Monday 30 April 2012

Trulli, maddli, deepli



The Blogs were away for a few days and here is your postcard - some ruined trulli house from the limestone country of Puglia in southern Italy. We were there at the time of the tragic earthquake - though were unaware of events until we saw the newspaper on the following day. We stayed in the town of Alberobello - a UNESCO listed place full of trulli most of which are happily restored. On Good Friday the whole town assembled in one of the piazza for a theatrical representation of The Passion - which used half a dozen stages as well as incorporating a procession, lead by Jesus carrying his cross, up the hill to the Church. The performance was proceeded by a period of silence for the earthquake victims and their families. Our Italian is very limited but the whole event was a good, but tragic, example of how theatre, music and the arts can bring people from different backgrounds together. (We are also well aware that the opposite can be true - but this wasn't the case in Italy).


We were there for a bit of warm-weather walking and were very well rewarded on that score. This provides me with an adequate link to news of what you have come here for - Buxton Fringe 2009. We now have over 100 entries and still 10 days to go before we close. One of the early entries was for a weekend of film (17-19 July) in the University of Derby Dome. One of the documentary films to be shown is also about warm-weather walking - though rather more arduous and extreme than Puglia. In 1958 there was a trekking expedition to the Himalayas - nothing so very extraordinary about that. What was a little more extraordinary was the fact that amongst the party were three women - one a Buxton resident, Eve Sims - and that some of the trek was filmed. Even more exciting is the survival of that film which has been edited and turned into a documentary with the addition of some interviews with the trekkers. Martin Salter has produced a fascinating film and you can get a preview of it using the link below.
http://www.ovaltine.co.uk/en/article.asp?chco_id=37

[If the reference to Ovaltine puzzles you - well the company sponsored the trek and provided the cine camera].

On the subject of film - the Fringe 30 St George's Day (April 23!) celebration is selling well. The film I've Loved You So Long is on the programme. For more details - and the chance to reserve a seat - go to www.buxtonfilm.org.uk


by Keith Savage - Published 15/04/2009

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