Jerome Parisse's Blog, page 4

Love and Light published in the US

Love and Light was published in the US in 2012 in  The Best Ten Minute Plays, 2011 – edited by Lawrence Harbinson
 




Love and Light is one of my most successful plays. Here’s a short synopsis:

Tania’s deceased husband has left her with bills to pay, no job and no idea where he stashed the money. Will consulting a Psychic provide her with the answer she seeks?

The book can be bought on Amazon.com
First Published: 2012
Publisher: Smith and Kraus
ISBN: 978-1-57525-782-2

Published by Smith & Kraus, 2011 (THE BEST TEN-MINUTE PLAYS 2011)

Produced for Ten in 10, Shepparton, Australia, July 20112008

Produced for Short & Sweet Malaysia 2008, Judges’ choice, best runner-up actor (male and female)

Produced for Short & Sweet Melbourne 2008

Produced for “Eight-in-a-Box”, Drama Centre Black Box, Singapore 2009

Produced for Favourite Shorts 2009, Armidale, NSW (WINNER)

Produced for Short and Sweet Sydney 2009

Produced for SHOWOFF!, San Juan Capistrano, California, 2009

Produced for 10 Min Madness Festival, San Diego, 2009

Produced for Pint-Sized Plays 2009 (UK)

Produced for PLAYTIME @ World Bar 2010 (Sydney)

Produced at the Otterbein University in Columbus (Westerville), Ohio, May 2010

Broadcast on audiobookradio.net, May 2010

 

War Horse – the show

War Horse has made it to Melbourne!

After being premiered in London in 2007 , War Horse went on to win a number of awards including two Laurence Olivier Awards and five Tony Awards. It has been played at London’s National Theatre, the West End’s New London Theatre and New York’s Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Centre. And it has just hit Melbourne.

War Horse – the show – is based on a book by Michael Morpurgo. I have not read the book, but I have seen the movie by Steven Spielberg. The story is about Joey, the horse, and Albert, the boy who raises him. A strong bond develops between the two and Albert is heart-broken when his father sells Joey to the British cavalry at the outbreak of World War I. Joey is then shipped to France where he is caught up in enemy fire and goes through a number of terrible adventures between German and British troops. Amazingly, Albert who could not forget Joey and has enlisted, manages to find the horse and bring him home. Okay, the story is a bit lame, but it does captivate the mind. It’s not a light story, the movie itself is very graphic, and so is the show. One thing that kept bothering me is how much time is spent weeping over the horse when hundreds of thousands of soldiers are being killed – often in horrible circumstances – around him. I know that this is the story, but it is at the same time a little disturbing. There are differences between the movie and the show, the story takes shortcuts in the show, but that’s to be expected, and sometimes it’s even outright different. I have not read the book, so I don’t know what the original story is like.

War Horse is quite the spectacle. I was amazed at the life-size puppets, created by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company. They are totally amazing and look eerily real. It was wonderful to see those horses on stage and you quickly forget they are puppets. The way the ears move, the shiny eyes, the tail, the limbs, it’s all wonderful, really. If anything, that’s just worth going to see. The horses even gallop on stage! It was breathtaking. I found the second part too dark for my liking, but it’s all about the war after all. The episode with the French girl is puzzling – I found it lacked clarity in the show and didn’t add much. The casting was interesting, as the French girl is black in the show, and her mother white, so you have to assume the father was black – a very common thing nowadays (Thank God) but very unusual in 1915, especially in the Somme region. I can’t help wonder what the original girl was like in the book, does anyone know? Of course, the accents are fake (I, for one, can tell!) but they help wonderfully when the French, the British and the Germans are talking to each other. All together, a great show.

Here’s the movie trailer:

Review of The Sinner, by Tess Gerritsen

I’m back after a year off blogging! Too many things happening at home: a house move, a new job requiring all my energy, constant travelling for work, it was all a bit much, so I decided to let my blog rest. I have been busy though, and have read many books and continued to watch movies and discover new places. I’ll tell  you more in posts to come.

My first post for 2013 is a review of The Sinner, by Tess Gerritsen. I discovered Gerritsen two years ago and have since read many of her novels, in particular those featuring Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli. Isles is Boston’s Medical Examiner and Rizzoli is a detective. They form an interesting duo, one of them a cold-headed woman, the other as strong-headed as the other one is cold. The Sinner is one of the earlier novels in the series. Each book stands alone and you don’t have to know the personal lives of the main characters to enjoy the fast-paced, sometimes gruesome crime stories that have made Gerritsen famous. In the Sinner, two nuns are brutally murdered – when it turns up that one of them recently gave birth, things turn ugly. Good plot, arresting characters, good pace. What I found interesting in reading The Sinner after having read many of Gerritsen later instalments is the difference in the author’s writing and in how she treats her subject. The first thing I quickly noticed is that her writing wasn’t then quite as slick as it is now. Not the style or choice of words (Gerritsen is good at triggering images in your mind) but the way she described her characters’ personal lives was a little heavy-handed in this novel. Instead of underpinning the story, I found it was sometimes in your face – we were either in the story or in the character’s personal dilemmas, not in both at the same time. To me, her recent novels show better skills in mixing the plot with the characters’ lives. She’s also more subtle, and it works well. Don’t get me wrong, Gerritsen’s early Isles and Rizzoli’s books are excellent, always exhibiting an arresting plot and fast pace. I have another one of hers to read in my pile and I look forward to reading it.

