Tag: Rachel Barnard

Spinning Into Butter by Rebecca Gilman, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 13 January 2001

This was a really interesting play and it was an excellent opportunity to reciprocate David & Rachel’s hospitality from a couple of month’s earlier:

Kinky Friedman Live In Brighton With David Seidel & Rachel Barnard, 12 November 2000

Apart from the quintessentially US nature of the production and the left field approach to tackling racism through performance, it’s hard to see much similarity between the evenings.

Rebecca Gilman’s play was memorable through its “warts ‘n’ all” approach to anti-racism and political correctness on campus. Also memorable was a superb performance by Emma Fielding in the lead role. The supporting cast were also “Royal Court good”, as was Dominic Cooke’s directing.

Our friends David and Rachel found it interesting and we had plenty to discuss over grub after the play.

Our other friend, Michael Billington, gave it a very good review in the Guardian:

Spinning Guardian Billington

Article from 11 Jan 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England)

Paul Taylor did not like the play, describing it as self-conrgratulatory white guilt in search of a play:

Spinning Taylor Indy

Article from 10 Jan 2001 The Independent (London, Greater London, England)

Nicholas de Jongh couldn’t put aside his issues with the play, describing it as mediocre and giving it the dreaded Standard blob:

Spinning Standard de Jongh

Article from 10 Jan 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England)

Charles Spencer thought the play flawed yet intriguing and well worth seeing:

Spinning Telegraph Spencer

Article from 11 Jan 2001 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England)

Suzannah Clapp gave it a very balanced review in The Observer, concluding that a play that makes you argue is a play worth seeing:

Spinning Observer Clapp

Article from 14 Jan 2001 The Observer (London, Greater London, England)

Kinky Friedman Live In Brighton With David Seidel & Rachel Barnard, 12 November 2000

Kinky live in Texas 2006

I had been a bit of a Kinky Friedman fan for a while before I met David Seidel. Michael Mainelli had recommended/lent two or three of Kinky’s novels to me, which I had very much enjoyed. Elvis, Jesus & Coca-Cola is a title I especially remember.

Also, fascinated by the idea that a group could even be moderately successful with the name Kinky Friedman & the Texas Jewboys, I had bought a couple of his albums on CD and found myself listening to them surprisingly often. Sold American in particular pleased me – here’s a link to the album on YouTube Music. I also have a copy of Lasso From El Passo – here’s the YouTube Music link to that one.

Anyway…

…Kinky came up in conversation with David Seidel one day, as well it might have done, given our shared interest in humorous music. David said that Kinky was due to play Brighton in November and that he and Rachel planned to go, as they lived out that way – Hove, actually.

Would Janie and I like to…

…naturally, that Sunday meet up was set.

I remember that afternoon/evening fondly. We started off at David & Rachel’s house – I think it might have been the first time that Janie and I met Rachel, then went under their local guidance to the show.

I’m pretty sure we all thought the show was good fun.

I remember talking about Janie’s and my visit to the Royal Court the previous evening and agreeing that we would arrange a reciprocal visit to London for the Royal Court in the new year, which we did.

But the centrepiece of the evening was Kinky Friedman, accompanied by but one of the former Texas Jewboys, Little Jewford, who was the last of that sub-tribe.

The following previous piece by Clark Collis in The Telegraph (of all sources) provides more background than most readers will want about Kinky and that tour…with plenty even for the most diligent readers.

Kinky Collis Telegraph Kinky Collis Telegraph 4 Nov 2000 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Maddy Costa in The Guardian gave the show a rave review…sort of:

Kinky Costa Guardian 1 of 2 Kinky Costa Guardian 1 of 2 18 Nov 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Kinky Costa Guardian 2 of 2

Article from 18 Nov 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England)

Kinky’s performances at that time looked a bit like this. Trigger warning – Kinky Friedman parodied bigots and misogynists by using their style of language, some of which is very offensive:

And if you would like to learn more about Kinky through a documentary, here’s a 50+ minute documentary made about a year after that concert.