Mdina, Malta

Information about Mdina here.

Some photos from our visit.

The Accountant

A young boy who is on the Autism spectrum is pushed by his military father to toughen up for adulthood. Gifted with numbers, the boy grows up to become an accountant with a sideline in criminal associations.

'The Accountant' is a fast paced action thriller featuring a convoluted plot that I never quite got to grips with. Mostly interesting, frequently violent and in the end somewhat perplexing.

A Robin Hood accountant? Perhaps but I'm still not sure.

★★1/2

Bridge

Tonight, 43.52%, 11/13

The Light in the Piazza

Life Like Company

The Life Like Company staged a short season in Melbourne of 'The Light in the Piazza' a musical based on the movie which itself was based on a novel by Elizabeth Spencer.

In the post World War 2 era, a mother takes her young daughter on a holiday to Florence where she meets and falls in love with a young Italian.

The musical was originally staged on Broadway in 2005 and won 6 Tony awards from 11 nominations but it seems that the work has not been widely staged otherwise.

There are some lovely moments in this musical which at times borders on operatic. This production is quite simple but effective and the local cast is outstanding.

★★★1/2

Bridge

Tonight, 50.15%, 5/8

A Flea in Her Ear

Sydney Theatre Company

French farces are a dicey prospect. They are silly by nature and they rely on spilt second timing from performers and a general suspension of belief from audiences.

The Sydney Theatre Company is staging 'A Flea in Her Ear'. The work is more than a century old but this adaptation, whilst retaining its period, is peppered with 21st century language to deliver a contemporary sense of comedy.

Two women of society set a trap for the husband of one of them to elicit proof of their belief that he is having an affair.

The first act sets up the situation and establishes the various characters. The second act provides the farce with mistaken identities, mistaken understandings and general foolishness.

The second act felt a little drawn out to me but otherwise this piece of froth provided plenty of laughs.

Faith Healer

Belvoir Street Theatre

'Faith Healer' is essentially a performance piece rather than a narrative play. There are three performers. Each appears solo on stage and between them they perform four monologues; three of which are about half an hour in length.

The three characters are an Irish faith healer, his wife/girlfriend and their manager. They speak about the faith healer's days presenting his healing performance, the couple's relationship and the relationships between the three of them.

I usually find such solo performances trying; my concentration simply doesn't hold but in this instance the performances are superb. The manager's monologue (performer Pip Miller) is particularly memorable.

★★★1/2

The Girl on the Train

A woman travelling to and from work by train every day fantasises about the lives of residents in the houses she passes. When she observes what looks to be an abduction and possible murder she sets out to discover what happened but her recollections appear unreliable, even self incriminatory.

If, like me, you read the book on which 'The Girl on the Train' is based before seeing the film then any element of surprise about the explanations for what transpires is gone. What is left is a rather grey, dour movie minus much of the personal detail about the lives of the main protagonists. Emily Blunt doesn't really match the book's description of Rachel, the principal character, but despite that disadvantage makes a fair attempt at the character reinforcing my favourable impressions of her acting capacity.

★★★

St Julian's Bay

Malta reminded me somewhat of Sydney with pride in its harbour and life centred around its glittering sun drenched bays.

This one is St Julian's Bay.

Bridge

Tonight, 38.07%, 14/15

Wilted spinach

There is a news item today that scientist have 'invented' spinach that can be used as a bomb detection device. The spinach wilts when in proximity to bomb devices.

And it is not even 1 April!

Trick? Treat?

Halloween seems to be a thing now; at least in Sydney's eastern suburbs where I live. Ghoulish house decorations are increasingly the go and parents/guardians are taking to the streets before sunset with their little darlings in tow each holding a bucket for all those treats they hope to collect. I gather that is the aim.

I don't know why parents would feel that extorting loads of lollies from neighbours and strangers is a desirable activity for their children but there you go. Commercialism and marketing trump sense.

Here is one of my neighbourhood residences dressed to kill for the evening.

My Fair Lady

Opera Australia is currently staging 'My Fair Lady' celebrating the musical's 60th anniversary. The production is directed by Dame Julie Andrews.

I saw OA's previous production (about ten years ago?) which was very good and wasn't intending to see this one until friends told me how much they enjoyed it.

I agree with them.

This is a magnificent production. The staging, the sets, the costumes, the performances, indeed every aspect of this production shines. Alex Jennings (Professor Higgins), Reg Livermore (Alfred Doolittle) and Robin Nevin (Mrs Higgins) are outstanding in the ensemble cast.

★★★★★

Valletta streets

More images from Malta's capital.

Somewhere.....

....just now

In front of my apartment

Keeping Up With The Joneses

A sleepy suburban community is dewy eyed at the arrival of the Joneses, a couple too perfect to be true. Their neighbour (Australia's Isla Fisher) smells a rat and sets out to discover the truth.

Fisher is the most interesting performer in 'Keeping Up With The Joneses'; a comedy with occasional laughs that misses the mark more often than not.

★★

St John's Co-Cathedral Valletta

Information about the Cathedral here.

Snowden

'Snowden' relates the background and events leading to Edward Snowden's release of thousands of classified documents from the United States' National Security Agency.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is quite brilliant in the title role, an assessment confirmed by the appearance of the real Snowden at the end of the film. Although the subject matter feels a little dry at times, with so much technical dialogue employed, the film remains interesting throughout.

Quite thought provoking.

