title: Mount Kenya

text: The highest peaks are Batian (), Nelion () and Pt Lenana (). Batian and Nelion are within of each other, separated by the "Gate of the Mists" gap of . Coryndon Peak () is the next-highest, but unlike the previous peaks it does not form a part of the central plug.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Other peaks around the central plug include Pt Piggot (), Pt Dutton (), Pt John (), Pt John Minor (), Krapf Rognon (), Pt Peter (), Pt Slade () and Midget Peak (). All of these have a steep pyramidal form.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Significant craggy outlying peaks include Terere () and Sendeyo () which form a pair of twin peaks to the north of the main plug. Together, they form a large parasitic plug. Other notable peaks include The Hat (), Delamere Peak, Macmillan Peak and Rotundu.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The glaciers on Mount Kenya are retreating rapidly. The Mountain Club of Kenya in Nairobi has photographs showing the mountain at the time of the first recorded ascent in 1899, and again more recently; the retreat of the glaciers is very evident. Descriptions of ascents of several of the peaks advise on the use of crampons, but this is true only in some cases and at higher elevations. Every year there is less new snow accumulating in winter than melting on summer, even on the Lewis Glacier (the largest of them) in winter, so there is no formation of new ice. It is predicted to be less than 30 years before there will no longer be ice on Mount Kenya. Glacial retreat and disappearance can be caused by change in temperature trends, or by change in precipitation trends.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The total area covered by glaciers on the mountain was recorded as about in the 1980s, far less than that recorded by the first observations, made in the 1890s.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Although Mount Kenya is on the equator the freezing nightly temperatures result in periglacial landforms. There is permafrost a few centimetres (inches) below the surface. Patterned ground is present at to the west of Mugi Hill. These mounds grow because the repeated freezing and thawing of the ground draws in more water. There are blockfields present around where the ground has cracked to form hexagons. Solifluction occurs when the night temperatures freeze the soil before it thaws again in the morning. This daily expansion and contraction of the soil prevents the establishment of vegetation.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Mount Kenya is the main water catchment area for two large rivers in Kenya; the Tana, the largest river in Kenya, and the Ewaso Nyiro North. The Mount Kenya ecosystem provides water directly for over 2 million people. The rivers on Mount Kenya have been named after the villages on the slopes of the mountain that they flow close to. The Thuchi River is the district boundary between Tharaka Nithi and Embu. Mount Kenya is a major water tower for the Tana river which in 1988 supplied 80% of Kenya's electricity using a series of seven hydroelectric powerstations and dams.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The density of streams is very high, especially on the lower slopes which have never been glaciated. The ice cap which used to cover the mountain during the Pliocene eroded large U-shaped valleys which tend to only have one large stream.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Where the original shape of the shield volcano is still preserved, there have been millions of years for streams to erode the hillside. This area is therefore characterised by frequent deep fluvial V-shaped valleys.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Rivers which start on Mount Kenya are the tributaries of two large Kenyan rivers: the Tana and the Ewaso Ng'iro rivers. A lot of Mount Kenyan rivers flow into the Sagana which itself is a tributary of the Tana, which it joins at the Masinga Reservoir. The rivers in the northern part of the mountain, such as the Burguret, Naru Moru, Nanyuki, Likii, Sirimon flow into the Ewaso Nyiro. The rivers to the south-west, such as the Keringa and Nairobi flow into the Sagana and then into the Tana. The remaining rivers to the south and east, such as the Mutonga, Nithi, Thuchi and Nyamindi, flow directly into the Tana.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Mount Kenya has several altitudinal ecological zones, between the savanna surrounding the mountain to the nival zone by the glaciers. Each zone has a dominant species of vegetation. Many of the species found higher up the mountain are endemic, either to Mount Kenya or East Africa.


title: Mount Kenya

text: There are also differences within the zones, depending on the side of the mountain and aspect of the slope. The south-east is much wetter than the north, so species more dependent on moisture are able to grow. Some species, such as the bamboo "Yushania alpina", are limited to certain aspects of the mountain because of the amount of moisture.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The climate of Mount Kenya changes considerably with altitude, forming belts of community types. Around the base of the mountain is fertile farmland. The people living around the mountain have cultivated this cool relatively moist area for centuries.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Mount Kenya is surrounded by forests. The vegetation in the forests depend on rainfall, and the species present differ greatly between the northern and southern slopes. As time has passed the trees on the edge of the forest have been logged and the farmland has encroached further up the fertile slopes of the mountain.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Above the forest is a belt of "Yushania alpina" African alpine bamboo. This zone is almost continuous, but is restricted to small isolated bunches in the north because of low rainfall. The bamboo is natural, and does not require forest disturbance. Tracks are common through the bamboo. Bamboo suppresses other vegetation, so it is uncommon to find trees or other plants here.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Above the bamboo is the timberline forest. The trees here are often smaller than the trees in the forests lower down the mountain. The forest here is more intact, because it is less accessible and better protected.


title: Mount Kenya

text: When the trees can no longer grow the vegetation changes into heathland and chaparral, at around . Heathland is found in the wetter areas, on the west side of Mount Kenya, and is dominated by giant heathers. Chaparral is found in the drier areas and grasses are more common. and bush fires still occur.


title: Mount Kenya

text: As the altitude increases the temperature fluctuations become extreme and the air becomes thinner and drier. This region is known as the Afro-alpine zone. The environment here is isolated, with the only similar area nearby being the Aberdares, which are away. Many of the species here are endemic, with adaptations to the cold and fluctuating temperatures. Typical plants here include giant groundsels (senecios) and giant lobelias.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The region where the glaciers have recently retreated from is nival zone. It is the area that plants have not yet been able to colonise.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The flora found on Mount Kenya varies with altitude, aspect and exposure. As the altitude increases, the plants have to be more specialised, with adaptations to strong sunlight with ultraviolet, lower mean temperatures and freezing night temperatures.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Plants in the Afro-alpine zone have overcome these difficulties in several ways. One adaptation is known as the giant rosette, which is exhibited by giant senecio, giant lobelia and giant thistle ("Carduus"), which use bud leaves to protect their buds from freezing. Giant rosette senecios form single-aged stands that drive community structure over decades.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Many plant species in the Afro-alpine zone of Mount Kenya are giant versions of lowland (or temperate) relatives. However, nearer the nival zone the plants decrease in size again.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The majority of animals live lower down on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Here there is more vegetation and the climate is less extreme. Various species of monkeys, several antelopes, tree hyrax, porcupines and some larger animals such as elephant and buffalo all live in the forest. Predators found here include hyena and leopard, and occasionally lion.


title: Mount Kenya

text: There are fewer mammals found at high altitudes on Mount Kenya. The Mount Kenya hyrax and common duiker are able to live here, and are important to the ecosystem. Some smaller mammals, such as the groove-toothed rat, can live here by burrowing into the giant senecios and using their thick stem of dead leaves as insulation. The Mount Kenya mole-rat "Tachyoryctes rex" occurs at high altitudes, living in visible mounds. Leopards are resident in the alpine zone.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Other mammal species are only occasional visitors. Remains of elephants, monkeys and bongo have been found high in the alpine zone, and other sightings are remembered in names such as Simba Tarn (simba means lion in Swahili).


title: Mount Kenya

text: Several bird species live in the Afro-alpine zone, including sunbirds, alpine chats and starlings and the raptors, augur buzzard, lammergeier and Verreaux's eagle, the latter of which specializes in hunting hyraxes. Birds are important in this ecosystem as pollinators.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The climate of Mount Kenya has played a critical role in the development of the mountain, influencing the topography and ecology amongst other factors. It has a typical equatorial mountain climate which Hedberg described as "winter every night and summer every day." Mount Kenya is home to one of the Global Atmosphere Watch's atmospheric monitoring stations.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The year is divided into two distinct wet seasons and two distinct dry seasons which mirror the wet and dry seasons in the Kenyan lowlands. As Mount Kenya ranges in height from , the climate varies considerably over the mountain and has different zones of influence. The lower, south eastern slopes are the wettest as the predominant weather system comes from the Indian ocean. This rainfall supports dense montane forest on these slopes. High on the mountain most of the precipitation falls as snow. Combined, these water sources feed 11 glaciers.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The current climate on Mount Kenya is wet, but drier than it has been in the past. The temperatures span a wide range, which diminishes with altitude. In the lower alpine zone temperature usually do not go below . Snow and rain are common from March to December, but especially in the two wet seasons. The wet seasons combined account for 5/6 of the annual precipitation. The monsoon, which controls the wet and dry seasons, means that most of the year there are south-easterly winds, but during January and February the dominant wind direction is north-easterly.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Mount Kenya, like most locations in the tropics, has two wet seasons and two dry seasons as a result of the monsoon. From mid-March to June the heavy rain season, known as the "long rains", brings approximately half of the annual rainfall on the mountain. This is followed by the wetter of the two dry seasons which lasts until September. October to December are the "short rains" when the mountain receives approximately a third of its rainfall total. Finally from December to mid-March is the drier dry season when the mountain experiences the least rain.


title: Mount Kenya

text: During the dry season the mountain almost always follows the same daily weather pattern. Large daily temperature fluctuations occur which led Hedberg to exclaim "winter every night and summer every day." There is variation in minimum and maximum temperatures day to day, but the standard deviation of the mean hourly pattern is small.


