Coffee-Table Notes

Zoe Caldwell – a ctress, director Born September 14, 1933; died February 16, 2020 Zoe Caldwell, who has died aged 86, was a major classical actress, who played a stream of powerful women across three continents. Her work took her from her native Australia to the Royal Shakespeare Company in the UK, and to America, where she won four Tony awards. Her second saw her named best actress in the title role of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1968), Jay Presson Allen’s stage version of Muriel Spark’s iconic Edinburgh-set novel about a mercurial school-mistress. Caldwell took over from Vanessa Redgrave in a production directed by Canadian-born Robert Whitehead, who Caldwell married. Caldwell’s first Tony win came two-years earlier for Tennessee Williams’ Slapstick Tragedy. Her other two followed later, in another title role as Medea (1982), and as operatic diva Maria Callas in Terence McNally’s solo play, Master Class (1996). At Stratford she was Bianca to Paul Robeson’s Othello a...

These are busy times for Last Night from Glasgow, the four-year-old record label whose unique subscription based model has all but broken the mould for DIY endeavours. In the last month, the label led by Ian Smith, Stephen Kelly and 400 subscribers have put out the first album by C-86 legends Close Lobsters for thirty years. There have also been singles by Mt. Doubt and Lemon Drink, the latter of whom launched their new four-song EP, Better Run at a sold out show in Glasgow last weekend. Releases are pending too from ‘existential nerd rock’ band, Slime City, and a debut from Life Model, while in May, Medicine Men will release their second album, A Different Port. Then there is the long-awaited release of Earthbound, the second album by Starless, aka Friends Again and Love and Money keyboardist Paul McGeechan. This spate of activity follows on from acclaimed releases from Cloth, L-space and a new album by 1990s indie darlings, Bis. The last year too has seen LNFG expand operati...

Nothing Spreads Like Fear. This is the tag-line for Contagion, Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 film about a global pandemic and the subsequent loss of social order before scientists eventually identify and contain the virus with a new vaccine. Given some of the hysteria in response to the real-life Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic we’re currently in the thick of, there are few more apt descriptions of the toilet-roll panic buyers currently turning supermarkets into Ballardian wastelands. In the current climate, Soderbergh’s film sounds like both prophecy and warning. I missed Contagion when it first came out, though I intend rectifying this oversight utilising the new breadth of downtime I’ve suddenly acquired since all the theatres closed this week. It appears I’m not the only one keen to see the film. According to my colleague Russell Leadbetter, who has seen it, Contagion is currently at number two in the Amazon Prime chart, with its level of online hires second only to Harry Potter. ...