Plays that make you go Hmmm!!

The Changling A Jacobean Epic at The Lowry

I read a review in my local paper about a Jacobean Revenge drama written in 1622 by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. It is sexually explicit as well as violent and mixes the two with tragic effect.

Set in Roman Catholic Spain, the play centres around a love triangle. The aristocratic Beatrice-Joanna is in Love with Alsemero, but her controlling father wishes her to marry well to Alsono de Piracquo. DeFlores (the deflowerer) is in love with his Masters daughter who is reviled by his scars and deformity.

Hardly surprising then that this love sick man servant will do anything to help out Beatrice and murders her future husband. She tries to pay him in gold and rid him from the court, but DeFlores decides he will take his payment in kind. 

Initially she finds her predicament intolerable, until Deflores murders again for her and she realises this man is the love of her life, because he will do anything to protect her and their secret. Needless to say her newly wedded hubby Alsemero grows suspicious and challenges them both with quite horrific consequences.... I was sat near the front of the stage and I thought I was to be sprayed with blood when Beatrice gave her dramatic dying speech before flopping dead onto the boards!

I won't give everything away as I think it should be something that every discerning theatre boff should see at some point in their lives. I can see why critics hail it as the greatest tragedy in English Theatre since Shakespeare. Personally I just wanted to see how how explicit the sex scenes were!!!

Someone Who Will Watch Over Me - Manchester Library Theatre

This was an incredibly thought provoking play about three men, one English, one Irish and an American who had been kidnapped and held captive in Beirut by terrorists. The stage set was nothing but a cell and all three were chained to the walls and sat on nothing but a grubby mat as they attempted to come to terms with their predicament.

At first the Irish character tried to deal with the situation through humour, whilst the American found solace in the bible and the most recently captured hostage, the Englishman, lived in denial that there had been a huge mistake and they had the wrong man!

I sat in the audience, with an uncomfortable feeling of laughing at some of the jokes in such awkward and difficult circumstances and I'm sure I wasn't the only person there thinking "How would I cope in such a situation?" I asked myself that question so often afterwards that I finally wrote a book searching for a protaganist who could deal with abduction, hostage and rehabilitation of of such horrifying experiences. The Betrayal will be published soon...

The play however did have it's surreal moments as the three men embarked on an imaginary journey flying through the air, free as bird, chitty chitty bang bang kinda moment... Twas odd! But the final part was very difficult to deal with, as one is executed, another freed and the third left all alone in the cell wondering what will happen to him. Despite the seriousness of the play I have to say it is still one of the best I have ever seen.

Some Of The Best Festivals EVER! - Part Two - Glastonbury

Festival season is upon us and I thought I'd look up my old blog and remember with fond memories the summer I attended Glastonbury. As it was such an amazing festival I felt it deserved a full blog all of it's own.

What a blast! I can now tick off another ambition acheived off my "before I turn 40 list"! The festival of all festivals. We arrived Thursday afternoon and we were very fortunate to have friends who had already pitched up our tent on Pennard Hill Camp, which was the best field (personal opinion) for camping, because as the heavens opened our tents remained mud free due to us camping on a slant.

Although we did have trouble finding our tent the first night there. 




Too many lagers whilst still getting your bearings in 900 acres of farmland and sharing this space with 137,000 other revellers is not congenial to finding a Orangy/brown two man tent. I had visions of propping myself up on a hedgerow all night, like the poor bastard dressed in just his boxers and green wellies who had clearly over done it on the pear cider, uppers and downers all in one sitting. Boy I bet he had a hangover the next day. (Enjoying a beer, thats toilet paper wrapped around my head, because I had left my bandana back at the tent.)We went to see The Beat in the Leftfield tent that night, as there wasn't much else on, but I did begin to get my reggae type stomp down to a tea by the end of the show.


I also faced my worse fears after four cans of lager. The dreaded portaloos. Now I have spent the last few years at concerts and festivals, working my way up to the biggy. And my affiliation with the portaloo has grown up with me. I went to Reading Festival and refused to go on anything except a porcelain flushing pot. Then at V Festival last year I had no choice but to use the plastic cabin loos. I could cope with this as they did keep them well stocked with toilet roll and sanitary hand cleaners and you couldn't see what anyone else had disposed of. I thought I was doing really well until I saw The Green Glastonbury Crappers. 

Dear Lord! Now I know when I said to the gang, I was going to Christen the toilet for my first Glastonbury pee, everyone shouted back, "What ever you do don't look down!" Of course I couldn't resist. Well! I have never seen anything like it. Some abnormal creature had left a dump the size of an elephant shit. No human could possibly pass such solid without abnormal bowel movements and a serious dose of piles to boot.

