Aah, aah, aah, aaaah! Radium

And so to the theatre. I have been to see the life of Madame Curie told through the medium of musical comedy and mime. And Tangram Theatre Company's 'The Element in the Room' was highly enjoyable, managing to combine the funny, the moving and the educational. Essentially a one man show given by a man in a dress, it also featured a female accordion player dressed as a man, and to add a layer of confusion the latter is also the real life wife of the former. Despite the small cast they managed to play not only pretty much the entire Curie family (a), but also a mass of support characters ranging from Democritus to Dalton and Mendeleev. Radioactive decay was illustrated through a game involving a ball of string, wobbling audience members, faux squeaky voices representing the Helium nucleus creation of alpha decay and bizarre, childish chortling standing in for the antineutrinos of beta decay. As I say, highly enjoyable.

I've also seen a large number of bands that have gone unreported here - seven in total I think - none of which you'll ever have heard off; except perhaps for anyone paying attention who may remember my continual praising of Dr Bob and the Bluesmakers. My latest theory as to where they get their name is from one of the chaps who founded Alcoholics Anonymous, but who knows? Leaving aside Dr Bob, whom I exclude because they largely do blues standards anyway, the best songs played were all covers, from which I'd particularly highlight versions of Pink Floyd's 'Time', Neil Young's 'Southern Man' and a spooky, haunting acoustic guitar run through of Lionel Richie's 'Hello'. Live music is alive and well in the Wharfe Valley at least.

(a) And what an astonishing family. Marie was, among many other achievements, the first woman to win a Nobel prize and the first scientist to win two. Marie, Pierre, their daughter Irène and her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie all won Nobel prizes, and their other son-in-law, Henry Richardson Labouisse, was head of UNICEF when it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and accepted it on the organisation's behalf.