Alexandra Taylor: Writer

‘Her’ tells the story of a lonely writer, post painful divorce, who finds a way to love again. But no Spike Jonze film is ever that straightforward. The twist in this tale is that the ‘Her’ of the title, and the object of our protagonist’s love, is not a woman but a computer operating system.  Setting the story in futuristic LA, Jonze uses his characters and their relationships to explore issues of isolation and intimacy, challenge our notions of love and examine what human interaction means in a world dominated by electronic communication.  As with Jonze’s previous films ('Being John Malkovich', 'Adaptation', 'Where the Wild Things Are'), expect more questions to be raised than answered. Does the electronic intermediary act as a barrier or enabler? Is an online persona more or less authentic than a person’s physical presence? How and why do we connect to those around us? With a strong cast, and a Best Film nomination at the New York Film Festival, you m...

Endorsed by the Mandela family, including the great man himself, this is as close to an official biopic of Nelson Mandela’s extraordinary life as there is ever likely to be. It is epic in its scope, covering the full span of his long and controversial journey from rural childhood, through political activism and imprisonment, to his historic inauguration as President.  In preparation for this daunting project, Director Justin Chadwick spent a year in South Africa, exploring the country and its people. As with 'The First Grader', set and shot in Kenya, expect an evocative, visually stunning and immersive African experience.  Squeezing a lifetime of drama into two and a half hours is a challenging task, and not all biopics manage to do it successfully. Chadwick’s approach is to focus on Mandela the human being, a flawed man whose dedication to the cause wreaked havoc with his personal life. With career defining performances from Naomie Harris as the indomitable Winnie a...

A moving tale of love, loss and letting go. Those familiar with the 1990 film will think of ‘Ghost’ as a sad and intimate story which deals with the sensitive emotions around losing a loved one. It’s not an immediately obvious subject for musical theatre, a genre best known for its bold, brash and upbeat song-and-dance routines. However, this production proves that, when done well, stage musicals can be both entertaining and emotional. It’s the visual effects that are the star of this show, most notably the stunning projections which create impact, mood, depth and movement in a variety of innovative ways. They enable the action to move swiftly and smoothly from loft apartment to tube train, rainy street to police station. But it’s not all about the big spectacle - just as much care has been put into the small touches, such as newspapers which fly unaided into the air, characters which walk through walls and some very nice sleight of hand tricks. The lighting is also wonde...

When I was born, Nelson Mandela had already been in prison for eleven years and South Africa was a country in which 80% of the population were excluded from political representation. As I was growing up, that country was increasingly synonymous with inequality and lawlessness, boycotts and embargoes. When I was thirteen, the satirical TV show ‘Spitting Image’ released the record ‘I’ve Never Met A Nice South African’, a song vitriolic in its condemnation of South Africa’s political system. I read Tom Sharpe’s novel ‘Riotous Assembly’ and was shocked at the racism, incompetence and casual violence attributed to the South African police. When I was fifteen years old, I watched the world’s biggest musical stars celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday, while the man himself continued to endure incarceration. It seemed extraordinary to me that South Africa’s politicians could persist with their discriminatory policies in the face of such widespread international outrage. The situation see...

A festive favourite with a contemporary kick and a large slug of rum.  In December 1853, Charles Dickens stood in Birmingham Town Hall and gave his first  dramatic reading of the story that has come to symbolise Christmas more than any other. Since that night, it has been retold in countless ways - for the stage, for radio, on television and in films - each version a different take on the classic tale of ghosts and greed, love and loss, regret and redemption. Just a stone’s throw from where Dickens gave his story its first performance, Birmingham Repertory Theatre are marking the festive season with a musical version of ‘A Christmas Carol’. If you’re fond of the familiar then you won’t be disappointed with this production. There’s ‘humbug’ aplenty, a feast of frock coats and bonnets, foggy London streets and an achingly adorable Tiny Tim. Much of the dialogue is taken from the original novella and the plot plays out as you would expect. But this production is cer...