title: Mount Kenya

text: A typical day is clear and cool in the morning with low humidity. The mountain is in direct sunlight which causes the temperatures to rise quickly with the warmest temperatures occurring between 0900 and 1200. This corresponds to a maximum in the pressure, usually around 10 A.M. Low on the mountain, between , clouds begin to form over the western forest zone, due to moist air from Lake Victoria. The anabatic winds caused by warm rising air gradually bring these clouds to the summit region in the afternoon. Around 1500 there is a minimum in sunlight and a maximum in humidity causing the actual and perceived temperature to drop. At 1600 there is a minimum in the pressure. This daily cover of cloud protects the glaciers on the south-west of the mountain which would otherwise get direct sun every day, enhancing their melt. The upwelling cloud eventually reaches the dry easterly air streams and dissipates, leading to a clear sky by 5 P.M. There is another maximum of temperature associated with this.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Being an equatorial mountain the daylight hours are constant with twelve-hour days. Sunrise is about 0630 with the sun setting at 1830 (both EAT = UTC+3). Over the course of the year there is a one-minute difference between the shortest and longest days. At night, the sky is usually clear with katabatic winds blowing down the valleys. Above the lower alpine zone there is usually frost every night.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The first European to report seeing Mount Kenya was Dr Johann Ludwig Krapf, a German missionary, from Kitui,


title: Mount Kenya

text: Krapf was told by the Embu people that lived around the mountain that they did not ascend high enough on the mountain because of the intense cold and the white matter that rolled down the mountains with a loud noise. This led him to infer that glaciers existed on the mountain. It was Krapf who gave the mountain the name "Kenya", but the derivation of this is not known with certainty.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Krapf also noted that the rivers flowing from Mount Kenya, and other mountains in the area, were continuously flowing. This was very different from the other rivers in the area, which swelled up in the wet season and completely dried up after the rainy season had ended. As the streams flowed even in the driest seasons he concluded that there must be a source of water up on the mountain, in the form of glaciers. He believed the mountain to be the source of the White Nile.


title: Mount Kenya

text: In 1851 Krapf returned to Kitui. He travelled closer to the mountain, but did not see it again. In 1877 Hildebrandt was in the Kitui area and heard stories about the mountain, but also did not see it. Since there were no confirmations to back up Krapf's claim people began to be suspicious.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Eventually, in 1883, Joseph Thomson passed close by the west side of the mountain and confirmed Krapf's claim. He diverted his expedition and reached up the slopes of the mountain but had to retreat because of trouble with local people. However, the first European exploration high onto the mountain was achieved in 1887 by Count Sámuel Teleki. He managed to reach on the south western slopes. On this expedition Teleki mistakenly believed he had found the crater of a volcano.


title: Mount Kenya

text: In 1892, Teleki and von Höhnel returned to the eastern side, but were unable to get through the forest.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Finally, in 1893, an expedition managed to ascend Mount Kenya as far as the glaciers. This expedition was traveling from the coast to Lake Baringo in the Rift Valley, and was led by Dr John W Gregory, a British geologist. They managed to ascend the mountain to around , and spent several hours on the Lewis Glacier with their guide. On his return to Britain, Gregory published papers and a narrative account of his achievements.


title: Mount Kenya

text: George Kolb, a German physician, made expeditions in 1894 and 1896 and was the first to reach the moorlands on the east side of the mountain. More exploration occurred after 1899 when the Uganda Railway was completed as far as the future site of Nairobi.


title: Mount Kenya

text: On 28 July 1899, Sir Halford John Mackinder set out from the site of Nairobi on an expedition to Mount Kenya. The members of the expedition consisted of 6 Europeans, 66 Swahilis, 2 Maasai guides, and 96 Kikuyu. The Europeans were Campbell B. Hausberg, second in command and photographer; Douglas Saunders, botanist; C F Camburn, taxidermist; Cesar Ollier, guide; and Josef Brocherel, guide and porter.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The expedition made it as far as the mountain, but encountered many difficulties on the way. The country they passed through was full of plague and famine. Many Kikuyu porters tried to desert with women from the villages, and others stole from the villages, which made the chiefs very hostile towards the expedition. When they reached the base camp on 18 August, they could not find any food, suffered two of their party killed by the local people, and eventually had to send Saunders to Naivasha to get help from Captain Gorges, the Government Officer there.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Mackinder pushed on up the mountain, and established a camp at in the Höhnel Valley. He made his first attempt on the summit on 30 August with Ollier and Brocherel up the south east face, but they had to retreat when they were within of the summit of Nelion due to nightfall.


title: Mount Kenya

text: On 5 September, Hausberg, Ollier, and Brocherel made a circuit of the main peaks looking for an easier route to the summit. They could not find one. On 11 September Ollier and Brocherel made an ascent of the Darwin Glacier, but were forced to retreat due to a blizzard.


title: Mount Kenya

text: When Saunders returned from Naivasha with the relief party, Mackinder had another attempt at the summit with Ollier and Brocherel. They traversed the Lewis Glacier and climbed the south east face of Nelion. They spent the night near the gendarme, and traversed the snowfield at the head of the Darwin Glacier at dawn before cutting steps up the Diamond Glacier. They reached the summit of Batian at noon on 13 September 1899, and descended by the same route.


title: Mount Kenya

text: After the first ascent of Mount Kenya there were fewer expeditions there for a while. The majority of the exploration until after the First World War was by settlers in Kenya, who were not on scientific expeditions. A Church of Scotland mission was set up in Chogoria, and several Scottish missionaries ascended to the peaks, including Rev Dr. J. W. Arthur, G. Dennis and A. R. Barlow. There were other ascents, but none succeeded in summitting Batian or Nelion.


title: Mount Kenya

text: New approach routes were cleared through the forest, which made access to the peaks area far easier. In 1920, Arthur and Sir Fowell Buxton tried to cut a route in from the south, and other routes came in from Nanyuki in the north, but the most commonly used was the route from the Chogoria mission in the east, built by Ernest Carr. Carr is also credited with building Urumandi and Top Huts.


title: Mount Kenya

text: On 6 January 1929 the first ascent of Nelion was made by Percy Wyn-Harris and Eric Shipton. They climbed the Normal Route, then descended to the Gate of Mists before ascending Batian. On 8 January they reascended, this time with G. A. Sommerfelt, and in December Shipton made another ascent with R. E. G. Russell. They also made the first ascent of Point John. During this year the Mountain Club of East Africa was formed.


title: Mount Kenya

text: At the end of July 1930, Shipton and Bill Tilman made the first traverse of the peaks. They ascended by the West Ridge of Batian, traversed the Gate of Mists to Nelion, and descended the Normal Route. During this trip, Shipton and Tilman made first ascents of several other peaks, including Point Peter, Point Dutton, Midget Peak, Point Pigott and either Terere or Sendeyo.


title: Mount Kenya

text: In the early 1930s there were several visits to the moorlands around Mount Kenya, with fewer as far as the peaks. Raymond Hook and Humphrey Slade ascended to map the mountain, and stocked several of the streams with trout. By 1938 there had been several more ascents of Nelion. In February, Miss C Carroll and Mtu Muthara became the first woman and African respectively to ascend Nelion, in an expedition with Noel Symington, author of "The Night Climbers of Cambridge", and on 5 March Miss Una Cameron became the first woman to ascend Batian.


title: Mount Kenya

text: During the Second World War there was another drop in ascents of the mountain. The most remarkable ascent during this period was by three Italians who were being held in a British POW camp at the base of the mountain in Nanyuki. They escaped from camp to climb the mountain's third peak, Point Lenana, before "escaping" back into camp. Felice Benuzzi, the team leader, retold his story in the book "No Picnic on Mount Kenya" (1946).


title: Mount Kenya

text: In 1949 the Mountain Club of Kenya split from the Mountain Club of East Africa, and the area above was designated a National Park. A road was built from Naro Moru to the moorlands, allowing easier access.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Many new routes were climbed on Batian and Nelion in the next three decades, and in October 1959 the Mountain Club of Kenya produced their first guide to Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro. On Kenyan independence in 1963, Kisoi Munyao raised the Kenyan flag at the top of the mountain. He died in 2007 and was given a heroic funeral attended by Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki. In the early 1970s the Mount Kenya National Park Mountain Rescue Team was formed, and by the end of the 1970s all major routes on the peaks had been climbed.


title: Mount Kenya

text: On 19 July 2003, a South African registered aircraft, carrying 12 passengers and two crew, crashed into Mount Kenya at Point Lenana; nobody survived. This was not the first aircraft lost on the mountain; there is also the wreckage of at least one helicopter that crashed before 1972.


title: Mount Kenya

text: In March 2012 a massive fire raged on Mount Kenya, devouring thousands of hectares of ancient forests and endangered wildlife.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Most of the peaks on Mount Kenya have been summited. The majority of these involve rock climbing as the easiest route, although some only require a scramble or a walk. The highest peak that can be ascended without climbing is Point Lenana, . The majority of the 15,000 visitors to the national park each year climb this peak. In contrast, approximately 200 people summit Nelion and 50 summit Batian, the two highest peaks.


title: Mount Kenya

text: When ascended directly, Batian is usually climbed via the North Face Standard Route, UIAA grade IV+ (or 5.6+ YDS). The first recorded ascent of Batian was on 13 September 1899 by Sir Halford John Mackinder, Cesar Ollier and Josef Brocherel. The Normal Route is the most climbed route up Nelion, and thence across to Batian. It was first climbed by Eric Shipton and Percy Wyn-Harris on 6 January 1929. It is possible to traverse between the two peaks, via the Gates of Mist, but this often involves spending a night in the Howell hut on top of Nelion. There is a bolted abseil descent route off Nelion.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Mount Kenya's climbing seasons are a result of its location only from the equator. During the northern summer the rock routes on the north side of the peak are in good summer condition, while at the same time the ice routes on the south side of the peak are prime shape. The situation is reversed during the southern summer. The two seasons are separated by several months of rainy season before and after, during which climbing conditions are generally unfavorable.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Mount Kenya is home to several good ice routes, the two most famous being the Diamond Couloir and the Ice Window route. Snow and ice levels on the mountain have been retreating at an accelerated rate in recent years, making these climbs increasingly difficult and dangerous. The Diamond Couloir, a steep ice couloir fed by the fusion of the upper Diamond Glacier, was first climbed by National Park staff Phil Snyder and Thumbi Mathenge in October 1973. A direct finish was pioneered in 1975 by Yvon Chouinard and Michael Covington The couloir was once climbable in summer or winter but now is virtually unclimbable in summer conditions and is seldom deemed in climbable condition even in winter. Last climbing reports describe the route very difficult, especially in the lower section. The route has changed into a modern ice climb with a very difficult 60m first pitch, starting with 8m of overhanging M7 dry tooling, followed by 50m of USA Grade V ice and by others 6 pitches of moderate climbing on good ice and finally one pitch of water ice USA Grade IV+ ice at the headwall before getting to the Upper Diamond Glacier.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The satellite peaks around the mountain also provide good climbs. These can be climbed in Alpine style and vary in difficulty from a scramble to climbing at UIAA grade VI. They are useful for acclimatisation before climbing the higher peaks and as ascents in their own right.