★★★★

Bridge

Tonight, 39.43%, 12/14

Valletta

Information about Valletta, the capital city of Malta, here. Some photos from our visit.

The entrance to the old city under restoration

Municipal buildings designed by Renzo Piano

Old buildings, new uses

Republic Street

President's Square (I think)

Narrow, hilly streets

Bridge

Tonight, 39.42%, 8/8

Mr Blogger and Mr Apple - Please get together

I'm having great difficulty downloading photos or images into blog posts. I suspect it has something to do with macOS Sierra, the latest operating system for Mac Books, which I downloaded on my return from overseas this week.

I am mightily pissed off having wasted considerable time today trying to get back into blogging for no benefit.

If anyone from Blogger.com or from Apple notices this complaint would you please provide help or better still fix the frigging problem.

Any readers who can help are welcome to provide comment or advice to this post.

In the meantime consider me off the air from Blogger until further notice. Friends can find me on Facebook.

Bridge

Tonight, rusty after a month away, 42.50%, 11/12

Where was I?

Ok, to start off with I was in Malta. We rented three apartments between the six of us (two per apartment) in Gzira/Sliema a fifteen minutes or so bus trip from the old city of Valetta.

The view from our apartment

Malta is a bit like Sydney. Proud of its harbour and clinging to its many seaside bays. There was immense daily water traffic just down the road from this position. Commuter and tourist ferries in particular.

Our first sunrise in Malta

In forthcoming days I'll post photos from this trip which included Sicily and Rome after Malta.

Where am I?

I haven't abandoned my blog.

I am holidaying in Malta, Sicily and Rome. I will resume blogging from about 18 October after my return to Australia.

Here's a photo to be going on with.

The view from our apartment in Gzira, Malta

Bridget Jones's Baby

It says more about me than the movie that the most annoying thing for me about 'Bridget Jones's Baby' is the superfluous 'S' that follows the apostrophe in the title. Renee Zellweger's mannered English accent in the early scenes comes a close second.

Our love's lost heroine falls pregnant but does not know which of the two possibles is the child's father. From such a slim premise the result is a predictably silly and familiar, yet quite entertaining, film.

If this is the last film in this series it will have the rare privilege of completing a movie franchise on a high note.

★★★1/2

Spin Out

I think a film about Bachelor and Spinsters Balls, an Australian rural curiosity, would be interesting especially in documentary form where the participants and activities would be a source of interest for many.

'Spin Out' is a fictional account of such a ball in which perhaps inevitably the participants and their activities have been turned into caricatures. Because the film focuses on the extreme there are humorous and gross moments but not a lot of balance.

Some funny moments but a missed opportunity.

★★1/2

Barefoot in the Park

Ensemble Theatre

Neil Simon's play 'Barefoot in the Park' is fifty-seven years old. It depicts a young married couple setting up their first home in a tiny, walk up, New York apartment only days into their marriage. The wife's mother and an eccentric free loading Lothario of a neighbour complete the major characters.

It is very much a comedy of its time and I doubt it could sensibly be staged in a 21st Century setting without a complete reconstruction. This production keeps to its time. That's a brave thing as dated comedy can die an embarrassing death. The company and the performers are rewarded for their bravery in this Ensemble Theatre production by delivering an entertaining rendition of the work.

It won't have hurt that most of the audience at the performance we attended were of an age to remember our own experience of the times.

★★★1/2

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Sydney Theatre Company

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' is one of William Shakespeare's most popular plays and a compulsory text during my high school studies. Not that I remember it that well, apart from fairies, mechanicals, Kings and Queens and delightful character names like Puck and Bottom.

I saw the first preview of this current production by the Sydney Theatre Company and was somewhat unnerved when the Director took the stage before 'curtain up' to announce that this was the first ever full run through. If there was a need to pause the performance we were urged to talk amongst ourselves until the performance recommenced. Evidently there was no full run through during the rehearsal period. Maybe that is the usual case but I would have assumed there would usually be a complete run through at some point before presenting a work to the public.

Anyway, the night went off beautifully. A sparse set totally black apart from a white stage and white trim at the bottom of the three walls surrounding it. The performance commencing with, of all things, 'Summertime' from George Gershwin's 'Porgy and Bess'. That is probably a first for Shakespeare.

The performers were very energetic. I can't recall ever seeing as much hectic full speed running back and forth across a stage but then I suppose this is an Olympic year.

The cast drew full comedic value from the play within a play final moments.

Not a traditional presentation but very entertaining especially towards the end.

★★★1/2

Sunday in the park

Centennial Park during my walk today

Don't Breathe

Three youths who spend their time breaking into and robbing houses they learn about from a rogue security company worker decide to target the home of vision impaired returned war veteran who is believed to be hoarding a fortune in compensation money. Thinking that the break in should be a formality the three find fierce resistance.

On the face of it, the general plot of 'Don't Breathe' sounds suspiciously similar to the 1967 hit 'Wait Until Dark' in which Audrey Hepburn was the blind victim.

What starts out as a pedestrian by-the-numbers thriller takes several unexpected turns - and aren't they best type of turns for a thriller? - to rise above the mundane.

I'm probably quibbling by suggesting that the blind veteran is perhaps a little too adept at re-securing his house in the face of repeated assaults and that Dylan Minnette displays an impressively wide range of surprised and shocked looks.

The violence level by the end was higher than I would prefer but for thriller/horror aficionados this one is better than the average.