Pop into ‘People’ on Poplar Road and you’ll find that it’s had a facelift. While the shop still has a distinctly vintage vibe, its new look is more clean and contemporary, with bright white walls, sparser displays and more open space. It also now includes a large craft-making table where owners Christian and Allison Sadler create many of the clothes, accessories and homeware on display. ‘We wanted to incorporate our workshop,’ says Christian, ‘so that people can see us making things when they come in.’ ‘And it’s not just for us.’ explains Allison, ‘We love that customers can have a cup of tea and do a bit of knitting while their friends are trying on clothes.’ The makeover is not the first change that Christian and Allison have faced in their twenty year partnership. They began by selling their handmade crafts on market stalls, but in 2000 they gave up the itinerant life for the stability of their Kings Heath shop. ‘We wanted to bring together what we were doing in th...

Tribal loyalties are strong in south Birmingham, and nowhere more so than Moseley and Kings Heath. But two local businesses have been daring enough to straddle both communities. Winspers Florists was first established in Moseley forty years ago. Owner Charmain Hannaby took it over in 2007, but the building developed structural problems that the landlord wasn’t prepared to fix. Forced to move to new premises, Charmain took the opportunity to look for somewhere bigger and ended up just a few hundred yards down the Alcester Road, opening on Kings Heath High Street in March 2013. She believes business has benefitted from the move. “We get more custom here.” she says. “It’s a bigger store, with more room to mingle. Ironically, I also discovered that most of our customers live in Kings Heath, but were travelling to Moseley to get their flowers. We’ve actually become even more local for them, so we haven’t really noticed a big difference in the people coming in.” Remi Faveau, co...

This month spades hit the ground in the latest ambitious construction project at Mosley School. It’s the final stage of what has been a long and expensive plan to drag time-worn buildings up to modern educational standards. Three years ago, the school facilities were quite different - a beautiful, well used, listed grammar school building from 1856 and a dilapidated 1960s secondary modern that were united as one school, but whose separate buildings gave children a great excuse to be late for class as they dawdled on the walk between the two. With the help of £20 million from the government’s ‘Building Schools for the Future’ programme, the crumbling 1960s construction was finally replaced by a new state-of-the-art school with up-to-date IT facilities, big, bright classrooms and with a much shorter walk to the listed part, which also received a facelift and some interior re-design. It opened for business in October 2012 and staff and pupils alike have been delighted with t...

Like its characters, this production is rather stuck in the past. ‘Go Back For Murder’ is a 1960 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1942 novel ‘Five Little Pigs’. It tells the story of Carla Le Marchant (Sophie Ward) whose mother was convicted of her father’s murder. Twenty years after the crime, and convinced her mother was innocent, Carla enlists the help of lawyer Justin Fogg (Ben Nealon) to revisit the five other suspects in order to discover what really happened. In the original novel Agatha Christie took a stylistic risk, telling the same story several times, each from the perspective of a different character. While this technique worked in the book, it doesn’t translate well to the stage. There is far too much ‘tell’ and not enough ‘show’, particularly in the first act, which consists almost entirely of a series of static dialogues in which the characters do little but reminisce. In the second half we finally get some action, as the events of the fateful day are playe...

Moseley band Big Tent and the Gypsy Lantern are preparing a Christmas gift with a twist this December. Fresh from their UK tour, the boys will be back in Brum to round off the year with a special festive gig. It will be a Big Tent event like no other. Many of their original foot-stomping folk-inspired songs will be left at home in favour of a host of traditional Christmas classics. “One of our friends suggested it as a joke,” says percussionist George, “but we took the idea and ran with it.” “We’ve never done covers before,” explains guitarist Paul, “but we loved the idea of taking all those cheesy Christmas songs that you hear in the supermarket and making them our own.” On the provisional set list are favourites such as Band Aid’s charity anthem ‘Let Them Know It’s Christmas’, Wham’s cheesy pop ballad ‘Last Christmas’ and ‘Christmas Time’ by rock band The Darkness. The group will also be taking requests from fans via Twitter and Facebook. “It’s going to be a cha...