title: Mount Kenya

text: There are eight walking routes up to the main peaks. Starting clockwise from the north these are the: Meru, Chogoria, Kamweti, Naro Moru, Burguret, Sirimon and Timau Routes.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Of these Chogoria, Naro Moru and Sirimon are used most frequently and therefore have staffed gates. The other routes require special permission from the Kenya Wildlife Service to use.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The Chogoria route leads from Chogoria town up to the peaks circuit path. It heads through the forest to the south-east of the mountain to the moorland, with views over areas such as Ithanguni and the Giant's Billiards Table before following the Gorges Valley past the Temple and up to Simba Col below Point Lenana. The Mountain Club of Kenya claims that Ithanguni and the Giant's Billiards Table offer some of the best hillwalking in Kenya.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The Naro Moru route is taken by many of the trekkers who try to reach Point Lenana. It can be ascended in only 3 days and has bunkhouses at each camp. The route starts at Naro Moru town to the west of the mountain and climbs towards Mackinder's Camp before joining the Peak Circuit Path. The terrain is usually good, although one section is called the Vertical Bog.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The Sirimon route approaches Mount Kenya from the north-west. The path splits on the moorlands, with the more frequently used fork following the Mackinder Valley and the quieter route traversing into the Liki North Valley. The paths rejoin at Shipton's Cave just below Shipton's Camp on the Peak Circuit Path.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The Peak Circuit Path is a path around the main peaks, with a distance of about and height gain and loss of over . It can be walked in one day, but more commonly takes two or three. It can also be used to join different ascent and descent routes. The route does not require technical climbing.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Development is currently underway for a new route up the mountain starting from the Ragati conservancy and running up the ridge between the Naro Moru route and the old Kamweti trail.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Accommodation on Mount Kenya ranges from very basic to luxurious. The more luxurious lodges are found on the lower slopes, in and around the forest.


title: Mount Kenya

text: These lodges have hotel-style accommodation, often with log fires and hot running water. Many offer guided walks and other activities such as fishing and birdwatching.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The huts higher on the mountain are more basic. Most have several bunkrooms with beds, and also offer somewhere to rest, cook and eat. Some also have running water. A few huts are very basic bothies and offer only a space to sleep that is sheltered from the weather. Beds in the huts can be reserved at the park gates.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Camping is allowed anywhere in the National Park, but it is most encouraged around the huts to limit environmental impact. It is possible for campers to use the communal spaces in the huts for no extra fee.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The origin of the name Kenya is not clear, but perhaps linked to the Kikuyu, Embu and Kamba words "Kirinyaga", "Kirenyaa" and "Kiinyaa" which mean "God's resting place" in all three languages.


title: Mount Kenya

text: In the 19th Century, the German explorer, Ludwig Krapf, recorded the name as both "Kenia" and "Kegnia" believed by some to be a corruption of the Kamba version.


title: Mount Kenya

text: Others however say that this was on the contrary a very precise notation of the correct African pronunciation .


title: Mount Kenya

text: In any case, the name was for a long time pronounced by colonial-heritage Europeans as . The European pronunciation has been abandoned in modern times, in favor of the African version.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The peaks of Mount Kenya have been given names from three different sources. Firstly, several Maasai chieftains have been commemorated, with names such as Batian, Nelion and Lenana. They commemorate Mbatian, a Maasai Laibon (Medicine Man), Nelieng, his brother, and Lenana and Sendeyo, his sons. Terere is named after another Maasai headman.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The second type of names that were given to peaks are after European climbers and explorers. Some examples of this are Shipton, Sommerfelt, Tilman, Dutton and Arthur.


title: Mount Kenya

text: The remaining names are after well-known Kenyan personalities, with the exception of John and Peter, which were named by the missionary Arthur after two disciples. There is a group of four peaks to the east of the main peaks named after European settlers; Coryndon, Grigg, Delamere and McMillan.


title: Next to Normal

text: Next to Normal (stylized in all lowercase) is a 2008 American rock musical with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt. The story centers on a mother who struggles with worsening bipolar disorder and the effects that managing her illness has on her family. The musical addresses grief, depression, suicide, drug abuse, ethics in modern psychiatry, and the underbelly of suburban life.


title: Next to Normal

text: Before its Off-Broadway debut, "Next to Normal" received several workshop performances and won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Score and received Drama Desk Awards nominations for Outstanding Actress (Alice Ripley) and Outstanding Score. After its Off-Broadway run, the show played from November 2008 to January 2009 at the Arena Stage while the theater was in its temporary venue in Virginia.


title: Next to Normal

text: The musical opened on Broadway in April 2009. It was nominated for eleven Tony Awards that year and won three: Best Original Score, Best Orchestration, and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Alice Ripley. It also won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, becoming the eighth musical in history to receive the honor. In awarding the prize to Kitt and Yorkey, the Pulitzer Board called the show "a powerful rock musical that grapples with mental illness in a suburban family and expands the scope of subject matter for musicals."


title: Next to Normal

text: The first US tour launched in November 2010, with Alice Ripley reprising her Broadway role; the tour concluded in July 2011. The Broadway production closed on January 16, 2011 after 20 previews and 734 regular performances. There have been numerous international productions.


title: Next to Normal

text: Diana Goodman, a suburban mother with bipolar disorder, stays up late awaiting the return of her son Gabe, who has broken curfew. Also awake is Diana's daughter Natalie, an overachieving high school student who is stressfully studying for an upcoming test. Diana encourages her daughter to take a break and rest. Soon after, Gabe returns home, and Diana's husband, Dan, awakes to help the family prepare for the day (“Just Another Day”). Diana prepares a meal for her family, but Dan and Natalie stop her when they realize the sandwiches she is making cover every kitchen surface. As Dan helps the disoriented Diana, Natalie and Gabe leave for school.


title: Next to Normal

text: Natalie releases some pent-up anger and frustration as she practices for an upcoming piano recital in the school's music room (“Everything Else”), where she meets Henry, a classmate who has been admiring Natalie from afar. Meanwhile, Diana repeatedly visits her psychiatrist's office, where she is prescribed a variety of medications that all prove to cause debilitating physical side effects; Dan waits through her appointments in the car while he questions his own sanity (“Who’s Crazy?/ My Psychopharmacologist and I”). When Diana is given a medication that numbs and rids her of all feelings, the doctor pronounces her stable and sends her on her way.


title: Next to Normal

text: After witnessing a romantic moment between Natalie and Henry (“Perfect For You”), Diana mourns the loss of her old life, longing for the days she lived in both pain and joy, as opposed to the numbness her new medication has caused (“I Miss the Mountains”). At Gabe's suggestion, she flushes her medications.


title: Next to Normal

text: Meanwhile, Dan arranges a family dinner, inviting Henry to join them (“It’s Gonna Be Good”). When Diana brings to the table a cake for Gabe's birthday, Dan gently reminds her that Gabe, in fact, died nearly sixteen years ago, and her visions of him throughout the show have only been hallucinations ("He's Not Here"). After an upset Natalie runs to her bedroom, Dan clears off the dinner table while Diana reveals she has stopped her medication. As he tries to empathize with her, she becomes angry, saying he could not possibly understand the pain she is going through (“You Don’t Know”). Dan begs her to let him help however he can, reminding her of his faithfulness and patience thus far, but is interrupted by a vision of Gabe, whom only Diana can see. Diana immediately clings to her son, rejecting Dan's offer of comfort (“I Am the One”). Upstairs, Natalie vents to Henry over her mother's attachment to the dead Gabe. Diana overhears their conversation and offers the only comfort she is capable of giving, telling Natalie, “I love you as much as I can.” (“Superboy and the Invisible Girl”)


title: Next to Normal

text: Diana visits a new doctor, who performs talk therapy and hypnosis on her. During their session, she sees Gabe, who asserts his dominance over her and the control he has in her life ("I'm Alive"). Diana reveals intimate details about the effects of her illness, saying that she was unable to hold Natalie in the hospital when she was born. Meanwhile, Natalie botches an important piano recital upon discovering her parents are not in the audience (“Make Up Your Mind/ Catch Me I’m Falling”). Diana's doctor encourages her to go home, spend time with Natalie, and clean out a box of Gabe's old things in an attempt to let him go. Diana agrees but is confronted with a hallucination of Gabe while sorting through a box in their basement (“I Dreamed a Dance”). Gabe convinces her to commit suicide, saying it is the only way they can be together (“There’s a World”).


title: Next to Normal

text: Diana is hospitalized after her suicide attempt fails, and Dr. Madden tells Dan that electroconvulsive therapy is one of the only options they have left. Dan returns home to clean up the scene of his wife's attempt at suicide, narrowly avoiding a breakdown of his own as he reminisces about the years spent with Diana (“I’ve Been”). Natalie finds him and is angry to discover that he has agreed to the doctor's recommendation of shock therapy. Upon returning to the hospital, he finds that Diana has become aggressive with the staff for wanting her to sign the confirmation papers, likening the idea of shock therapy to its depiction in the film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (“Didn’t I See This Movie?”). However, after clearing the room, he manages to convince her of the necessity of this treatment, saying it is the only way they can get back to normal (“A Light in the Dark”). Diana reluctantly agrees and signs the papers.


title: Next to Normal

text: Diana receives a series of ECT treatments over two weeks. Meanwhile, Natalie experiments with drugs and frequently goes clubbing, being rescued most nights by Henry, who sees her home safely. On one occasion, she seems to share a hallucination with her mother, highlighting some of the parallels between their emotional states (“Wish I Were Here”). Upon Diana's return home from the hospital, it is revealed that she has lost her memories of the last nineteen years due to the shock therapy – including the memory of her deceased son (“Song of Forgetting“). During this song Natalie expresses concerns over the efficacy of this "cure" claiming her mind is "so pure she doesn't know anything" while Dan remains hopeful about the eventual return of Diana's memory. Henry, who has been finding Natalie passed out at clubs and driving her home, asks Natalie to the upcoming school dance, an invitation which she immediately declines (“Hey #1”). Meanwhile, Dan questions Dr. Madden over Diana's memory loss, learning it is a relatively common side effect of ECT (“Seconds and Years”). Because Gabe's death was the start of a lifetime of depression, Dan hesitates to remind her of it. At home, he and Natalie help Diana sort through a box of pictures and memories of her old life, leaving out any mention of Gabe's existence (“Better Than Before”). However, Diana is briefly confronted afterward by Gabe, who hints that she has forgotten a vital part of her life (“Aftershocks”). Meanwhile, Henry again invites Natalie to the dance but is turned down again (“Hey #2).


