Latest news with #Harrower
Spectator
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Elizabeth Harrower – the greatest Australian writer you've never heard of
Elizabeth Harrower (1928-2020) became an Australian literary classic before she had fully established herself as an Australian writer. She had a rough childhood in Newcastle, New South Wales, and once contemplated lying on the road in the dead of night waiting to be run over. She described herself as a 'divorced child', saw her father Frank very rarely, despite his best efforts, and felt an inexorable loneliness during her days in the industrial city by the sea. Later she found herself in Scotland and loved it; and for much of the 1950s she lived in London. Returning to Australia, she enjoyed what seems like a romantic friendship with the novelist and playwright Kylie Tennant, a rollicking yarnspinner of a realist, though Tennant was appalled by the idea of her sitting in her room writing some horror story about a man. The book in question was her fourth novel, The Watchtower, and by the time it was published in 1966 Harrower was enjoying a close intimacy with Patrick White, who would be awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature. White was so intent on Harrower gaining recognition by winning the Miles Franklin award that he asked for his own entry, The Solid Mandala (the least successful of his major novels), to be withdrawn. But The Watchtower failed to win anyway. That novel, in all its black glory, was in fact the last piece of fiction that Harrower published, since she withdrew her next book, In Certain Circles, despite the fact that she had a publisher for it. Harrower's current reputation as a figure of interest has followed in the wake of Text Publishing not only reprinting the earlier books but finally publishing In Certain Circles in 2014. All of this Helen Trinca – the biographer of that most Mozartian of Australian expats, Madeleine St John – narrates with effortless clarity and élan. She makes Harrower's crowded, sometimes confusing life seem crystal clear. There is the rivalry with (and affection for) Shirley Hazzard; the friendship with figures ranging from Judah Waten to Christina Stead; and the constant murmur from White that she could write a wonderful book. It's interesting, too, that the actor Ben Whishaw loves The Watchtower and describes Harrower's work as 'incredibly moving'. It is certainly a big proposition to engage with. The Watchtower is an exercise in starkly expressionist prose which strains credulity with its portrait of the factory owner, who comes across to many readers as inhuman with his insanely casual proposal of marriage to one of the two sisters at the heart of the novel. The way they cope in this bizarre world of caricatures also confounds reality. Less fantastical, however, is The Long Prospect, the 1958 novel which Christina Stead liked. 'You have a remarkable sober acerbity… you are unique,' she told Harrower. The author of The Man Who Loved Children, with its weird masculine dialects, its intense evocation of girlhood and its foreshadowed aftermath, had every reason to see a parallel voice in The Long Prospect. It is the story of a 12-year-old girl, long-legged and super-bright, who forms an intense friendship with a chaste, empathic man of culture who plies her with Darwin and Plato and everything in between. They come to love each other, which prompts the girl's grand-mother, a baleful, self-centred woman, to imply abuse. This strange, challenging book has a somewhat wild structure; but the central flame keeps burning in a way that is moving for all its bravado. Clearly the Harrower of The Long Prospect could do anything. David Malouf defends her right to her own dissatisfaction with In Certain Circles, though it's clear that the paired couples and the cooler, sparkling dialogue was a technical advance. Trinca describes Harrower's delight at the late appreciation of her work, so skilfully effected by Michael Heyward of Text and the literary agent Jane Novak. This is a masterful biography by a writer who pulls no punches.
Scotsman
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
The theatre companies taking their shows to Scottish care homes - including with five-year-olds
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Gus Harrower has seen the impact of theatre performances on care home residents first hand. 'They sing along, some of them get up and dance,' he says. 'It's really interactive. There are a lot of smiles.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Mr Harrower, the creative engagement co-ordinator of the dementia friendly programme at Capital Theatres in Edinburgh, knows the positive impact the arts can have on residents facing memory loss. Jack In The Box performance at Festival Theatre for people living with dementia. | Greg Macvean Photography 'For us, the big question is how can we reach people who can't come to the theatre because they are in a care home or have dementia,' he says. 'They have got a diagnosis, but the best way to tackle it is to keep busy and keep your brain active and this helps them do that.' The theatre's Jack in the Box show, based on a train journey between Liverpool and Edinburgh, has been granted funding from the RS Macdonald charitable trust to play at care homes and day centres around the Lothians this summer. A specially crafted dementia friendly performance, it is created by and performed by singer Michelle Burke and pianist James Ross. The show is adapted to include person-centred sensory interactions, vintage puppetry and familiar music, encouraging the audience to reminisce. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The production has previously performed a limited winter run and has held dementia-friendly performances at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre, but the new funding means more residents can enjoy the show. 'Art gives people ownership,' Mr Harrower says. 'Their whole life changes [when they get a dementia diagnosis], but they can still find something that is really creative and fulfilling.' He adds: 'We've had workers at the care homes tell us that people are calmer for the rest of the day after they've seen the show and that is big.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Glow Bugs from Beacon Arts Centre, performing in a local care home. | Christopher Bowen At Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock, the Glow Bugs theatre group for five to seven-year-olds has also been touring local care homes. The project is mutually beneficial - inspiring not only the residents, but also the young performers. 'They're going on tour,' says Karen Townsend, co-director of the Beacon. 'We've got tour T shirts, we've got posters, we've got tickets, and they're all going into the care homes to perform their piece. They are so excited.' An initial run last year proved so successful they decided to expand the initiative to more care homes, as well as a dementia-friendly performance at the theatre itself. 'We want to spread joy,' Ms Townsend adds. 'We wanted something light and happy and nice to do. Obviously the important thing is the intergenerational work, everybody knows that works. You get the stories from the older residents, they have the connection with the young people. It's great.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Emma Letson, activity co-ordinator at Kincaid House in Greenock, says The Glow Bugs show engaged her residents. 'It created a lovely atmosphere within the home around the residents and had them chatting about their lives together throughout the rest of the afternoon,' she says.
