Culture

FILM OF THE MONTH

Catfi ght (15)

STREAMING NOW ON NETFLIX AND ELSEWHERE

With the post-Christmas excess of sweetness and love still faintly present, and Valentine’s Day hovering into view, some may feel in need of a little bite and punchiness right now. This month’s choice has Killing Eve’s Sandra Oh and the late Anne Heche providing plenty of bite, and several punches too, in a wonderful and overlooked US satire from 2016.

Oh plays Veronica, an unhappily married alcoholic with a fraught relationship with her son and largely ignored by her wealthy husband. He throws a party during which Veronica meets an old college mate, Ashley, who is there waitressing. The two women start a conversation in which Veronica tries to lord her husband’s wealth over Ashley. Moving into a stairwell to continue their talk, it descends into a fi stfi ght that leaves Veronica in a coma. Waking 2 years later she fi nds their fortunes reversed, her husband has shot himself, his riches spent on her medical care, and her son a casualty of a war between America and the Middle East. Meanwhile Ashley, previously a struggling artist, is now hugely successful making paintings depicting the war. Thus begins a story of fl uctuating fortunes as further events cause the two women to swap positions of power and money whilst trading cartoon level body blows. ‘Catfi ght’ is a fast-moving comedy taking scathing potshots at everything in sight, art, wealth, healthcare, competitive friendships, war and more. It’s a brutally unsentimental black comedy that gets angry at all the right things. Both Heche and Oh are brilliant and though the satirical gags may not always hit their target, they usually hit the next target along anyway. Cathartic, short, and bittersweet at just over 90 minutes, you won’t have seen anything like this before, just have a calming cup of tea ready for afterwards and all will be fi ne! By Michael Hudson NORTH WALES OPERA STUDIO PRESENTS MOZART’S COMIC OPERA Così Fan Tutte

at Black Park Chapel on Thursday 16 February 2023 at 7pm.

Anne Williams-King, founder and director of NWOS said, “It’s an intimate opera that benefi ts from an intimate setting, Black Park Chapel is just that, enabling the performers to get up close and personal with the audience, giving them the experience of being totally involved with the story and enveloped by the wonderous music.”

“In Mozart’s comic masterpiece, sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella are enjoying a holiday in Coney Island with their fi ancés, Ferrando and Guglielmo. However, the fairground is a place where anything can happen – and its manipulative master, Don Alfonso, has a game to play with the lovers…” North Wales Opera Studio was founded by Anne Williams-King, a professional opera soprano and teacher, and David Bartleet, opera singer, teacher and opera agent. Black Park Chapel Trust is a not-for-profi t organisation that hosts music events.

For more information email: blackparkchapel@gmail.com or visit the Facebook page Black Park Chapel.

POETRY

Divided

BY DAVE ANDREWS

When August sunshine seems too hot to bear I long for winter scenes with ice and rime, But when December comes and I must wear My scarf and gloves I dream of summertime. And when I fl ee my quiet home to seek The rumpus of the city on a train, I head for London but within the week I’ll wish myself in Shropshire once again. Thus every joy is marred by discontent, I’m never wholly happy with my lot, My mind is split, there’s always one per cent That hankers after things I haven’t got. No matter where I am in time or space Some part of me is in another place.