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a safe, happy and prosperous New Year! Gott nytt år! Bonne année! Ein gutes neues Jahr! 新年快乐! Feliz ano novo! Feliz año nuevo! あけまして　おめでとう　ございます! 

Melancholia

I knew from the very first images of Melancholia, the 2011 movie written and directed by , that it wasn't going to be me. The premise is interesting though: two sisters, one deeply depressed, coming to terms with (bad) family issues while a planet called Melancholia threatens to hit and destroy Earth. The end of the world. Two parts in the film, each one focussing on one of the sisters. A weird family. Illness, depression, and then nothing. Even if the story is interesting, it failed to grab me, maybe because not much happens (except, I suppose, the end of the world, which is in fact quite a lot!) or maybe because the atmosphere of the movie is  suffocating. And with two hours and ten minutes, it is long. By the way, it's got a stellar cast, Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Ramping, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Gainsbourg… wow. But I expected more.

The Women on the 6th Floor

In the 60′s in Paris, a very conservative couple is faced with a group of Spanish maids who live on the 6th (and last) floor of the building owned by the very same couple. A new maid turns up to work for the couple, and their lives take a new turn… This 2010 comedy/love story by  is a classic clash of classes. Of course it is one of the best material that exists for comedy, and this one is no exception. It has however deeper moments. You have to know Paris well to realise that the sixth floor of Hausmann buildings was a series of tiny rooms with no running water (and often no heating) sharing one toilet, and which was where the maids lived. These maids were not allowed to use the lift, which didn't reach their floor anyway. Nowadays these "maid rooms" are rented by students or those who can't afford larger apartments. I have fond memories of parties on the 6th floor – I actually owned and lived in one of those rooms myself for a few years. "The Women on the 6th Floor" is a good film: funny, never boring, at times tender and beautiful, and so very French – but with a good plot. I think it is one of those very good, low-key French films. I'm not fond of , the main character, but it worked for me this time. Five stars.

Some of my neighbours…

There is a range of creatures living in the park next to our place… possums, kookaburras, parrots, as well as the below cockatoos and flying foxes (fruit bats). My New Caledonian friends love the fruit bats too…. for lunch or dinner! Here in Australia they are a protected species. I did have one for dinner once in Vanuatu, and I think it is safe to say that it also was the last time. I love them, they are beautiful (although you should never park your car under a tree full of them if you don't want to see the paint disappear!).

Already Gone, by John Rector

Jake Reese, a University professor, is attacked by two thugs who cut one of his fingers, and then apologise. A few days later, his finger turns up in the post. You don't need to be psychic to know that not everything is right. The police is dragging their feet, and then his wife disappears before turning dead in mysterious circumstances. Jake decides to turn to a childhood acquaintance, Gabby, to find out what is happening. Jake knew he shouldn't do that – and his wife had told him so before disappearing – but it's too late. And it is something he may regret forever.

We've all read so-called page-turners, but "Already Gone" is one. Literally. It is a short novel, full of action and suspense, cliffhangers and twists. You will be eager to finish it as soon as you've started it. And it is sometimes a bit bloody, although not in a very graphic sense. I enjoyed the novel. Having said that, I was a tad disappointed by the ending – not that it wasn't right, it had all the ingredients to keep you on your toes, but I was expecting more I suppose. Maybe it is because the book is so full of twists that I wanted it to end with a big bang… Some of the characters' actions are also unrealistic at times, in a horror movie kind of way, but it works well. A very good read.

Walking the Talk

I've finally managed to read the book! Walking the Talk is a "how to" book, a methodology on managing large cultural change programs within an organisation. Culture change is usually seen as something fuzzy, something that can not be changed or embraced in the same way other enablers of a successful organisation can. But the same successful organisations have all been able to create a strong culture within their business. This book shows how to address culture and make it a key success factor of your business. It goes hand in hand with the "Walking the Talk" service offering (which my company offers) but can be used independently. It is full of practical advice, real-life examples, and tools to manage small and large culture change. I highly recommend it to HR and change management practitioners all over the world. The culture change reference manual.

In this video, the author, Carolyn Taylor, introduces her book:

Melbourne random snaps

Melbourne is an amazing place: sunny one second, freezing the next; full of architectural surprises; multicultural; hidden lane-ways; water and parks everywhere; and more importantly, a pleasure for the taste buds – there are so many restaurants and eateries that you wouldn't have enough a lifetime to try them all.