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| Review of The Life of Moliere Cholderton was treated to an exciting and thought provoking entertainment through the Rural Arts Wiltshire scheme. The Talia Theatre Group presented a play entitled 'The Life of Moliere'which informed us as much about the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, as about the French playwright Moliere. Bulgakov did write a novel about Moliere, but all his writing was suppressed in Soviet Russia. This unusual play explored the censorship and terror of Stalin's Russia in tandem with the constraints and harassment suffered by Moliere three hundred year's earlier. This play was specially written by Matt Harvey for this tour by the Talia Theatre Group and the director Gennadi Bogdanov, who has been described as the last living link to the methodology of Biomechanics, developed by the Russian Meyerhold. This resulted in a dynamic and physical approach, which had much in common with the expansive and exaggerated gestures of mime. The action was fast moving, reflecting the writer's experience in filmscripts, and took us swiftly through Moliere's life. The use of masks by some of the characters comjured a very sinister atmosphere to the Russian scenes, in contrast to the French where a pantomime aspect was created. Terrence Mann portrayed the torment and anguish of Bulgarov with a tense and expressive performance in which his fear of Stalin as a threat to his personal safety alternated with his desperate need to write. Julia Rounthwaite and Carys Williams brought parody and burlesque to the characters of the two secret police one moment and the terror of Stalinist purges the next. This was an innovative and novel view of dictatorship and censorship, with excellent and energetic portrayals by all the cast. | 
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| Request for information from Harvey Leigh Noyes | |
| In a recent email to this wesbsite I received the following request. Is there anyone out there who can help. If you cannot help yourself, but know someone who can please pass on the message. | |
| "May I make this request: is there someone of whom you know in the area with some knowledge of the history during the time of the Civil War who might help me fill in some gaps of interest in my family history? As you may be able to tell from my surname, my 13th forebearer was William Noyes, vicar (or rector?) of St. Nicholas from (I think) 1597 until 1618. Two of his sons, James and Nicholas, emigrated to New England in 1633-34, from both of which branches I descend. Another brother, Nathan, continued, following his father’s death to minister to the parish, but the comments in your church history booklet indicate that he absented himself in Sarum during the Civil War, during which time the church fell into disuse and disrepair. What I wonder is whether Nathan’s exile from his parish could possibly indicate a division in parish loyalty between Loyalists and Roundheads?" | |
| A second request for information came from Fred Drake of Midlothian, Virginia, USA. | |
| He writes: Several years ago, at an auction, I obtained a clock that bears the inscription "To the Reverend William Harison from his friends at Cholderton" 1879. Can you provide me any information about Reverend Harison or this clock? I would appreciate any help you could provide. | |
| If you can help, please send any information to Cynthia Poole using the link at the top of this page. |
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