title: Next to Normal

text: Diana visits Dr. Madden, who accidentally reveals the existence of her son, unaware that Dan has not yet done so (“You Don’t Know (reprise)”). After learning this, Diana returns home and searches through Gabe's old belongings, finding the music box that helped him sleep as an infant. When Dan finds her revisiting the night their son died, he reluctantly reminds her that their son had died of an illness all of the doctors missed (“How Could I Ever Forget?”). Diana confusedly admits she recalls hallucinating Gabe as a teenager, and Dan frantically says they will get her to the doctor and do more ECT (“It’s Gonna Be Good (reprise)”), which leads to a heated argument between the two that Natalie witnesses the peak of. After Natalie runs upstairs to her bedroom, where Henry is waiting to talk with her, Diana questions Dan about why he stays, despite all of the things she puts him through and all the pain they have experienced together. He reminds her of their wedding vows and promises to see their relationship through, no matter how much she pushes him away. Upstairs, Henry makes a similar pledge to Natalie (“Why Stay?/A Promise”). However, Diana again sees Gabe and is immediately entranced by him, drawn away from Dan (“I’m Alive – Reprise”).


title: Next to Normal

text: Though Dan begs her to stay, Diana leaves and visits Dr. Madden, frustrated that years of treatment haven't seemed to improve her condition, and wonders if her grief over losing her son should truly be medicated (“The Break”). Dr. Madden pleads with her to stay with him, recommending more shock treatment and other medications, but she leaves the appointment (“Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me I’m Falling (reprise)”). Upon returning outside, she connects with Natalie for the first time, noting the similarities between the two of them and truly making an effort to connect with her for possibly the first time. They embrace and agree that somehow they will get a life somewhere next to normal, and Diana drives Natalie to the dance to meet Henry (“Maybe”). At the dance, Natalie voices her concerns to Henry that she will someday end up with the same issues as her mother, though Henry promises to stand by her no matter what, and the two kiss (“Hey #3/ Perfect For You (reprise)”).


title: Next to Normal

text: Diana returns home and tells Dan she is leaving him, saying that though she still loves him, they both must finally come to terms with their grief on their own (“So Anyway”). Devastated, Dan looks back on his years of faithfulness to her and sees Gabe for the first time (“I Am the One (reprise)”). The two share an embrace, and Dan says Gabe's name for the first and only time in the show. Gabe disappears, and Natalie returns home to find that her mother is gone. She continues her relationship with Henry, and Diana has moved in with her parents temporarily, still depressed but more hopeful than she's ever been. Dan visits Dr. Madden, who gives him the name of another psychiatrist he can talk to. Gabe is seen by the audience one final time, this time relaying a message of hope as opposed to the threatening, ominous persona he has previously taken, and the family adjusts to their new way of life (“Light”).


title: Next to Normal

text: "Next to Normal" follows the struggle of one woman, Diana Goodman, with mental illness and the effect of the illness on her whole family. In the second act, these effects are at times diminished and other times exacerbated by the fact that Diana additionally suffers memory loss following electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Kitt and Yorkey began writing the musical in 2002 and continued through 2008, but there have since been changes in the understanding and treatment of bipolar depressive disorder. In the show, Diana's doctor describes her as a "bipolar depressive with delusional episodes", however, the most recent edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) would now diagnose Diana as bipolar "with psychotic features", referring to the hallucinations she experiences, such as of her dead son Gabe in the form of a teenager. The disorder is also now separated into bipolar types I and II.


title: Next to Normal

text: Bipolar disorder is a disorder of both mania (or hypomania) and depression that is not curable, mostly treated through psychopharmacological, psychotherapeutic, and biological means. First, are the psychopharmacological therapies, commonly known as drug therapies, which involves the use of antipsychotic, anticonvulsant, and antidepressant medications, that aim to stabilize the patient's mood. Such drugs include Lithium, a mood stabilizer, Ativan and Valium, benzodiazepines, all of which are mentioned in the lyrics, particularly in the song "My Psychopharmacologist and I", in which Diana is prescribed a plethora of different drugs at once, which are mentioned alongside their side-effects, ranging from drowsiness to sexual dysfunction. Another form of treatment the play explores is psychotherapy, where patients talk to psychologists or other licensed mental health professionals and aim to work through the psychological component of their disease through conversation; Diana's psychiatrist leads her through a guided meditation or hypnotherapeutic approach. The third form addressed is electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in which seizures are induced by sending an electric current through the brain. Following a suicide attempt, Diana is convinced to undergo ECT and then loses her memory (including her memory of Gabe), which she slowly gains back in talks with her family. ECT is often viewed as a last-resort option for depressed patients who are incredibly ill and extremely treatment-resistant or whose symptoms include very serious suicidal or psychotic symptoms, or for pregnant women. This practice holds true in the play, in which ECT is only recommended after Diana's hallucination of Gabe suggests that she kill herself in the song "There's a World".


title: Next to Normal

text: The musical began in 1998 as a 10-minute workshop sketch about a woman undergoing electroshock therapy, and its impact on her family, called "Feeling Electric". Yorkey brought the idea to Kitt while both were at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Kitt wrote a rock score for the short piece, which was highly critical of the medical treatment. Both Yorkey and Kitt turned to other projects, but they "kept returning to "Feeling Electric"", eventually expanding it to a full-length musical. This had a reading in 2002 at the Village Theatre in Issaquah, Washington, then at several venues in New York City, with a cast that included Norbert Leo Butz as Dan, Sherie Rene Scott as Diana, Benjamin Schrader as Gabe, Anya Singleton as Natalie and Greg Naughton as Dr. Madden. A subsequent staged reading was held in late 2002 at the Musical Mondays Theater Lab in New York.


title: Next to Normal

text: In 2005 it was workshopped again at Village Theatre starring Amy Spanger as Diana, Jason Collins as Dan, Mary Faber as Natalie and Deven May as Dr. Madden. In September 2005, the musical ran at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, with Spanger as Diana, Joe Cassidy as Dan, Annaleigh Ashford as Natalie, Benjamin Schrader as Gabe and Anthony Rapp as Dr. Madden. This attracted the attention of producer David Stone. Second Stage Theatre then workshopped the piece in both 2006 and 2007, featuring Cassidy and then Gregg Edelman as Dan, Alice Ripley as Diana, Mary Faber and then Phoebe Strole as Natalie, Rapp as Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine and Skylar Astin as Henry. Meanwhile, at the urging of Stone and director Michael Greif, who had joined the team, the creators focused the show on the family's pain rather than on the critique of the medical establishment.


title: Next to Normal

text: "Next to Normal" was first produced Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre from January 16 through March 16, 2008, directed by Greif, with Anthony Rapp as assistant director and musical staging by Sergio Trujillo. The cast featured Ripley as Diana, Brian d'Arcy James as Dan, Aaron Tveit as Gabe, Jennifer Damiano as Natalie, Adam Chanler-Berat as Henry and Asa Somers as Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine. The surname of the family was changed from Brown to Goodman. Although the show received mixed reviews, at least one reviewer criticized it for pushing an irresponsible message about the treatment of bipolar disorder and for failing to strike the proper balance between pathos and comedy. The critics found the show internally confused, and the team decided to make major changes in both the book and score, including eliminating the original title song, "Feeling Electric". They concentrated the story entirely on the emotions of Diana and her family as they confront bitter truths.


title: Next to Normal

text: The re-written musical was given a regional theatre production at the Arena Stage (normally in Washington, D.C. but operating in Virginia during a renovation of its main facility), from November 21, 2008 through January 18, 2009, under the direction of Greif. J. Robert Spencer took over the role of Dan while Louis Hobson assumed the roles of Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine; the remaining Off-Broadway leads returned. The production received rave reviews, with critics noticing that "comic songs and glitzy production numbers" had been replaced by songs that complemented the emotional content of the book.


title: Next to Normal

text: "Next to Normal" began previews on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on March 27, 2009, with an opening night of April 15. The entire cast from the Arena Stage production returned, once again under the direction of Greif. The musical was originally booked for the larger Longacre Theatre, but, according to producer David Stone, "When the Booth Theatre became available... we knew it was the right space for "Next to Normal"".


title: Next to Normal

text: Reviews were very favorable. Ben Brantley of "The New York Times" wrote that the Broadway production is "A brave, breathtaking musical. It is something much more than a feel-good musical: it is a feel-everything musical."


title: Next to Normal

text: "Rolling Stone" called it "The best new musical of the season – by a mile." "Next to Normal" was on the Ten Best of the Year list for 2009 of "Curtain Up".


title: Next to Normal

text: The show set a new box office record at the Booth Theatre for the week ending January 3, 2010, grossing $550,409 over nine performances. The previous record was held by the 2006 production of Brian Friel's "Faith Healer", with a gross of $530,702. One year later, "Next to Normal" broke that record again during its final week on Broadway (week ending January 16, 2011) grossing $552,563 over eight performances. The producers recouped their initial investment of $4 million a few days after the production's one-year anniversary on Broadway. At the end of its run, "Next to Normal" grossed $31,764,486, the most out of all the shows that have run at the Booth Theatre, earning double the amount of money as its closest competition, "I'm Not Rappaport".


title: Next to Normal

text: Cast replacements during the run included Marin Mazzie as Diana, Brian d'Arcy James and later Jason Danieley as Dan, Kyle Dean Massey as Gabe and Meghann Fahy as Natalie. John Kenrick wrote in November 2010 that the show "is glowing with breathtaking brilliance as it ends its Broadway run."


title: Next to Normal

text: In May 2009, about six weeks into the Broadway run, "Next to Normal" began publishing an adapted version of the script over Twitter, the social media network. Over 35 days, the serialized version of the show was published, a single line from a character at a time. The Twitter promotion ended the morning of June 7, 2009, the morning of the 63rd Tony Awards. The initiative earned the musical the 2009 OMMA Award for Best in Show.


