these live broadcasts are wonderful: though it’s not the same as being in the theatre, you do get some of the feeling of excitement whilst waiting for the play to start, and it’s more accessible and…