If anything could make me believe, or make-believe I believe, it would be the likes of Mavis Staples, who gave us 'something old, something new, and something from the future'.
Oh, c'mon! You know you want to. Go and see The Sound Of Music, I mean. Cool? No. Manly? Possibly not. But who can pretend they don't have a soft spot for its heartwarming themes.
This production of Much Ado About Nothing may not be one of the most daring versions you will ever see, but it has a powerful charm, a light touch, and an unbeatably generous spirit.
A night spent side-by-side, cheek-by-jowl, with Sondheim, means we'll be opened to laughter, tears, melancholy, introspection, bitterness, generosity, exuberance and more.
It's pretty interesting stuff, but you've got to be on your mettle to follow it all, as Barrie himself takes you down his own dark, meandering, menacing path.
A gifted embroider of words, Friel combines soft lyricism and hard meaning in his play, a tragical comical historical pastoral on a spree and spoiling for a spirited spar.
In the care of Pinchgut Opera’s director, Erin Helyard, this music, formulaic as it indeed is in some respects, sprang off the page into an experience rich in emotions.
Iolanthe and Janet Anderson work in cosmic, comedic accord, characterisation charismatic, timing impeccable, delivery precise, together a tour de force that ascends the cliché.
Blind faith and rational belief are always sparring partners in dramatic conflict and so it is here with the power play tinged with superstition and salaciousness.