As the end of the year, another horror year in geopolitical terms, with wars being waged relentlessly, naked power revealing itself in more distressing ways with each passing month, approaches, and in the hope of maintaining a psyche that is relatively sane, and to attempt to get to the very marrow of life, I have turned, as I always do, to art, literature, music, style, and the non-human world, because, in all honesty, where else can one go?
I'm not going to discuss health issues in this post, as any regular (and much appreciated) readers among you know this is a constant in my life, and this year has been no different. But here are a few of the things that have made this year enchanting and interesting, listed in no particular order of importance lest we forget that art isn't a competitive sport.
As an individual who often finds that he has more in common with the culture of the past than the present day, to discover that the entire series of BBC's Play For Today is available on the Internet Archive website was for me a majestic occurrence. I have watched a couple of them, but the one that has had the biggest impact and which was genuinely unsettling was Dennis Potter's Schmoedipus, starring Tim Curry of Rocky Horror fame, in a role that was filmed the year after he had premiered the role of Frank-en-furter in London. It is genuinely unsettling, humorous and toe-curling in equal measure, but also with a big heart. I discovered that the Play For Today series was available because of one of the Hauntology-themed groups I follow, and I am incredibly grateful to them for bringing this to my attention. And this episode has that eerie, Hauntology mood in abundance. If you get the chance it is very much worth watching, and can be found here:
https://archive.org/details/play-for-today/Play+for+Today+-+S04E20+-+Schmoedipus+(20+June+1974).avi
Salome, Oscar Wilde
I have studied this utterly absorbing and fascinating play in great depth this year, and it's been one of the most rewarding and richest reading experiences of my life. The icing on the cake was seeing it performed on the stage, which I finally got to do this year. Its exploration of the intense power that desire wields on our world is explored in fascinating detail by Wilde in this play. as the heroine of the title, Salome, brings tragedy untold on the characters because of her magnetic beauty. Salome herself is, also, a revolutionary feminist character, because not only does she inspire fear desire in men (and women), but very unusually for the 19th century (not unusual among the fabulous symbolist and decadent artists of the time, however), Wilde gives Salome her own fierce desire as well, and it is her insatiable desire for the Baptist, Jokanaan, that brings the tragedy to its almost inevitable conclusion. It is an incredible play full of mystery and symbolism, is still controversial even now, and it could be argued that the real star of the play isn't a human being but, that beautiful ever-present mystery in the sky: the glittering moon.
The Government Inspector, Chichester Festival Theatre.
Having missed so many theatrical productions that I would love to have seen, to be back in an auditorium watching plays is a wonderful gift, and none more so than witnessing Nikolai Gogol's hilarious and deeply moving The Government Inspector, which was produced this summer at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Oh, where do I begin? Maybe with the author, Nikolai Gogol. His story is a fascinating and tragic one. Born in Ukraine in 1809, he is perhaps most famous for his selection of eerie, enchanting, and quite devastating short stories, which included The Nose, The Overcoat, and, my favourite, Diary of a Madman. This particular story has a special place in both mine and my good lady's hearts, as in our early courting days we used to sit in bed and I would read this story out loud to her. There are moments of great humour but it is also a melancholy tale. The main character, a typical early 19th century Russian peasant, thinks he is the King of Spain, and as the story unfolds it is hilarious and tragic in equal measure. So Gogol already has a special place in both mine and my good lady's hearts, and to see one of his plays at the theatre was wonderful. The very final scene, after ninety minutes of craziness and farce, saw the cast members all freeze in one position, like a photograph. They held that pose for a full two minutes, and as a lonely violin played wistfully in the background, it was truly one of the most stunning conclusions to a play I have ever witnessed. It was like looking at a portrait, and the sense of absurdity that is human existence was tangible in that moment. We are all in this thing called life, it seemed to say, we are all desperately trying to make our way, guessing about the future, trying to make the right decisions, and sometimes getting it hopelessly wrong. Sometimes all we can hope for is understanding and forgiveness, and it was a hugely human and compassionate way to end the play with.
So, there's a few cultural things that I enjoyed immensely in 2025. Let's hope that 2026, as always, brings us all, to quote Percy Bysshe Shelley, much enchantment of the heart.
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