Saturday: My Festival Buddy, suggested we go off shopping on our own to find suitable Saturday Glastonbury attire for one another. So with my £10 in hand I went off in search of a fantastic outfit, unique. We met up a few hours later and decided to sink a few beers in the Queens Head Marquee whilst singing along to the "Sony Kareoke machine doo dah thingy majig!" Oh I don't know what it was called. Lots of drunk people got up and sang songs!!

Then we headed back to camp to prepare ourselves for the gift swap and dressing up in really mad clothes just for one night only!
This is what Rich bought me.

I think I look pretty spiffing as a Boho Hippy Glasto Chick!

This was my masterpiece! I even did his makeup. I have decided that as a creative person, I may diversify into the world of Live Human Art. This Creation I am going to call ""THE HIDDEN MAN""
Someone actually complimented me on the look citing it to be Soooo Avant Garde!!! Likkle old me!
We also decided to do a spot Freelance advertising for my debut novel Didikai Witch. I mean how often do you get a bloke in a glittery boob tube and Cerise Pink feather eyelashes wandering around. Everyone was staring at him, it was a great marketing move.


I know I look like Marilyn Manson had just snogged my face off, but I was meant to look like that. I had always wanted to walk around in public with really smudged lipstick all over my face and not worry. One woman approched me and was about to inform me of my makeup up faux pas then realised the irony on my face and made a quick exit into the crowd. Hee hee! That was whilst I was watching Iggy Pop and the stooges. What a showman, he encouraged about two hundred members of the audience to get up on stage with him and called them The Glastonbury Dancers. Someone in the Crowd on stage had a banner he was waving about that said "Bring Back Wispa Chocolate!" Brilliant!

Another lovely lady said I looked stunning and ready for a wild night out painting the festival red! And I did! Fantastic Day.

Anyway back to the story of Glastonbury. 

I was still awake at 6am because I hadn't yet gone to bed. Myself, Rich and a couple of the others from the gang. We had stayed up all night so we could watch the Solstice sun rise between the stones in the stone circle field (and yes they really have been there for thousands of years.) What a fantastic place! Now as I am a practising Reiki Master, I do work with energy now and then, but when I stood in the centre of the stone circle and watched the dawn break over the horizon, I could feel the ripple through my feet. I must have been stood on a ley line. Anyway it was amazing and an experience I won't forget in a hurry. I can still see and hear Jim and Rick sat on top of the stones playing their bongo drums.

It absolutely bucketed it down. I am now convinced that Glastonbury is a three dimensional portal to Hell, Englands very own Hell Mouth, because it was sunny everywhere else except Glasto. Honestly, as you drove into the village the heavens opened and as you drove out again the sun came out. Twilight Zone or what?

Anyway, to shelter from the worst of the torrential downpours we sat in the Cabaret Marquee quite a bit, which was great for resting tired tootsies. Watched a fantastic show by Big Beats. They drummed on all sorts of items from shopping trolleys to kitchen sinks. A bit like the show Stomp, but without all the stomping!

We then watched Amy Winehouse who was surprisingly sober, but it was only 3pm. Apparently someone said she had the twitches by the time they saw her on the Jazz Stage later that night. This was us sort of watching Amy. As you can see my wellies were never quite the same. Poor wellies. They sit forlornly in my kitchen still caked in mud.

But I managed to get to the Pyramid stage just in time to see Kasabian. Great to see them again, but why oh why do they have to insist on calling their fans f****rs? A girl could start to get a complex.

I finally ended up at the Avalon Tent watching the Waterboys. Fantastic! Highlight of the day. The energy from the band and the crowd was electric. Tried taking a photo of them pogo hopping about the stage, but a very friendly hippy stood next to me pointed out that the lights on the stage were too bright. And he was quite right. Amazing! I thought hippies shunned anything remotely Techno? I didn't worry too much though, I just had another 7% proof Pear Cider and the world seemed a much better place.

Sunday... This is where the whole mud and shit really started to get to me. I woke up to the sounds of people retching, farting and pissing around the tent and I lay there in extreme discomfort (despite having an airbed) listening to the rain beating down on the tent and waiting for us to be washed away in a tidal wave of farmers crap. I thought to myself, "Christ Ali, you are a thirty four year old woman pretending you are still Eighteen. You should be curled up in your super duper extra comfy bed at home with the heating on and a steaming hot cuppa tea."