BBC News
11-04-2025
- BBC News
Tributes paid to beloved biker Ian Harrower killed in Edinburgh crash
A grieving family has paid tribute to a biker who died in a crash with a car in Harrower, from Rosyth, Fife, died at the scene after his Kawasaki bike was involved in an incident with a Peugeot 306 on Queensferry Road at about 23:15 on 61-year-old was described as a "loving husband, grandad and stepdad" by his family in a driver of the Peugeot, a 31-year-old man, has now been charged in connection with road traffic offences over the crash. In a statement released through Police Scotland, Mr Harrower's family said: "Ian was a much loved son to Elizabeth, brother to Elaine and dad to Lewis, Kim and Owen."He was a loving husband to Norah and stepdad to Gavin and will be very much missed grandad to Brooke and Taylor."He was a true and loyal friend to many and will always be in our hearts never to be forgotten."Police said they were continuing their appeals for information as part of their investigation into the asked anyone who witnessed the incident or captured dash-cam footage to contact police via the non-emergency Paul Ewing said: "We would like to thank the public for their assistance with our investigation and our thoughts remain with the family of Mr Harrower."
Chicago Tribune
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: In the intense ‘A Slow Air' at Steep Theatre, a conversation between siblings is backgrounded by a terrorist act
The Scottish playwright David Harrower, whom Chicago theater fans likely will best know for the harrowing 2005 drama 'Blackbird,' not that any theater would dare produce that play now, is a famously minimalist scribe. His work also is poetic and intense. Some years ago, when he emerged as part of Britain's so-called in-yer-face group of writers, Harrower gave an interview to The Guardian. His interlocutor asked whether he was part of an 'exciting time' for British theater. His response? 'To agree a time is especially 'exciting' is pointless. It's a word that tells of nothing — probably why it's ubiquitous in theater publicity.' So that's a clue as to the man's gestalt. Steep Theatre isn't fazed by such writers; on the contrary, it specializes in them. And its new production of Harrower's 'A Slow Air,' starring Kendra Thulin and Peter Moore, two of Steep's best-known actors, is ample evidence of the benefits of experience. The play, which premiered in Scotland in 2011, is centered on a 2007 incident at Glasgow airport wherein a pair of terrorists, Bilal Abdullah and Kafeel Ahmed, drove a Jeep Cherokee filled with propane tanks into the terminal building, injuring five, surviving themselves (although they said they had intended to die) and unsettling a Scotland that not seen the likes since Lockerbie and Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. Just that level of detail is perhaps enough to explain why a theater might be interested in this play, given recent incidents at a German Christmas market and in New Orleans. Harrower sets his play partly in the diverse Glasgow suburb called Houston, where the two terrorists happened to live, and partly in suburban Edinburgh, geographically close but culturally more different than you might think. We listen to two overlapping monologues spoken by a prosaic pair of long-estranged siblings. Morna (Thulin) is the livelier of the pair. Something of an aging rocker, she cleans posh houses and loves U2. Athol is more subdued, or wound more tightly, at least on the surface. He installs floors in homes for a living and prefers the band Simple Minds, and, yes, the bands matter to the play. I'll stop there, except to note that Morna's adult son shows up at Athol's place, impacting Athol and his community. You are better off experiencing what is revealed thereafter in real time. If you go, expect a slow burn but plenty of flames, from which it becomes increasingly difficult to look away. The incident I detailed above is a backdrop, mostly, or maybe not; either way, 'A Slow Air' is not so much a study of terrorism as one of division or alienation, which is of course relevant. The fascinating thing about this play is how well the writer teases out such themes from what really feels like an ordinary, working-class conversation among two Scots, carrying scars but maybe (only maybe) also some hunger for unity. In U.K. terms, of course, that has further resonance. Thulin and Moore have worked together countless times in Chicago and you can tell. They both are excellent here under Robin Witt's careful direction; Thulin comes with her familiar dialectal excellence and Moore his signature ability to dissect introverted men who don't fully know of what they are (or could be) capable. You should know you are just watching two monologues spoken by reluctant narrators in a bleak room and that the play is the work of a writer who conveys emotion and meaning only with a very glancing blow. It's not an 'exciting' play. Harrower would not know how (or want) to write one. But I've not been able to shake it since I walked out of Steep's door. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@ Review: 'A Slow Air' (3.5 stars) When: Through March 1 Where: The Edge Off Broadway, 1133 W. Catalpa Ave. Running time: 1 hour, 25 mins.