title: Next to Normal

text: "Next to Normal" began its first national tour of North America and Canada at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, California on November 23, 2010. The tour played in 16 cities in the U.S., ending in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on July 30, 2011. Alice Ripley reprised her role as Diana and was joined by Asa Somers as Dan, Emma Hunton as Natalie, Curt Hansen as Gabe, Preston Sadleir as Henry and Jeremy Kushnier as Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine.


title: Next to Normal

text: East West Players (EWP) produced a diverse and inclusive version of the musical featuring a cast with nearly all artists of color as a part of their 51st season under the direction of Nancy Keystone. The production was originally slated to run from May 12 to June 11, 2018, but was extended a week through June 28 due to high demand. The show's popularity carried into awards season, earning the production four of the major awards at the 2018 Ovation Awards including Best Production of a Musical (Large Theater), Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Lead Actress in a Musical, and Direction in a Musical; additionally, the Set/Projection Designer for the show, Hana Kim, was honored with the Sherwood Award which seeks "to nurture innovative and adventurous theatre artists working in Los Angeles." Deedee Magno Hall played the leading role of Diana alongside her real-life husband Cliffton Hall, who played Diana's husband, Dan. Isa Briones won for her portrayal of Natalie.


title: Next to Normal

text: The show was praised for its subject matter and the way in which the musical's exploration of mental health tied in seamlessly with its all-Asian cast. Mental health awareness is particularly stigmatized within areas of the Asian Pacific-Islander community as a result of conflicting cultural and familial emphases. EWP's producing artistic director Snehal Desai made a point to belabor the importance of "shedding light on the stigma of mental illness in our communities," and that he hoped that the production could create "a space for that conversation."


title: Next to Normal

text: TheaterWorks Hartford (TWH) ran a production of the show under the direction of Rob Ruggiero. The show originally ran from March 24 through April 30 before extending through May 14 of the same year in light of its great success. The show starred Christiane Noll as Diana Goodman, alongside David Harris as Dan Goodman. The cast also included Maya Keleher, John Cardoza, J.D. Daw, and Nick Sacks. The production garnered 10 nominations for the 2017 Connecticut Critic Circle Choice Awards, and won the awards for Outstanding Production of a Musical, Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Noll), Outstanding Director of a Musical, Outstanding Lighting, and Outstanding Debut (Keleher).


title: Next to Normal

text: Joseph Harrison of BroadwayWorld wrote that the production "goes beyond entertainment, reaching in and touching you to your very core in a brilliant symphony of emotional energy." The Hartford Courant praised the show for "being done with such careful thought and expressive detail in such an intimate environment raises this already confrontational musical to a different level of emotional intensity" and praised Noll for being "a fearless performer [who] can switch from indomitability to vulnerability in a split second."


title: Next to Normal

text: Rachel Bay Jones, Brandon Victor Dixon, Roman Banks, Maia Reficco, Khamary Rose, Ben Levi Ross and Michael Park, joined original Broadway director Michael Greif for the Broadway Center Stage production at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. from January 29-February 3, 2020.


title: Next to Normal

text: In October 2022 it was announced that the show would receive its London premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, in a new production directed by Michael Longhurst. The production will run from 12th of August until the 7th of October 2023, over 15 years after it first premiered in New York.


title: Next to Normal

text: "Note: The following are independent productions of the musical produced internationally and in most cases, in that native language. They also feature the original music, lyrics and book, but changes in other aspects including direction, set design, costume design and choreography.


title: Next to Normal

text: The European premiere and the first non-English language production opened in September 2010 at the Det Norske Teatret in Oslo, Norway under the direction of Svein Sturla Hungnes. The cast included Heidi Gjermundsen Broch as Diana and Charlotte Frogner as Natalie Broch received the 2011 Hedda Award (Norway's highest theatrical accolade) for her portrayal. This production was later re-staged for a Swedish premiere at the Wermland Opera A Finnish production opened in December 2010 in Helsinki, Finland at Studio Pasila, where it ran for one year. A Swedish-language production opened in September 2012 at Wasa Teater in Vaasa, Finland. The cast included Anna-Maria Hallgarn as Diana. Another Finnish-language production was staged at the Tampere Workers' Theatre from October 2012 through February 2013. A Swedish-language production opened open at Swedish Theatre in Helsinki in November 2021 and ran until March 2022. A Danish production ran from February 2012 until April 2012 at Nørrebro Teater in Copenhagen, Denmark. The show premiered again in Sweden in 2022, after being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, at Uppsala Stadsteater with Helen Sjöholm as Diana.


title: Next to Normal

text: The Asian premiere was staged at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati, Philippines in March 2011 and again in October 2011. The cast included Markki Stroem as Henry.


title: Next to Normal

text: Soon after The Phillippines premiere, the show premirerd in South Korea on November 2011. Since then the show had four local productions, each in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2022. Kolleen Park played Diana in the every production from 2011 to 2022.


title: Next to Normal

text: "Next to Normal" premiered in Singapore on September 5, 2013, at the Drama Centre Theatre. The cast included Sally Ann Triplett as Diana, Adrian Pang as Dan, and Nathan Hartono as Gabe. A Chinese production premiered in Beijing, China, on August 3, 2018, and later played in Shanghai in December.


title: Next to Normal

text: The Australian premiere of the musical by the Melbourne Theatre Company was staged in Melbourne, Australia. Performances began on April 28, 2012, and ran through June 4 (extended from May 28). The cast included Kate Kendall as Diana, Matt Hetherington as Dan and Bert LaBonte as Dr. Fine/Dr. Madden.


title: Next to Normal

text: A production in Perth played at the Heath Ledger Theatre from November 5–19, 2015. Produced by Black Swan State Theatre Company, the cast included Rachael Beck as Diana and Brendan Hanson as Dan.


title: Next to Normal

text: Australia's first Musical Theatre performance since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic is a new production of Next to Normal directed by Darren Yap and choreographed by Kelley Abbey. The performance will run in October and November at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney.


title: Next to Normal

text: The most recent production was scheduled to be performed at Chapel Off Chapel in Melbourne from the 15th of July 2021. The cast included Queenie Van De Zandt as Diana, Tyran Parke as Dan, Melanie Bird as Natalie, Sam Richardson as Gabe, Liam Wigney as Henry and Ross Chisari as both Dr Madden and Dr Fine. The show was presented by the James Terry Collective. Due to the snap COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, they were only able to perform one show at that time, resuming nearly eight months later in March 2022 with Hanlon Innocent alternating with Tomáš Kantor as Henry and Matt Hetherington reprising the role of Dan.


title: Next to Normal

text: A Spanish-language Peruvian premiere of the musical played the Teatro Marsano, in Lima, Peru. The production ran from May to June 2011. The cast included Gisela Ponce de León as Natalie A Brazilian production opened in July 2012 at the Clara Nunes Theatre in Rio de Janeiro, under the title "Quase Normal".


title: Next to Normal

text: A Mexican production opened at the Teatro Aldama in Mexico City on January 31, 2019, starring Susana Zabaleta as Diana. The Mexican cast also included Federico Di Lorenzo as Dan, María Penella as Natalie, Mariano Palacios as Gabe, Jerry Velázquez as Henry/Gabe and Héctor Berzunza as Dr. Fine/Dr. Madden. The cast was also joined by María Chacón as Natalie, and Rodolfo Zarco as Henry for some performances. Directed by Diego Del Río, the creative team included Jorge Ballina (set design), Victor Zapatero (lighting design), Josefina Echeverría (costume design) and Alejandro García (sound design). This production was nominated for six awards in several categories at the Premios Metropolitanos de Teatro in 2019, which included Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, among others. Diego del Río, Susana Zabaleta, María Penella and Jerry Velázquez each won at their categories. After a short run in Mexico City, the musical had a single tour performance at Auditorio Luis Elizondo, in Monterrey on July 4, 2019. The original cast reunited on June 9, 2020 for an online live concert, where they read and sang through the score in an acoustic version of the musical.


title: Next to Normal

text: The Dutch premiere took place on January 16, 2012 at DeLaMar Theater in Amsterdam. The cast included Simone Kleinsma as Diana. A German-language production translated and directed by Titus Hoffmann opened at the Stadttheater in Fürth, Bavaria, on October 11, 2013. Pia Douwes starred in the role of Diana with Thomas Borchert as Dan and Sabrina Weckerlin as Natalie. The Italian version, produced by STM and directed by Marco Iacomelli, opened on March 7, 2015 at Teatro Coccia in Novara. A Spanish-language production opened at the Teatro Pérez Galdós in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, on September 14, 2017, starring Nina as Diana, and then it toured through Spain with stops at Barcelona, Bilbao, and Madrid. In 2016, in Portugal, opened a Portuguese-speaking version, with the title "Quase Normal". A Russian-language production ("Недалеко от Нормы"), directed by Anastasia Grinenko, opened in Minsk, Belarus on March 28, 2018, with Svetlana Matsievskaia starring as Diana. In Poland the show opened on April 6, 2019 at Teatr Syrena in Warsaw, with Katarzyna Walczak as Diana. The production was translated and directed by Jacek Mikołajczyk. The musical will have its UK premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, London from 12 August to 7 October 2023, directed by Michael Longhurst.


title: Next to Normal

text: "Next to Normal" won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama although it was not on the shortlist of three candidates submitted to the twenty-member Pulitzer Prize board by the five-member Drama jury. Jury chairman and critic Charles McNulty publicly criticized the Board for overlooking three plays ("Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo", "The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity", and


title: Next to Normal

text: "In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)"), which were not running on Broadway at the time of the Award, in favor of one that was.


title: Next to Normal

text: In 2021, the songs of the musical were the focus of "Chapter Ninety-Four: Next to Normal", a musical episode of "Riverdale". The "Riverdale" cast album of the musical was produced via WaterTower Music.


title: Vulpes

text: The oldest known fossil species within "Vulpes" is "V. riffautae", dating back to the late Miocene of Chad, which is within the Neogene. The deposits where these fossils are found are about 7 million years old, which might make them the earliest Canidae in the Old World. They are estimated to have weighed between 1.5 and 3.5 lb. "V. skinneri", from the Malapa Fossil Site from South Africa, is younger than "V. riffautae" by roughly 5 million years, and shows up in the early Pleistocene.