I understand now why so many people take drugs at these events... It's to forget just how uncomfortable it all is. The music and experience was fantastic, but the hostelry amenities SUCKED!
Enough of my moans and groans, although I do think I now have a permanent crick in my neck. Any volunteers to massage it out for me?Sunday was just as much fun though. After a hearty breakfast of Sweet and Sour Chicken and Egg Fried Rice!!! I know! It was the only place where you could sit down and eat...And I am NOT known for my virtuous Patience when it comes to having to queue for ANYTHING... Even sneeked into the Men's Pigs Troughs and hovered over the urinal, when I was really desperate, as The She Pee Tent was always full!! Even Men queued up for it... Hello! What part of "SHE and PEE" do you not understand? I think some pervs just wanted to watch women defy laws of nature and stand up to piss for a change!


Not Sure why there were Dodgem cars here, but I posed for the camera anyway.Then we went to see some more comedy acts because, yes you guessed it, it poured down again. So we ended up in the disco area listening to Pendulum and dancing wildly about. I did actually like this band, mainly for the rocking drumming over dance music, but I forgot to get my glow sticks, so I felt all empty and hollow and a deep sense of loss at not looking like a tit for a change!

We went to the Lost Vagueness area, where you could get married to your pet parrot if you wanted to, but this place was wholly depressing. It was a mud strip, with just the odd party animal still dancing in the make shift American Diner, probably staggered there the night before looking for a Tipi and got completely Lost... They did seem a bit Vague too.

The Horrors were awesome and completely bonkers. Fantastic Punk Rock Bond. I think they had to be the highlight of the day for me. The lead singer reminded me of a young Iggy Pop, The guitarist, a young Slash, but with lots of blond streaks, The keyboard player and young Fester Adams (with hair) and the drummer a Young Ringo Star!

By the end of the day I was giddier than a giddy kipper, and threw some mud at Rich. Of course this ended up in a full blown mud fight. So I decided to rub my entire face in mud before Rich did it for me. Hmmmm I think I got a few strange looks at this point, because I forgot I had nothing to wash it off with and within an hour it had dried harder than and Avon Cosmetics Mud Pack. It was cracking and crumbling all over my face and I think I pulled a few hairs out whilst trying to peel the concrete off. On a postitive note though I did wake up the next morning with lovely soft skin.

Monday was dismal, not only did we have to trek miles back to the car in mud, but it poured with rain. Then, when we got in the car we had to sit in a traffic jam for ages.... This part of the weekend is far too traumatic to relive. 

This day was serious fun.
Bearing in mind I didn't get to bed until 6 am and got up again at 10am when the music started on The Park and The Pyramid Stage roadies began testing the mikes and drums, "One. Two..Twoo Twoo..." Bless they can't count passed Two.

First of all we went into the Hara Krishna tent, just for the atmosphere of peace and tranquility and some possible free breakfast... Until I saw the gray 'papia mache' slop they were serving up and decided to fork out £5 for some kind of reconstituted meat based product from the other food stalls!
I tried to sing along to the Hara Krishna songs, but alas they were far too difficult for me to remember all the words!!
I think it went something like..."Hare Hare, Rama Rama, Krishna Krishna, Mung Beans and Lentils!" Well that was what I was singing anyway!

Sorry for the remenising blog, but it is festival season after all and I feel I'm too old for all that stuff now. I'm quite happy travelling Europe in my luxury motorhome promoting my books. www.thebeyondseries.com

Vampire Sorceress is now on sale on Kindle and the paperbacks are due out next week! Fingers Crossed.

Some Of The Best Festivals Ever - Part One - 80's Rewind Henley and Download Donnington

80's Rewind - Henley On Thames

What a fantastic weekend! This is how I like to spend my weekends, sat out in a huge field with the sun blazing down surrounded by a large group of friends, chilling with a beer and having a lot of laughs whilst listening to live music. Perfect!.

Well as the name of the festival suggests the whole theme is around 80's music and to have some of my favourite bands from my love struck, angst, teenage years brought back some wonderful memories and a great excuse to dress up (and I mean dress up) in the old eighties gordy and decadent outfits. More is more in the eighties, that meant more hair (big back combed effigy piled sideways on one's noggin... lots and lots of makeup, a Madonna beauty spot, fingerless gloves, leg warmers and bright nail polish...) and that was just the men!!!

Yes we all made an effort and making each other up gave us something to do in between sets. Some of those playing were Carol Decker of T'Pau who actually runs a pub in Henley these days made an appearance, as did Heaven 17, ABC. I'm not entirely sure why Chesney Hawkes was there, but I found it highly amusing whilst singing "I am the one and only" nearly half the crowd put on Chesney face masks...

