Gerhard Berent

Gerhard BERENT  photo by Nigel A.  JAMES

 Spot On! A Very Light Life

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There are many ingredients which go to make up good theatre. One needs, amongst other things, a very good story, exciting scenery, make up to produce the unrecognizable, and, of course, an audience to match. But, without one vital component, the stage as we know it would be lifeless and dull, and, this magic component that makes all of the difference is the lighting; and, as Gerhard Berent knows only too well, stage lighting means very much more than a bulb and the flicking of a switch!

Gerhard saw the light very many years ago, and his company provided all that was needed for the perfect illumination of those moments of magic that build on the fantasy of that which is about to come true! 

But, of course, there comes a time in most people’s life when a change of direction is necessitated by the number of years that one has to one’s credit. Most people give up!  But not Gerhard. He is now more active than ever!  As a freelance journalist and photographer, he now writes for the theatre lighting trade press.  And, his articles and essays are just as illuminating as his lights used to be! And, this has to do with the style of his writing.

And style, in part, is ingredients, too.  His life, until now,  wasn’t narrow at all, in fact, it had angles of excitement that provided the broad base of experience that shows in his work.  His life was theatre, it was family,  it was traveling, it was reading, and, it was studying. And, apart from his native German, Gerhard is fluent in English and Italian, too. French, he says, will be his next language!  And, what’s next is that which is now.  Gerhard has no intention of bringing down the final curtain.  The last act will happen when it happens.  

Mimin Voll

Mimin Voll - Photo by Nigel A  JAMES

Chains of Colours Unchained

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It is so, that, when people go in search of new and distant shores, they take with them, deep within their hearts, part of the soul of the land of their birth. And, when she left her home to follow her dreams, Mimin Voll took with her the colours of her native Indonesia. And that was more than twenty years ago.

And now, here in Vienna, with her new life no longer new, these colours of her far away and far-past land are still just as strong - and just as deep – and just as true - as they have ever been. And, within the course of time, the dream that she dreamt has now taken-wing - and flown in the splendour of the jewellery she makes. 

And, Mimin’s latest collection is really something quite special.

Her creations suit entirely the people who wear them.  Bearing all of the features of fire, wind, water and air, they amazingly pick out each individuals strengths, and enhance them in a volcanic, and yet very peaceful, magical way!

And, the magic is set to continue. Mimin is now working on her autumn collection, which, thanks to the fullness of her creative depths and her far-away ideas, promises to be just as powerful - and just as colourful as her Indonesian soul – a soul which is melting into ours!

Evelyn Dawid

Evelyn Dawid - photo by Nigel A JAMES

All Boxed In

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Travelling is all about the meeting of surprises, some big and some small, and the box which traveller Evelyn Dawid discovered whilst visiting the castle of Taso in South Tirol proved to be more of an astonishment than anything else! It was no ordinary box. It was big and it was down in the cellar!

And, it was down below ground because it was there that the servants were quartered. And this enormous great box was made just for them. For it was there in this vastness of wood that they slept! Not just one or two or three or four, but more than thirty - and all at the very same time. Of course, it all sounds very cosy and nice, but, in reality it must have been awful.

And it was bad because of the unimaginable. At the end of each day, with everyone packed safely inside, the lid was let down and wasn't opened till morning! What about the air, and how did they suffer the smells and the sounds? And, what if they had to get up in the night? Unanswerable questions! But one thing is clear, upstairs it was life as was normal! The duke and his family enjoyed nothing but the best of the best of normal aristocratic everyday luxury life. Beds and no boxes for them!

But, why the box for the servants? Could it have been to stop them from escaping? Or, was the duke afraid of being murdered in his sleep? Or, was he simply a very nice generous man. After all, what could have been better than a nice cosy warm box on a cold winter's night in a freezing cold unheated cellar?

We will never find out! But, one thing is clear. The more travelling we do, the more we encounter! And, I wonder what Evelyn Dawid will bring back from her next far-away journey. Something of interest, I'm sure!

P.S. South Tirol has a history! It used to be part of Austria, but is now part of Italy. Castel Taso is the Italian name for the Austrian name Burg Reifenstein. Both are correct.

Poem for September

Over the Sea to Skye - by Nigel A  JAMES

Over the sea to Skye

by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,

Say, could that lad be I?

Merry of soul he sailed on a day

Over the sea to Skye.

Mull was astern, Rum on the port,

Eigg on the starboard bow;

Glory of youth glowed in his soul:

Where is that glory now?

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,

Say, could that lad be I?

Merry of soul he sailed on a day

Over the sea to Skye.

Give me again all that was there,

Give me the son that shone!

Give me the eyes, give me the soul,

Give me the lad that's gone!

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,

Say, could that lad be I?

Merry of soul he sailed on a day

Over the sea to Skye.

Billow and breeze, islands and seas,

Mountains of rain and sun,

All that was good, all that was fair,

All that was me is gone.