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Culture The cultural scene in Memphis is dominated by popular music. It was here that W C Handy wrote ‘Memphis Blues’ and the young Elvis Presley was exposed to the black music that so influenced him. When Presley was discovered by Sun Records in the early 1950s, his distinctive sound took the country by storm and rock ‘n’ roll was born. In the 1960s, Memphis recording studio Stax Records helped to develop a new sound that had its roots in the civil rights movement. This was soul music. There are still several recording studios in Memphis and the city continues to inspire musicians, such as Irish band U2, who recorded some tracks for their Rattle and Hum album at Sun Studio. There are two unusual performance venues in the city. The 32-storey steel Pyramid Arena, One Auction Avenue (tel: (901) 521 9675; website: www.pyramidarena.com), which is used for rock concerts and large-scale events, and Mud Island Amphitheatre, 125 North Front Street (tel: (800) 507 6507 or (901) 576 7241; website: www.mudisland.com), the setting for outdoor concerts. The main performing arts venue is a restored vaudeville palace, the Orpheum Theatre, 203 Main Street (tel: (901) 525 3000; website: www.orpheum-memphis.com). By the beginning of 2003, the Memphis Cook Convention Center, 255 North Main Street (tel: (800) 726 0915; fax: (901) 576 1212; website: www.memphisconvention.com), should also have completed its US$92-million expansion project, which will include the building of a 2000-seat performing arts theatre. The Memphis Flyer is a free weekly publications that is available throughout the city. The main ticket agency is TicketMaster (tel: (901) 525 1515). Music: The Memphis Symphony Orchestra (tel: (901) 324 3627; website: www.memphissymphony.org) is well established and performs both classical and pop concerts from September to early May. The group currently appears at various venues around the city, including the Germantown Performing Arts Center, 1801 Exeter Road (tel: (901) 757 7500). However, the orchestra should have a permanent home late in 2002, when the new Memphis Cook Convention Center (see above) opens. Opera Memphis (tel: (901) 257 3100; website: www.operamemphis.org) is the state’s largest professional opera company. Performing at the Orpheum Theatre (see above), the company stages four productions each year, with occasional appearances by acclaimed soprano, Kallen Esperian. Theatre: Memphis has a lively theatre scene. For professional productions, there is the Playhouse on the Square, 51 South Cooper Street (tel: (901) 726 4656; website: www.playhouseonthesquare.org), which stages a large number of Broadway musicals. It has a sister theatre, Circuit Playhouse, 1705 Poplar Avenue (tel: (901) 726 5523), which offers still more plays and the occasional premiere. For highly respected community theatre, there is Theater Memphis, 630 Perkins Extended (tel: (901) 682 8323; website: www.theatrememphis.org), which presents everything from Broadway plays to alternative works. Dance: Thanks to professional dance company Ballet Memphis (tel: (901) 737 7322; website: www.balletmemphis.org), the city also has a reputation for top-quality dance performance. The company includes national and international award-winning dancers and stages contemporary ballets by choreographers such as Trey McIntyre, as well as classical works like The Nutcracker and Giselle. Performances take place at the Orpheum Theatre (see above). Film: There is no shortage of cinemas in Memphis and it is possible to watch anything from the latest Hollywood blockbusters to arthouse movies. Studio on the Square, 2105 Court Street (tel: (901) 725 7151; website: www.malco.com), has five screens showing alternative, foreign and speciality films. Other cinemas showing mainstream films include the 22-screen theatre at Peabody Place, Second Street, Stage Cinema, Germantown, The Majestic, Winchester at Riverdale, and Wolfchase Galleria, Germantown. There is also a multi-screen cinema at the Mall of Memphis, Perkins Road (tel: (901) 369 9642), and a 3D IMAX cinema at the Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central Avenue (tel: (901) 763 4629; website: www.memphismuseums.org). Peabody Place also houses a 21-screen cinema and a 3D IMAX. Memphis is rapidly becoming a favourite with location hunters and a number of films have recently been shot in the city. These include Jim Jarmusch’s cult film Mystery Train (1989), about a group of Japanese tourists who come to Memphis for the blues, and Cookie’s Fortune (1999), a Robert Altman murder mystery. A number of film adaptations of John Grisham’s books have also been filmed here, including Sidney Pollack’s 1993 film The Firm, starring Tom Cruise. Cultural events: The city stages many international festivals, in addition to a number of local events. These include the Memphis in May International Festival, a month-long event that celebrates a different country each year and attracts more than one million visitors over this summer month. Events include the Beale Street Music Festival and the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. In August, Elvis fans descend on the city for Elvis Tribute Week. Commemorating the anniversary of his death, this is a celebration of his life and music, culminating in a candlelit vigil at Graceland. The city’s most ambitious event is the acclaimed Wonders series of art exhibitions (website: www.wonders.org), which brings great international art to Memphis, for a couple of months every other year, displaying the works in galleries that reflect the architecture of the period. There is no Wonders exhibition in 2003, however. Literary Notes It was in Memphis that the career of the acclaimed playwright, Tennessee Williams, began. He wrote his first play, Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay! (1935), here and it was premiered in a Memphis theatre. ‘Then and there the theater and I found each other, for better and for worse,’ he wrote later. Not surprisingly, the Memphis music scene has inspired a number of books, including Another Good Loving Blues (1994), Arthur Flowers’ book about a blues singer’s move to Beale Street in the 1920s, when the blues was the hottest music around. Memphis is also the setting for many of the novels of John Grisham, who practised law in Southaven, a Memphis suburb, for ten years and who uses the city as an atmospheric backdrop to his plot-driven bestsellers. These legal thrillers include The Client (1993), The Rainmaker (1995) and The Firm (1991). |
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