I was in awe when Midge Ure sang "Vienna" which is one of my all time favourite 80's song. As was Tony Hadley singing "Gold". The whole crowd joined in and it is times like these I feel an affinity with the world. (I know, a bit deep, but that's how I feel when I'm in a big crowd all singing our hearts out.)

Anyway, I was really looking forward to Boy George, unfortunately I realised I didn't know the majority if his songs and asked a friend if he was going to be on for a while and if I had time to visit a portaloo. I really only wanted to hear Kama Chameleon and my friend thought that this would be his encore song. So off I trot to the loos only to my horror the moment I sat down said song came warbling out of Mr Georges mouth so I heard him live albeit through the echoing reverberation of a plastic box... Hey ho.

Rick Astley was good until he opened his mouth to speak, I'd never heard him talk before so it was a bit of a shock to hear this horrendous broad northern accent belt out insults to the crowd after each song. Ben from Curiosity not only killed the cat, but his entire set of songs. In fact I think a cat scraping it's claws down a blackboard would have been more entertaining and Hazel O'Connor is now just an old mad box of frogs!

Highlights had to be Jimmy Sommerville, Marc Almond, 10cc (I cried when they played "I'm not in love") and an impromptu sing along from our gang. We Sang Queens Mr Fahrenheit and we got quite a few others singing along too which was fabulous.

Last weekend was incredible. I can tick off another ambition achieved from my list of things I want to do before I get too old and suddenly discover one day that I enjoy crochet and listening to Terry Wogan on Radio Two!

Download Rock - Donnington

Download is the ultimate rock festival of the year and as a rock chic it was the one festival I hadn't done after Reading, V and Glastonbury. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience because firstly the camping wasn't 10 miles away in another county! And because the festival isn't as large as the other aforementioned there was plenty of tent space, although two guys came in and asked to put their tent up next to ours stating that there was plenty of room, however they didn't tell us they were erecting Balmoral Castle next door to us!! This grated me a tad because there were huge expanses of Field further up the field, but hey ho!

We spent most of our time at the Tuborg Tent, which was in effect the Thrash Stage. I preferred it here because you could see the artists on stage and I like to hear new talent and emerging groups. Plus the fact when the sun became too much we could sit in the shade, oh yes and the Guinness bar was right behind us. Voivod and Face Cage are two bands to look out for.





We ventured to the larger stages for acts that we really wanted to see. For me it was Pendulum, Prodigy, Static X (who sang Queen of the Damned track Cold), Black Stone Cherry (who I'm going to see in October) and Slipknot... The showmanship in that band is awesome. The drummer was on this hydraulic stage that twisted and turned and he was actually drumming upside down at some points. I would love to be in a band like that. Can you imagine the fun they have? I first saw them ten years ago at Reading and thought they were strange, but mesmerising and I still hold that belief to this day.





I have a new digital camera which I am still working out how to down load photos on to this computer. When I've figured it out I will post piccys. Damn technology!!!

Two Amazingly SCARY Plays

Ghost Stories - Duke of York Theatre - London

What a fantastic Play. Immediately as you walk into the Theatre it has been decorated with plastic sheets yellow and black tape and industrial lights with lots of eerie base noise and dripping water in the background. Clearly we were meant to be in some deserted mill or building site. 

The play was based on three ghost stories narrated by a professor of parapsychology. Some of the photos he showed on a slide show were creepy as was the first story about a father hearing his daughter’s voice as she followed him around a deserted building he was caretaker of. The Second one I was expecting what happened. The usual car in woodland then breaks down at night. The third story wasn’t particularly scary, but it was disturbing, the viewer makes of it what they will. My take was that the baby was Spawn of Satan and could manipulate those around him. The twist at the end though was truly amazing and one I hadn’t suspected at all. 

Spoiler alert: All three stories were actually connected as the professor was the one in the coma dreaming these horrors and specific sentences used were in fact the staff talking around him. It brings to the forefront the question of what is reality exactly and whose reality is real and who’s is fake. Or my favourite, how do you know that this is reality?

Woman In Black- The Lowery - Salford

I know now that this play has been made into a film and I will say no more about that, but going to the theatre and seeing something genuinely frightening, live with a group of other people prepared to be scared out of their wits is truly something special and this play certainly delivered the unexpected screams that made everyone jump!

The basic gist of the story was a man is employed by his solicitor boss to go and close a deal on an old foreboding house in the country. He gets there at night, naturally, when it's all creepy and mysterious and the house appears empty except for the odd moan, groan and creaking door. 