title: Vulpes

text: Two other extinct, less documented fossils are known: "V. praeglacialis" and "V. hassani". "V. praeglacialis" was discovered in the Petralona Cave in Chalkidiki, Greece. The age of the deposits (Early Pleistocene) makes it the earliest occurrence of "Vulpes" in Europe. "V. hassani" is found in a Miocene-Pliocene deposit in northwestern Africa.


title: Vulpes

text: In the Pleistocene, "Vulpes" had a fairly wide distribution, with eight species found in North America. Of these eight, six are not fossil, and three species still remain in North America ("V. velox", "V. macrotis", and "V. vulpes"). The remaining three moved on to sections of Africa over time. "V. stenognathus" is extinct, but has extant sister taxa including "V. chama", "V. rueppellii", "V. velox", and "V. vulpes", which fits with these species all evolving together in North America.


title: Vulpes

text: True foxes are small to medium-sized animals, usually smaller than other canines, such as wolves, dogs, and jackals. For example, the largest species, the red fox, weighs on average 4.1–8.7 kg and the smallest species, the fennec fox, weighs only 0.7–1.6 kg. They have long, dense fur, and a bushy, rounded tail that is at least half as long, or fully as long as, the head and body. They have a rather long body with shorter limbs, a long, narrow muzzle, and large, pointed ears. The forelimbs have five toes, while the hind legs have only four. The skull is light and slender, elongated. Sagittal crest not developed at all or weakly defined.


title: Vulpes

text: "Vulpes" species have vertically-slit pupils, which generally appear elliptical in strong light like those of cats, which provide them with significant advantages. Like most canids, true foxes have a muscular body, powerful jaws, and teeth for grasping prey. Blunt claws are especially useful for gripping the ground while tracking down their prey. Some species have a pungent "foxy" odor, arising mainly from a gland located on the dorsal surface of the tail, not far from its base. Not much sexual dimorphism is displayed, although males are slightly larger.


title: Vulpes

text: In general, "Vulpes" has a bone structure very close to that of its canid relatives, but there are some variations. For example, although canid limbs are designed specifically for running quickly on land to catch prey, "Vulpes" species avoid rapid sprints, excluding when being chased, and have become more specialized for leaping and grasping prey. In "Vulpes vulpes", for example, the adaptions for leaping, grasping, and climbing include the lengthening of hind limbs in relation to fore limbs, as well as overall slenderizing of both hind and fore limbs. Muscles are also emphasized along the axis of limbs.


title: Vulpes

text: The length, color and density of the fur of fox species differ. Fennec foxes (and other desert-adapted fox species such as "Vulpes macrotis") have large ears and a short coat to keep the body cool. On the other hand, the Arctic fox has small ears and a thick, insulating coat to keep the body warm. A solid color coat is seen in most animals, but there are occasions where the coat color varies over the year to enhance camouflage against the current seasons landscape. The red fox, Ruppell's fox, and Tibetan sand fox possess white-tipped tails. The Arctic fox's tail-tip is of the same color as the rest of the tail (white or blue-gray). Blanford's fox usually possesses a black-tipped tail, but a small number of specimens (2% in Israel, 24% in the United Arab Emirates) possess a light-tipped tail. The other foxes in this group (Bengal, Cape, corsac, fennec, kit, pale, and swift) all possess black-tipped or dark-tipped tails.


title: Vulpes

text: The range of the genus is very wide, present in a wide variety of habitats, from the desert to the Arctic, and from high altitudes in the mountains to open plains. True foxes are opportunistic and thrive anywhere they can find food and shelter. They are also widespread in suburban and urban areas, where they can take advantage of human food supplies; however, they prefer to stay away from large industrial areas. In certain areas, foxes tend to do better where humans are present, including in many agricultural landscapes, forests and patchy woodlands.


title: Vulpes

text: Most true foxes are nocturnal, but they can be active during the morning and dusk and occasionally hunt and scavenge in daylight during winter. Many fox species are solitary or nomadic, living most of their lives on their own, except for the mating season, when they have a monogamous relationship with a partner. Some live in small family groups, others are more gregarious.


title: Vulpes

text: "Vulpes" have a high variation in social organization between species and populations. Their hierarchical society usually depends on population densities. As population density increases, there is also an increase in the formation of social groups. These groups consist of one dominant pair and a few other subordinate adults that tend to be related. Dominance is established within the den, and dominant kits have usually more access to food and often hold higher social status. If a dispute occurs, dominance is determined by fighting, and the loser may be rejected from its group. These social groups can consist of up to ten adults. Cape foxes likely have a matriarchal social organization.


title: Vulpes

text: This genus is omnivorous and prone to scavenging. The foods of choice for "Vulpes" consist of invertebrates, a variety of small vertebrates, grasses, and some angiosperms. The typical intake per day is about 1 kg. True foxes exhibit hoarding behavior or caching where they store away food for another day out of sight from other animals.


title: Vulpes

text: Adult foxes have very few predators except coyotes, bears, and wolves, depending on the location. Juvenile foxes face a wider range of threats from small carnivores and large birds of prey, such as eagles.


title: Vulpes

text: Most true foxes are monogamous. However, they can form polyandrous and polygynous pairs. Breeding season varies between species and habitat, but they generally breed between late December and late March. Most foxes dig out dens to provide a safe underground space for raising their young. Born deaf and blind, kits or cubs require their mother's milk and complete supervision for the first four to five weeks out of the womb, but begin to be progressively weaned after the first month. Once fully weaned, kits seek out various insects. The parents supplement this diet with a variety of mammals and birds. During early to middle July, the kits are able to hunt on their own and soon move away from their parents.


title: Vulpes

text: The silver fox is a melanistic form of the wild red fox. Though rare, domestication has been documented in silver foxes. The most notable experiment was conducted in Novosibirsk, Russia, at the Siberian Institute of Cytology and Genetics. In this study, generations of silver foxes were divided into those with friendly traits and those with unfriendly traits. After 50 years, the friendly foxes developed “dog-like” domesticated traits such as spots, tail wagging, enjoyment of human touch, and barking.


title: Vulpes

text: Fox hunting was started in the United Kingdom in the 16th century that involves tracking, chasing, and killing a fox with the aid of foxhounds and horses. It has since then spread to Europe, the United States, and Australia.


title: Leon Thomas III

text: Leon G. Thomas III (born ) is an American actor, record producer, songwriter and singer. After early roles in Broadway and providing the singing voice of Tyrone on the Nick Jr. animated series "The Backyardigans" (2006–2008), he played André Harris on the Nickelodeon series "Victorious" (2010–2013), for which he received a NAACP Image Award nomination.


title: Leon Thomas III

text: Thomas signed to Columbia and Rostrum Records, and sought success for his songwriting, and as a member of the production duo the Rascals. He has earned writing credits on Ariana Grande's "Positions", Drake's "Certified Lover Boy", and Toni Braxton and Babyface's Grammy Award-winning album "Love, Marriage & Divorce" (2014). Thomas earned a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song nomination at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, for co-writing the song "Gold Roses" (2019).


title: Leon Thomas III

text: Leon G. Thomas III was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Jayon Anthony and Leon Thomas II. He made his Broadway debut at the age of 10 in 2003 as Young Simba in the Broadway production of "The Lion King". In 2004, he appeared as Jackie Thibodeaux in the original Broadway cast of Tony Kushner's "Caroline, or Change". and toured with the company during its five-month run in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Thomas also performed in the Broadway production of "The Color Purple". In 2007, Thomas appeared in the film "August Rush" as Arthur, performing the song "La Bamba", and briefly after signed a development deal with Nickelodeon appearing as the singing voice for Tyrone in the computer-animated musical series "The Backyardigans". Thomas has also guest-starred on "Jack's Big Music Show" and "Just Jordan". He also appeared as Harper in the "iCarly" episode "iCarly Saves TV" and was featured on "The Naked Brothers Band Christmas Special".


title: Leon Thomas III

text: He played a main character on "Victorious", portraying Andre Harris, which premiered on Nickelodeon on March 27, 2010. Thomas also appeared as Andre Harris in the crossover episode between "Victorious" and "iCarly", "iParty with Victorious". He also appeared as himself in an episode of "True Jackson, VP". On August 2, 2011, the soundtrack album "Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show" was released, with Thomas featured in the songs "Song 2 You" (written by him) and "Tell Me That You Love Me". On June 5, 2012, "Victorious 2.0: More Music from the Hit TV Show" was also released, with Thomas featured in the songs "Countdown" and "Don't You (Forget About Me)". The "Victorious" television series ended production in July 2012 and the series' last episode aired on February 2, 2013.


title: Leon Thomas III

text: In 2012, Thomas started to record his first mixtape called "Metro Hearts"; it was released on August 1, 2012. Songs on the mixtape "Metro Hearts" include "Forever", "Bad", "Moving On", "Vibe", "Like Clay" and "Never Look Back". The mixtape also included a cover of Drake's "Take Care" with Ariana Grande. Leon Thomas co-wrote the song "Ain't No Other Me" for the British girl group Stooshe, which features as a deluxe edition track on their debut album, "London with the Lights On". Thomas co-wrote four songs on his former co-star Ariana Grande's 2013 album "Yours Truly". He also co-produced four songs on Yours Truly, in addition to the song "Last Christmas" from Grande's Christmas Kisses EP, as a member of production duo The Rascals. His production work under The Rascals was also included on Toni Braxton & Babyface's Grammy award-winning album Love, Marriage & Divorce, contributing to the Toni Braxton solo "I'd Rather Be Broke" performed by Toni Braxton.


title: Leon Thomas III

text: On September 24, 2013, Leon Thomas released a new single, "Hello How Are You", featuring Wiz Khalifa. On January 1, 2014, Thomas released a new mixtape, "V1bes", under the name Leon Thomas, via Datpiff. He also announced that a music video for his single "Hello How Are You" was in the works. In 2016, he served as a co-producer for Post Malone's album "Stoney".


title: Leon Thomas III

text: In 2016, Thomas released the mixtape "Before the Beginning" via SoundCloud, which compiled eight songs which he had "[held on] for a long time". In 2017, he appeared in the Kathryn Bigelow-directed film "Detroit".


title: Leon Thomas III

text: In the year of 2018 saw the release of Thomas' debut EP "Genesis", which featured guest appearances from Buddy and Tayla Parx. The next year, Thomas earned a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song nomination at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards for co-writing and co-producing the Rick Ross and Drake song "Gold Roses". Thomas would also go on to write and produce more records under the Rascals production duo, as well as a solo producer, co-writing and co-producing two songs on Ariana Grande's "Positions", and three songs on Drake's "Certified Lover Boy".


