I know this great little place in Frankfurt is LIVE and running

So, it took waaaaay longer than expected, but finally 'I know this great little place in Frankfurt' is up and running on facebook. I have posted some of the nicest little places and events that I could think of for the moment, and I hope that they won't stay single on that page for very long but instead get many many new siblings. Current question is what sushi restaurants / good places to go for sushi in Frankfurt people can recommend. So if you know a good place for that kind of food, I encourage you to go there and leave your comment. Ah, wait, the most important thing is still missing - the address. Here it is.

The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Mark Mineart: an Esoc Theatre and FEST production - review from echo-online.de translated into English

I had the pleasure of watching what I find is probably one of the best plays that have ever been written on the  stage of the International Theatre Frankfurt last weekend, and I must say it exceeded my expectations! 'The Importance of Being Earnest', directed by Mark Mineart, is now being performed in Darmstadt and Wiesbaden as well and I strongly recommend it to anyone who can still get tickets! 

There has been a review of one of the Darmstadt shows on echo-online.de which I felt obliged to translate into English and post here so that a wider range of people can find out about the show as it is itself performed in the one language every Oscar Wilde play should be performed in due to the remarkable beauty of its language: English.

taken from Echo online, 12th February 2011   

translated into English by me

Attitude, or countenance, is the main thing

Comedy: two theatre groups perform Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at Hoffart in Darmstadt.

Witty hedonists: Mike Marklove (left) as Jack Worthing, Harald Schoppe as Algernon Moncrieff. 

Picture taken by Günther Jockel

Dates

The performance this Saturday (12^th) at the Hoffart-Theater is already sold out. The play will be performed coming Friday and Saturday (Feb 18 and 19) at the Amelia Earhart Playhouse Wiesbaden, Konrad-Adenauer-Ring 39, though. Performance times are 7:30 p.m.on both days; the box office can be reached under 0611 8162473. The next production of the Esoc Theatre Group will be shown at the Hoffart-Theater in May: ‘Die Physiker’ by Friedrich Dürrenmatt.

Being an Irishman, Oscar Wilde observed England from an Irish perspective in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, a British member of the audience explains in bright English accent during one of the intervals of Thursday’s sold out performance at the Hoffart-Theater. The Esoc Theatre Group and the Frankfurt English Speaking Theatre are performing what is probably Wilde’s most known comedy as a co-production in English language. And even as the audience member’s statement might sound a bit contemptible she cannot help smiling to herself about all the moments in which Wilde holds the mirror up to the English society of the Victorian Age. For the German member of the audience, these moments seem to confirm flawless clichés, for example when the butler Lane’s first action on stage consists of pushing the silver tea set into the correct position in an almost affectionate manner. Lane himself seems to be a blueprint of the British servant: displaying a deadpan expression, a humble attitude, and entirely under control. He is sure to get loud laughter. His employer, Algernon Moncrieff (Harald Schoppe) is a man-about-town. In order to flee the burden of being a gentleman he has invented the ailing Bunbury as his alter ego. His pal Jack Worthing (Mike Marklove) has created a second existence for himself as well in order to turn his back on country life: in town he visits his brother Earnest who he impersonates there. When Algernon visits the country one day to play a joke on Jack the roleplay is discovered.

Directed by Mark Mineart, the ensemble succeeds very well in portraying the often satirically trenchant behaviour and character patterns of the English society on the threshold to the 20^th century.  The actors relish in their characters’ shallow conversation and accompany their cup of tea with faces grinning like a Cheshire Cat. And when everyone’s true colours are shown it is vital to keep countenance and drink tea – even though it has been drowned in sugar.

A real stunner is the performance of Bobbie Lording-Pfanner as Lady Augusta Bracknell. A British Grand Dame, she radiates a wonderfully accentuated aristocratic arrogance. When talking she cranes upwards with rapt attention and follows her words narcissistically. In that moment, every single muscle in her face seems to be active: her lips form a smugly curve, her eyebrows are pulled upwards. Even Joan Collins as Denver-minx Alexis couldn’t be any more arrogant and trenchant even though her acting (Joan Collins’s; note by translator) was a lot worse.

The only member of the Esoc-Theatre in the ensemble is Melanie Zander as Miss Prism. She wears an elegantly flowing robe with implied corsage, as do all other actresses. A gentle and subtle head of the household, she stays inconspicuous at first but keeps a secret about Algernon and Jack, the disclosure of which will cause amazement.

frankfurt's got art in the streets

 I was on a small shooting tour yesterday (shooting pictures, no casualties involved), trying to discover what my neighbourhood looks like from a closer perspective, and i found a couple of interesting street art samples, whether they are graffitti or stickers or posters or of other kind. to some of the pictures i've done some editing so have included myself in them as well.

it always depends on how you look at things...

 

                                   

all pictures taken by me

Henning Goetzke

morning coffee

Henning Goetzke | Myspace Music Videos

henning goetzke is an artist on the guitar. watch him play. i never know how exactly he manages to get all these wonderful tunes out of his instrument.

i enjoy his songs with vocals immensely too. go and listen to them on his myspace-page

I know this great little place in Frankfurt

'The mission behind our company is to try and help people discover the greatest little places in their cities, through personal recommendations, which often go undiscovered.' Rossa & Rich from The GLP Team

it all started with a page about all the great little places in london. one day  when i was still living in london, i happened to discover this wonderful facebook page where so many people were sharing what they thought to be great little places in their town and which they wanted others to know about to share their experience. i immediately fell in love with the idea.

when i moved back to frankfurt a little later, the whole thing very much lost itself among so many other tasks and experiences that would come up in my new hometown, even though from time to time i would visit their page just to find out about new london recommendations and be reminded of my time there.

last thursday night, i stumbled over their page again, and the idea came to my mind that it would be wonderful to have such a thing about my now-hometown as well, knowing that i had had talk of that kind before  with many people from here who were all very fond of the idea to share their very own little favourite places with others and not only depend on city guides or the like to find new venues to relax, go out, enjoy themselves and have a great time. i had only never related these two facts in my mind.

after a bit of research i found out the email address of the start-up company that has created all these 'i know this great little place in...'- pages for various cities, and contacted them.

and guess what: they wrote back, telling me they only launch pages for cities after they have had someone interested from a new town asking about the idea in order to grow organically. and apparently i was the first person from frankfurt to go as far as to write them.

the result: from next week onwards we will have a page called 'I know this great little place in Frankfurt', administered by Rossa and Rich, and myself :) isn't that wonderful!

so now i encourage everyone from the rhein-main area to share their favourite little places and find out about where others enjoy spending their free time, and help and make this community grow!

once the page is up and running, i will post the adress here...