As our reluctant story teller investigates the house further it becomes apparent that the previous occupant was killed in a tragic horse and carriage accident and hasn't accepted their death or moved on blah blah blah.

But for me it wasn't the actual story or plot that particularly blew my socks off in a ghostly paranormal or unexplained breeze but the sudden rocking chair, the lights going out, the thunderstorm effects and as the lightening flashed around the stage and audience the ghostly apparition of the ghost women dressed in a Victorian black dress appearing intermittently that gave me the serious heeby jeebies... In fact I have a shiver run down my spine and arms just writing about it!!! Yurgh!

For Some More Spooky Tales Click Here

Inspirational Fun Days Out - Castle Heddingham Battle

As we have just had the Easter weekend and I always like to do something constructive with my time off. As I have always said no work and no play makes Ali a very dull girl indeed and I'm sure no-one wishes to read blogs about how many words I've written for my next novel or how many submissions I've made that day for my latest completed novel!!!







So I found an events page for 'Essex at Easter' advertising a Medieval Siege and Battle Re-enactment day at a local Castle Heddingham near to Braintree. I have always wanted to see a battle re-enactment from British history and as I have a huge fascination with castles (having written three books about a bunch of fictional witches living in castles around the UK My book website 'plug plug').

As I arrived we could see people from The Medieval Siege Society Ltd (oh yes it's BIG business) dressed in some very realistic costumes carrying various weaponry such as swords, bows, spears, which to me was all very exciting, because although my imaginary covens live in modern Britain they have withdrawn from society and live as they did in the past. So to see what I had envisioned in real life was exhilarating.

We walked around the Castle inside, which I must say was impressively preserved and decorated with wall hanging and rugs. There was archery to try and a traditional camping area where we could look at the crafts and chat to the serious re-enactment fans who lived for the full weekend as they would've one in the middle ages.








No cheating either with a gas stove tucked away in the tents somewhere. They ate traditional food and drink cooked over old log fires. They had a falconry display, a jester and some minstrels playing traditional music. I was very impressed and recommend stepping back in time for a little insight into our illustrious history. Plus it gave me inspiration for writing further about the Romanov Witches coven in my next Beyond Series of Books.

Cities of Old Are The Best

As a supernatural writer I love all things old, dark and creepy... So a visit to York was inevitable and I have to say was one of the best city breaks I have been on for sinister, ghostly ambience, I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone else.

Yorvik Viking Centre:- An Interesting museum where you climb aboard a car and ride through the Viking Village of old York. You listen to conversations and interestingly they add the life like man sat on his porcelain throne at the bottom of his back garden… Yes Vikings had back gardens. Interesting. The place smelt of old York too, which wasn’t very pleasant, but I love museums.

Ghost walk:- York is such an old city that it cannot be visited without going on the obligatory ghost walk around the older parts of the city including The Shambles, which I loved, very atmospheric and reminding me of Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies. The stories were pretty much standard as I have heard on other ghost walks, vengeful spirits who have been wronged in life and death… blah, blah blah, but entertaining evening none the less. I love walking around old cities on a crisp dark evening whilst listening to ghost stories.

The Golden Fleece:- As you know I like all things supernatural so I had to visit the most haunted pub in York, The Golden Fleece, which has been investigated by the Most Haunted Team on a couple of occasions. It does have a very gothic and spooky feel to it, especially when they have a real human skeleton sat at the bar and every night they change it’s sitting posture and pour it a drink. Creepy and intriguing, God I love scary things and places. Am I weird? Probably… Do I care? Not really…

Details of Alison's Supernatural Books

Cornish Fairy Gardens and Satanic Locations

I loved Cornwall so much I returned. Went to Carnglaze slate caverns which was interesting, but slightly disappointed as I was expecting something along the lines of the Caves of Drac. There was also a cute little fairy garden and village you could walk around. When I returned home I was straight off to the Garden Centre to get myself some wild looking plants and some fairy and Dragon Statues. I was mightily dissappointed that they didn't have anything like that and this place is massive!


You can buy little manquins made from coat hangers, smelly candles and pointless other stuff to make you house the envy of your neighbours, but sadly not a fairy or dragon in sight. Rubbish. Even tried to google some pictures of fairy gardens and all I got was a stupid site selling fairy liquid!






In complete contrast we went to see Roche Rock. A great spooky and sinister location that was used to film the third omen film. Very atmospheric and would love to use this location in one of my books. I was even brave enough to climb up the rickety ladders to the top. Cracking Views.