title: Leon Thomas III

text: In May 2022, hip-hop musician Ty Dolla $ign signed a joint venture deal with Motown for his newly-launched EZMNY Records imprint, announcing Thomas to be the label's first artist.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: Terminal is a 2018 neo-noir thriller film written and directed by Vaughn Stein. The film stars Margot Robbie alongside an ensemble cast, featuring Simon Pegg, Dexter Fletcher, Max Irons, and Mike Myers. The plot follows the intertwining lives of two assassins, a fatally ill teacher, a custodian, and a waitress, all of whom become part of a murderous plan.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: The film is an international co-production between Ireland, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Hong Kong, and the United States. Principal photography took place in Budapest, Hungary during May 2016.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: "Terminal" was released in North America on 11 May 2018, by RLJE Films. The film premiered in the United Kingdom on 26 June 2018 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival as part of the American Dreams Strand. It was released theatrically in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 6 July 2018 by Arrow Films. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, who criticized the plot, narrative, pacing, and direction, though some praised Robbie's performance and the visual style. It was also a box office bomb, grossing a mere $843,970.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: A young woman meets a mysterious employer in a confession booth and implores him to employ her as his sole contract killer. To prove her worth, she offers to eliminate his other contractors. In exchange for her efforts, she asks if he can find someone for her. Bill is standing on a deserted train platform and is told by a limping janitor that no trains will be coming until 4:04 in the morning. The janitor suggests he wait in the 24-hour cafe. There, he converses with Annie, a waitress, who notices that he has a terminal disease, and is suicidal. She discusses various ways he can kill himself.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: The story shifts to three weeks earlier; Illing, a hitman, is captured by Annie, who is posing as a prostitute. He awakes to find himself handcuffed to a bed before Annie incapacitates and kills him.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: Mr. Franklyn, the employer, calls his two hitmen - Vince and Alfred - and orders them to pick up a briefcase from the lockers at the terminal. They take it to the cafe and find a pack of matches and an envelope of money. They wonder why Mr. Franklyn has called on them, and not Illing. The match pack is from a strip joint, where they find a dancer resembling the waitress Annie from earlier. She takes the envelope of money as payment for passing on information about the hit Mr. Franklyn wants them to do. She comes on strong to Alfred but is dismissive of Vince. The hitmen are told to wait in an apartment and to shoot a person in the window opposite when told. Vince is also secretly told via a phone call to then kill Alfred. The waitress tells Alfred that Vince will try to kill him, so Alfred should kill Vince once the hit is completed. Mr. Franklyn watches from his lair, with monitors displaying camera footage of the cafe and the hitmen's hideout.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: Back at the train terminal, the waitress takes Bill to an abandoned air shaft and tries to talk him into committing suicide. Although he described throwing himself down a deep, dark hole as his final act, he cannot jump. The waitress teases him, and Bill tells the waitress that she is a "naughty girl". This triggers a memory from his days as a school teacher, where he had two girls in his class that he abused. The waitress reveals that she is one of those girls, and then she stabs Bill in the neck with his pen and pushes him down the shaft. Meanwhile, Mr. Franklyn calls the hitmen's apartment and says that they should be ready to take the shot. Vince trains his sniper's rifle at the window across the courtyard but is surprised to find Annie in his crosshairs. Alfred pulls his gun on Vince and disarms him. Annie comes over and Alfred shoots Vince. Alfred and Annie leave the apartment and run into the janitor, who is arriving to clean up the murder scene.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: Back in the terminal, the waitress turns on Alfred, tells him that she is not infatuated with him, and shoots him dead. The janitor comes along to clean up the body. The waitress decides to help the janitor take the bodies to the top of the air shaft and drop them both into it. The janitor returns to the terminal and enters the janitor's closet, which is actually Mr. Franklyn's control center. He is revealed to be Mr. Franklyn in disguise, removing his prosthetic bad teeth and fake latex skin. He stops limping and walks normally. There are dozens of attaché cases lined up for future jobs. As he leaves his "closet", he is accosted by the waitress and her doppelgänger, revealed to be a set of twins, Annie and Bonnie.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: The twins tie up Mr. Franklyn and describe how their mother died. She was being pursued by her partner, revealed to be Mr. Franklyn - a.k.a. Clinton Sharp - after she witnessed him murder someone and ran back to her flat to protect her twin girls. Mr. Franklyn poured gasoline in her home, and set it on fire. The mother had time to push the girls out a broken window, but could not save herself. After that, the twins spent the rest of their childhood in an orphanage being molested by Bill. The twins tell Mr. Franklyn that he is their biological father and they are ready to exact their revenge. Despite Mr. Franklyn's pleas for mercy, the twins lobotomize him, finally kill him, then walk out of the terminal together.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: On 12 February 2016, it was announced that Margot Robbie would headline and produce a "noir thriller" written and directed by Vaughn Stein, through her production company LuckyChap Entertainment. Highland Film Group would be handling finance and introducing the project to international buyers in Berlin. Creative Artists Agency would handle domestic distribution sales in the United States. David Barron of Beagle Pug Films was also attached to the project as a producer. On 24 May 2016, Simon Pegg, Mike Myers, Max Irons and Dexter Fletcher joined the cast alongside Robbie. This film marks Mike Myers's first non-documentary film since 2012.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: Principal photography on the film began in May 2016 in Budapest, Hungary, and lasted over the course of 27 nights. By September 2016, post production was near completion and a rough cut was screened at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival for potential international buyers.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: Highland Film Group attended the 2017 Cannes Film Festival for selling distribution rights for the film. On 24 January 2018, RLJE Films acquired distribution rights in the United States. Initially, in September 2016, Icon Film Distribution acquired distribution rights for the United Kingdom and Ireland. However, in February 2018, Arrow Films overtook distribution rights.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: "Terminal" received a limited theatrical release and was simultaneously released through video on demand in the United States on 11 May 2018 by RLJE Films. The film premiered in the United Kingdom on 26 June 2018 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival as part of the American Dreams Strand. It was released theatrically in limited theatres in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 6 July 2018 by Arrow Films. On 9 September 2016, the first official image of the film was released at the Toronto International Film Festival, featuring Robbie in character. The film was released "unrated" in the United States by the Motion Picture Association of America. In the United Kingdom, it received a 15 certificate by the British Board of Film Classification for "strong language, violence, suicide references, threat". In Ireland, the film was given a 16 certificate by the Irish Film Classification Office for "strong violence, injury and language, and suicide theme".


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD in the United States on 26 June 2018 by RLJ Entertainment. It was released on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital and On Demand in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 6 August 2018 by Arrow Video.


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: "Terminal" received generally negative reviews from critics, with many criticising the plot, pacing, direction and narrative, though Robbie's performance and the film's visual style and production values received praise. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, and an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Worth seeking out for only the most hardcore of Margot Robbie completists, "Terminal" lives down to the medical definition of its title in dreadfully derivative fashion." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 27 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: "Rolling Stone"s Peter Travers panned the film, awarding zero stars, stating, "The title of this wretched Tarantino-meets-"Blade Runner" noir rip-off doubles as a diagnosis". Rex Reed of the "New York Observer" also awarded zero stars, calling the film "a turgid, pretentious, and incomprehensible existential joke." David Edelstein of "Vulture" gave a negative review, criticising the plot's focus, saying, "since the film doesn't establish a baseline of reality, it's hard to pick out a premise." David Ehrlich of "IndieWire" gave the film a D, writing, "Vaughn Stein's "Terminal" takes a mess of dead tropes and Frankensteins them together into a crime saga that's in desperate need of brains. And a soul. And a story." Jacob Knight of "Birth.Movies.Death." heavily criticised Stein's direction and wrote, "no amount of pretty pictures could save a script this abysmally written. Stein has penned scene after scene after scene of nasty people talking circles around one another, no character defined by anything beyond their comic book-ready aesthetic." Jeffrey M. Anderson of "The San Francisco Examiner" awarded the film two and a half stars out of four, describing the film as "mediocre", though praising Robbie's performance, writing, "Robbie is a bright one, and even though "Terminal" isn't much, it offers a chance to watch her shine." Clint Worthington of "Consequence of Sound" heavily criticised Stein's direction, calling the film a "waste of time" and "An entirely empty exercise in dated, exhausting hyper-stylized filmmaking."


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" praised the film, awarding three out of four stars, writing, "The final 15 minutes or so of "Terminal" are flat-out nutso. One can imagine Robbie, Myers et al., breaking into laughter after hearing "Cut!" — not out of disrespect for the material, but out of sheer giddiness for having the opportunity to try something so audacious. Even when it doesn't work, "Terminal" is a film with never a dull moment." Kenneth Seward Jr. of "IGN" gave a mostly positive review, scoring the film a 7.5 out of 10, indicating it is "Good", stating, ""Terminal" is an interesting revenge story that mostly works. There are a few missteps, namely a few wasted characters and a straight forward plot made needlessly complicated. Still, Vaughn Stein should be pleased with what's here." Colin Covert of the "Minneapolis Star Tribune" gave a highly positive review, awarding three and a half out of four stars, praising the film's visual style, noting, "Every moment of "Terminal" engages the eye, and — unexpectedly — the mind. Even the makeup is arresting — the arterial red of Annie's lipstick is hypnotic."


title: Terminal (2018 film)

text: James Berardinelli of "Reelviews" gave a mixed review, awarding the film two and a half stars out of four, writing, "At its best, "Terminal" is a tasty, tangy parfait – a kaleidoscope of neon-tinged visuals and a twisty storyline with a tortured timeline." However, he criticised the film's ending as "generic" and "anticlimactic". John DeFore of "The Hollywood Reporter" gave a mostly negative review criticising Stein's direction, writing, "An airless debut that says much about its writer-director's cultural diet and little about anything else in the world, Vaughn Stein's "Terminal" blends tropes from several sorts of crime flicks into a soundstagey affair that's more brittle than hard-boiled." Jeannette Catsoulis of "The New York Times" also gave a negative review, calling the film "a flashy, hyperstylized bore." Shaun Munro of "Flickering Myth" gave a mostly positive review, stating, "It's messy and navel-gazingly ostentatious, but fitfully entertaining thanks largely to a scene-stealing, against-type performance from Simon Pegg."


title: Norman Josiffe

text: Norman Josiffe (born 12 February 1940), better known in the media as Norman Scott, is an English former dressage trainer and model who was a key figure in the Thorpe affair, a major British political scandal of the 1970s. The scandal revolved around the alleged plot by his ex-boyfriend, Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe, to murder Scott after Scott threatened to reveal their relationship to the media.


title: Norman Josiffe

text: Josiffe was born in Sidcup, Kent, to Ena Dorothy Josiffe (née Lynch, formerly Merritt, 1907–1985), and Albert Norman Josiffe (1908–1983), her second husband, who abandoned his wife and child soon after Norman's birth. Educated at Bexleyheath, he later changed his surname to "Lianche-Josiffe" by amending his mother's maiden name, Lynch, and for a time called himself "the Hon Norman Lianche-Josiffe". When Jeremy Thorpe, MP, took him to stay with his mother, Ursula Thorpe, he introduced himself as "Peter Johnson".


title: Norman Josiffe

text: Josiffe was working as a groom for Brecht Van de Vater (born Norman Vivian Vater), at Kingham Stables in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, in 1961 when he met Thorpe, a friend of Vater. After leaving his job at Vater's stables, Josiffe suffered from mental illness and spent some time in a psychiatric hospital. On 8 November 1961, a week after discharging himself from the Ashurst clinic in Oxford, he went to the House of Commons in London to see Thorpe. He was penniless, homeless and, worse, had left Vater's employment without his National Insurance card which, at that time, was essential for obtaining regular work and access to social and unemployment benefits. Thorpe promised he would help. This was when the relationship between the two men was alleged to have started. Thorpe gave him the nickname "Bunnies" but always denied any physical element in the relationship. Josiffe's claims of mistreatment by Thorpe, however, led to his being reported to the police, in the course of which the relationship was revealed.


title: Norman Josiffe

text: The relationship allegedly led indirectly to the 1975 attempted murder of Josiffe, who was by then calling himself Norman Scott. His attacker, Andrew Newton, was arrested after shooting dead Josiffe's dog, Rinka, but it was not until later that Josiffe's accusations against Thorpe became public. Although the Sexual Offences Act 1967 had decriminalised homosexual acts in most of the UK, and although Thorpe and three others were acquitted of conspiracy to murder at their 1979 trial, the resulting scandal lost Thorpe his popular support and he was forced to stand down as leader of the Liberal Party.


title: Norman Josiffe

text: Thorpe's biographer Michael Bloch described Josiffe as both a liar and a fantasist. He was portrayed by Ben Whishaw in the 2018 BBC miniseries "A Very English Scandal", based on a 2016 book by John Preston; Scott remarked to "The Irish News": "I'm portrayed as this poor, mincing, little gay person ... I also come across as a weakling and I've never been a weakling." The mini-series' director, Stephen Frears, has described Scott as "erratic", stating that his reactions to both book and television series are inconsistent.


title: Norman Josiffe

text: On 13 May 1969, after his relationship with Thorpe, Josiffe (now calling himself Scott) married Angela Mary Susan Myers (1945–1986), sister-in-law of the English comedy actor Terry-Thomas. Susan Scott was already 2 months pregnant at the time of their marriage and her family were not supportive of the marriage - her mother and sister refused to attend the ceremony and Captain Myers (his father-in-law) denounced Scott as homosexual at the wedding reception stating that the marriage "was doomed". The couple had a son - Diggory Benjamin W. Scott, who was born later in 1969 in Spilsby, Lincolnshire. Susan left Scott in 1970 and subsequently divorced him. She would remarry in 1975 and die in 1986.


title: Norman Josiffe

text: While living in Tal-y-Bont in North Wales, where he found casual work, Scott met in 1971 widow Gwen Parry-Jones, whose late husband had been a soldier in the Welsh Guards. She was a former local village postmistress and was an acquaintance of Liberal MP Emlyn Hooson. Parry-Jones arranged a meeting with Hooson, who interviewed Scott (with Liberal MP David Steel) about his relationship with Thorpe and started his own investigations, but could not substantiate the allegations. After the break-up of her relationship with Scott, Parry-Jones became very depressed. In 1972, her aunt failed to get any response at her home for several weeks and the police discovered that she had died, which the coroner subsequently recorded as alcohol poisoning.


title: Norman Josiffe

text: Scott testified at Thorpe's trial in 1979, and afterwards retreated into obscurity. At the time of Thorpe's death in 2014, he was living in Ireland, but by the time of the 2018 dramatisation he had returned to the UK to live in Devon.


title: Breeder reactor

text: A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile material, such as uranium-238 or thorium-232, that is loaded into the reactor along with fissile fuel. Breeders were at first found attractive because they made more complete use of uranium fuel than light water reactors, but interest declined after the 1960s as more uranium reserves were found, and new methods of uranium enrichment reduced fuel costs.


title: Breeder reactor

text: Breeder reactors could, in principle, extract almost all of the energy contained in uranium or thorium, decreasing fuel requirements by a factor of 100 compared to widely used once-through light water reactors, which extract less than 1% of the energy in the uranium mined from the earth. The high fuel-efficiency of breeder reactors could greatly reduce concerns about fuel supply, energy used in mining, and storage of radioactive waste. With seawater uranium extraction (currently too expensive to be economical), there is enough fuel for breeder reactors to satisfy our energy needs for 5 billion years at 1983's total energy consumption rate, thus making nuclear energy effectively a renewable energy.


title: Breeder reactor

text: Nuclear waste became a greater concern by the 1990s. In broad terms, spent nuclear fuel has two main components. The first consists of fission products, the leftover fragments of fuel atoms after they have been split to release energy. Fission products come in dozens of elements and hundreds of isotopes, all of them lighter than uranium. The second main component of spent fuel is transuranics (atoms heavier than uranium), which are generated from uranium or heavier atoms in the fuel when they absorb neutrons but do not undergo fission. All transuranic isotopes fall within the actinide series on the periodic table, and so they are frequently referred to as the actinides.


title: Breeder reactor

text: The physical behavior of the fission products is markedly different from that of the transuranics. In particular, fission products do not themselves undergo fission, and therefore cannot be used for nuclear weapons. Furthermore, only seven long-lived fission product isotopes have half-lives longer than a hundred years, which makes their geological storage or disposal less problematic than for transuranic materials.


title: Breeder reactor

text: With increased concerns about nuclear waste, breeding fuel cycles came under renewed interest as they can reduce actinide wastes, particularly plutonium and minor actinides. Breeder reactors are designed to fission the actinide wastes as fuel, and thus convert them to more fission products.


title: Breeder reactor

text: After spent nuclear fuel is removed from a light water reactor, it undergoes a complex decay profile as each nuclide decays at a different rate. Due to a physical oddity referenced above, there is a large gap in the decay half-lives of fission products compared to transuranic isotopes. If the transuranics are left in the spent fuel, after 1,000 to 100,000 years, the slow decay of these transuranics would generate most of the radioactivity in that spent fuel. Thus, removing the transuranics from the waste eliminates much of the long-term radioactivity of spent nuclear fuel.


title: Breeder reactor

text: Today's commercial light water reactors do breed some new fissile material, mostly in the form of plutonium. Because commercial reactors were never designed as breeders, they do not convert enough uranium-238 into plutonium to replace the uranium-235 consumed. Nonetheless, at least one-third of the power produced by commercial nuclear reactors comes from fission of plutonium generated within the fuel. Even with this level of plutonium consumption, light water reactors consume only part of the plutonium and minor actinides they produce, and nonfissile isotopes of plutonium build up, along with significant quantities of other minor actinides.


title: Breeder reactor

text: One measure of a reactor's performance is the "conversion ratio," defined as the ratio of new fissile atoms produced to fissile atoms consumed. All proposed nuclear reactors except specially designed and operated actinide burners experience some degree of conversion. As long as there is any amount of a fertile material within the neutron flux of the reactor, some new fissile material is always created. When the conversion ratio is greater than 1, it is often called the "breeding ratio."


title: Breeder reactor

text: For example, commonly used light water reactors have a conversion ratio of approximately 0.6. Pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR) running on natural uranium have a conversion ratio of 0.8. In a breeder reactor, the conversion ratio is higher than 1. "Break-even" is achieved when the conversion ratio reaches 1.0 and the reactor produces as much fissile material as it uses.


title: Breeder reactor

text: The doubling time is the amount of time it would take for a breeder reactor to produce enough new fissile material to replace the original fuel and additionally produce an equivalent amount of fuel for another nuclear reactor. This was considered an important measure of breeder performance in early years, when uranium was thought to be scarce. However, since uranium is more abundant than thought in the early days of nuclear reactor development, and given the amount of plutonium available in spent reactor fuel, doubling time has become a less-important metric in modern breeder-reactor design.


title: Breeder reactor

text: "Burnup" is a measure of how much energy has been extracted from a given mass of heavy metal in fuel, often expressed (for power reactors) in terms of gigawatt-days per ton of heavy metal. Burnup is an important factor in determining the types and abundances of isotopes produced by a fission reactor. Breeder reactors, by design, have extremely high burnup compared to a conventional reactor, as breeder reactors produce much more of their waste in the form of fission products, while most or all of the actinides are meant to be fissioned and destroyed.


title: Breeder reactor

text: In the past, breeder-reactor development focused on reactors with low breeding ratios, from 1.01 for the Shippingport Reactor running on thorium fuel and cooled by conventional light water to over 1.2 for the Soviet BN-350 liquid-metal-cooled reactor. Theoretical models of breeders with liquid sodium coolant flowing through tubes inside fuel elements ("tube-in-shell" construction) suggest breeding ratios of at least 1.8 are possible on an industrial scale. The Soviet BR-1 test reactor achieved a breeding ratio of 2.5 under non-commercial conditions.


title: Breeder reactor

text: A 'breeder' is simply a reactor designed for very high neutron economy with an associated conversion rate higher than 1.0. In principle, almost any reactor design could be tweaked to become a breeder. For example, the Light Water Reactor, a very heavily moderated thermal design, evolved into the Super Fast Reactor concept, using light water in an extremely low-density supercritical form to increase the neutron economy enough to allow breeding.